McRam wrote:I agree with Iggy .To those who are happy there was a counter offer, I do not agree. It has nothing to do with whether Preston should get more money, it has everything to do with the manner that you(in this case URI, Thorr etc) treat their people.
If the reports are correct, URI offered about 200k a year as a counter offer, but yet felt they could get away with $135k. before he was recruited by BC.
So, did Thorr et al know what the market was for someone like Preston; if not, shame on them, if they did and tried to get away with doing it on the cheap, shame on them.
From Preston's viewpoint, what do you think he was thinking when he got a "promotion" and was still that much under his market value- would that not effect everyone's attitude towards their former employer?
When the word was leaked this week, (I can only assume by BC,) Preston's options were limited. If he accepted URI counter offer, he could easily be perceived as using BC to get a raise. What would his stock be down the road when another school was considering him. eg. I don't want to get involved with this guy because he used BC before to get a raise. Nobody wants to be used to help someone else and I am sure Preston must have thought hard about this effect when he evaluated the URI counter offer.
Of course, if BC leaked it without Preston's permission, Preston is making a deal with the devil.
The loss of Preston is solely because we did not take care of him when we should have, coming in after the fact is simply "TOO LATE" in most cases. It is not anyway to run an athletic department or University.!!!!
I don't have any idea what assistants in the A10 get for salaries, so I couldn't say that he was underpaid or overpaid. You certainly cannot compare the money available to BC in a BCS conference, to what most A10 schools have to work with. He may have been in the top sector for all I know, but to make a blanket statement that he was being screwed by URI is unfair to the school and Preston. If he thought that, he would have been long gone when he had other opportunities.
Iggy1979 wrote:If Preston was worth $200,000 to the program then why wasn't he being paid that? It's too late to show the $ when an employee has other offers. I'd say Thorr and Hurley misread the situation when they didn't give Preston a better deal when they promoted him.
That said, I think this is a bump in the road that can be overcome.
That unfortunately is how most employers operate. My company gives out paltry salary increases and employees fall below market value. The company takes advantage of the situation and pays out as little as it can get away with. If someone leaves, the company in most instances has to pay more in salary and expend resources to hire someone and allow for a learning curve where productivity will be lower for some time. It makes little long term sense but it is how most American companies operate today.
There, that's it in terms of tributes and whatever else there is for Mr. Preston Murphy.
Your alma mater and present employer did all they could to keep you -- YET AGAIN -- but no dice.
So, as far as I'm concerned, beat it, and don't let the door hit you in the ass on your way to Chesnut Hill.
BTW, we suspected that Preston was the best recruiter on the staff and he was given a promotion further validating that. Now for the second year in a row we lose our top assistant. The fact that other schools have taken notice of his work for a losing program speaks volumes about how he is perceived on the recruiting circuit, and the lack of job offers for our other assistants may speak for their perceived performance as well. i know we don't know for a fact they have not received offers...but if other schools are willing to pay for Preston...I assume they would for other star recruiters too (I am also assuming PM was the highest paid on the staff besides Dan, so they would jump at a nice raise).
Murph is a class act. One of the brightest people around. Not many basketball players gets a degree in Finance. Best of luck to him. Still will always be held high as part of the greats at URI. He is always welcomed back at our fine institution. Loved him as a player and as a coach. Good luck friend.
I have been asked to post the below message from the one and only Godfather (B.T.).
I have spent a good part of the last three days with Preston and I have watched him agonize over this process. He has not slept or eaten much, and neither have I. We as fans can and do assume many things, and often do so without facts. Two hours ago a reporter tweeted incorrect information, which incensed Preston immensely.
Preston has decided to leave his alma mater, and it wasn`t easy for him to do so. I personally never thought I would see this day and, like many of you, figured that he would be our CFL. He has diligently worked to insure that current players and new players are comfortable with our staff going forward. He has handled himself with all the class we have come to expect of him. This misinformation and other comments by the press have bothered him immensely. His legacy is so important to him. He is not a mercenary and he should not be considered such.
In my long and deep history with the mechanics of our basketball program, I am pleased to report to you, my fellow fans, that both Dave Dooley and Thor were most impressive in this effort. I am quite proud of them in this matter and you should be as well. I wish that over the years, we had such a proactive tandem. We would be much further along in our goals!
I had a feeling the Finley Fuller (PrepWars) Twitter post was about us...
41 minutes ago from @PrepWars
It's so sad that a basketball program would attempt to slander someone's good name just to save face with their supporters. #RealTalk
I'm assuming the miss information was the 200k number, wonder who Preston thinks spread that rumor. Preston will always be the man and hopefully one day will come back to us! That's great insight about what Preston has been going through the last three days. Also good to hear the president and AD were both involved and worked hard to get this done.
