Paul Mills Not Hot Seat

[shock]

And a potentially inflated record that doesn't give us an accurate idea if there's any improvement.

I think that speaks more to how well shockernet understands the game than anything.

[Aargh]

Just a feeling I've got.

Saal thought hiring a coach at WSU would be similar to hiring one at Murray. So, with commitments of over $1 mill he pulled the trigger. THEN he founf out what it cost to hire at WSU. Had he done the research, he would have found he needed $2+ mill not $1+ mill.

Going with other speculation from this board (which I find reasonably credible) DeVries turned him down, Turgeon turned hm down, McCasland was so far out of reach he may as well have been coaching on another planet.

At that point word probably spread among potential hires that they were well down Saal's list. That's a death knell in hiring a coach. That left Saal with only "who can I hire for X amount that I might possibly be able to sell to the fans and boosters". The hiring process became a salvage operation. So he picked the guy who somehow got 2 "once in a generation" recruits at ORU and managed to keep one of them for 4 years.

Abmas was Mills' FVV. Obanor was his Carl Hall (not really, but Obanor wasn't Baker, Early, or Cotton). Mills filled in around those two and ripped up the Summit League. Without recruits like Obanor and Abmas, Mills got ripped by CUSA this year.

Much as I've disagreed with Stick, he was the one who pointed out that Mills' only success came when he had Abmas and Obanor. That gave hope that if Mills could recruit at that level, then he would be a good fit here. It also gave th dread that if he didn't, we had just hired a mid-tier Summit League coach.

[shocker43]

At that point word probably spread among potential hires that they were well down Saal's list. That's a death knell in hiring a coach. That left Saal with only "who can I hire for X amount that I might possibly be able to sell to the fans and boosters". The hiring process became a salvage operation. So he picked the guy who somehow got 2 "once in a generation" recruits at ORU and managed to keep one of them for 4 years.

Abmas was Mills' FVV. Obanor was his Carl Hall (not really, but Obanor wasn't Baker, Early, or Cotton). Mills filled in around those two and ripped up the Summit League. Without recruits like Obanor and Abmas, Mills got ripped by CUSA this year.

Much as I've disagreed with Stick, he was the one who pointed out that Mills' only success came when he had Abmas and Obanor. That gave hope that if Mills could recruit at that level, then he would be a good fit here. It also gave th dread that if he didn't, we had just hired a mid-tier Summit League coach.

I think it's important to note that neither of those recruits were ranked by 247 during their recruitment. You can take this in a couple ways;

Either Mills has an eye for talent, regardless of the stars next to their name and his staff is able to develop them.

OR

He got lucky recruiting some guys that turned out much better than they were, but still wasn't able to recruit at a high level (meaning highly regarded recruits).

If you believe it's the second, he just got lucky, I imagine recruiting to ORU is much more difficult than Wichita State.

[shock]

Just a feeling I've got.

Saal thought hiring a coach at WSU would be similar to hiring one at Murray. So, with commitments of over $1 mill he pulled the trigger. THEN he founf out what it cost to hire at WSU. Had he done the research, he would have found he needed $2+ mill not $1+ mill.

Going with other speculation from this board (which I find reasonably credible) DeVries turned him down, Turgeon turned hm down, McCasland was so far out of reach he may as well have been coaching on another planet.

At that point word probably spread among potential hires that they were well down Saal's list. That's a death knell in hiring a coach. That left Saal with only "who can I hire for X amount that I might possibly be able to sell to the fans and boosters". The hiring process became a salvage operation. So he picked the guy who somehow got 2 "once in a generation" recruits at ORU and managed to keep one of them for 4 years.

Abmas was Mills' FVV. Obanor was his Carl Hall (not really, but Obanor wasn't Baker, Early, or Cotton). Mills filled in around those two and ripped up the Summit League. Without recruits like Obanor and Abmas, Mills got ripped by CUSA this year.

Much as I've disagreed with Stick, he was the one who pointed out that Mills' only success came when he had Abmas and Obanor. That gave hope that if Mills could recruit at that level, then he would be a good fit here. It also gave th dread that if he didn't, we had just hired a mid-tier Summit League coach.

Saal is a UK guy. No way he is so dumb that he thought WSU was equivalent to a bottom feeder MVC team.

I think we are jumping to a lot of conclusions with a severe lack of info. The good news is nobody here matters enough to change anything.

