Post by unclejohn on Mar 21, 2006 8:21:24 GMT -6
Your coach is leaving. Of course he is. He seems to have gotten a much better offer somewhere else. He would be a fool not to leave.
He owes you nothing. He put in the year he was contracted to, and did a good job. Your administration did what it could to keep him in the form of a buy-out clause, and will get bought out. You will get your money.
You can make snide remarks all you want about Iowa. I would rather live in Milwaukee than Ames, too, but if somebody doubled or tripled my salary, I think I could be persuaded to enjoy rural life. From a competitive standpoint, this is not even close. Iowa State is a Big 12 team, and has spent parts of recent seasons ranked in the top ten nationally. A coach there has a realistic chance to compete for a national championship, something that will never happen at UWM. This year, you folks were congratulating yourselves on entering the dance seeded 11th. A few years back, Iowa State was seeded second. Even if Jeter goes to ISU, cracks under the pressure, and is fired in three years, he will make more in that time than he would in a decade at UWM. Professionally, this is a no-brainer. This is the type of job basketball coaches plan their careers around. Expecting him to stick around because it will hurt your feelings if he leaves is crazy.
Anybody who thinks Jeter owes you more than that because:
a. He promised to stay around, or
b. It will hurt to see him go
is just being stupid and dishonest. Did you expect him to stay forever? Would any of you have stuck around if you were in his position? If you say yes, you are either stupid or lying. This is not like accepting a job and then dumping that employer to go somewhere else after two weeks. Jeter stayed a year. Nobody at UWM could be surprised that he is leaving now, at the time when coaches typically switch jobs. He did not leave after two weeks. He left after a year. Do you really expect the guy to sacrifice hundreds of thousands of dollars, and put a major anchor on his career, because it will help your recruiting?
And before someone suggests that he owes it to you because you gave him a chance, no he doesn't. You gave him nothing he hadn't earned, and would not have gotten somewhere else. If UWM had not hired Jeter, someone else would, or else he would still be Bo's top assistant in Madison, with a good chance to succeed him in a few years. If you had not hired him, chances are good ISU would be looking at him anyway, as he would be a top assistant at a major program.
Bottom line: You are a mid-major program. The revolving door for coaches happens to successful mid-majors. It did at Gonzaga, who lost Monson to Minnesota. One of the reasons UWM is doing so well in the Horizon is the revolving door of coaches who have gone in and out of Butler. So you are discovering that it is hard to compete at this level with bigger programs with more money. No kidding!
Your AD took steps to protect you, at least to the extent possible. Good for him. You will hire somebody. Hopefully, that person will have success, but if he does, look for somebody to try and hire him away. Your alternative is not having a successful coach who stays forever and nobody wants to steal. Your alternative is having a mediocre program that does not draw enough attention for people to try to steal your coach. Such is the life of a mid-major.
He owes you nothing. He put in the year he was contracted to, and did a good job. Your administration did what it could to keep him in the form of a buy-out clause, and will get bought out. You will get your money.
You can make snide remarks all you want about Iowa. I would rather live in Milwaukee than Ames, too, but if somebody doubled or tripled my salary, I think I could be persuaded to enjoy rural life. From a competitive standpoint, this is not even close. Iowa State is a Big 12 team, and has spent parts of recent seasons ranked in the top ten nationally. A coach there has a realistic chance to compete for a national championship, something that will never happen at UWM. This year, you folks were congratulating yourselves on entering the dance seeded 11th. A few years back, Iowa State was seeded second. Even if Jeter goes to ISU, cracks under the pressure, and is fired in three years, he will make more in that time than he would in a decade at UWM. Professionally, this is a no-brainer. This is the type of job basketball coaches plan their careers around. Expecting him to stick around because it will hurt your feelings if he leaves is crazy.
Anybody who thinks Jeter owes you more than that because:
a. He promised to stay around, or
b. It will hurt to see him go
is just being stupid and dishonest. Did you expect him to stay forever? Would any of you have stuck around if you were in his position? If you say yes, you are either stupid or lying. This is not like accepting a job and then dumping that employer to go somewhere else after two weeks. Jeter stayed a year. Nobody at UWM could be surprised that he is leaving now, at the time when coaches typically switch jobs. He did not leave after two weeks. He left after a year. Do you really expect the guy to sacrifice hundreds of thousands of dollars, and put a major anchor on his career, because it will help your recruiting?
And before someone suggests that he owes it to you because you gave him a chance, no he doesn't. You gave him nothing he hadn't earned, and would not have gotten somewhere else. If UWM had not hired Jeter, someone else would, or else he would still be Bo's top assistant in Madison, with a good chance to succeed him in a few years. If you had not hired him, chances are good ISU would be looking at him anyway, as he would be a top assistant at a major program.
Bottom line: You are a mid-major program. The revolving door for coaches happens to successful mid-majors. It did at Gonzaga, who lost Monson to Minnesota. One of the reasons UWM is doing so well in the Horizon is the revolving door of coaches who have gone in and out of Butler. So you are discovering that it is hard to compete at this level with bigger programs with more money. No kidding!
Your AD took steps to protect you, at least to the extent possible. Good for him. You will hire somebody. Hopefully, that person will have success, but if he does, look for somebody to try and hire him away. Your alternative is not having a successful coach who stays forever and nobody wants to steal. Your alternative is having a mediocre program that does not draw enough attention for people to try to steal your coach. Such is the life of a mid-major.
