Dear Prez Schlutz and Patrick Chun

[Observer11]

Forget everything I've ever written about fiscal responsibility. It doesn't matter.

Bust the budget, sell your wife and kids, whatever you have to do. Pay what it takes to get Eric Musselman to Pullman and rid us of Moos' folly.

That guy is an incredible coach. 3 years at Nevada - CBI Champ, 2 NCAA berths including heading to the Sweet 16 this year.

 

[COUGinNCW]

I think he’ll get better offers than WSU after the tournie.

 

[Observer11]

No doubt. Sean Miller's butt has to be pretty hot right now. Or Steve Alford.

 

[SaveFerris]

I actually hope he stays put but he’s going to get a lot of interest.

 

[Cougsocal]

Forget everything I've ever written about fiscal responsibility. It doesn't matter.

Bust the budget, sell your wife and kids, whatever you have to do. Pay what it takes to get Eric Musselman to Pullman and rid us of Moos' folly.

That guy is an incredible coach. 3 years at Nevada - CBI Champ, 2 NCAA berths including heading to the Sweet 16 this year.

As you know, Bill Moos, to many Cougs, is the greatest AD in school history. Reality is he made one good call, dare I say great. Unfortunately, we are also suffering the consequences of a guy who didn't get the AD job the first time he applied because we still had people in admin who knew him when he was an assistant AD. They didn't think him bright enough. That fact is pretty clear now. He was handed a once in a WSU lifetime opportunity with the new pac-12 contract, a windfall of 10s of millions of dollars. Instead of being smart with that money, i.e. surpluses/reserves that allow us to manuver on hiring/firing (the true lifeblood of athletic success), he spent it, and whole lot more we don't have on overblown facilities and overpaying for and double downing on Ernie (contract extended to March 2021). We are now house rich and penny poor. Even if we bit the bullet and fired Ernie, we'd still be looking to hire from the bargain basement bin. Poitically, the $10,000,000 + commitment needed to can Ernie and replace him with a hot coach is not even a pipe dream.

 

[Observer11]

Someday even the unwashed will see the light.

 

[Loyal Coug]

As you know, Bill Moos, to many Cougs, is the greatest AD in school history. Reality is he made one good call, dare I say great. Unfortunately, we are also suffering the consequences of a guy who didn't get the AD job the first time he applied because we still had people in admin who knew him when he was an assistant AD. They didn't think him bright enough. That fact is pretty clear now. He was handed a once in a WSU lifetime opportunity with the new pac-12 contract, a windfall of 10s of millions of dollars. Instead of being smart with that money, i.e. surpluses/reserves that allow us to manuver on hiring/firing (the true lifeblood of athletic success), he spent it, and whole lot more we don't have on overblown facilities and overpaying for and double downing on Ernie (contract extended to March 2021). We are now house rich and penny poor. Even if we bit the bullet and fired Ernie, we'd still be looking to hire from the bargain basement bin. Poitically, the $10,000,000 + commitment needed to can Ernie and replace him with a hot coach is not even a pipe dream.

I don't know if we can call the Martin Stadium/FOB facilities overblown or not. I really don't. Never been in either one, have no idea if our revenues from the luxury suites are paying for that thing. It sure seems relatively huge for our stadium as opposed to other venues, but I dunno. No clue as to whether the FOB was the minimum required investment to remain relevant, or if it needed to be built at all. It was a helluva lot of money spent pretty much all at once. The overestimation of Pac-12 money to pay for much of it didn't help much. BTW a good article on Brand Y about why we should fire Mr. Women's Beach VB CEO Larry Scott. We are apparently paying him more than any other Big 5 commissioner? WTH?

Also a snippet on Ben Johnson, who some (not just me!) still think we should have promoted after Tony left. Aron Baynes and Brock Motum agree. He's back in the US Asst. coaching at Portland (Pilots). I met and spoke with Dick Bennett on several occasions when he was here (and afterwards when he was hanging around watching Tony). He had a great affinity for Pullman. Ben played for him and with Tony, and coached for both. Don't know why Tony didn't take him to Virginia, or if he would have gone. But you can't help but wonder, with Dick's revered status in College BB and Tony succeeding on the East Coast with much the same program, if those associations would have been of some continuing benefit to WSU and Johnson had he taken over and kept the scheme.

Finally, EK is going nowhere this year. We all know that. Next year will be his last, I will predict. As said elsewhere, he will not get it done in Pullman. Nor would he anywhere at this point.

 

[SaveFerris]

I don't know if we can call the Martin Stadium/FOB facilities overblown or not. I really don't. Never been in either one, have no idea if our revenues from the luxury suites are paying for that thing. It sure seems relatively huge for our stadium as opposed to other venues, but I dunno. No clue as to whether the FOB was the minimum required investment to remain relevant, or if it needed to be built at all. It was a helluva lot of money spent pretty much all at once. The overestimation of Pac-12 money to pay for much of it didn't help much. BTW a good article on Brand Y about why we should fire Mr. Women's Beach VB CEO Larry Scott. We are apparently paying him more than any other Big 5 commissioner? WTH?

Also a snippet on Ben Johnson, who some (not just me!) still think we should have promoted after Tony left. Aron Baynes and Brock Motum agree. He's back in the US Asst. coaching at Portland (Pilots). I met and spoke with Dick Bennett on several occasions when he was here (and afterwards when he was hanging around watching Tony). He had a great affinity for Pullman. Ben played for him and with Tony, and coached for both. Don't know why Tony didn't take him to Virginia, or if he would have gone. But you can't help but wonder, with Dick's revered status in College BB and Tony succeeding on the East Coast with much the same program, if those associations would have been of some continuing benefit to WSU and Johnson had he taken over and kept the scheme.