I think it was Koch saying it'd take his 135k a year to nearly 200k a year without mentioning it was over the course of 3 years with gradual raises each year.
OK...That's why I said IF the the $200k was an accurate number...you never know. It does appear that someone on the URI side was trying to make it seem they did more than they actually did. Not cool. We are all adults and know that there is a level of schools who have money we can't compete with. But Preston made it sound like it wasn't about the money (everyone says that)...then what was it? “It was very difficult,” Murphy said. “It was a hard enough decision without making it appear to be about money or that (URI) gave me all that and I still left.”
In the end this just painfully illustrates how far we still need to go as a program to compete year in, year out, on the national stage. If it isn't facilities, it's recruiting budget, charter flights, assistants pay...the list goes on and on...it's an arms race.
If Hurley can't overcome the loss of Murphy who wasn't even one of 'his guys' when he came to URI then clearly he isn't the right guy for the job.
I don't blame Murphy for cashing it at all, put yourself in his shoes. More money, better conference and a great opportunity to solidify his status as a premiere recruiter.
Also, I think this is another frustrating blow to Hurley who has certainly had his fair share of speed bumps while trying to rebuild the program. He must sit back sometimes and have his doubts about choosing to come to URI.
There is zero doubt in my mind Hurley will jump at the next offer he receives to leave URI. He has shown me nothing to indicate he is here for the long haul other than the fact this rebuild will take longer the he might have anticipated. Like Murphy, I won't blame him when he leaves.
That said, it's not a bad thing if URI develops the perception of being a stepping stone program. I want coaches to feel that if they come here the will not only succeed but be rewarded (even if that reward comes in the form of a BCS job offer).
Makes me question if a national championship is the goal. Maybe Dooley needs to visit UCONN and learn how to turn a state school into a basketball powerhouse.
STC wrote:
I don't blame Murphy for cashing it at all, put yourself in his shoes. More money, better conference and a great opportunity to solidify his status as a premiere recruiter.
That said, it's not a bad thing if URI develops the perception of being a stepping stone program. I want coaches to feel that if they come here the will not only succeed but be rewarded (even if that reward comes in the form of a BCS job offer).
He has to win to leave. No sign that's happening anytime soon.
If it was so horrendous here, he could have left for Rutgers.
I don't see Ed Cooley at PC acting all offended, despite a load of
setbacks.
Nobody is twisting anyone's arm to take any D-1 job, or stay there.
STC wrote:
I don't blame Murphy for cashing it at all, put yourself in his shoes. More money, better conference and a great opportunity to solidify his status as a premiere recruiter.
That said, it's not a bad thing if URI develops the perception of being a stepping stone program. I want coaches to feel that if they come here the will not only succeed but be rewarded (even if that reward comes in the form of a BCS job offer).
Uhhhhhh, where have you been prior to CFL?????
I was in the 5th grade. Recent college grad here haha
Dan Hurley is not going to here forever (although I'd like to see him build something great & stay). Preston leaving may make it easier for him to return if/when Dan moves on. it's very difficult for an assistant coach to take over in the same program. Your role with the players is much different as an assistant than it is as the HC. He can continue to build his resume and if timing is right maybe come back as the HC. He'll definitely be missed. His wife worked with my wife & I enjoyed speaking with her at the games & watching their kids grow up in the RC. I wish him the best of luck & look forward our program growing as well as his career. Timing is everything in this business so maybe the time will come for Preston to return once again.
bigappleram wrote:I have been asked to post the below message from the one and only Godfather (B.T.).
I have spent a good part of the last three days with Preston and I have watched him agonize over this process. He has not slept or eaten much, and neither have I. We as fans can and do assume many things, and often do so without facts. Two hours ago a reporter tweeted incorrect information, which incensed Preston immensely.
Preston has decided to leave his alma mater, and it wasn`t easy for him to do so. I personally never thought I would see this day and, like many of you, figured that he would be our CFL. He has diligently worked to insure that current players and new players are comfortable with our staff going forward. He has handled himself with all the class we have come to expect of him. This misinformation and other comments by the press have bothered him immensely. His legacy is so important to him. He is not a mercenary and he should not be considered such.
In my long and deep history with the mechanics of our basketball program, I am pleased to report to you, my fellow fans, that both Dave Dooley and Thor were most impressive in this effort. I am quite proud of them in this matter and you should be as well. I wish that over the years, we had such a proactive tandem. We would be much further along in our goals!
