Paul Mills Not Hot Seat

[ShockBand]

Jerome Tang is getting chippy with K-State fans: https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/oth...ng/ar-AA1w5qYK

“I have got a great group of dudes there and they’re working really, really hard,” Tang said. “They’re trying to put into just a few months what some of the teams have multiple years to do. You see a lot of this, but for any fans or any people who are reaching out to say negative things to these guys, man, shame on you. Shame on you.”

Still, money has been such a distraction for this team that Tang played the ESPN documentary “Broke” on the drive to Kansas City this week. The first few times he watched the film, he mostly noticed how many professional athletes wasted their pro salaries. This time, though, he paid closer attention to how the athletes in the movie struggled to perform while dealing with the pressure of getting paid.

“What stuck out was the pressure that they face when they have money,” Tang said, “because they feel like they’ve got to try and deliver something now because they’re being paid. These young guys, they’re feeling that pressure. For so-called fans to add on top of that, that’s a crime and that’s just terrible. Those aren’t real K-State fans. They’re definitely not our people and with us and what we are about.”

Read more at: https://www.kansas.com/sports/colleg...#storylink=cpy

Sorry, Mr. Tang, if you're getting paid, and especially if you're getting paid a LOT, don't be surprised when expectations rise.

[shocker43]

He also has the benefit of having two other guards the defense is even more worried about. He was the only one defenses had to worry about last year. At Memphis he can stick to what he does well on offense - catch and shoot. At WSU, he had to create.

Agreed on the differences, but I think it shows that we're kinda lost when it comes to roster construction.

[BOBB]

Can we convince a caretaker coach to come in and keep things together for minor dollars until we get done paying three coaches to do nothing? Turgeon on an 18-month contract? Randy Smithson on a month-to-month at $5k per and an open tab at Kirby’s? Steve Eck for $3k per month, a suite in the dorms, and a dining card?

[RoyalShock]

Here is a little Brown vs Mills comparison using KenPom, using only games while coach at WSU. This isn't an entirely apples-to-apples to comparison due to difference circumstances each coach experienced, from NIL, transfer portal, strength of the AAC, etc.

Here are the losses to teams outside the KenPom top 100.

Brown
2020-21
116 Cinci

2021-22
101 Cinci
104 UCF
101 Cinci
171 Tulsa

2022-23
247 Alcorn (probably the game that sealed Brown's fate)
101 San Fran
180 ECU
103 Tulane
103 Tulane

In three seasons (more like 2 and a third), Brown had TEN losses to teams outside the top 100. If we cherry-pick just a little and and say outside the top 105, that number drops to FOUR. Whils is just over one per season. The flip side of this argument, is there aren't many top-100 wins either. In fact, in his last year WSU had ZERO top-100 wins, and SEVEN total.

Mills
2023-24
137 Liberty
145 Mizzou
138 SDSU
181 Temple
189 ECU
184 Tulsa
189 ECU
120 Charlotte
181 Temple
136 Tulane
106 UAB

2024-25
242 KC
Given the state of the AAC, I expect at least 3 or 4 more to be added to this list by the end of the season.

That's ELEVEN losses in one and a third season to teams outside the top 100. So far, just THREE top-100 wins.

Now, there are factors to consider. Brown inherited a Marshall-constructed roster for his first two seasons with multiple NBA players. But the AAC was MUCH better, with fewer opportunities for bad losses and more opportunities for good wins. His KenPom finishes were 68, 94, 102.

Mills came in to a more difficult situation, replacing a coach with diminishing results and trying to hold on to players and recruit new ones. But that is somewhat (not fully) mitigated by the availability of players in the portal. Now there are more chances for bad losses and fewer for good wins. The AAC is a bigger minefield now. We were KenPom 154 last year, and currently 114 this year.

The state of the AAC is, in my opinion, the test for whether Mills proves to be better or worse than Brown.

In Brown's final season, we had seven AAC games against KenPom top 100 (average of 29, which is pretty high). We went 0-7 in those games.
Last year there were eight such games (average of 69, so not nearly as good). We went 2-6 in those games. We will likely only have five of these games this year, unless Temple improves from 118. They are the only other team within sight of 100.

It's really tough to see either coach having clearly better results over the other. At this point, I'm calling it a wash. Given the continued slide of the conference, Mills needs to have us in the top-4 this year and next to have an argument for keeping him.

