The Annual HCGM's WSU Future

[proshox]

I haven't watched Sports Sunday in a long time. I watched tonight to find out the latest on the Marshall rumors. What a waste of my time. Both of those bozos love Texas so much that they should take their "mid-major" reporting to Austin.

I don't understand all of the love for the Texas job. To me it doesn't seem much better than the Alabama job and everyone seemed to laugh at the suggestion that Marshall would go to Bama.

I have no idea what was on KWCH, but the Texas job is a great gig. All the advantages of a UK without any of the resounding expectations and a much better place to recruit to. Barnes was pretty terrible and managed 16 out of 17 NCAAs. Austin is a "good to great" place to live and the resources are second to none.

Alabama has had some good coaches go in and absolutely fail. Texas on the other hand seems to win at everything. Texas is the one bullet we must dodge.

Note to Texas AD - Shaka kicker our butts in the NCAA. He is your guy.

[OregonShocker]

...the Texas job is a great gig. All the advantages of a UK without any of the resounding expectations and a much better place to recruit to. Barnes was pretty terrible and managed 16 out of 17 NCAAs.

Making 16 out of 17 NCAA's gets you fired, but expectations aren't resounding? Which is it?

[ShockerFever]

I have no idea what was on KWCH, but the Texas job is a great gig. All the advantages of a UK without any of the resounding expectations and a much better place to recruit to. Barnes was pretty terrible and managed 16 out of 17 NCAAs. Austin is a "good to great" place to live and the resources are second to none.

Alabama has had some good coaches go in and absolutely fail. Texas on the other hand seems to win at everything. Texas is the one bullet we must dodge.

Note to Texas AD - Shaka kicker our butts in the NCAA. He is your guy.

You contradicted yourself a bit here. You say there's "no resounding expectations" at Texas and yet 16 out of 17 NCAA Tournaments, along with a FF, several Sweet 16's and numerous COY honors were not quite up to par for them. Hmm, ok?

Texas seems to win at everything? Well they haven't won a National Title in any meaningful sport in quite a while. And that Texas football sure has been sucking it up for a while (by Texas wins at everything standards of course)

Austin, Texas may be "cooler" than Wichita, but is it heaven? I don't think so. And would it make Marshall happier? Well, stay tuned.

[Keyser Soze]

Making 16 out of 17 NCAA's gets you fired, but expectations aren't resounding? Which is it?

There is no contradiction. Both statements can be and are absolutely true in this case.

It's all relative. There are maybe 5 jobs in the country on par with Texas in resources all things considered and all have exponentially higher expectations, pressure and arm chair quarterbacking.

[Shock Top]

Based on the Twitter feeds of recruits, I would say none seemed too worried at the moment.

[WSUwatcher]

@ChuckCarltonDMN: Five realistic candidates to replace Rick Barnes at Texas with lot of people looking at Gregg Marshall | @dallasnews http://share.d-news.co/EKgIpFD

Happy Palm Sunday, everyone. Good article quoted above -- thoughtful and with interesting names, $ info, and commentary.

As luck would have it, I'm in Austin right now and will be for a few more days. I watched the 6pm news Saturday, partly because of a reduced interest in the tournament now that WSU is out, and partly because I was curious about the Barnes situation, having posted a while back that Texas was a job that would concern me as a possible destination for Marshall should it open up, although I didn't expect it to do so (oh, well). And I was amused that on the station I was watching, as they cut to a commercial break after the weather, the sports guy teased his upcoming report not with anything about Barnes and the talk of his impending departure, but about something Charlie Strong was focusing on during spring football practice. Such are the priorities in Longhorn country.

Who knows what will happen, but the more I think about this, the less concerned about Texas I become, mainly because I don't expect Marshall to be their top choice. To me, Shaka seems much more likely than Marshall --younger (longer potential career), cheaper at this point (schools seldom try to pay their new guy more than they did his longtime, highly-paid predecessor, unless they're going for a giant splash -- e.g., Saban to Alabama, Meyer to Ohio State, Harbaugh to Michigan, all of which were in football, where the real money lies in college sports), more successful so far (somewhat) with top 100 recruits than Marshall, and black (Texas strikes me as exceptionally sensitive to accusations of institutional racism, and likely as a result to bend over backwards in favor a black coach). I'd even tend to expect Musketeer Chris Mack to be favored over Marshall, because of his age, likely price tag, and relative recruiting success.

