CBI Quarterfinals vs. Stetson (3/22)

[jpfalcon09]

On brand for the entire athletic department. I'd love to hear Moose try and explain away what happened to men's hoops and hockey this year.

[guest44]

It is reported that the cost to enter the CBI was $50,000. Moose is doing a really good job of burning that Frack money.

[93TalonsUp]

Finished 5-10 in the last 15 games. This was a nuclear meltdown. I wish I had more insight into what happened. It is impossible to believe that they had a healthy locker room. Something was wrong and the AD needs to understand this and solve the problem. We have highly successful women's programs right now in basketball and volleyball as these teams seem to genuinely like and respect each other. Our two top visibility programs are in the tank (football & basketball) and it is very discouraging to be an alumnus who loves these teams and wants to be proud of them.

[hammb]

Yeah, as others have said. I never would have expected to win games without Turner or Plowden, but it's not like Stetson was at full strength. I listened on the radio to the beginning of the demise, but turned it off and returned to work before the inevitable happened.

What we saw though was a glimpse of exactly what I fear for next season. Huger cannot coach a lick, never has. And next year's team will be devoid of meaningful talent/experience. Unless he's going to the portal to find a wing and a big that can actually play I don't know how he schedules his way to his usual 10-12 wins. You're not allowed to play Findlay & Lourdes 5x each.

We can't afford to fire Huger thanks to Moosehead's idiotic contract extension. If we don't get lucky enough for him to find another job THIS YEAR, we are definitely stuck for another 2 at least, probably 3. I didn't think I'd ever be done with the hoops program as easily as I just threw away the football program, but man it's gonna be hard to fathom buying in for season tickets next year.

[Hammer]

It has never been more evident than now that this coach is bottom of the barrel. Watching Loyola take down Illinois with much less talent really brings home how important coaching is. You have to give Huger credit that he has done well recruiting but when it comes to x's and o's or leadership he has performed pitifully. Every team is an extension of their coach. The low energy, effort and attention to detail all comes from the coach. It's infuriating to listen to him talk about the team not having any energy in post game interviews. The coach needs to shoulder that burden and he always throws our players under the bus instead.

This program is going nowhere with him at the helm. Very nice guy and a great recruiter but he will never be a great coach.

[MarkL]

This is why I preferred a one, max two year contract extension after last year. Huger definitely deserved a reward for a good season, and it was a necessity for recruiting.

[guest44]

Did he deserve a triple double reward? He was two games above .500. He had a losing record in the MAC. Moose gave him three years and more than a 25% raise. Huger having 2 years left instead of 5 made no difference in recruiting. He got Swingle regardless.

[hammb]

This is why I preferred a one, max two year contract extension after last year. Huger definitely deserved a reward for a good season, and it was a necessity for recruiting.

Huger signed the 3 year extension after the 2018-19 season and there wasn't a single solitary decent reason to give him one at the time. He still has not actually coached a single game of that extension since the 19-20 & 20-21 seasons were part of his original deal.

At the time he signed the extension he had been a garbage coach for 2 years with one good out of nowhere season. Even after that 12-6 MAC season that year he was STILL under .500 in conference at the time of his extension (and he remains under .500). In that one good season, we also saw the same disturbing trend we replicated each of the 2 subsequent years: fading into oblivion in time for the tournament.

Huger was basically given a 20% pay raise and 3 additional years onto his contract for a single 12-6 MAC season and 2 wins in Cleveland. That was a very good season but there was zero reason to extend him at the time, zero reason to think that year was anything but a fluke, and less than zero reason to give him a raise. For a program that has TWICE allowed coaches to coach out their lame duck seasons in the past 15 years there was not one single decent argument to give him that contract. The argument didn't exist at the time (despite some trying to say it did), and it sure as hell looks insane now.

[TommyG]

Yes the last 15 years BG has rewarded extensions/raises to the “revenue” coaches at the first signs of improvement. I’m okay with extensions if you win a championship or string together 2 or 3 very good years, but we give extensions and raises to coaches who have accomplished nothing and then try to cut baseball because we don’t have money.

[kdog27]

This is why I preferred a one, max two year contract extension after last year. Huger definitely deserved a reward for a good season, and it was a necessity for recruiting.

Huger signed the 3 year extension after the 2018-19 season and there wasn't a single solitary decent reason to give him one at the time. He still has not actually coached a single game of that extension since the 19-20 & 20-21 seasons were part of his original deal.

At the time he signed the extension he had been a garbage coach for 2 years with one good out of nowhere season. Even after that 12-6 MAC season that year he was STILL under .500 in conference at the time of his extension (and he remains under .500). In that one good season, we also saw the same disturbing trend we replicated each of the 2 subsequent years: fading into oblivion in time for the tournament.

Huger was basically given a 20% pay raise and 3 additional years onto his contract for a single 12-6 MAC season and 2 wins in Cleveland. That was a very good season but there was zero reason to extend him at the time, zero reason to think that year was anything but a fluke, and less than zero reason to give him a raise. For a program that has TWICE allowed coaches to coach out their lame duck seasons in the past 15 years there was not one single decent argument to give him that contract. The argument didn't exist at the time (despite some trying to say it did), and it sure as hell looks insane now.