Finally, EK is going nowhere this year. We all know that. Next year will be his last, I will predict. As said elsewhere, he will not get it done in Pullman. Nor would he anywhere at this point.

Personally I believe the FOB at minimum was needed to remain relevant.

I don't know about Ben Johnson. I remember hearing he was interested in the women's spot so obviously he wants to be a head coach. If he could have built a pipeline from Australia it might have worked out but he didn't exactly scream success to me at WSU. It seems more were/are on the Ron Sanchez bandwagon.

Personally I am not tied to a specific scheme or system but we need to defend/rebound (duh) and play "smart (i.e., minimize mistakes). Part of what made Dick's system good for us was his philosophy around those things and basically being a pain in the @$$ to beat. That built toughness into the program plus I don't think it was an accident that we recruited kids that worked hard and were intelligent for the most part.

 

[Cougsocal]

I don't know if we can call the Martin Stadium/FOB facilities overblown or not. I really don't. Never been in either one, have no idea if our revenues from the luxury suites are paying for that thing. It sure seems relatively huge for our stadium as opposed to other venues, but I dunno. No clue as to whether the FOB was the minimum required investment to remain relevant, or if it needed to be built at all. It was a helluva lot of money spent pretty much all at once. The overestimation of Pac-12 money to pay for much of it didn't help much. BTW a good article on Brand Y about why we should fire Mr. Women's Beach VB CEO Larry Scott. We are apparently paying him more than any other Big 5 commissioner? WTH?

Also a snippet on Ben Johnson, who some (not just me!) still think we should have promoted after Tony left. Aron Baynes and Brock Motum agree. He's back in the US Asst. coaching at Portland (Pilots). I met and spoke with Dick Bennett on several occasions when he was here (and afterwards when he was hanging around watching Tony). He had a great affinity for Pullman. Ben played for him and with Tony, and coached for both. Don't know why Tony didn't take him to Virginia, or if he would have gone. But you can't help but wonder, with Dick's revered status in College BB and Tony succeeding on the East Coast with much the same program, if those associations would have been of some continuing benefit to WSU and Johnson had he taken over and kept the scheme.

Finally, EK is going nowhere this year. We all know that. Next year will be his last, I will predict. As said elsewhere, he will not get it done in Pullman. Nor would he anywhere at this point.

What does a good AD do? Anticipate, strategize, facilitate, fund raise, manipulate and a persuade. How did Bill do on these fronts? Administrators love building. They are their legacy items. But they don't win games, good coaches do. Wooden won two national championships before Pauley was built. McKale Center was the open a decade before Lute arrived. McKay won national championships with the worst facilities in the Pac-8 Conference. Chaplin won our only national championship before Mooberry track opened. Price took us to the promised land entirely out of Bohler. Leach won 6 games with Big Sky talent. I'm not saying we shouldn't have done facility upgrades. But Bill should have had in the back of his mind that you win with good coaches, and to hire, fire and retain good coaches you need to run in the black, not $10,000,000 in the red. We are likely stuck with "spent" Ernie for two more years and completely screwed if Leach walks, why? We are heavily in debt, despite having, until recently the lowest salaries in the conference. A good AD would have been cautious when looking at the TV contract revenue projections and taken a wait and see approach. Bill Didn't.

In fairness to Bill, the conference as a whole kinda lost its way, consumed with the "facilities gap." It goes a long way to explain why we have become worst major conference in football and basketball by far, despite far more TV revenue, split 12 ways, than ever before. We were a far better and stronger conference when we weren't, collectively, consumed with the "build our way to success" concept and were focused on coach hiring and retention. Bill wasn't smart enough to realize its far cheaper to give a coach and his staff a hefty raise, instead building $70,000,000 FOB we can't afford. A new office in a new building doesn't buy him a new Bugatti Chiron, only a bigger salary can.

 

[Observer11]

God, that was a great post.

 

[Loyal Coug]

God, that was a great post.

Since you didn't reply to a specific post (some of you do that a lot and it is very confusing), I can only assume you are referring to one of mine. Which of course are all Pulitzer-quality. So thank you!

 

[Loyal Coug]

Personally I believe the FOB at minimum was needed to remain relevant.

I don't know about Ben Johnson. I remember hearing he was interested in the women's spot so obviously he wants to be a head coach. If he could have built a pipeline from Australia it might have worked out but he didn't exactly scream success to me at WSU. It seems more were/are on the Ron Sanchez bandwagon.

Personally I am not tied to a specific scheme or system but we need to defend/rebound (duh) and play "smart (i.e., minimize mistakes). Part of what made Dick's system good for us was his philosophy around those things and basically being a pain in the @$$ to beat. That built toughness into the program plus I don't think it was an accident that we recruited kids that worked hard and were intelligent for the most part.

Oh I don't know about Ben not having a pipeline. Article below. And they don't mention Abercrombie, who while he left had potential and went back to Oz to play pro ball. Anyway, it is all fantasy talk at this point. Maybe.

http://wsm.wsu.edu/s/index.php?id=1013

 

[7ICoug]

If you read Ben's bio on the Portland Pilot basketball web it sounds like he is world class.

 

[Observer11]

Since you didn't reply to a specific post (some of you do that a lot and it is very confusing), I can only assume you are referring to one of mine. Which of course are all Pulitzer-quality. So thank you!

I was specifically referencing the post directly above by Cougsocal -though yours had some good points too - but I believe we can unanimously agree Bill Moos did not give a flying F**K about basketball, other than a jobs program for his croney.

Shameful. Absolutely shameful.