GO RHODY
Sorry, but its not all that impressive that they stepped up after Preston had a great offer on the table
"Every season, college basketball has one or two teams that rise from dormancy to relevancy, squads that make long-awaited charges at the NCAA Tournament and become really fun storylines along the way."
"Proactive" would have meant that they did the right thing, before
they needed to.
I have mentioned to Thorr and others, after Bobby left, that they should promote Preston
to Associate Head coach, and a raise in salary, because he was going to be attracting
attention from other schools.
Got the usual lip service..."We love Preston and he's so important to us, blah, blah, blah....."
So when he finally did get his AHC, I figured he was compensated well and happy.
Evidently not.
I was in that camp, but please, don't tell us it's not about the money. I have no problem with that, hell I'm all about money. But don't piss on me and tell me it's raining Preston.
I think part of it was the money, of course it was. Even URI's increased offer was well short of BC's.
There had to be more to it than that. I have no answers on that part.
Imo URI would have increased Preston's salary in the near future, once the program started winning. Unfortunately another case of bad timing. However URI should have at least given Preston something besides just the new title at that time.
While I am disappointed, there's no use in beating Preston up over it. He might be back someday, maybe sooner than we think. It's getting harder and harder to predict anything these days.
Thorr and Dooley learned a lesson the hard way. To play the game now, you have to pay. Promises don't mean anything. URI can no longer go on the cheap if they really want to build a great program that will last.
The policies and practices of the past no longer work. Got to step up or get out.
I believe Preston when he says that his move was not all about money but I am sure money had a big part. I also think that being able to recruit in one of the best basketball conferences in the country was another reason. Whatever the reason, I wish him good luck and success.
Iggy1979 wrote:If Preston was worth $200,000 to the program then why wasn't he being paid that? It's too late to show the $ when an employee has other offers. I'd say Thorr and Hurley misread the situation when they didn't give Preston a better deal when they promoted him.
That said, I think this is a bump in the road that can be overcome.
That unfortunately is how most employers operate. My company gives out paltry salary increases and employees fall below market value. The company takes advantage of the situation and pays out as little as it can get away with. If someone leaves, the company in most instances has to pay more in salary and expend resources to hire someone and allow for a learning curve where productivity will be lower for some time. It makes little long term sense but it is how most American companies operate today.
RF1 All due respect to your situation or what many companies do. But, the really successful people and companies, value their people, respect their accomplishments and reward them with at least market compensation.
I do not believe that any business can win in the long term without treating their employees and especially their key employees with fairness and dignity.
Saying that URI is doing what other non classy operations do, is zero comfort to me.
Still, from the coaches and whatever knowledge of this stuff I am aware of, guys usually are part of a team that wins before they get a pay raise.
This was a lucky break for PM. A program that could double his salary was more desperate than ours and hired another Ram to head the program. Its not everyday all those things align. The loss of him hurts, but its not like he took on court victories with him. Could be Christian reached out to Skinner and
he said preston.
Stud recruiting perception or reputation here, hometown guy. BUT It doesnt kill any momentum or positive direction we have here. We knew an ACC school could take any of our coaches, AD, or really could buy a game with us. No news flash.
At least its the assistant and not the Head. Biggest fear to me is that we do get success off of the roster we have over the next 2 years with the studs we have, DH realizes he has nobody else coming in and takes an offer. Leaves us coachless and the cupboard bare as he found it. THAT is what I fear.
Someone once said that the best way to get a raise is to quit your job and then reapply for it. I've never had the guts to try it.
I'm really sorry to see PM leave. It's going to be a challenge at BC. (Recruits...meet the Admissions Dept).
I also didn't think a counter financial offer would work. No one wants to feel that their company has been holding back on paying them. It usually adds fuel to the fire and pisses the employee off. However, the guarantee to be the next head coach is a different matter. I guess he was just tired of the way things have been going here.
I agree with Adam's earlier post about not thinking that the recruits BC gets now could have been coming here. Different schools, different situations. Of course, we're all going to wonder when we hear whom they're bringing in, anyway.
Now for us. i hope we hire someone with eastern connections. It's always seemed easier to me to bring in local kids than recruits from other areas. There is a lot of talent in this area.
Maybe we can find a coach who has a recruit or two of his own.
ramfan85 wrote:Someone once said that the best way to get a raise is to quit your job and then reapply for it. I've never had the guts to try it.
I'm really sorry to see PM leave. It's going to be a challenge at BC. (Recruits...meet the Admissions Dept).
I also didn't think a counter financial offer would work. No one wants to feel that their company has been holding back on paying them. It usually adds fuel to the fire and pisses the employee off. However, the guarantee to be the next head coach is a different matter. I guess he was just tired of the way things have been going here.
