Nyla Milleson fired as MSU women's basketball coach

[tgcshock]

News just breaking now

[flyingMoose]

http://www.missouristatebears.com/sports/w-baskbl/spec-rel/031813aaa.html

There were several occasions over the last two years at least when she appeared to be losing her team.

[1972Shocker]

There has been a lot of talk about dumping Coach Milleson on the MSU message boards and in the Springfield press. As much as losing her team, I believe she ultimately lost the fan base. Perhaps she was also facing a player revolt as well. But fan support is important. Apparently, they still carrys signficant debt on JQH Arena and they count on strong support for their WBB program to help retire that debt. I will say MSU really underperformed expectations this year based on the talent they have. Even though Milleson is only one year removed from an MVC Championship it is probably a good move to make a change before any more erosion in the fan base occurs.

She recruited Casey Garrison to MSU and she apparently has two relatively highly rated recruits including a 6-4 post player out of Little Rock who reportedly chose MSU over K-State, Iowa, Iowa State and Arkansas.

MSU is a good job, although at $140,000 Milleson wasn't exactly raking it in. MSU may need to up the ante to get the coach they want. Perhaps they will go after Jackie Stiles, although she is very inexperienced. The young gal Drake hired seems like she is off to a good start. Jackie obviously would be the popular choice although she may not be quite ready.

The biggest issue with the MSU program is whether or not the expectations of their fan base are reasonable.

[1972Shocker]

I think Drury canned their head coach recently also. Maybe Coach Milleson can return to Drury where she was very successful and enjoy life a little more at the D-II level.

[fatso]

Milleson did lose the fan base and it is true MSU fans do have expectations. MSU was not even competing in many games and they ended up about 338 of 343 D1 teams in defenive points allowed per game. In post-game interviews she often said her and her staff were teaching the right things, the players were just not doing what they told them. She complained about lack of leadership on the team. She seemed to be unaware that she was responsiible for recruiting and teaching the players and developing leadership. She did not play college ball (she was on the rodeo team at K-State)and primarily hired coaches with only D2 experience who played for her. Frankly she did not know much about basketball but recruited decently at times. However, in the last two years she lost Dapprich and Kyndall Clark from MSU's immediate area and so many folks questioned her recruiting also. Certainly, the coaching carousel will soon start and it will be very surprising if Jody Adams does not consider taking a ride on it to a BCS school.

[tgcshock]

Milleson did lose the fan base and it is true MSU fans do have expectations. MSU was not even competing in many games and they ended up about 338 of 343 D1 teams in defenive points allowed per game. In post-game interviews she often said her and her staff were teaching the right things, the players were just not doing what they told them. She complained about lack of leadership on the team. She seemed to be unaware that she was responsiible for recruiting and teaching the players and developing leadership. She did not play college ball (she was on the rodeo team at K-State)and primarily hired coaches with only D2 experience who played for her. Frankly she did not know much about basketball but recruited decently at times. However, in the last two years she lost Dapprich and Kyndall Clark from MSU's immediate area and so many folks questioned her recruiting also. Certainly, the coaching carousel will soon start and it will be very surprising if Jody Adams does not consider taking a ride on it to a BCS school.

I suppose when you lose a coach because of poor performance, it is comforting to think that your rival may lose a coach because of good performance, but I wouldn't bet on it.

[fatso]

Actually it is not at all comforting for a rival's team to lose a good coach. The whole league benefits by having good coaches. I am just stating an obvious fact that after a successful year, particularly one in which it has many seniors, it is an opportune time for a coach in a mid-level league to make a move to a BCS school. Jody Adams should be in high demand and Wichita State will likely have to pay up to keep Jody and even that may not be successful. Wichita State and Creighton have demonstrated more ability than most MVC schools to retain good coaches so we will see what happens. I hope Jody does not leave. The MVC has lost too many top coaches to the Big Ten and the Big 12 already and that is not necessarily good for the league, but perhaps is a testament to its stature as a league which usually has several capable coaches. Please don't try to attribute motives to a very factual post.

[tgcshock]

Actually it is not at all comforting for a rival's team to lose a good coach. The whole league benefits by having good coaches. I am just stating an obvious fact that after a successful year, particularly one in which it has many seniors, it is an opportune time for a coach in a mid-level league to make a move to a BCS school. Jody Adams should be in high demand and Wichita State will likely have to pay up to keep Jody and even that may not be successful. Wichita State and Creighton have demonstrated more ability than most MVC schools to retain good coaches so we will see what happens. I hope Jody does not leave. The MVC has lost too many top coaches to the Big Ten and the Big 12 already and that is not necessarily good for the league, but perhaps is a testament to its stature as a league which usually has several capable coaches. Please don't try to attribute motives to a very factual post.