[Husker4Shockers]

I think it's important to note that neither of those recruits were ranked by 247 during their recruitment. You can take this in a couple ways;

Either Mills has an eye for talent, regardless of the stars next to their name and his staff is able to develop them.

OR

He got lucky recruiting some guys that turned out much better than they were, but still wasn't able to recruit at a high level (meaning highly regarded recruits).

If you believe it's the second, he just got lucky, I imagine recruiting to ORU is much more difficult than Wichita State.

I vote #2.

[shock]

On Saal:

• Served 12 years at the University of Kentucky where he held various roles before being named executive associate director of athletics.
• In 2007, joined the athletics staff at UK and enjoyed a working atmosphere that allowed for tremendous personal and professional growth under Director of Athletics Mitch Barnhart.
• Showed solid leadership in the areas of sports administration, capital projects and facilities construction, budget and human resources management and championships administration.
• Excelled in developing relationships with donors at Kentucky by playing significant role in the friend-raising and fundraising process, including Athletics’ ongoing $500M commitment to the University of Kentucky’s $2.1B “Kentucky Can” capital campaign.
• Assisted in hosting 100 external events at the university that led to $350,000 in new revenue.
• Was heavily involved in unprecedented facilities growth as one of the leaders for the design and construction or renovation of eight UK athletics venues, including a $135M project to renovate Kroger Field for football and a $49M construction project to build Kentucky Proud Park for baseball.
• Saal had oversight of the Kentucky men’s soccer program (since 2010) and the baseball program (since 2013). After a nine-year NCAA drought, the soccer team participated in five of the next seven NCAA Tournaments.
• In 2017, UK baseball won its first NCAA regional title and made a first NCAA Super-Regional appearance in program history. His efforts for soccer and baseball included managing budgets, maintaining NCAA compliance, roster and academic performance and contract negotiations.
• In the area of championships administration, Saal led a department that hosted 50 championship events for the Southeastern Conference and NCAA.

[ShockTalk]

On Saal:

• Served 12 years at the University of Kentucky where he held various roles before being named executive associate director of athletics.

Not disagreeing, just saying.

[shock]

Not disagreeing, just saying.

Saal had oversight of the Kentucky men’s soccer program (since 2010) and the baseball program (since 2013). After a nine-year NCAA drought, the soccer team participated in five of the next seven NCAA Tournaments.
In 2017, UK baseball won its first NCAA regional title and made a first NCAA Super-Regional appearance in program history. His efforts for soccer and baseball included managing budgets, maintaining NCAA compliance, roster and academic performance and contract negotiations.

Not disagreeing, just saying.

[ShockHat]

Honestly, we just need more time to see what’s up. Obviously, this year was a dumpster fire. The litmus test to see what Mills is made of comes this off season and next season. If it’s another fire, move on. We’re in the NIL era and a coach needs to be able to adjust and quickly build quality teams. That taking process of 5 years to get going is over.

[rjl]

I think it's a good bet the team is better next season. How could it be any worse?

The huge concern is whether the team will improve relative to the other teams in the AAC. We have lost to every other first year head coach we've faced this season. 0-3. We still have games against Charlotte and Temple, so we may be 0-5 against first-year head coaches or, at reasonable best, 1-4.

We are 1-3 against second year head coaches. We still have one game against Tulsa. We can be 1-4 against second year coaches or maybe 2-3.

I think it's a good bet that all those teams improve, too.

So is the allure and cache of Wichita State Basketball enough for us to out-accelerate the improvement of all these other programs? Or will Mills merely match them or improve less-than them?

If it's either of the latter, we're in for a long year.

[ShockerFever]

On Saal:

• Served 12 years at the University of Kentucky where he held various roles before being named executive associate director of athletics.
• In 2007, joined the athletics staff at UK and enjoyed a working atmosphere that allowed for tremendous personal and professional growth under Director of Athletics Mitch Barnhart.
• Showed solid leadership in the areas of sports administration, capital projects and facilities construction, budget and human resources management and championships administration.
• Excelled in developing relationships with donors at Kentucky by playing significant role in the friend-raising and fundraising process, including Athletics’ ongoing $500M commitment to the University of Kentucky’s $2.1B “Kentucky Can” capital campaign.
• Assisted in hosting 100 external events at the university that led to $350,000 in new revenue.
• Was heavily involved in unprecedented facilities growth as one of the leaders for the design and construction or renovation of eight UK athletics venues, including a $135M project to renovate Kroger Field for football and a $49M construction project to build Kentucky Proud Park for baseball.
• Saal had oversight of the Kentucky men’s soccer program (since 2010) and the baseball program (since 2013). After a nine-year NCAA drought, the soccer team participated in five of the next seven NCAA Tournaments.
• In 2017, UK baseball won its first NCAA regional title and made a first NCAA Super-Regional appearance in program history. His efforts for soccer and baseball included managing budgets, maintaining NCAA compliance, roster and academic performance and contract negotiations.
• In the area of championships administration, Saal led a department that hosted 50 championship events for the Southeastern Conference and NCAA.

