Chucky_38 wrote:lewindha wrote:SEC basketball has not gotten tougher. 4 tourney teams this year. If there was ever a chance to jump on the Tourney wagon, it was this year. SEC basketball is down and we still can't take advantage.
I was happy when he was hired. After seeing his product, I too stopped watching. I keep up with them and if they're on TV I'll watch them, but I don't go out of my way like I used to to get to the Tad Pad for games.
I don't think there is any way he's fired this year. And only losing one major contributor could be great for next year. Although, that one guy is Henry. That's a big loss. Given all that and the "next year" excuses. What if he doesn't get us in the tourney next year? Will we hear "next year" again? How many times do we hear it before it's not an excuse anymore?
Ok, Barnes made the dance three times in 11 years right? Evans made it twice in 8 years right? AK has done better than both in every category but dancing and hes done it in six years. Lets give the man his 8 years and see if he dances back to back. Because if he does, many of you will be flat wrong. If AK makes the tourney next year, he will have achieved "The only stat matters in college basketball" PLUS all the other things he has done with a terrible program. One NIT win this year and he pulls his average wins per year up to 21. You can spew weaker competition all day, thats fine. But if we have to allow that, you have to allow that neither Barnes nor Evans have won as consistently or even been as consistently competitive in the SEC than AK has. The only thing he lacks is a couple "one and dones" in the Dance, and if he gets that, by all your accounts, he should be the greatest coach in Ole Miss basketball history. If he doesn't, fire him and lets see what Purdue's assistant coach can do with our program. Cause thats the kinda coach we will attract.
Not for me. I want steady, step by step, measurable improvement. AK hasn't shown the ability to improve at all. His SEC record is a mishmash of below .500, at .500 and one season of 9-7. His record in high pressure, win and you're in games (both SECT and NCAA bubble games) is horrific. He wins 20 games a year because he plays a pathetic OOC "preseason" schedule. That's not what I consider "greatest coach of all time" qualifications.
I will give him credit for winning a bunch of games in the regular season. What else is there to give him credit for? Are we feared by other SEC teams for being a 'tough out'? Are we ranked a good portion of every season? Are we on ESPN all the time because we play so hard and beat high profile teams alot (more than once every couple seasons)? Has he improved the program? Has he taken advantage of the IPF to create a better, more focused, more refined team atmosphere?
Bottomline, are we a better program than when he took over? The answer (right now) is no. Now, if he were to go to the dance next year and win one game, he'd only buy himself another season, imo. If he goes next year and wins 2 or 3, then he buys himself 2 more years. And if he continues to go to the dance for a few more years, then yes, he is back in my (and I would hope others) good graces, until and unless things get worse.
You seem to think I want AK to fail. I don't. I want him to succeed. If he turns our program around and starts going to the dance and winning a few games here and there and makes us competitive in the SEC again, how is that a bad thing? Why would I be anything but happy about that? I simply believe, at this point in time, considering his past 6 years of performance, that we should be planning to replace him in 1 or 2 years because he has not improved our program. That's my position, that's my argument, that's my one and only concern. He has not improved our program after 6 years.
And I'm getting really sick and tired of people using the "no other coach worth a D*** will come here" argument. There's no way to know WHO will come here in 1 or 2 years because there are too many variables that will change between now and then (AD, facilities, football success/failure, whether Archie has a hand in the selection process, the records of other coaches that we might want, AK's performance over the next 2 years, fundraising, the new AD's marketing strategy, etc). So stop using it. If we were planning to fire AK right now, today, then you can talk about who's out there and who we would want and who wouldn't come here. But until we are PLANNING to or HAVE fired him, stop it. It makes you look like scared little girls.
L. S. WHO?