Feel bad for Stephenson and the players

[Veritas]

I'm so grateful that Gene Stephenson has been the coach at WSU all these years. He truly is a legend and will always be remembered with fondness for leading the Shocker baseball team to unprecedented success.
The players have dedicated their college careers to WSU and have trusted the coaching staff to ensure the program competes at the highest level.

The Shox have lost their way and it's ironic and sad that Stephenson's loyalty to his coaching staff has now placed him on very thin ice and the possibility of forever damaging his legacy at Wichita State.

Please Coach..... find another career for Thomas and Kemnitz and get some skilled assistant coaching staff replacements at WSU to support your final years at WSU.
Please ADES.... Advise Stephenson and force him to replace Thomas and Kemnitz. Do it for the team, the school, and also for Stephenson.

I hope the Shockers bounce back this year and compete for the MoVal title. I believe the players want it and can do it. I'm just not as confident that the assstant coaches care and their selfishness is badly hurting the program and their boss.

Go Shox!

[Ta town]

or....

Someone who is of retirement age could retire.

[ShockTalk]

I'm so grateful that Gene Stephenson has been the coach at WSU all these years. He truly is a legend and will always be remembered with fondness for leading the Shocker baseball team to unprecedented success.
The players have dedicated their college careers to WSU and have trusted the coaching staff to ensure the program competes at the highest level.

The Shox have lost their way and it's ironic and sad that Stephenson's loyalty to his coaching staff has now placed him on very thin ice and the possibility of forever damaging his legacy at Wichita State.

Please Coach..... find another career for Thomas and Kemnitz and get some skilled assistant coaching staff replacements at WSU to support your final years at WSU.
Please ADES.... Advise Stephenson and force him to replace Thomas and Kemnitz. Do it for the team, the school, and also for Stephenson.

I hope the Shockers bounce back this year and compete for the MoVal title. I believe the players want it and can do it. I'm just not as confident that the assstant coaches care and their selfishness is badly hurting the program and their boss.

Go Shox!

How do you explain his pre-game statement prior to the 2nd lose to Hawaii?

From another poster -- Gene says in the pre-game that this team doesn't really care if they win or lose - he can't understand why losing doesn't "hurt" for them.

Not very motivating for the players if they believe their coach doesn't think they care.

[WuDrWu]

There are no final "years". Gene is either gone after this year or next, period.

He is ruining his legacy, unfortunately. I am certainly one that says his success cannot be diminished by the recent years, but it's not a bottomless pit. And this is going to end up BADLY this year.

[1972Shocker]

At this point it is just a matter of timing as to when there is a change in the Coaching regime. I hope that change will include the entire coaching staff and I think it probably will.

The only question is does it happen after this season or, IMHO the more likely scenario, after next season.

Gene always was and always will be a polarizing character. No question he deserves a lot of praise for what he has accomplished at WSU. OTOH he also deserves to be held accountable for the bad as welll as the good both on and off the field. His legacy will be one of mixed emotions with a distinct feeling that he hung on too long for his own good.

[SB Shock]

The move really needs to happen after this season so the damage can be minimized. If they wait to next year, there will be no hope for recruiting and would probably mean a 2 year hole.

[KC Shox]

I'm torn. There shouldn't be anybody out there who doesn't acknowledge the fact that recruiting to WSU was hard, but it's even harder now that the sport has grown and more-and-more BCS AD's are ramping up their baseball programs. The inherent advantages a BCS school has just makes it tough for programs like ours. This isn't Gene's fault and only makes his job that much harder. We've always competed against OU and OSU for recruits, but over the past decade, we've even lost many recruits to our in-state brethren. Not getting the top tier talent like we used to has a lot to do with our lack of success the past four years. Again, is this Gene's fault?

I also don't think Gene and Co., suddenly woke up one morning and forgot about how to coach the game of baseball. I firmly believe they are trying to teach the kids the best way to play the game. But given the fact that our players are not the type of player we used to get, is it that hard to believe that their performance ceiling is much lower than what we are used to seeing?

I have two ideas with Gene and Co. First, their contracts need to be restructured to be incentive and performance laden. No longer should they be paid a huge flat, agreed upon, salary. Their salaries need to be lowered given the lack of success the past four years. (I wish I knew what the average salary was of the BCS baseball coaches were for comparative purposes). Everyone knows college athletics is all about, "what have you done for me lately", not what you have done for me 20 years ago. ADES needs to make the proper adjustment.

Second, and this is a question we may never know or will find out, how hard is Gene and Co. going out there and recruiting? Are they doubling their efforts given the present competitive college baseball landscape? Or, are they sitting back and still thinking Wichita State Baseball sells itself and they don't have to put forth the effort to get the best kids?

Gene has earned some leeway. However, after four years of unremarkable baseball and this looking to be the worst season ever since the pre-Gene era, this leeway is running out. The program has evolved to be bigger than Gene and the university owes it to the program to ensure our tradition continues. One day, there will be a bronze statue placed outside of Eck Stadium memorializing Gene's contributions to WSU baseball and he will forever be lauded. But something needs to be done and done fast before we become just your ordinary average mid-major baseball program if we aren't there already.

There is no magic bullet that is going to save this program overnight and I'm afraid it may get worse before it gets better. But if we are going to make changes, it needs to be done with a young coach who comes from one of the great college baseball pedigrees. I would also love to see Phase II money so we can get that done as well. Yes, we have great facilities now, but in order to make up for the non-BCS disadvantages, we have to make up for it in state of the art facilities that rival next to no one. I win the powerball, you can bet your ass Phase II will be done and Phase III will be thought up and done too.

[1972Shocker]

Nice post @KC Shox. You make some valid observations. However, I think Gene burned all his bridges and any leeway he had when he and his boys happily headed to OU and clearly stated they did not think they could win big at WSU anymore. Any backtracking they did after they turned tail and, unfortunately, were allowed to return WSU has taken more or less as BS. However, even if the competitive landscape has become more difficult due to greater BCS emphasis on baseball (and I agree it has) there is still no reason the Shocks should no still be at the top of the Valley every year.

I don't know if a new coaching regime can do any better than Gene and his boys or not, but a this point it is time to find out because we are certainly trending the wrong direction and the fall seems to be accelerating.

I do agree that whoever coaches beyond Gene's current contract needs to do so with a relatively modest base salary supplemented by heavy duty performance bonuses and they should be able to recruit players from anywhere the can find them without restriction.

[_kai_]

It's all about discipline.

[SB Shock]

Capture2.JPG

[SubGod22]

WOW

[Kung Wu]

With so many former Shockers making it to the big league, isn't there some big name alumni coaching talent that will get a foot in the recruits' door based on name recognition alone? I'm thinking there are lots of good coaching options out there when Gene retires.

[shoxlax]

There are plenty of good options out there without Shocker ties also.

[kstarheel]

Shoulda called it a day after the super regional vs FSU. Somewhat of a high note to get to that series. It's been a freaking mess since.

[tru2thaduce]

We haven't won a postseason game since game 1 of that super regional.