Your Pick for the next Head Coach (2018)

[Gonebarongone]

Going back to the spring, you’ve pretended that the reason Cox was hired was to keep one recruit, or even one class of recruits. Even though you cannot be convinced otherwise, I will say again for anyone else out there who happens to be encountering this suggestion for the first time, that he was not hired to keep one recruit or to keep one player on last year’s roster from transferring. He was hired to give consistency and stability from the Hurley era to what came next. Certainly some element of that was about roster consistency, but i think it was viewed as more important to have a continuation of the culture and philosophy that was built during Dan’s time here. Whether that would work or not was always a question - there are no guarantees in hiring, as you acknowledged - but it was probably worth the shot. Promoting assistants isn’t some crazy idea that reflects some sort of shortsighted thinking on URI’s part; many programs have done it to great effect.

Hiring outside of the program if you’re URI carries many of the same risks as promoting an assistant - you will never know how a guy will do in that job for your program until he’s already there doing it. A retread that has to rebuild a roster and a culture from scratch did not seem like a desirable route to me at the time, and it still doesn’t but you can always do that at any time if Cox flames out. If there was a legitimately exciting up-and-coming candidate to take over, like Dan was when he got here, I would have entertained that as an alternative; that guy really never emerged as an option once Oats was not interested.

You are making a classic mistake in evaluating the risk. It's not whether an insider hire has more risk than an outside hire. There are countless examples of both being good and bad. It's whether the guy inside is the best of a group of three vs the outside guy being the best of a much larger group. The latter has a much better chance of success. Now, you want to tell me they chose Cox out of an initial group of 50-75 guys? I just don't get the sense that is what happened. And Oats was more certainly not the only guy who was worth moving on.

I’m actually not making that mistake, you’re just not understanding the process. First of all, there aren’t 75 candidates for a head coaching job at this level. If you cast a really wide net and are willing to be really creative maybe you end up with 10 resumes on your desk, and of those probably five you can move directly to the trash bin pretty quickly. This isn’t a coder job at a tech startup; there aren’t thousands of people doing this kind of work. College basketball is a closed universe - everyone in that universe knows who the potential options are way beforehand. Most well informed media and even some really well informed fans can identify the reasonable candidates for any level of job that opens up after a season. They don’t list the job on Indeed and then interview a bunch of applicants that they’d never heard of before.

So they ended up with a half dozen or so people then whittled it down a little more, and yes they did advance Cox thru to the last round. He still had to beat out the best candidates that they could find elsewhere that were interested in the job. And, yes, they probably wouldn’t have hired him if it was just a blind resume contest. But these hires aren’t made in a vacuum. They affirmatively wanted to try to continue the Dan Hurley era (or at least transition it smoothly) rather than start all over again from scratch, so Cox’s candidacy had a premium to it which was definitely to his advantage. That’s a reasonable approach to the situation, in my opinion, but it is somewhat of a gamble. It is true that he may not have been hired over the same other candidates if the job was to take over a different program or the coach here had just been fired, but he definitely wouldn’t have been hired at URI unless they were convinced he was up to the task.

If you don't think a good AD starts the process with more than ten names, well, it's probably not a conversation worth having. He should have been looking at NBA benches, blue blood benches, mid major coaches, low major coaches, D2 coaches to kick off the search. If he started with < 10 then I am 100% right it was flawed. That's how you get David Cox. Jay Larranaga not worth a call? Micah Shrewsbury? Every top P5 assistant not worth a cursory glance. This type of thinking...this parochial thought process.... is what gets programs like URI into trouble. The top of that funnell should be packed with names.

[TruePoint]

They talked to both of those guys...

[NYGFan_Section208]

count me on the Rick Pitino band wagon

i would think we can get him if we wanted him

i can't stand this losing and i am an optimistic kind of guy (believe it or not)

i choose to believe that he would do a good job for us and get us program enhancements and keep clean w/ the microscope that will be on him

i rather choose the risks of hiring him and what winning could do for our school than mediocrity

i know most are against this so proceed in using me as a human pinata !

CUT ECR !