[WuShock16]

I was near the tunnel behind the bench last night and could see Kevin in his usual spot. I can tell you that he was PISSED. As guys were heading to the locker room during halftime, Kevin was begging for effort. "C'mon guys! Play together! Play for each other!"

In the second half, when KC got a couple of those early offensive boards, Kevin yelled pretty loudly, "C'mon!"

I didn't see/hear him after about the first media timeout...and then when KC had the alley oop to go up 19 at the 8 minute mark, I got pissed and called it a night.

[asiseeit]

Maybe we can't afford NOT to dismiss PM immediately and put Acy in charge. Doing so would inject some MUCH needed excitement into the program. If that happened I'd bet you would see ZP play much more and perhaps start. You would see a more focused Hill. You would see much better team defense and rebounding. You would see a better TEAM on the court playing hard. You would probably see frequent substitutions when someone got lazy or drove into three defenders without kicking it out. You would see better basketball. I would imagine that Acy would change things up in order to get QB and MB the ball down low. Afterall, they have the two best shooting percentages on the team.

[wsushockerdude]

That same cost logic could be applied to the IB situation but Saal said it anyway. Sure, they really can't afford to fire Mills, but they couldn't exactly afford to fire IB either and Saal still pulled the trigger.

As an apathetic fan, I'd rather someone call out that there is a standard at WSU that is not being met rather than continue to hear about how the team is learning from its mistakes but never seems to improve.

Well I think Mills did just that last night by saying he feels sorry for WSU fans and understands that its not the standard around here. He said that verbatim - feel any better?

[Stickboy46]

Maybe we can't afford NOT to dismiss PM immediately and put Acy in charge. Doing so would inject some MUCH needed excitement into the program. If that happened I'd bet you would see ZP play much more and perhaps start. You would see a more focused Hill. You would see much better team defense and rebounding. You would see a better TEAM on the court playing hard. You would probably see frequent substitutions when someone got lazy or drove into three defenders without kicking it out. You would see better basketball.

We can't afford to dismiss a coach without the next home run lined up IMO. We did that already and ended up with Mills. The coach AND the money need to be lined up before we make that move. No idea when that can be. If I'm Saal, I'm running the back channels to see what it would take $$$ wise to get my pie in the sky coach that is truly going to bring excitement back, then I'm spending the rest of my time BEGGING our key donors to step up and make it happen. If we have to name something on campus after someone, put up a statue to them .. whatever it takes.

[Stickboy46]

Well I think Mills did just that last night by saying he feels sorry for WSU fans and understands that its not the standard around here. He said that verbatim - feel any better?

I don't want to hear it from the coach unless it also comes with "with that said, i'm entering the transfer portal"

[TrackSuitAndTie]

Well I think Mills did just that last night by saying he feels sorry for WSU fans and understands that its not the standard around here. He said that verbatim - feel any better?

Mills has said a lot of things since coming to WSU, the product on the floor has not aligned with his statements. My comment was specific to the AD, based on his past statement when IB was coach and WSU suffered a similar loss.

[Atxshoxfan]

No big name coach will take this job in it's current state. No fans, no money.
Find a really good juco coach. They are used to players moving on in a year or 2, no money and no fans. Plus it would give them a door to D1.

[Stickboy46]

No big name coach will take this job in it's current state. No fans, no money.
Find a really good juco coach. They are used to players moving on in a year or 2, no money and no fans. Plus it would give them a door to D1.

That feels like thinking small. I think the money can/will come with the right driver. I want our AD thinking big. You go to the donors and say "Hey if you donate XXXXX, we have a verbal that we can land (insert home run coach)".

Your path might work too (see Drake), but I'd rather us think big and try to go after the money with a very targeted goal vs right now it just feels like its "hey give us money and we might do something good with it"

[ShockerFever]

I think he's bad at constructing a roster, which is the main part of his job.

Who’s more fake now, WSU or DePaul?

[SubGod22]

I wonder how much it would cost to get Griffin to come. We know he can coach and develop talent. Recruiting would be the only question, but one would think with his NBA experience and connections that he'd be able to find the right guys to help get guys to Wichita.

[Stickboy46]

I wonder how much it would cost to get Griffin to come. We know he can coach and develop talent. Recruiting would be the only question, but one would think with his NBA experience and connections that he'd be able to find the right guys to help get guys to Wichita.

I was just going to say his name. He feels like a high risk/high reward. He got caught up in NBA politics but had the Bucks rolling before that happened.