And as for Alabama, I just have a hard time taking that prospect seriously. I'm no Marshall mind reader, but as I check the articles on al.com for Alabama spring football news, I've also been seeing the items about their pursuit of Marshall to elevate their basketball program -- and there are a bunch of them, although you have to search a bit: first the link for Sports, then instead of the lead link for Alabama Crimson Tide Football, you have to go to "More Crimson Tide Sports, where the hoopsters share space with baseball, softball, and gymnastics, all of which have reached greater heights than basketball has. (That "more ... sports" listing itself should be somewhat telling, by the way.)

Anyway, to my outsider's eye it seems as though Marshall's choice between WSU and Bama can be summarized pretty easily.

He can be wealthy, known to all and idolized, coach a team likely to boast two all-American candidates (on and off the court) and be better next year than the one that just won at least 30 games for the third straight season, and do it all while living in a city of almost 400,000 that actually has some attractions -- and one where he is The Man.

Or he can be somewhat wealthier, briefly famous before receding into secondary status except among the relatively few aficionados of a secondary sport, and work to lift his program from the middle of the pack in a league dominated by football all year long, while living in a college town with milder winters than Doodah, but with a population smaller than the capacity of its football stadium that now and forever dominates the local landscape just as football itself (and its coach whose statue is already enshrined on campus) does vs. any other sport. Football is to Alabama what basketball is to WSU, only much more so, and Marshall won't be able to change that no matter what he says or does.

Gee, that's a tough one. Kellen, if you're online, what do you think? Meanwhile, try this for size: Barnes to Tennessee, Smart to Texas, Anthony Grant back to VCU, your guess is as good as mine to Alabama -- little Pitino, Chris Mack, someone else? -- and Marshall back for one more run at the Final Four with FVV, Baker, Wessel after a summer of practice shooting threes, Shaq, Zach, Mac (McDuffie, that is; and I feel a Tea Time Movie preview coming on), Mr. December Frankamp and a designated driver, some improved sophomore bigs, and his best ever recruiting class. Let's get started.

[shox1989]

Happy Palm Sunday, everyone. Good article quoted above -- thoughtful and with interesting names, $ info, and commentary.

As luck would have it, I'm in Austin right now and will be for a few more days. I watched the 6pm news Saturday, partly because of a reduced interest in the tournament now that WSU is out, and partly because I was curious about the Barnes situation, having posted a while back that Texas was a job that would concern me as a possible destination for Marshall should it open up, although I didn't expect it to do so (oh, well). And I was amused that on the station I was watching, as they cut to a commercial break after the weather, the sports guy teased his upcoming report not with anything about Barnes and the talk of his impending departure, but about something Charlie Strong was focusing on during spring football practice. Such are the priorities in Longhorn country.

Who knows what will happen, but the more I think about this, the less concerned about Texas I become, mainly because I don't expect Marshall to be their top choice. To me, Shaka seems much more likely than Marshall --younger (longer potential career), cheaper at this point (schools seldom try to pay their new guy more than they did his longtime, highly-paid predecessor, unless they're going for a giant splash -- e.g., Saban to Alabama, Meyer to Ohio State, Harbaugh to Michigan, all of which were in football, where the real money lies in college sports), more successful so far (somewhat) with top 100 recruits than Marshall, and black (Texas strikes me as exceptionally sensitive to accusations of institutional racism, and likely as a result to bend over backwards in favor a black coach). I'd even tend to expect Musketeer Chris Mack to be favored over Marshall, because of his age, likely price tag, and relative recruiting success.

And as for Alabama, I just have a hard time taking that prospect seriously. I'm no Marshall mind reader, but as I check the articles on al.com for Alabama spring football news, I've also been seeing the items about their pursuit of Marshall to elevate their basketball program -- and there are a bunch of them, although you have to search a bit: first the link for Sports, then instead of the lead link for Alabama Crimson Tide Football, you have to go to "More Crimson Tide Sports, where the hoopsters share space with baseball, softball, and gymnastics, all of which have reached greater heights than basketball has. (That "more ... sports" listing itself should be somewhat telling, by the way.)