Dang...just when I was about to consider blocking you...you finally come around.
(Actually, not worth it to block people...at the core of it, it's entertainment and if you block folks, you're going to miss some)

[Taylor Swift]

I can’t believe Ricky P is still part of this conversation.

I hardly ever play the lottery, but when I do it’s the big time jackpots. My first order of business outside my family (blood related) would be to take care of the Ram Fam. I’d spare no expense for this practice facility.

[SmartyBarrett]

They talked to both of those guys...

It wasn't a secret, either.

[the_one_mike]

I’d be willing to bet 100% of the people calling for Cox to be fired are atrocious in their own career field.

[Gonebarongone]

They talked to both of those guys...

I guess you don't get the point. If the list started at ten then it was a bad list. Seemed at the time to be a shoddy search and we are watching the fruits of that right now. 98% of the people who voted for Cox just wanted to keep the frosh class together.

[URI_05]

I’d be willing to bet 100% of the people calling for Cox to be fired are atrocious in their own career field.

I’ll take that bet. How much? Fire Cox.

[hrstrat57]

I can’t believe Ricky P is still part of this conversation.

I hardly ever play the lottery, but when I do it’s the big time jackpots. My first order of business outside my family (blood related) would be to take care of the Ram Fam. I’d spare no expense for this practice facility.

[ace]

Always such curious timing with that one...

[Cameron_Dollar]

Ben Braun

[RhodyRamFan69]

I’d be willing to bet 100% of the people calling for Cox to be fired are atrocious in their own career field.

I’ll take that bet. How much? Fire Cox.

Hardoooooo! Let's not forget Danny Hurley went 8-21 in his first season with an NBA guy on the roster. This is unquestionably a tough time to be a URI fan, but sports is cyclical. We are the Rhody Rams not the Duke Blue Devils, Cox deserves at least one more year IMO.

[section(105)]

I’d be willing to bet 100% of the people calling for Cox to be fired are atrocious in their own career field.

I’ll take that bet. How much? Fire Cox.

Hardoooooo! Let's not forget Danny Hurley went 8-21 in his first season with an NBA guy on the roster. This is unquestionably a tough time to be a URI fan, but sports is cyclical. We are the Rhody Rams not the Duke Blue Devils, Cox deserves at least one more year IMO.

........yes, the early DH years were not great records, but there, for me, was light at the end of the tunnel which was primarily due to the presence of DH as an up and coming program builder......whether it be his basketball name, highly competitive nature, get the most of limited talent, we knew better days were ahead and optimism was abound......I get the cyclical thing, but this backwards slide, not so much as the record itself, but the way we loose, the lack of freshmen development as D1 players, the lack of a clear style of offense, porous defense, and general funk surrounding this team gives me zero optimism that better days are ahead......please spare me on the next year incoming class and the freshmen a year older are the answers to next year success......take a quick look at the teams above us in the current standings and think how many we have to climb over to get back to the top tier........and those teams are not standing still in their development as we seem to tread water in lower tier.......sad, not what I was expecting with the Cox leadership.......whoever replaced DH had tough act to follow, but this current act is unacceptable.......and I predicted conference record of 9-9.....

[NYGFan_Section208]

It would be one thing if the team was just mediocre and inconsistent. Then, I think you could talk about new/young players, new coach, etc.
But, they are playing worse as the season goes on...It's not even randomly worse, it looks like a straight line decline worse...
Maybe a hoops guru out here could explain how/why that could even happen?
I mean, over the course of a season, shouldn't you get better, or at least stay the same?

And they haven't even had any impact injuries to use as an excuse. This is the healthiest season of basketball I can remember for any team ever. Fatts missed one game because of injury. Omar was a DNP for two...everyone else that plays at all has played every single game.

Do we really expect to see improvement in the off season...when we haven't seen any 'in' season?
I don't know how much time coaches get to spend with players in the off season, but it seems like it would be less than in-season.
Then again...maybe less is more...

[ElmCityRhody]

I’d be willing to bet 100% of the people calling for Cox to be fired are atrocious in their own career field.