A complete mismanagement of $. Would get canned for way less where most of us work.

[guest44]

The administrators who are hands on with the football & basketball programs have no clue the coaches they have in place aren’t close to winning a championship. Those egos won’t allow reality to set in. Huger wasn’t a candidate at Fordham. He wasn’t a candidate at George Washington either. It’s two of the worst jobs in good conference basketball. George Mason is open, I’m sure his agent will try to push that too. But, look how the media took off with that narrative. His only positives are it’s better than the Orr years BG should have never given Orr. Incompetence. BGSU Basketball, where even the worst coaches get nearly a decade to try to win a 12 team conference with a tournament. The only way a drought like this happens is when you continually hire poorly, and poorly evaluate those coaches.

[Globetrotter]

The administrators who are hands on with the football & basketball programs have no clue the coaches they have in place aren’t close to winning a championship. Those egos won’t allow reality to set in. Huger wasn’t a candidate at Fordham. He wasn’t a candidate at George Washington either. It’s two of the worst jobs in good conference basketball. George Mason is open, I’m sure his agent will try to push that too. But, look how the media took off with that narrative. His only positives are it’s better than the Orr years BG should have never given Orr. Incompetence. BGSU Basketball, where even the worst coaches get nearly a decade to try to win a 12 team conference with a tournament. The only way a drought like this happens is when you continually hire poorly, and poorly evaluate those coaches.

A drought like this happens when you don't invest in the program.

There is no reason this drought should happen with the sizable donations that we have and the facilities that were built.

[guest44]

True. The Frack investment is. The standards aren’t up to his investment. One of the original Bill Frack games was Cinicinnati at the Stroh. More recently it was Toledo & Cleveland St. BGSU just spent 50K plus travel costs to lose to Stetson in the CBI. The money matters but the commitment to winning matters much more. Just because you’ve stunk before doesn’t mean you have to compare to the standard of stink. BG standard is stink.

BGSU just had a 14-12 season. 1st and 3rd team all MAC players. 2 players on MAC Freshman team. 6th man of the year. All good for 6th place in the MAC.

[hammb]

True. The Frack investment is. The standards aren’t up to his investment. One of the original Bill Frack games was Cinicinnati at the Stroh. More recently it was Toledo & Cleveland St. BGSU just spent 50K plus travel costs to lose to Stetson in the CBI. The money matters but the commitment to winning matters much more. Just because you’ve stunk before doesn’t mean you have to compare to the standard of stink. BG standard is stink.

BG has "BG"ed the living eff out of that Frack investment and it's a complete travesty. I feel badly for the man and his legacy.

He put forth an absurdly large endowment with the stated goal of helping BG become Gonzaga or Butler. He saw the value of money and knew that those funds would help recruiting, help schedule better games, etc. Then when Orr was let go he gave another $700k so we could lure Jans here.

Then Mr. Frack passed away and Jans has to be let go.

They took that money and gave the exact same contract to Huger. A good guy. An alum. A guy who has openly talked about being passed up for the job previously. A guy who would have certainly taken the job WITHOUT giving him the contract Jans got. A guy who was certainly not in demand at all OTHER than at his alma mater.

After passing away the Frack endowment kicks in and they make a show about starting the "Frack Challenge" where they use that endowment to bring quality opponents into the Stroh. This is a quality use of the money. Help the program grow by playing better competition. Well fast forward 5-6 years later and now we're scheduling fu**ing FINDLAY for the Frack Challenge? And then we have the audacity to patronize him and his memory by claiming this would be seen as some grand honor to have his alma mater play the team he loved? Bullshit. Bill Frack was a smart man. He realized where Findlay basketball and BG basketball were on the pecking order, and he would realize that was nothing more than grandstanding to use the money somewhere else.

I know we've bitched about this on this board before, and inevitably somebody from the AD will come on and say how they are held accountable by the endowment trust to show where that money goes. Supposedly it's not allowed to be used for general operating costs. I'm quite certain they're allocating a good chunk of that money to the coaching salaries though saying, "If not for this cash we wouldn't pay a coach this much", of course I have no actual data to back up my suspicion. I only know what we all know. And that is after Mr. Frack passed away the basketball program started receiving an extra $675k a year in revenue and hasn't done a damned thing worthwhile with it.

Unfortunately it's nearly impossible to find budget breakdowns by sport...it all gets thrown into a giant pool of "intercollegiate athletics". We all know the program has continued to show zero commitment to winning and zero investment in trying to make winning happen. Unless you count scheduling every D2 & D3 school in NW Ohio to artificially inflate your win totals. THAT is something Huger is really good at.

[BGMiner]

It is reported that the cost to enter the CBI was $50,000. Moose is doing a really good job of burning that Frack money.

That would be for the ability to host a game in the tournament. If you sell 5,000 tickets at $10 a piece, you would “break even”.

I would hope it would be less this year, but who knows. Terrible.