Marty Simmons fired

[tornado]

I hear ya....and I believe Brian Wardle has some of Dick Versace's characteristics (altho not all.. )
he is a fierce competitor, demands the very most out of everyone, has a plan and sticks to it even if it rubs a rare person or two the wrong way...but he's doing it the right way

[Da Coach]

A few new articles and tweets that agree with everything I said about Evansville above-

Here are some quotes from a short time ago from the Evansville Athletic Director Mark Spencer after announcing the firing of Marty Simmons, and admitting they were likely looking for a low-budget coach-

https://twitter.com/patmhickey/status/973998089999659008

And he also conceded that there continues to be substantial discussion at Evansville about dropping out of Division I, and down to Division II or III-

https://twitter.com/patmhickey/status/973999306989555712

And just as I said, it appears the candidates that Evansville will pursue are lower-paid assistants and even one candidate who is completyely out of coaching at this time.
Here are 3 prominent names-

https://www.courierpress.com/story/sports/college/evansville/2018/03/14/looking-potential-evansville-basketball-coaching-candidates/423100002/

Calbert Cheaney has been out of coaching the last 2 years, Michael Lewis is the lowest level assistant at Nebraska, and David Ragland has been an assistant at last place Valparaiso for just 2 seasons. All were high school stars in the Evansville area in their prep days. Also mentioned are Walter McCarty, also a former Evansville high school star and now an assistant with the NBA Celtics, Chris Hollender, formerly a player at Evansville and now an assistant at Missouri, Chris Lowery, currently an assistant at Kansas State, Dane Fife, an assistant at Michigan State, Greg Tonagel, head coach at NAIA Indiana Wesleyan, and Scott Davenport, a head coach at Bellarmine, a D2 school in Kentucky.

Amazing, all these suggested names fit the exact description I said in my post above that was disputed by and irked the UE fan.

Evansville doesn't have a lot of money to spend on a new coach, it is probably the hardest job in the MVC to recruit, their athletic facilities are arguably the worst in the MVC, the city of Evansville to put it kindly, is not a great place to recruit to either*, and their athletic budget is lower than any other MVC school.
They will be lucky to get anyone other than a relatively low paid assistant at another successful mid-major school, or a low-paid head coach at a low-major school...

And one more thing regarding the on-campus athletic facilities- these unflattering words about the campus facilities were spoken by Evansville's own people when they announced a renovation project to the on-campus gym last year-
(From an article in the Evansville Courier & Press)

Now that it's getting a facelift, Mark Spencer and Manolo Concepcion are brutally honest about the space the University of Evansville volleyball team has called home.
"An almost middle school gym," said Concepcion, the team's head coach.
"A big, empty cement box ... and it's not pretty," said Spencer, the Aces' athletic director.

https://www.athleticbusiness.com/rec-center/evansville-s-carson-center-to-get-725k-facelift.html

[tornado]

wow- some of those "candidates" are such a stretch!!

Walter McCarty?
He's turned down other offers to be a head coach in DI..
And there's pretty good documentation that even the lowest level assistants in the NBA make $300K up to $1 mil...
McCarty's been there 5 years and been an NBA assistant 8 years so he's probably making way more than Evansville is gonna pay up.

[Da Coach]

Here is another of several articles and many message board posts imploring former Evansville prep star Calbert Cheaney to:
Come home, Calbert Cheaney, and coach the Aces

https://www.courierpress.com/story/opinion/columnists/jon-webb/2018/03/14/webb-come-home-calbert-cheaney-and-coach-aces/422775002/

Am I missing something? Is this a guaranteed upgrade over Marty Simmons?
I am not knocking Cal Cheaney, and maybe he'll make a good coach, but this is really taking a risk.

Cal Cheaney has been out of coaching for 2 years. His glory days at Indiana University were in the early 1990's (he was in the same class at IU as Chris Reynolds). He last played in the NBA 12 years ago, and the last 8 years of his NBA career were less than mediocre. So I am not sure his name recognition will carry much weight with teenage recruits now.
He has never been a head coach anywhere that I can find, and his entire coaching resume' was as an assistant at St. Louis for just 3 seasons (2013-16). He did not have great success there and was fired along with head coach Jim Crews in 2016 after back-to-back 11-win seasons.
So it will be interesting if this is the kind of hire they are looking at, rather than a coach with some successful coaching credentials.

[Da Coach]

No surprise here-
ESPN reporting that Evansville's Ryan Taylor, the MVC's leading scorer, will be eligible as a grad-transfer and is looking into leaving Evansville at the end of the school year.

https://twitter.com/GoodmanESPN/status/974442309940113409

He will be hearing from several Big Ten teams.

[Da Coach]

Though he will not be in quite the demand that Ryan Taylor will be, Evansville freshman Noah Frederking (from Okawville, IL) and sophomore PG Dru Smith have been granted permission to talk to other schools about a possible transfer. Other players may follow.

Update-
Evansville beat writer Pat Hickey tweets-

https://twitter.com/patmhickey/status/974790446978355201

Dru Smith, KJ Riley, Noah Frederking, Marty Hill and John Hall will begin exploring other options. Not including Solomon Hainna, who will try to grad transfer elsewhere.