I’ll take that bet. How much? Fire Cox.

i will take that bet any day of the week

i will provide my W-2

FIRE COX

CUT BAIT

HIRE RICK PITINO

CUT BAIT, defined: To come to a decision point: either commit to what you're doing, or give it up entirely.

[ElmCityRhody]

It would be one thing if the team was just mediocre and inconsistent. Then, I think you could talk about new/young players, new coach, etc.
But, they are playing worse as the season goes on...It's not even randomly worse, it looks like a straight line decline worse...
Maybe a hoops guru out here could explain how/why that could even happen?
I mean, over the course of a season, shouldn't you get better, or at least stay the same?

And they haven't even had any impact injuries to use as an excuse. This is the healthiest season of basketball I can remember for any team ever. Fatts missed one game because of injury. Omar was a DNP for two...everyone else that plays at all has played every single game.

Do we really expect to see improvement in the off season...when we haven't seen any 'in' season?
I don't know how much time coaches get to spend with players in the off season, but it seems like it would be less than in-season.
Then again...maybe less is more...

funny NYG - "Then again... maybe less is more..."

LOVE IT

[RhowdyRam02]

I’d be willing to bet 100% of the people calling for Cox to be fired are atrocious in their own career field.

I’ll take that bet. How much? Fire Cox.

Hardoooooo! Let's not forget Danny Hurley went 8-21 in his first season with an NBA guy on the roster. This is unquestionably a tough time to be a URI fan, but sports is cyclical. We are the Rhody Rams not the Duke Blue Devils, Cox deserves at least one more year IMO.

A dude that had to put 69 in his screen name calling someone else a hardo is the absolute height of humor. Like seriously, nobody should ever try and say anything funny on here, because you're never coming close to this.

Did Dan have Xavier Munford on the team? Yeah. The rest of the roster was Andre Malone, Mike Powell, Nikola Malesevic, Jordan Hare, Ryan Brooks, Mike Aaman, T.J. Buchanan, and Alwayne Bigby. How many games does Cox win with that roster? 2? 3? And they obviously wouldn't have shown nearly the fight that that team did. Cox sucks and the faster we move on the better for the university

[ace]

Oh, Mike Powell. Imagine having Bobby Hurley as your coach and not wanting to listen to what he has to say about playing point guard.

[rambone 78]

Unfortunately the talent on this team is being wasted big time.....yeah we can't shoot, but there are many things that could be done to at least be competitive.

It's like this staff has completely forgotten how to coach basketball. And that's astounding.

[BlackDogRants]

Here’s my thought on this/my hope:

I haven’t heard really where the NCAA money has gone.

Perhaps it’s gone to other athletic programs (would’ve been another reason for Danny to want to leave).

But - and this is a huge but - what if Thorr stashed the money for a possible buyout/new coach if Danny had left?

What if the search didn’t turn up anyone Thorr thought was a slam dunk hire and he decided he’d give Dave a shot he deserved, while stashing money for a buyout just in case?

The other side of this is that we need to stop with the low level contracts. You want the Dan Hurley’s of the world to stay? You need to do two things:

1) invest in your program - we’re now in the minority of schools in our conference that don’t have practice facilities either under construction or in use. We STILL don’t charter to every away game.

2) pay the coach. I still will swear to this day that if we offered the 2018 contract to Dan Hurley in 2017 - he doesn’t leave. The last contract we offered him is a first class contract and if we want those guys, that’s what it costs.

Otherwise well be stuck in this awful place where we hit on one guy, pay him too late, watch him leave, and then get to watch us sink down again.

I want to know where all the money is going for these nationally televised games. This season we have been on national television WAY more than usual. There has to be a good buck coming from that. No?

[BlackDogRants]

You all act as though Hurley made lemonade out of lemons. He had a 4 year class, that beared fruit. Hurley had a hand in the product you see on the floor. His success rate and experience as a head coach may have garnered an extra win or two, but for the most part this team is what it is. I don’t know how anyone can come to these extreme conclusions after Cox being on the job for 8 months. We have a rotation of 6-7 guys that can actually contribute. Next year we will have a minimum of 9 rotation guys. Big difference, will allow for flexibility in the lineup along with a host of other things. One thing for sure, I will not write off these kids and believe that they will not continue to develop in the off season. I’m a glass half full/optimist. As I have said in the past, after season 2, and no progress, all bets are off. After year one? It’s just stupid, imo.

