Kevin Saal Report Card

[SB Shock]

I don’t know how you can give Saal a grade. Nobody knows how the Mills hire will pan out - and that heavily weights his grade because men’s basketball pays for all the other sports.

[SubGod22]

One year in is hard to grade.

Firing IB was a must. A
Not extending Adams and getting her to run away. A
Not offering Hibbs the job. A
One fundraiser decision. C (but we'll see if it actually makes more money I guess)
Announced improvements and fundraising for softball facilities. A
Communication with the public. B+
Transparent expectations for success on and off the field. A

Hiring of Mills for men's basketball. Can't fully grade until we get results, but initial feel... D
Hiring of Nooner for women's basketball. Same applies to time as Mills, but initial feel... B

Have to wait and see who is hired to lead the baseball program, but that too will need time to be fully analyzed.
If the baseball hire is Green, the initial feel is D.

Sounds like Saal is great at talking, but his hiring decisions are definitely questionable on the surface. We'll reevaluate in a couple of years but the silver tongue won't mean much if his hires fail.

[Downtown Shocker Brown]

We do live in the same state as the frickin Jayhawks. Guessing it won’t be long before Kansas follows the other states in some fashion. Our Shox will be included in that change.

You are basing that on assumption that KU follows any rules at all. All evidence to the contrary, as they do what they want. They have continued pre-NIL deals in addition to NIL deals.

[wichshock65]

You are basing that on assumption that KU follows any rules at all. All evidence to the contrary, as they do what they want. They have continued pre-NIL deals in addition to NIL deals.

None of the other schools are following the rules either. The states are just putting an exclamation mark on doing their own thing without consequences. KU will lobby hard for the same. Guessing K State will be right there with them.

Remember when college sports were fun?

[Dan]

At the end of the day the overall plan from the P5 was to separate from the rest of the field. NIL was their way to push the rest of the schools to the back of the bus. It's just a matter of time before the dominos start falling.

[WstateU]

At the end of the day the overall plan from the P5 was to separate from the rest of the field. NIL was their way to push the rest of the schools to the back of the bus. It's just a matter of time before the dominos start falling.

[BostonWu]

I just don’t understand the stark difference in sentiments between the handling of the basketball vs baseball coaching situations.

Most of the people who are angry over the baseball news weren’t on the IB bandwagon when he got the interim tag pulled.

How are the situations different? Hibbs wouldnt even be in consideration if his interim season would have taken place at another middle of the pack program that had a decent but not good season.

One is a beloved alum who if that were not the case then no one would bat an eye.

[ShockTalk]

One year in is hard to grade.

Firing IB was a must. A
Not extending Adams and getting her to run away. A
Not offering Hibbs the job. A
One fundraiser decision. C (but we'll see if it actually makes more money I guess)
Announced improvements and fundraising for softball facilities. A
Communication with the public. B+
Transparent expectations for success on and off the field. A

Hiring of Mills for men's basketball. Can't fully grade until we get results, but initial feel... D
Hiring of Nooner for women's basketball. Same applies to time as Mills, but initial feel... B

Have to wait and see who is hired to lead the baseball program, but that too will need time to be fully analyzed.

I'd make just a couple of changes as for myself.

Not offering Hibbs the job: C at best. Possibly (at this point) nothing other than an "incomplete" grade. Definitely not an A. Hibbs took over a program that had a horrible previous year, both record wise and, as it turned out, a bigger problem with the head coach. Hibbs rallied the team (who also seemed to rally around him), had a winning record with 30 wins and, at one point, was ranked. Did they fall off at the end? Yes, but who really thought they would be ranked this year either? At this point, all but one very loyal player (who he and his family likes Hibbs) is the total of our remaining roster. We also don't know what "fallout" there may be from the donors. As yet, we have no idea what is on down the road with the program.

Hiring of Mills: C+. This was not a hire that I thought made a splash. Nevertheless, he was able to keep a few key players from last season. Time will tell.