Anyway, to my outsider's eye it seems as though Marshall's choice between WSU and Bama can be summarized pretty easily.

He can be wealthy, known to all and idolized, coach a team likely to boast two all-American candidates (on and off the court) and be better next year than the one that just won at least 30 games for the third straight season, and do it all while living in a city of almost 400,000 that actually has some attractions -- a city where he is The Man.

Or he can be somewhat wealthier, briefly famous before receding into secondary status except among the relatively few aficionados of a secondary sport, and work to lift his program from the middle of the pack in a league dominated by football all year long, while living in a college town with milder winters than Doodah, but a population smaller than the capacity of its football stadium that now and forever dominates the local landscape just as football itself (and its coach whose statue is already enshrined on campus) does vs. any other sport. Football is to Alabama what basketball is to WSU, only much more so, and Marshall won't be able to change that no matter what he says or does.

Gee, that's a tough one. Kellen, if you're online, what do you think? Meanwhile, try this for size: Barnes to Tennessee, Smart to Texas, Anthony Grant back to VCU, your guess is as good as mine to Alabama -- little Pitino, Chris Mack, someone else? -- and Marshall back for one more run at the Final Four with FVV, Baker, Wessel after a summer of practice shooting threes, Shaq, Zach, Mac (McDuffie, that is; and I feel a Tea Time Movie preview coming on), Mr. December Frankamp and a designated driver, some improved sophomore bigs, and his best ever recruiting class. Let's get started.

This is why I just don't see either the Alabama or Texas job as being the kind of job that would appeal to Coach Marshall.

[OregonShocker]

There is no contradiction. Both statements can be and are absolutely true in this case.

It's all relative. There are maybe 5 jobs in the country on par with Texas in resources all things considered and all have exponentially higher expectations, pressure and arm chair quarterbacking.

Well, I'm not sure how you look at "on par" but I can think of 16 teams off the top of my head; they all played this weekend. Then, there are those that didn't play this weekend, like Kansas, that are better than Texas. I base it on fanbase for BASKETBALL, history/tradition, future projections.

[The Mad Hatter]

Alabama fans seem convinced that Marshall is meeting with them today (Monday). I just can't see how that is a good job at any salary.

[1979Shocker]

HEY! I found out who REALLY killed Kennedy!

That's old news. We all know it was the alien from Roswell.

[ShockerExpress]

Seth Davis @SethDavisHoops 2h2 hours ago
I spoke w a knowledgeable source yesterday who said Gregg Marshall was "shocked" to read reports that he has zero interest in Alabama.


FWIW. I still don't see that. I don't know if I'd blame him for leaving for UT, but leaving for Bama at this time would seem beyond odd. I've never been able to make more than 3 million dollars at anything though.

[molly jabali]

I read Barnes comments in the Eagle today, and I'm not sure Patterson is a guy I'd want to work for.

[proshox]

You contradicted yourself a bit here. You say there's "no resounding expectations" at Texas and yet 16 out of 17 NCAA Tournaments, along with a FF, several Sweet 16's and numerous COY honors were not quite up to par for them. Hmm, ok?

Texas seems to win at everything? Well they haven't won a National Title in any meaningful sport in quite a while. And that Texas football sure has been sucking it up for a while (by Texas wins at everything standards of course)

Austin, Texas may be "cooler" than Wichita, but is it heaven? I don't think so. And would it make Marshall happier? Well, stay tuned.

This job change is more about an AD making his mark and trying to break a cycle of relative mediocrity. At WSU, four straight NCAA tournaments is damn hard work; at UT it will be a common occurrence no matter the coach.

I know you are not this dense. There have been a few jobs that worry me. This is one.

[shockerfan]

Don't want to get unto it. Today at noon, keep your eyes on the news

[DUShock]

By the way, KWCH and all of its cohorts (led by Will Klunkle) are pond scum.

Why are you watching KWCH?