Call me a honk or whatever, just my .02.

Wouldn't you expect to see at least a little bit of improvement and development during the season, rather than regression?

This is the point I have been trying to make across all platforms. A bad season - OK. Beat up here and there - OK. Stupid mistakes - I get it. HOWEVER - they are getting worse. There is not one single area of improvement as the season rolls on. Where is the consistent development? Where is our identity?

[Blue Man]

I’ll take that bet. How much? Fire Cox.

Hardoooooo! Let's not forget Danny Hurley went 8-21 in his first season with an NBA guy on the roster. This is unquestionably a tough time to be a URI fan, but sports is cyclical. We are the Rhody Rams not the Duke Blue Devils, Cox deserves at least one more year IMO.

........yes, the early DH years were not great records, but there, for me, was light at the end of the tunnel which was primarily due to the presence of DH as an up and coming program builder......whether it be his basketball name, highly competitive nature, get the most of limited talent, we knew better days were ahead and optimism was abound......I get the cyclical thing, but this backwards slide, not so much as the record itself, but the way we loose, the lack of freshmen development as D1 players, the lack of a clear style of offense, porous defense, and general funk surrounding this team gives me zero optimism that better days are ahead......please spare me on the next year incoming class and the freshmen a year older are the answers to next year success......take a quick look at the teams above us in the current standings and think how many we have to climb over to get back to the top tier........and those teams are not standing still in their development as we seem to tread water in lower tier.......sad, not what I was expecting with the Cox leadership.......whoever replaced DH had tough act to follow, but this current act is unacceptable.......and I predicted conference record of 9-9.....

Exactly this.

All of a sudden the guys who are shooting 17% from 3 are going to log off Instagram and get in the gym to put up shots like Jimmy Baron?

Yes it’s on the players to a degree - but why have all the players who played under Hurley all of a sudden look like they don’t belong on a D1 court?

Fatts is shooting 12% worse than last year.

Jeff is shooting 10% worse - and for some reason isn’t the primary ball handler on the floor.

It runs to the top and while you can’t fire a guy after one year - if next years team doesn’t dance you have to have a list of names lined up to go.

[NYGFan_Section208]

BlueMan, please keep posting, if for no other reason than that it gives another opportunity to read that awesome signature line...

Today, I'm trying to get outside for a walk. In order to get this done, I'm going to have to put on some sneakers and put one foot in front of the other a bunch of times. Not sure it can happen though because 'outdoors' and 'gravity' are geared up and bringing their A games against me....

[Seawrightspostgame]

In hindsight, if I am going to hire an assistant to be hc, I want to see that assistant be a large part of multiple teams who have success with different models/styles of basketball or implementing the same model/style with different players at least once.

The past two years it was a lot of the same stuff. I think Hassan Martin's senior run was a more complex strategy than last year.

They kind of punted on developing toward this year or toward the tournament. It was more of, hey this is working lets see hwo far it goes.

[RhowdyRam02]

I'm not sure we should be dipping in the assistant pool any longer unless it's a total rebuild and they just seem like a can't miss candidate. A lot of people talked about following the Xavier model, but a big part of their success was built around having massive infrastructure advantages over their conference rivals so it was easier for assistants to hit the ground running. Where we're more middle of the pack we might not be a good spot for assistants to learn on the job if we expect to be good shortly after a hire and we might need experience instead.

[McRam]

I’d be willing to bet 100% of the people calling for Cox to be fired are atrocious in their own career field.

so you are agreeing that Cox is atrocious??????????????????

[McRam]

Hardoooooo! Let's not forget Danny Hurley went 8-21 in his first season with an NBA guy on the roster. This is unquestionably a tough time to be a URI fan, but sports is cyclical. We are the Rhody Rams not the Duke Blue Devils, Cox deserves at least one more year IMO.

