Bottom line in SMU's coaching search

[Charleston Pony]

is that we simply cannot compete for a big time coach, so anyone we go with is going to be an unproven gamble, and if he's successful, he won't be here long.

When Shumate was canned, attendance had fallen off to 3500 per game. In Dement's best year, we drew an average of 4000. This year, we fell all the way to 3300 (thank TTech, Wake and UTEP for it being that high). Do the math. We don't generate enough ticket revenue to put together an attractive home schedule or attract, much less retain a top notch coach.

With the price of bringing in decent competition now up in the $50k range, and with NAME coaches commanding salaries over $500k...we are fortunate anyone is interested in coming here. This job is clearly a stepping stone for any highly regarded assistant coach, and I've got to believe there are several out there who looked at our roster and thought: "I can win right away there and possibly parlay that into something better".

Tubbs may be the only candidate who might look at SMU as his "retirement" job in the event he is successful. Then again, anyone who takes this job might be looking at a "one and done" contract if things don't improve soon.

SMU athletics (at least the so called "revenue" sports) remain on life support. Sure hope whoever Copeland hires can breathe some life back into the bball program. It's getting dangerously close to "pull the plug" time.

Long live the 1500!!!

[Dark Horse]

It's true that many coaches might view SMU as a stepping-stone gig, but everything I've read suggests that the talent available in Texas in recent years makes the position a lot more appealing than in years past. I've done some surfing and the candidates who have been in the mix (Roberts, Tubbs, Dickey, the Stanford guy, Wojcik, etc.) all seem to be pretty highly-regarded.

[alibaba]

Now Copeland says he might take two weeks to make his decision. What is the hold up. Texas A & M has already decided and so has old Miss. If it is between two guys make a decison and let them start recruiting as the spring period is upon us. Waiting just opens the door for other schools to step in and take our decision from us.

[BigEasyPony]

I think something's up. Either their is a coach presently involved in the NCAA (possibly NIT) tournament that is very interested in the job and SMU is very interested in him that has told Copeland such, but he cannot meet until his team is finished with the NCAA tournament OR the two (2) candidates did not impress Turner and Copeland in their interviews yesterday OR the article is just wrong. That's my take. It surely doesn't make any sense and if something doesn't happen in the next day or two, one or both of these candidates will pull out of consideration.

[Mexmustang]

Dark Horse, I agree with you. SMU has all the potential in the world. As a school in a major metropolitan area, a strong inner city recruiting base we simply need to re-connect to Dallas and get some meaningful wins. Every school is a stepping stone for a handfull of programs, even KU can be one to UNC.

[OldPony]

I'm sorry Dark Horse but I just don't see how this job is nearly as attractive as it once was. Compare WAC or the new watered down CUSA and the old SWC. The SWC had it all over them. Until the DP and SMU's draconian reaction to it, SMU was considered a very good job in both sports. We went out and hired other people's head coaches and were not the stepping stone.
We have never had good basketball attendance from SMU fans. The old SWC teams masked what was essentially a 3000 basketball fan base. Moody was once considered a pretty good place. It has aged and is no longer competitve with the facilities the top schools offer the players or the fans. The closest thing we really ever had to a decent tradition was during the Doc Hayes era with a lot of SWC championships but very little success in the tourney. Our history includes only 1 trip to the final 4 and that was when OldPony was in grade school. Today we have made the job less attractive with recruiting restrictions compared to our peers. We have The Commitment. If you think about that, it would have never even thought of as a necessary pledge unless there were many telling the powers that we should drop sports. Just because you have decent recruits in your town doesn't make this a good job. My hope is that both Tubbs and Roberts have told Turner and Copeland that they want the job but not unless a bunch of things are done. I hope the delay is due to the time needed to get pledges from some of the big hitters to meet these demands. Probably wishful thinking though.

[DiamondM]

The whole "this is a horrible job, no one good will want it" is just a silly argument in my opinion. First, any head coaching job in Division 1 basketball is desirable -- whatever you might say. Larry Eustachy just took the friggin Southern Miss job. Tell me why the Southern Miss job is so much more attractive than the SMU job. It's not USM's recent success, it's not it's access to a recruiting hotbed, it's not its vaunted basketball history, it's not its conference, it's not its access to media coverage, it's not USM's abounding wealth to pay its coaches.

Please. No, we are not Kansas, where we can steal a proven successful coach from a big time program. We're not UNC. Tell me other some other schools that can go out and steal a Bill Self or Roy Williams. Billy Gillespie had a great year -- but not any greater than Dement had before he was hired here. And no Johnny Dawkins is not coming knocking on our door -- but he's not doing that for ANYONE.

So get over this "SMU sucks, no one wants us" attitude. It's not true.

[Hoop Fan]

is that we simply cannot compete for a big time coach..... Sure hope whoever Copeland hires can breathe some life back into the bball program. It's getting dangerously close to "pull the plug" time.

So if we can't hire a big-time coach we should pull the plug on basketball? That is totally and completely off the deep end. I can't even believe I am reading it. How much do Pacific and Manhattan draw per game in a normal season? You think they are considering pulling the plug? The press they got for appearing in tournament last week was pure gold. College of Charleston ought to pull the plug too. Where was Gonzaga 10 years ago? Should have pulled the plug. Sorry but I am torqued out about this. The way college basketball is, pulling the plug has no merit whatsover. Now if you want to argue that in football, thats a different debate.

[Dooby]

To be fair, if you look at assistant coaches on the candidate lists for every vacancy, we are interviewing the same assistants as everybody else. Are we interviewing head coaches? No. But we are drawing interest from the "hot" assistants, which something I even questioned.

[Pony_Fan]

is that we simply cannot compete for a big time coach, so anyone we go with is going to be an unproven gamble, and if he's successful, he won't be here long.

When Shumate was canned, attendance had fallen off to 3500 per game. In Dement's best year, we drew an average of 4000. This year, we fell all the way to 3300 (thank TTech, Wake and UTEP for it being that high). Do the math. We don't generate enough ticket revenue to put together an attractive home schedule or attract, much less retain a top notch coach.

With the price of bringing in decent competition now up in the $50k range, and with NAME coaches commanding salaries over $500k...we are fortunate anyone is interested in coming here. This job is clearly a stepping stone for any highly regarded assistant coach, and I've got to believe there are several out there who looked at our roster and thought: "I can win right away there and possibly parlay that into something better".

Tubbs may be the only candidate who might look at SMU as his "retirement" job in the event he is successful. Then again, anyone who takes this job might be looking at a "one and done" contract if things don't improve soon.

SMU athletics (at least the so called "revenue" sports) remain on life support. Sure hope whoever Copeland hires can breathe some life back into the bball program. It's getting dangerously close to "pull the plug" time.

Long live the 1500!!!

From the Froggie Board -

Time will tell...no doubt Tubbs has been successful in recruiting , but alot of those kids recruited during the Bliss era were on the take. Don't know if that will happen now. But the BIGGEST question is will he be able to coach on the college level.No real proof that he can-there as many assistants that make successsful head coaches as those who don't. SMU BB facility wise is a nightmare, there is alot of negativity going on about SMU athletics in general right now. Heard from several different sources that Bennett has told those closest to him that if he can't win 5 or 6 next year that he may bail out to save his coaching career and I don't personally see them winning that many. They just dropped their most successsful men's program-track and folded up the baseball program years ago. Rumors are that they are losing serious money on their athletic programs right now. None of those are good signs for a troubled athletic program right now. Tubbs may be a helluva recruiter, but let's see him coach x and o's -hully gully street ball won't get it down. Let's wait and see what plays out!