I agree with Adam's earlier post about not thinking that the recruits BC gets now could have been coming here. Different schools, different situations. Of course, we're all going to wonder when we hear whom they're bringing in, anyway.
Now for us. i hope we hire someone with eastern connections. It's always seemed easier to me to bring in local kids than recruits from other areas. There is a lot of talent in this area.
Maybe we can find a coach who has a recruit or two of his own.
rodfromcranston wrote:"Proactive" would have meant that they did the right thing, before
they needed to.
I have mentioned to Thorr and others, after Bobby left, that they should promote Preston
to Associate Head coach, and a raise in salary, because he was going to be attracting
attention from other schools.
Got the usual lip service..."We love Preston and he's so important to us, blah, blah, blah....."
So when he finally did get his AHC, I figured he was compensated well and happy.
Evidently not.
That is exactly correct. ! As I said, minor league and even more so if, as it appears that they floated rumors to make themselves look good.
It looks as if Thorr got caught at his game and then tried to deflect the blame. Horseshit.
McRam wrote:I agree with Iggy .To those who are happy there was a counter offer, I do not agree. It has nothing to do with whether Preston should get more money, it has everything to do with the manner that you(in this case URI, Thorr etc) treat their people.
If the reports are correct, URI offered about 200k a year as a counter offer, but yet felt they could get away with $135k. before he was recruited by BC.
So, did Thorr et al know what the market was for someone like Preston; if not, shame on them, if they did and tried to get away with doing it on the cheap, shame on them.
From Preston's viewpoint, what do you think he was thinking when he got a "promotion" and was still that much under his market value- would that not effect everyone's attitude towards their former employer?
When the word was leaked this week, (I can only assume by BC,) Preston's options were limited. If he accepted URI counter offer, he could easily be perceived as using BC to get a raise. What would his stock be down the road when another school was considering him. eg. I don't want to get involved with this guy because he used BC before to get a raise. Nobody wants to be used to help someone else and I am sure Preston must have thought hard about this effect when he evaluated the URI counter offer.
Of course, if BC leaked it without Preston's permission, Preston is making a deal with the devil.
The loss of Preston is solely because we did not take care of him when we should have, coming in after the fact is simply "TOO LATE" in most cases. It is not anyway to run an athletic department or University.!!!!
I don't have any idea what assistants in the A10 get for salaries, so I couldn't say that he was underpaid or overpaid. You certainly cannot compare the money available to BC in a BCS conference, to what most A10 schools have to work with. He may have been in the top sector for all I know, but to make a blanket statement that he was being screwed by URI is unfair to the school and Preston. If he thought that, he would have been long gone when he had other opportunities.
I am sorry that it appeared to you that I thought Preston was screwed by URI. I, of course, have no idea of that, I was pointing out how anybody miight feel if they were being forced to play a recruiting game, in orde r to get market value.
Dan Hurley @dhurley15 1h
Best of luck to @coach_pmurph Thanks for your efforts and friendship these past two years. A great representative of URI on so many levels!
Even if we had earlier given PM a longer contract for more money, it wouldn't have come close to matching what BC offered him.
It was time to move on.
Like has been said, it wasn't just the money either. We as lowly chat board members are not privy to the inner workings of the basketball program. There must have been some other factors in play here also.
Some of that will slowly leak out as time goes by. It always does. We may never know everything, but then again, we never do.
STC wrote:
There is zero doubt in my mind Hurley will jump at the next offer he receives to leave URI. He has shown me nothing to indicate he is here for the long haul other than the fact this rebuild will take longer the he might have anticipated.
Just out of curiosity, what would he need to do to show you that he is here for the long haul?
STC wrote:
There is zero doubt in my mind Hurley will jump at the next offer he receives to leave URI. He has shown me nothing to indicate he is here for the long haul other than the fact this rebuild will take longer the he might have anticipated.
Just out of curiosity, what would he need to do to show you that he is here for the long haul?
What would you like him to do STC, show up to your house and ask you out for dinner? Maybe after that, a Midnight stroll along the Wall in Narragansett? Then, of course, you'll have to introduce him to your parents for their final approval…… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U1VYyj2lzwI
Section104 wrote:I had a feeling the Finley Fuller (PrepWars) Twitter post was about us...
41 minutes ago from @PrepWars
It's so sad that a basketball program would attempt to slander someone's good name just to save face with their supporters. #RealTalk
If this is about URI, I don't get it. The only thing that has leaked out is the Koch tweet that his salary would increase to approx 200k. That statement from the looks of it might have been technically true but could be categorized as misleading since it was missing the key aspect of it being gradual. In any regard, it was far from slanderous.