One fundraiser decision: C- (or worse). Just not sure how much this will be a "boost" with bigger donors. I do feel it may make a lot of the smaller donors and those who are close to particular programs other than men's basketball feel less important.

[1972Shocker]

O
Hiring of Mills for men's basketball. Can't fully grade until we get results, but initial feel... D
Hiring of Nooner for women's basketball. Same applies to time as Mills, but initial feel... B.

Interesting, hiring an experienced head coach with a deep resume and history of success is a D, but hiring an assistant coach with a relatively short coaching resume including no head coaching experience is a B.

Personally, I like many of the things I have heard about both these coaches and some of the things I have seen since they have been hired. But no way could I assign these hires a grade at this stage of the game. And even if they are solid hires they may or may not be able to have success at Wichita State. This is especially true for WBB where there is very little tradition of success and pretty meager fan interest and support. And in MBB you have the unenviable situation of trying to build a program and fan support when virtually every player is now a 1-and-done.

In any case, the grade that will count is the one after they have a few years under their belts at Wichita State. I'm rooting for both to be very successful but it is not a given they will be.

[Onegreatracer]

So are you regretting your billboard efforts?

Boatright was an F-------.

I am not regretting my efforts nor have I given up on Saal. I just believe he may need a better pulse of the community.

[Kung Wu]

KU will lobby hard for the same.

Sure, but they will propose their own bill with wording like "All universities in the State of Kansas with a Law School that are competing at the NCAA Division 1 level shall be granted ..."

[SubGod22]

Interesting, hiring an experienced head coach with a deep resume and history of success is a D, but hiring an assistant coach with a relatively short coaching resume including no head coaching experience is a B.

Personally, I like many of the things I have heard about both these coaches and some of the things I have seen since they have been hired. But no way could I assign these hires a grade at this stage of the game. And even if they are solid hires they may or may not be able to have success at Wichita State. This is especially true for WBB where there is very little tradition of success and pretty meager fan interest and support. And in MBB you have the unenviable situation of trying to build a program and fan support when virtually every player is now a 1-and-done.

In any case, the grade that will count is the one after they have a few years under their belts at Wichita State. I'm rooting for both to be very successful but it is not a given they will be.

Different programs with different histories and at different levels.

Mills has experience. He had a couple of good years riding one specific player in a bad league. Nothing about his hiring excited me, but I avoided giving him an F to try and be nice. Men's basketball is the program in the athletic department here. If Mills tried to get others and was just getting rejected, ouch. If this was truly one of, if not the, top options for Mills, ouch.

Nooner is coming into a program with little success outside of a couple of years under Jody Adams and into a program that doesn't have the ability to really make a splash hire. He has a number of years as a top assistant and has been around some success. For a program that needed a kick in the pants that's been accomplished I think.

By the way, there were assistants that could have been hired for men's basketball that would have gotten a higher grade. Being a HC isn't everything. There are lots of factors at play.

[shoxlax]

I don’t know how you can give Saal a grade. Nobody knows how the Mills hire will pan out - and that heavily weights his grade because men’s basketball pays for all the other sports.

Any job I’ve ever had came with a review after the first year with no predictive success factored into the equation.

Saal’s grade was based on cleanup and getting things off dead center. The reason he got a B+ was I’m not convinced the baseball cleanup was thought through but I am done talking about it until the next move happens. My thoughts on coaching hires are purely editorial filler.
Next year at the time the whole enchilada gets looked at.

Besides I can do what I want…Kung says so.

[shoxlax]

Way too early to grade. Saal came in to a dumpster fire with the basketball and baseball programs. He has a mountain to build and it doesn’t happen in a year.

So grade him on putting out the dumpster fire. Did he go full hose extended or merely dribble piss on it?

[shoxlax]

I don[t see one being reflective of the other.

Don’t you have some money left for the next one just in case?

Just funnin.