........yes, the early DH years were not great records, but there, for me, was light at the end of the tunnel which was primarily due to the presence of DH as an up and coming program builder......whether it be his basketball name, highly competitive nature, get the most of limited talent, we knew better days were ahead and optimism was abound......I get the cyclical thing, but this backwards slide, not so much as the record itself, but the way we loose, the lack of freshmen development as D1 players, the lack of a clear style of offense, porous defense, and general funk surrounding this team gives me zero optimism that better days are ahead......please spare me on the next year incoming class and the freshmen a year older are the answers to next year success......take a quick look at the teams above us in the current standings and think how many we have to climb over to get back to the top tier........and those teams are not standing still in their development as we seem to tread water in lower tier.......sad, not what I was expecting with the Cox leadership.......whoever replaced DH had tough act to follow, but this current act is unacceptable.......and I predicted conference record of 9-9.....

Exactly this.

All of a sudden the guys who are shooting 17% from 3 are going to log off Instagram and get in the gym to put up shots like Jimmy Baron?

Yes it’s on the players to a degree - but why have all the players who played under Hurley all of a sudden look like they don’t belong on a D1 court?

Fatts is shooting 12% worse than last year.

Jeff is shooting 10% worse - and for some reason isn’t the primary ball handler on the floor.

It runs to the top and while you can’t fire a guy after one year - if next years team doesn’t dance you have to have a list of names lined up to go.

I don't get why you are saying that "you can't fire a guy after one year". Why would next years team look any different than this years team.?
Hurley purportedly build a program, we might be able to survice one year of this, but, doubt you can survive two years of this debacle.
Thorr really has no choice, it was a mistake, Thorr knows it, Cox probably knows it, this is no longer a secret-- the issue is how to get out of the contract and who can we get?

[RF1]

I want to know where all the money is going for these nationally televised games. This season we have been on national television WAY more than usual. There has to be a good buck coming from that. No?

The tv contracts are between the league and networks. Each member school get an equal share regardless of the number of appearances per my understanding. The school's main benefit from more appearances is exposure and PR.

The games are typically chosen to showcase attractive match-ups based on expectations and previous year performances. That is why URI is on so often this year. That however is sure to reverse itself next season. I would think URI will see a great reduction in national network games. Given that URI has no local outlet, the ESPN+ internet option will likely be the main home for viewing 2019-20 Rhody games. I would also assume that URI will see less of the top A-10 teams going forward. The league creates its home and home pairings to improve the NCAA chances for its perceived better teams. URI will not be one of those teams and the league will not want to hurt other A-10 schools by making them play Rhody twice which will lower their metrics. Forget about series with Davidson, VCU, Dayton, and SLU next year. Series with the likes of Fordham, UMass, GW, LaSalle, and St Joe's are far more likely. URI as a league dreg will play the other dregs.

[NYGFan_Section208]

BlueMan, please keep posting, if for no other reason than that it gives another opportunity to read that awesome signature line...

Today, I'm trying to get outside for a walk. In order to get this done, I'm going to have to put on some sneakers and put one foot in front of the other a bunch of times. Not sure it can happen though because 'outdoors' and 'gravity' are geared up and bringing their A games against me....

Well, I did it. A two-miler in a nifty 31:51. I wasn't going to go...I stepped outside, and it was, well...cold. But I threw on a hat and said, "Suck it, Outdoors! This is my super bowl and I will not be denied!"

[ElmCityRhody]

NYG / have you take. A sip out of my limoncello LOL

[rambone 78]

I want to know where all the money is going for these nationally televised games. This season we have been on national television WAY more than usual. There has to be a good buck coming from that. No?

The tv contracts are between the league and networks. Each member school get an equal share regardless of the number of appearances per my understanding. The school's main benefit from more appearances is exposure and PR.

The games are typically chosen to showcase attractive match-ups based on expectations and previous year performances. That is why URI is on so often this year. That however is sure to reverse itself next season. I would think URI will see a great reduction in national network games. Given that URI has no local outlet, the ESPN+ internet option will likely be the main home for viewing 2019-20 Rhody games. I would also assume that URI will see less of the top A-10 teams going forward. The league creates its home and home pairings to improve the NCAA chances for its perceived better teams. URI will not be one of those teams and the league will not want to hurt other A-10 schools by making them play Rhody twice which will lower their metrics. Forget about series with Davidson, VCU, Dayton, and SLU next year. Series with the likes of Fordham, UMass, GW, LaSalle, and St Joe's are far more likely. URI as a league dreg will play the other dregs.