6:32 PM - 16 Mar 2018

[Da Coach]

Story on Calbert Cheaney

https://www.courierpress.com/story/sports/college/evansville/2018/03/16/sources-calbert-cheaney-ue-serious-talks-head-coaching-position/425838002/

It seems that Calbert Cheaney is the man that the UE AD wanted. But there seems to be a lot of ambivalence among the Evansville fans. Here is a thread from their message board, and many are concerned about some of the same things I posted earlier in this thread only to be ripped by an Evansville poster.

http://www.purpleacesfans.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=1320&sid=1bd776feed7a3367da634a022e1e5889

He has never been a head coach, he has been completely out of coaching for the last 2 years, he has limited recruiting experience and only 3 years of experience as an assistant under Jim Crews his last three years at St. Louis. Plus, although he was a great high school player from Evansville, that was almost 30 years ago, and he has never had any connection to Evansville University.

On the plus side, he would work hard to establish a reputation as a coach, since he does not come with one. He does have some connections in the college basketball community, though I am not sure how much it helps these days to know Jim Crews and Bobby Knight. He probably would not cost them too much, though I have not found any mention of what he has been doing the last 2 years since he was let go by St. Louis in 2016.
And, he was a teammate of Chris Reynolds at Indiana 25 years ago.



If it happens, I wish UE and their fans well.
But it seems like a slightly underwhelming and risky hire to me.

[tornado]

so they want to hire a guy mainly because he's a long time local hero who played in the NBA but he has no head coaching experience at any level...and he is a hand-picked protege' of one of their past fired head coaches



OK.....

[Da Coach]

Evansville beat writer Pat Hickey with an update-

https://twitter.com/patmhickey/status/974840702466129920

If Calbert and UE cannot agree to terms, I'm hearing Walter McCarty, Travis Steele (Xavier), Greg Gary (Purdue) and David Ragland (Valpo) are also on AD Mark Spencer's shortlist of candidates.

I am betting that they will reach an agreement, unless he isn't really interested in coaching. If Cheaney doesn't take this job, I don't see another one coming along any time soon. Most guys who eventually get a head coaching gig have to spend many years toiling away in low-paying assistant jobs and be incredibly lucky to get a head coaching job. The great majority never do. Here, Cheaney unexpectedly has a pretty good head coaching job offered to him, and I am not sure I see any reason he deserved it.

[tornado]

at least seven Evansville players have gotten their releases and will transfer

Kelvin Riley, Ryan Taylor, Noah Frederking, Dru Smith, John Hall, Solomon Hainna, & Marty Hill
..so with the guys who graduate, that means they lose their top 6 players and 9 of their top 10 -
They will have a massive rebuilding job on the order of what we went thru for the past 3 years,
and I seriously wonder if any coaching candidate really wants to go thru that unless they play pretty well!

[pfcmsh]

Evansville Coach

Has the new Coach been named or are there any rumors?

[Chico]

so they want to hire a guy mainly because he's a long time local hero who played in the NBA but he has no head coaching experience at any level...and he is a hand-picked protege' of one of their past fired head coaches



OK.....

How much head coaching experience did Jim Les have? Not much. But he had basketball knowledge. I was happy with him as a head coach.

[Da Coach]

You are right. Les knew basketball, and I am sure Cal Cheaney does, too. Many thought Jim Les didn't deserve to get the Bradley job because of his lack of coaching experience, and there were a lot of candidates who had better credentials. But, unless someone wants to rehash the whole story, suffice to say that someone sabotaged the search committee's efforts causing nearly all the candidates to withdraw, and Jim was the best option available.
There were many good things that followed his selection- record revenues, surging attendance, record numbers of season tickets sold, record donations, record academic successes, national prominence, a stretch of 4 years with over 20 wins/year, a Sweet 16 run with more wins over Power 6 teams than we had seen before or since, All American candidates, national leaders in multiple categories, an NBA lottery pick, and other successes.


So far today, there are no new developments with the Evansville coaching search.

[tornado]

...they lose their top 6 players and 9 of their top 10 -..

now their 11th best guy Kuhlman has also asked for release so he can transfer...so they lose 10 of their top 11!!!
If their fans think Evansville is a delight to recruit to, they are about to find out...

plus both of their two signed incoming guys have also asked out so right now they have only one scholarship player and 12 open scholarships....they might have to borrow a few players from the women's team or the soccer team.

[Da Coach]

Suddenly, it is looking far less likely that Calbert Cheaney will be the next Evansville head coach. pat Hickey, the Evansville beat writer for the Evansville Courier & Press is reporting-

Sources: Calbert Cheaney is asking for $1.5 million per year as the salary budget for him and his assistants to become Evansville's next head coach. That's double the budget Marty Simmons had for him and his assistants.

https://twitter.com/patmhickey/status/975130955932487682

That is a ridiculous demand for a candidate with no prior head coaching experience. It is not specified how much of that would be for his own personal salary, but I'd assume his assistants would not be making more than $75,000-$100,000 each. That means Cheaney is expecting his salary to be maybe somewhere approaching $1,000,000 per year!