Let me say this. This thread was not meant to call out Dan. I like Dan and one thing he has done is have these jids play with high effort and fight from start to finish unlike the pouting display we saw the last two years.
I am poing to the overall state of the the basketball program. It's beem 27 years since we made an NCAA tournament.
There just doesn't seem to be as much dedication to basketball as football. It's a lot easier to be good in basketball than football.
You need less moving parts amd the little guy can be king. You don't have to be UK or Duke or UNC to get in. You can be Gonzaga and become a #1 seed. A school with around 7,000 students and an endowment not much bigger than ours. You can be a Butler, a VCU, or George Mason.
68 teams make thr NCAA Tournament. What has Marshall been doing for 27 years?
Look at the difference in trajectories of football and basketball? In 1987 on took off and the other fell off of a cliff.
You can say Marshall won 20 games or we were right in this or right in that. Hey we beat this team or that team. Fact is Marshall's last conference conference tournament championship was won in 1987. Our last regular season championship was 1988.
It seems like we are always tryung to get by with the hometown discount or the most bang for the buck. That doesn't win anything.
Greg White was kept far too long. I don't care that he played here. He didn't get it done. Jump on me if you want but brfore you do please point to his conference championship banners that hang in the Herderson Center rafters.
Ron Jirsa never should have been hired. It was just trying to get e decent at best coach for no money. I remember when he first got here and at Thundering Madness he was so wrapped up in the crowd learning certain cheers. Coach the team man we will worry about the ancillary stuff later.
Donnie was decent I will give you that but he couldn't get this team to perform in the post season. He front loaded schedules with sisters of the poor and his teams crumble down the stretch. He's doing the same at UCF.
Tom Herrion never should have been hired. We should never hire a coach thst was fored based on performance. What he did at CoC is exactly what he did here. Took a talented team and rsn it into the ground with selfish players with piss poor character. The man is best known for two things. Getting hit in the eye with a quarter and faking a heart attack from an inadvertent elbow.
Dan we don't know yet. Has a fire for thr game and the university. Has his players fighting to the end. Coaching won't be Dan's downfall. He can do that. Recruiting will make or break Dan.
What drives me crazy is hoe many excuses people give the basketball program. Excuses that would never fly with football.
Think of football took the same path. Let's say Marshall's dedication fell off after Billy left. So that would be following 1995-96 season. Since the the hires haven't turned out so well.
Now let's pretend Pruett left after 1996 to take a bigger job and apply the basketball records to football for the regular seasons.
1997: 7-4, 5-3
1998: 4-7, 3-5
1999: 6-5, 5-3
2000: 8-3, 5-3
2001: 7-4, 5-3
2002: 5-6, 3-5
2003: 6-6, 4-4
2004: 5-7, 4-4
2005: 3-9, 1-7
2006: 5-7, 3-5
2007: 5-7, 4-4
2008: 6-6, 4-4
2009: 6-6, 4-4
2010: 8-4, 6-2
2011: 8-4, 5-3
2012: 7-5, 5-3
2013: 5-7, 3-5
2014: 4-8, 2-6
We can go back and forth on the numbers on which season of basketball lines up with which season of football but using winning percentages from basketball this is how football would have looked.
These boards would be in full metldown mode. There would be no bowl win and no conference championships if you keep the basketball trend.
Even Dan said the basketball program has been badly neglected over the years and that things Marshall should have we don't and they haven't been considered.
Hamrick and those before him talk about competing in basketball at a high level and wanting to play for championships and be a NCAA tournament team. Yet there isn't much done to do that. Not like football.
Hey if a football school is what Marshall is then fine. If we just hope that basketball can throw something together than fine. However don't talk the talk of being as good in basketbalk and not walking the walk.
Time will tell on Dan. Coaching I like him a lot. Recruiting I have been less than impressed. What in the world did he see in these Serbs? Don't give me they are improving. Sure they will improve but in respect to what? To win some games? Sure. To win conference championships? No. And like someone else pointed out buikding a team off of WV and tri-state talent won't cut it either.
Our goal is for Marshall football to be in or contending for the Access Bowl and contending for the conference championshop each amd every season.
Well if we want the same for basketball that means our goal is to be in the race for the regular season championship, playing in the conference tournament final every season, and being in the NCAA Torunament more often than not and if we miss the NCAA's we're in the NIT. So we need to invest in the same way.
Hamrick did everything possible to get Doc all he asked for. We have not got that impression for Dan. Dan gave a list of things he needed and from what I've heard they aren't being met with the same ferver.
Marshall current administrative commitment to basketball is the equivalent of just hoping to make a bowl at 6-6 every few years.