His accomplishments at UK as the associate are great. Now, if you can list his Murray State resume, where he is actually wearing the big pants.

[JVShocker]

• Served 12 years at the University of Kentucky where he held various roles before being named executive associate director of athletics.

Is that anything like being named assistant to the regional manager?

[C0|dB|00ded]

On Saal:

• Served 12 years at the University of Kentucky where he held various roles before being named executive associate director of athletics.
• In 2007, joined the athletics staff at UK and enjoyed a working atmosphere that allowed for tremendous personal and professional growth under Director of Athletics Mitch Barnhart.
• Showed solid leadership in the areas of sports administration, capital projects and facilities construction, budget and human resources management and championships administration.
• Excelled in developing relationships with donors at Kentucky by playing significant role in the friend-raising and fundraising process, including Athletics’ ongoing $500M commitment to the University of Kentucky’s $2.1B “Kentucky Can” capital campaign.
• Assisted in hosting 100 external events at the university that led to $350,000 in new revenue.
• Was heavily involved in unprecedented facilities growth as one of the leaders for the design and construction or renovation of eight UK athletics venues, including a $135M project to renovate Kroger Field for football and a $49M construction project to build Kentucky Proud Park for baseball.
• Saal had oversight of the Kentucky men’s soccer program (since 2010) and the baseball program (since 2013). After a nine-year NCAA drought, the soccer team participated in five of the next seven NCAA Tournaments.
• In 2017, UK baseball won its first NCAA regional title and made a first NCAA Super-Regional appearance in program history. His efforts for soccer and baseball included managing budgets, maintaining NCAA compliance, roster and academic performance and contract negotiations.
• In the area of championships administration, Saal led a department that hosted 50 championship events for the Southeastern Conference and NCAA.

"Showed solid leadership in the areas
Assisted in hosting
Was heavily involved
had oversight of... soccer."

Looks like a resume from one of those resume-in-a-box builder kits you'd get at Office Max in the 90's - replete with "powa words" to try and turn insignificance into slightly more than.

Oversight of soccer eh? A sport cherished by the 3rd world, and utilized in America to burn off energy in young children. Soccer mom's have oversight.

We're a LONG way from Turgeon and Schaus.

[jcdshocker]

I may get ridiculed but I am not going to give up on Paul Mills. This appears to be a lynch mob that finds no good in the hiring of Mills. I may be the only one that believes this, but I think this team is not as talented as any us of thought. Recruiting for this season was a bust. But greater times are ahead of us and it will be with Paul Mills at the helm.

[C0|dB|00ded]

I think it's a good bet the team is better next season. How could it be any worse?

The huge concern is whether the team will improve relative to the other teams in the AAC. We have lost to every other first year head coach we've faced this season. 0-3. We still have games against Charlotte and Temple, so we may be 0-5 against first-year head coaches or, at reasonable best, 1-4.

We are 1-3 against second year head coaches. We still have one game against Tulsa. We can be 1-4 against second year coaches or maybe 2-3.

I think it's a good bet that all those teams improve, too.

So is the allure and cache of Wichita State Basketball enough for us to out-accelerate the improvement of all these other programs? Or will Mills merely match them or improve less-than them?

If it's either of the latter, we're in for a long year.

I'm sorry that you took the time to compile those stats. I'm also sorry that I happened upon reading them. I didn't think I could feel worse about our prospects.

It would be nice if we were the kind of program where the incoming coach is so nervous about his first year failures, that he would walk into his superior's office and ask to be put out of his misery. That's respect.

I would say that a record of 0-5 again first year coaches in mostly VASTLY inferior programs would be grounds for a do-over on the coaching hire.

If I were a first year coach in a big-time job, I would want a losing record against my first year peer's about as bad as I'd want an extra copy of chromosome 21...