MAC Transfers

[BillyLP]

Keno Davis fired at CMU, so I wouldn't be surprised to see a few more there enter the portal. Great hire who did some nice recruiting there, but could never put a consistent team on the court and has had a couple bad seasons in a row.

[guest44]

Great hire? I’d argue he is the worst kind of MAC hire. Losing career record, wins a random regular season championship which garners an unnecessary extension. 9 years later you are way worse off.

[MarkL]

Davis was a great hire in the same way Louis Orr was a great hire. Had been a successful assistant and had some success at a Big East program but got fired and immediately picked up by a MAC school. So he had the schools coached but not the success. Won a regular season title, extension, no NCAA tournament appearances, stayed way too long, generally too successful to be fired, not successful enough to be hired away.

[guest44]

Davis did have CMU in the mix much more than Orr did BGSU, but he also coached in the much weaker MAC West. He coached against a bunch of other coaches who have since been fired since divisions have been tossed aside in basketball.

[Tswam]

Marreon Jackson to Arizona State.

[fredthefalcon]

Two more CMU scorers in the portal-- Meikkel Murray 6'6" Jr. 15.6 ppg (2nd on team) and Caleb Huffman Jr. 6'4" Jr 13.3ppg (3rd on team). Both were JUCO additions for this season maybe had been prior teammates as well but likely gone with the coaching change.

[fredthefalcon]

Now Ball State leading scorer K J Walton has joined the exodus. He is a grad transfer and was HM All MAC this year scoring over 16 ppg for the Cardinals.

[fredthefalcon]

Now Ball State leading scorer K J Walton has joined the exodus. He is a grad transfer and was HM All MAC this year scoring over 16 ppg for the Cardinals.

Walton is taking advantage of the new rule for interleague transfers by going to Akron. Might make for some interesting conference matchups.

[BillyLP]

Now Ball State leading scorer K J Walton has joined the exodus. He is a grad transfer and was HM All MAC this year scoring over 16 ppg for the Cardinals.

Walton is taking advantage of the new rule for interleague transfers by going to Akron. Might make for some interesting conference matchups.

And Tyler Cochran went from NIU to Ball State.

[BGFalconfromCincy]

Tony Barbee is the new head coach at Central Michigan. Has been a head coach at UTEP and Auburn, comes to CMU after being an assistant at Kentucky

[Diemilkweed]

Sounds like the kind of hire we should be making.

[BGFalconfromCincy]

We did, Louis Orr

[Diemilkweed]

Ah, well.

Wait, if I recall, Louis Orr was a failed Big East coach - and fresh from that gig without any time spent on a winning staff in between. And it turned out his brand did not better at our level than in the Big East.

I have no idea how Barbee has done as a head coach before. But spending time at Kentucky as an assistant most recently would suggest reinvesting in learning his craft at the highest level.

[BGFalconfromCincy]

Orr had three winning seasons in five years at SH with a NIT appearance and two NCAA appearances (including one in his last season there). Doesn't read as a failed coach to me, but his best league finish in the Big East was fifth so it can be debated. As you mentioned he did come to BG after he was gone from SH, he spent a year away from coaching instead of becoming an assistant. Maybe that will be the difference, Barbee had been an assistant at Kentucky ever since Auburn fired him in 2014. He did also spend more years at his first job then Orr did (4 at UTEP turning them into winner compared to one for Orr at Sienna where they won his first year).

Guess we’ll just have to wait and see. Just seems like an uninspiring hire to me. A name I saw linked to the job was Southern Utah’s head coach, who is a CMU alum. Thought they might go with him, he has turned around the program in his time there

[Roll Along!]

Barbee's time at UTEP was solid but not exactly a home run either. The program averaged 24 wins a year for the three years before he was there and averaged less than 21 wins a year in his four seasons. Solid results but he didn't turn around a bad program, and he didn't elevate a good program to great.

Auburn had averaged 17 wins a year in the four years before Barbee got there and then averaged just over 12 wins a year in his four year tenure.

The time at Kentucky MAY have made him a better coach, but he didn't have to help turn around a bad program there. Didn't work with a mid-major with limited resources. Likely didn't ever have an administration that said "Sorry, we can't do that. We don't have the money for it."

The Barbee hire could work out, but there's almost nothing in his resume that suggests he's been in the situation he's walking into at CMU (hasn't had to turn around a program and has very little experience with the rigors of coaching, either as a head coach or assistant, at a middling mid-major).