If you really want a sad instance of a school's basketball program slandering a former coach to save face, the school where Preston is going is the perfect example. BC booted its most successful postseason coach in its history (along with Preston too) and then used alumnus stooge mouthpiece Bob Ryan to viciously malign him so badly that he will likely never get a job as head coach ever again. That is slander and apparently Preston isn't overly bothered by it as he is going back there.
Last edited by RF110 years ago, edited 2 times in total.
Obviously, as we all participate in some form or other, it's the problem with gadgets and instant information. Most of it is misinformation and conjecture.
URI did not libel anyone.
People here may have……..
RF1 wrote:If you really want a sad instance of a school's basketball program slandering a former coach to save face, the school where Preston is going is the perfect example. BC booted its most successful postseason coach in its history (along with Preston too) and then used alumnus stooge mouthpiece Bob Ryan to viciously malign him so badly that he will likely never get a job as head coach ever again. That is slander and apparently Preston isn't overly bothered by it as he is going back there.
I agree and I'm glad you mention it. BC and Bob Ryan did a real number on Big Al and it is the reason why BC sports fell out of favor in my household, they are the enemy for their prior behavior and they are too close to home for there to not be large recruiting overlap. I hope we out recruit them at every turn. And I'd like to know how Boob Ryan feels about his slanderous behavior towards Skinner since the shit stained program has been nothing but chum for much better programs since Skinner was at the helm. I'm okay with them moving on from Big Al if they thought it was wise, but to sully his good name, which apparently did effect his livelihood, just shameful. To date history has protected Skinner's place as BC's best basketball coach ever and they treated him disgracefully.
I don't know who or what Preston is referring to in his quotes to Koch about being made to feel like a bad guy for taking the BC job, but I hope he knows that isn't how URI fans feel. The only thing I feel towards Preston is gratitude and hope that he will return once again down the road to fill the big chair, if and when Coach Hurley moves on.
I also don't think URI can take much blame here. They offered everything they feasibly could and obviously valued Preston and wanted to keep him. This is just part of the business, unfortunately. I've always hated BC, but I'll find it hard not to pull for URI North in the ACC the next couple years. I wish Preston and Jim Christian the best.
"If you build it, they will come." --Us, circa 2011
I'm a bit surprised, that Preston, knowing what happened to his
mentor, went back there.
Different people in charge makes it alright, I guess.
As for Bob Ryan, he is widely regarded as the best, and most knowledgeable
basketball writer ever.
Some of what he wrote about Skinner, were things that were said about him while he was here.
That Al has been passed over for low D-1 jobs, must say something.
Not saying that Ryan is the only reason Skinner isn't first chair somewhere, but he was way over the top in his bash fest of Al. And true, before that time I thought of Ryan as one of the only sports journalists in the northeast worth reading, but I really have a problem with those who attack the people that I like, especially when the motives are questionable. Boob used his position to put such harsh BC spin on the coaching change it diminished Al's immediate value. Then of course it appears Skinner did little to change that perception among ADs, but that's Skinner's style, I for one never really had an issue with his apparent laid-back approach to things, I usually enjoyed the results.
Ryan was carrying the water of the AD, who in the end ruined BC athletics
"Every season, college basketball has one or two teams that rise from dormancy to relevancy, squads that make long-awaited charges at the NCAA Tournament and become really fun storylines along the way."
I like the moron on the PC board who said we're not good, because Kingston is so remote
and not in a capital city.
Gee, I wonder how Indiana won those NCAAs from Bloomington, IN?
Kansas in Lawrence, KS.?
UCONN is Storrs?
Florida in Gainesville?
Duke in Durham, NC?
UNC is Chapel Hill, NC?
How did ND win anything in South Bend, IN?
Just monumental stupidity.
Last edited by rodfromcranston10 years ago, edited 1 time in total.
It's a Catch 22 for me with BC. I want Preston to do well, but, I'll never cheer for BC.
Maybe we should lose the title of AHC (unless we give it to someone we want to leave).
rodfromcranston wrote:I like the moron on the PC board who said we're not good, because Kingston is so remote
and not in a capital city.
Gee, I wonder how Indiana won those NCAAs from Bloomington, IN?
Kansas in Lawrence, KS.?
UCONN is Storrs?
Florida in Gainesville?
Duke in Durham, NC?
UNC is Chapel Hill, NC?
How did ND win anything in South Bend, IN?
Just monumental stupidity.
Yeah and like Providence is a bustling city that people from all over the country flock to visit!