RF1...good points....just more to look forward to....barf

Yes, Hurley didn't leave us a whole lot of talent with so many good players leaving....but Cox has managed to undo a good part of the culture that took so long to create.

[rjsuperfly66]

Maybe a hoops guru out here could explain how/why that could even happen?
I mean, over the course of a season, shouldn't you get better, or at least stay the same?

Not necessarily -- The natural response to that is that while your team should get better, other teams should also get better. I think that also changes throughout the season is the scout, especially during conference play. I think the worst weakness a team can have is lack of/inconsistent shooting. It's an easy scout. I think it shows in the ppp -- In their last 10 games, URI has averaged .94 points per possession. In their last 5 games, URI has averaged .85 points per possession. If you play a 65 possession game averaging .85 ppg, you'll score 55 points. It's hard to win that way. The average offense in the country is usually right around 1.10 points per possession. The top offense in the country is around 1.28 points per possession.

[rambone 78]

It would be nice to increase the number of possessions by speeding up the game, and getting us some easy baskets.....

Unfortunately our defense isn't creating enough turnovers to do that...or making enough shots to set up a press afterwards.....

Sometimes when we do get out in transition we pull the ball back out instead and therefore screw up any chance of scoring......

[Blue Man]

........yes, the early DH years were not great records, but there, for me, was light at the end of the tunnel which was primarily due to the presence of DH as an up and coming program builder......whether it be his basketball name, highly competitive nature, get the most of limited talent, we knew better days were ahead and optimism was abound......I get the cyclical thing, but this backwards slide, not so much as the record itself, but the way we loose, the lack of freshmen development as D1 players, the lack of a clear style of offense, porous defense, and general funk surrounding this team gives me zero optimism that better days are ahead......please spare me on the next year incoming class and the freshmen a year older are the answers to next year success......take a quick look at the teams above us in the current standings and think how many we have to climb over to get back to the top tier........and those teams are not standing still in their development as we seem to tread water in lower tier.......sad, not what I was expecting with the Cox leadership.......whoever replaced DH had tough act to follow, but this current act is unacceptable.......and I predicted conference record of 9-9.....

Exactly this.

All of a sudden the guys who are shooting 17% from 3 are going to log off Instagram and get in the gym to put up shots like Jimmy Baron?

Yes it’s on the players to a degree - but why have all the players who played under Hurley all of a sudden look like they don’t belong on a D1 court?

Fatts is shooting 12% worse than last year.

Jeff is shooting 10% worse - and for some reason isn’t the primary ball handler on the floor.

It runs to the top and while you can’t fire a guy after one year - if next years team doesn’t dance you have to have a list of names lined up to go.

I don't get why you are saying that "you can't fire a guy after one year". Why would next years team look any different than this years team.?
Hurley purportedly build a program, we might be able to survice one year of this, but, doubt you can survive two years of this debacle.
Thorr really has no choice, it was a mistake, Thorr knows it, Cox probably knows it, this is no longer a secret-- the issue is how to get out of the contract and who can we get?

Because if you want to get high quality coaches in the future you need to show them that the axe won’t swing after a single year.

That and Tom Ryan isn’t spending a couple million to buy out the coach after one year.

Next year is the minimum you need to give any first year head coach.

That and next year is our best chance to dance and figure things out - so if you damn us to a true rebuild then you guarantee no tournament. This way we have a chance, no matter how unlikely it seems like things could turn around at the moment.

Gives you a year to put a proper list together and back channel the right candidate - like what UConn did.

[rambone 78]

I doubt URI could pull the plug on Cox even after next season...that's by themselves I mean.

Help would be needed from the boosters, same as what happened with Baron.....otherwise he's likely here for 2 more years.

A turnaround is desperately needed next season. 2 more years of sucking would set things back even more.

[rambone 78]

Just think....2 more years of Fatts running the point and shooting 17% from 3. Awesome.

