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Good news
If McD is actually getting $10 million for nine years as Gary Parrish reported, this could be good, if slightly expensive, news for Valley programs who take their basketball seriously and want to be more than just stepping stones for coaches, because it will raise the salary bar. And the higher the salary paid by a school like WSU (which obviously fits into the description above), the less likely a coach worth keeping (which WSU certainly seems to have) will be to jump for the money of a power conference job -- especially now that we know from the experience of George Mason and Butler that, yes, it is in fact possible to compete for a spot in the Final Four, and even, in a year where things break right, to get there and have a real chance to win.
Give Marshall a couple more years, and I predict that there will be no reason for McD to be paid a higher salary. Instead, there will be an extension and a raise, and once that happens, it could take the mother of all dream jobs to shake Marshall loose. (Either that or the situation in which Altman and especially McD found themselves of getting out while the getting is good -- but I just don't see that in Marshall's WSU future.)
If anything, the experience McD had in trying (he thought) to move up and instead nearly moving out in the process of taking on a very tough challenge -- he owes Altman a big debt of gratitude for leaving at this point, I'd say -- should emphasize that the power conference grass is sometimes really just bright green weeds. And that's a reminder that will work to the advantage of schools like WSU, too.
If McD is actually getting $10 million for nine years as Gary Parrish reported, this could be good, if slightly expensive, news for Valley programs who take their basketball seriously and want to be more than just stepping stones for coaches, because it will raise the salary bar. And the higher the salary paid by a school like WSU (which obviously fits into the description above), the less likely a coach worth keeping (which WSU certainly seems to have) will be to jump for the money of a power conference job -- especially now that we know from the experience of George Mason and Butler that, yes, it is in fact possible to compete for a spot in the Final Four, and even, in a year where things break right, to get there and have a real chance to win.
Give Marshall a couple more years, and I predict that there will be no reason for McD to be paid a higher salary. Instead, there will be an extension and a raise, and once that happens, it could take the mother of all dream jobs to shake Marshall loose. (Either that or the situation in which Altman and especially McD found themselves of getting out while the getting is good -- but I just don't see that in Marshall's WSU future.)
If anything, the experience McD had in trying (he thought) to move up and instead nearly moving out in the process of taking on a very tough challenge -- he owes Altman a big debt of gratitude for leaving at this point, I'd say -- should emphasize that the power conference grass is sometimes really just bright green weeds. And that's a reminder that will work to the advantage of schools like WSU, too.
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