First of all, when a person with 3 total posts on a board wants to talk about how WSU should be worried about losing their coach, motives can certainly be questioned. I have thought that Nyla was struggling as a coach from very early on (in spite of the talent MSU had and the results they achieved) but I didn't feel compelled to go over to the Missouri State board and point that out. If I had, I would have received a very negative reaction and would have deserved it.

Wichita State has shown a willingness to pay coaches even before they have this level of success. Jody already makes more than Nyla did and she will undoubtedly make even more now. As you say, CU and WSU have a track record and it is very simple. They will pay what they need to pay.

I'm glad MSU is replacing Nyla because, as you say, the whole league benefits from good coaches. Hope that you guys get a great coach but you will undoubtedly have to "pay up" and I am not so sure that MSU will put up the dollars it needs to in order for that to happen.

[1972Shocker]

While it appears Milleson lost the support of the MSU fan base, perhaps with good reason, her firing was principly a finanacial decision. And that is the difficulty for MSU. The decline in fan support may also be partially traced to the transition from Hammons Student Center to JQH Arena. Apparently, MSU was depending on the Lady Bears fans to bear a signficant portion of the financing the new arena and the cost of a season ticket in the lower bowl skyrocketed from what folks were used to paying at HSC.

There are not many progams in the country who rely on Women's basketball to carry the freight to any great degree. Even the most successful programs in the nation generally lose money, but most of those have big time football and men's basketball to subsidize those losses. The pressure of having to be one of the financial bell cows of an athletic program is a burden very few, if any, women's programs carry, especially in a mid-level, generally one-bid WBB conference like the Valley and compounded by MSU's money losing football program. So while MSU may seem to be an attractive job, it may not be quite as attractive as it seems on 1st blush.

Wether or not MSU can return to the pre-JQH "glory years" of the 1990's remains to be seen, but that is the expectation at MSU and that will not be an easy chore. I wish them luck. We need as many strong programs as possible if WSU is going to be stuck in the Valley and with Creighton moving on to the Big Priest.

[shockmonster]

I thought that JQH paid for the arena with his deep pockets like Boone Pickens pays for everything OSU. How much do they still owe on it?

[fatso]

Sorry tgshock that you are such a bitter person. I hope life improves for you!

[WuDrWu]

That's bitter?

You haven't spent a whole lot of time on internet message boards I take it.

[The Mad Hatter]

Sorry tgshock that you are such a bitter person. I hope life improves for you!

I'm sorry that you are such a bitter person that you have to solace yourself in the downfall of your own program by hoping for the downfall of others. I'm sorry that you are so bitter about being put in your place after saying something stupid on another team's board that you have to resort to personal attacks.

I'm really sorry that you are so clueless as to think that coming onto another team's board to tell assure them that their coach will be leaving in the midst of them celebrating their best season ever was a good idea, much less being shocked when that conversation did not go well for you.

But most of all, I'm really, really sorry that you have to spend your life rooting for Missouri State. I hope life improves for you!

[1972Shocker]

I thought that JQH paid for the arena with his deep pockets like Boone Pickens pays for everything OSU. How much do they still owe on it?

Here is the announcement regarding the decision to build JQH Arena:

http://hotelexecutive.com/newswire/23257/missouri-state-announces-plans-to-build-60-million-jqh-arena

According to Wikipedia (so who knows how accurate that might be) the total cost of the Arena came in at $67 million.

Mr. Hammons apparently committed $5 million in cash up front plus a deferred committment of $20 million to fund debt services payments over an unspedified number of years. MSU hoped to raise and additional $5 million in cash and issue $50 million in bonds. Fortunately, for MSU we are in a historically low interest rate enviroment. Not sure where they actually ended up debt-wise once the project was completed. It appears they did have cost overruns of about $7 million (if Wikipedia can be trusted).

I have seen articles reported that JQH has operated at a loss since opening which I assuming is after debt service costs are deducted. How accurate those articles were I can't really say.

Perhaps some of our MSU visitors can enlighten us.

[fatso]

I'm sorry that you are such a bitter person that you have to solace yourself in the downfall of your own program by hoping for the downfall of others. I'm sorry that you are so bitter about being put in your place after saying something stupid on another team's board that you have to resort to personal attacks.

I'm really sorry that you are so clueless as to think that coming onto another team's board to tell assure them that their coach will be leaving in the midst of them celebrating their best season ever was a good idea, much less being shocked when that conversation did not go well for you.

But most of all, I'm really, really sorry that you have to spend your life rooting for Missouri State. I hope life improves for you!

By the way I am from illinois and root for illinois State. Why are so many folks on this message board so bitter?. Hope you do well in the Big Dance.