[Obadiah]

If you want a few chuckles, just re-read the recruiting thread on Daron Russell. I loved the Philly coach when he said "by signing Fatts Russell, be prepared to be in the NCAA for the next four years".

[ace]

I don’t really want to go the whole “old takes exposed” route, but there are some epic ones from this past summer.

————————

I had expressed concerns about his ability to switch roles (and was generally told that he has the mindset to do it), but I still believe in Fatts... I mean, why not? I’m not the coach and have nothing to lose at this point.

[Rhody15]

I don’t really want to go the whole “old takes exposed” route, but there are some epic ones from this past summer.

————————

I had expressed concerns about his ability to switch roles (and was generally told that he has the mindset to do it), but I still believe in Fatts... I mean, why not? I’m not the coach and have nothing to lose at this point.

Why shouldn’t you believe in Fatts???

Have you watched this season at all??

Kid has been an absolute train wreck.

[ace]

I don’t really want to go the whole “old takes exposed” route, but there are some epic ones from this past summer.

————————

I had expressed concerns about his ability to switch roles (and was generally told that he has the mindset to do it), but I still believe in Fatts... I mean, why not? I’m not the coach and have nothing to lose at this point.

Why shouldn’t you believe in Fatts???

Have you watched this season at all??

Kid has been an absolute train wreck.

Of course I’ve watched this season. I also think I’m drinking more. I can’t imagine that there’s a connection.

My point is- what do I have to lose? I’m not coaching or making personnel decisions. It costs me, or anybody else, nothing at all to think that way. You do you!

[rambone 78]

I remember one of Dan's quotes after he had signed with us...."Fatts Russell is really good at basketball"...….

Yeah maybe 17% of the time.

[ace]

A lot of y’all sure did like him last season

[ramfan85]

I remember one of Dan's quotes after he had signed with us...."Fatts Russell is really good at basketball"...….

Yeah maybe 17% of the time.

The next time I believe anything a basketball coach says will be the first time.

[daytonflyerfan]

I’d be willing to bet 100% of the people calling for Cox to be fired are atrocious in their own career field.

I’ll take that bet. How much? Fire Cox.

Hardoooooo! Let's not forget Danny Hurley went 8-21 in his first season with an NBA guy on the roster. This is unquestionably a tough time to be a URI fan, but sports is cyclical. We are the Rhody Rams not the Duke Blue Devils, Cox deserves at least one more year IMO.

Agree...8-21...see what happens next year. 12-13 this year. I thought Cox was a sensible hire FWIW, I was OK with it.

Better than Hurley's 1st year it seems.

[ace]

I’ll take that bet. How much? Fire Cox.

Hardoooooo! Let's not forget Danny Hurley went 8-21 in his first season with an NBA guy on the roster. This is unquestionably a tough time to be a URI fan, but sports is cyclical. We are the Rhody Rams not the Duke Blue Devils, Cox deserves at least one more year IMO.

Agree...8-21...see what happens next year. 12-13 this year. I thought Cox was a sensible hire FWIW, I was OK with it.

Better than Hurley's 1st year it seems.

I understand that you’re a Dayton fan so probably used to a program that is not a dumpster fire, so context re: 2012 versus 2018 is very important here.

[Blue Man]

I’d be willing to bet 100% of the people calling for Cox to be fired are atrocious in their own career field.

I always enjoy these type of posts - like thinking that you need to be a eye doctor to know you shouldn't stab yourself in the eye with a knife.

I don't have CDL, but I could definitely let you know that a tractor trailer shouldn't be upside-down on the highway. I don't have a pilot's license, but if I see a plane crash I know something went wrong.

While I'm not a coach and I'm not one of those people calling for Cox to be fired (I'm on the 2 year plan), I can tell you what looks wrong and what looks right on a basketball court.

Like most fans here, I might not know how to fix it - but I can tell you when it's broken. Pretty much the purpose of a message board.

But since you're going the career field route; instead of having a really dumb johnson measuring contest online, let's talk about what would happen if this coaching job was treated like a corporate job? I feel like that's something a message board is good for.

Obviously, being a basketball coach is not like being in a corporate job, or a sales job, or anything of the like. Coaching is volatile, public, and can be thankless even if or when you're trying your hardest and things aren't working. It isn't fair all the time, and your failures are much more publicized than your successes. It's never as simple as it is where it's just numbers and results - there's a lot more involved (eye test, player development, future goals, etc).

It's for those reasons that basketball coaches are compensated 10 to 50 times the median household income in their towns to do said job.

Now, let's say coaching this team was a sales job.

As an HC, you'd get your quota at the beginning of the year - based on a litany of factors - past performance, market expectations, overall business needs, etc - and you'd be tracked throughout the year on how you're doing to that goal. I'm sure Thorr has an idea of what that is for his athletic teams.

Let's take out the fact that the coach set a bar of "A10 championships and NCAA appearances" for the program, and go with something more in line with what experts and fans thought.

The preseason A10 poll had us in 5th in the conference, which is in line with what a lot of posters on here said - 18-12 with 11 or 12 wins in conference.

So - with 3 quarters expired in the year how did we do compared to goal? Let's see how this would play out in a sales job:

1Q - 4-3, 88% to goal. Not on pace for your yearly quota, but you were inconsistent as to be expected brand new to the job. Decent job, but you did look pretty un-prepared for that PC account you lost to your rival competitor. Finished with an easy sale of a weak Holy Cross account to try and make up for it. Not bad getting into the job, not great but not bad.

2Q - 4-3, 88% to goal. Closed a what you thought was going to be a good-looking sale to a prospering WVU account. The account hasn't really looked as good as it did initially. You had good days and bad days. You had a lot of inconsistent efforts to be honest, but you're within striking distance of your YoY goal.

3Q - 4-3, 88% to goal. First day of the quarter you didn't even show up to work and your competitors went and stole the George Mason account right from under you. A good few days of sales in there, but we really need you to start getting above your goal, otherwise you won't hit quota for the year. Sure you've got some OK runrate accounts, but the ones you've lost - you didn't even show up to and your report says "your competitors were more prepared with their sales pitch" than you were. Losing accounts is part of the business, but not showing up for them at all is not OK.

4Q - You failed to even show up for your first 4 account visits, you lost them to your competitors and your only excuse was that your competitors were once again more prepared than you were. You're not on pace for your yearly goal and it doesn't even look like you care when you lose these accounts. You're fired immediately.

So that's what would happen if coaching this team was a real job.

Considering coaching is significantly much more forgiving than a corporate job, a coach can deal with the heckling.

[hrstrat57]

A lot of y’all sure did like him last season

I’ll take him on my team. Love speed more than anything else on a basketball floor.

Probably cause I didn’t have any......

[rjsuperfly66]

Better than Hurley's 1st year it seems.

Difference is in the quality of the team. Jim Baron's last year the team went 7-24. It was a complete rebuild. I always felt this year was somewhat of a reload season for URI, but a combination of the experienced players not improving enough plus the freshmen not being ready for primetime submarined the season before it even started. However, I would say it's a situation not unique to Cox. Ed Cooley has made 5 straight tournaments and is literally going through the same thing. A team that was going to have to rely to heavily on underclassmen who weren't ready, a team that can't shoot consistently, and being completely exposed during conference play.

[RhowdyRam02]

Of course Ed Cooley has built up a considerable amount of good will based on those 5 straight tournament years and people can look at his resume and say, "Ok, this isn't what we're looking for, but he can get the job done." People looking at Cox' resume have what to hang their hat on?

[rambone 78]

Well folks, we can bitch and moan all we want, but Cox is here [short of something REALLY bad] for at least another year, and likely 2.

Besides the obvious, meaning a big upward turnaround, what do we want to see, if that doesn't happen?

Mediocrity, say above .500 but not NCAA or NIT worthy, or a total dumpster fire like this year is turning into?

If things don't get a lot better, then I would rather see the thing implode, so as to force Thorr and Dooley's hand and fire him.

No Baron-like level....in other words just good enough to keep his job kind of thing. This leash needs to be as short as possible.

If they have to start over, the sooner the better.