MIAMI UPDATE

[Walter]

Very few programs fire a coach after the third year. It isn't like we have already let him complete his fifth year before finding a replacement. IF that were to happen, then the signal the President and AD would be sending would be clear. If Hewitt returns next year, then I am done. Period. But, I don't think there is a chance in hell that Hewitt will return next year. If I thought that he would then there would be no point to following Mason basketball anymore.

 

[wijg]

Very few programs fire a coach after the third year.

Very few programs have "the worst basketball coach in the country"

But, I don't think there is a chance in hell that Hewitt will return next year.

I hope you are right. I expect he will be gone, but don't think it is as definite as you do. Otherwise, why did they keep him for his fourth year? That goes back to my argument that it is not clear that Mason is committed to succeeding in the A10 if they knew they were getting rid of him at the end of year four and kept him anyway.

 

[GSII]

Agree most dont. But Hewitt should of been. Most programs arent handed what he was to simply maintain.

 

[GMUgemini]

Look at how our campus has been transformed over the past 10-15 years and tell me with a straight face that it looks like we're hurting for money.

It's a matter of priorities, plain and simple.

Athletics, and specifically men's basketball, was priority No. 567 for Merten.

Is it a much higher priority for Cabrera and Edwards for Mason to succeed in our lone money-making sport? I certainly hope so, but jury's still out I guess.

Athletics and academics are siloed. If they are not (and you are borrowing from the universities general fund to pay for your athletics, something is seriously wrong).

I also don't buy the argument about investment in basketball as a requirement to stay. If that was true, Miami is one of the worst BCS programs to have chosen to jump to. Miami basketball is about as relevant to that university as men's volleyball is to ours.

 

[CHRISTOPHER JAMES JOLLAY]

That's true.

vcu set the market for Final Four coaches from the CAA by bumping Shaka from $300,000 to $1.3MM.

And instead of recognizing (as Mike Rao did at vcu) the significance of men's basketball to Mason's previously nonexistent national identity, Merten blinked.

Not sure how anybody can blame Larranaga for trying to get market value for his services, especially after watching a coach in his conference get a million-dollar raise after his second year on the job.

The problem is, he should've gotten it at Mason.

Nope. That's capitalism, baby!

This isn't Russia! (this isn't Russia, is it?)

 

[psyclone]

I may be naive...but this point is the crux of the question about Mason.

I never heard the entire fiasco was just about L's salary. There's mention of the assistants, the basketball facility, etc etc.

For the sake of argument, let's L knew the (cant recall the time lines) clock was ticking on TOC and Merten. He sees vcu, etc spending/investing in their program.

Was this really less of a question about his own paycheck....and more about Mason's commitment to basketball? Again, we have argued that certain people at Mason were treating our FF as lottery win and nothing more.
..

2 things got the ball rolling:

1. When Merton was talked (pushed?) into retiring a year early, he actually called Coach L to tell him of his plans. I believe Coach L saw Merton as being a big supporter of both Larranaga and the program (told Larranaga when he first arrived to buy a tux when he first arrived as he wanted him to speak at banquets in the community--led to setting him up with Washington Speakers Bureau) and I'm sure that got him to thinking about whether a new Mason president would be buddy-buddy with him.
2. Shaka got the big raise

 

[psyclone]

We have the money to pay him. If you look at the incentives built into his contract, the school has to budget closer to a million just for Hewitt in case he takes us deep into Ncaa tourney (haaaaa). Being that he hasnt met hardly any of his incentives in last 3 years theres close to a million bucks waiting to help with a buyout and a years worth of a new coaches salary.

You seem to think that money earmarked for incentives that wasn't spent gets "saved" like it's in a bank account. It's not available to be spent later because it already was spent on other things in the university budget. Budgets are crafted based on income from various sources. When one of those sources (i.e. the Commonwealth of Virginia) then comes in and says that they won't be able to provide all the funds that the university was counting on, you have to absorb that cut by reducing expenditures in various ways to make up for the 5% less that the state will be giving the university. So, for example the university isn't filling replacement positions for faculty that retired or otherwise left the university. In addition, I'm sure the administration had to cut some of whatever "discretionary" funds they must have had.

I still think that any buyout will have to largely come out of something like the Patriot Club or George Mason Foundation, not the university budget.

 

[mason lawyer]

You seem to think that money earmarked for incentives that wasn't spent gets "saved" like it's in a bank account. It's not available to be spent later because it already was spent on other things in the university budget. Budgets are crafted based on income from various sources. When one of those sources (i.e. the Commonwealth of Virginia) then comes in and says that they won't be able to provide all the funds that the university was counting on, you have to absorb that cut by reducing expenditures in various ways to make up for the 5% less that the state will be giving the university. So, for example the university isn't filling replacement positions for faculty that retired or otherwise left the university. In addition, I'm sure the administration had to cut some of whatever "discretionary" funds they must have had.

I still think that any buyout will have to largely come out of something like the Patriot Club or George Mason Foundation, not the university budget.

How much is the buyout if we fire him?

 

[Walter]

Maybe we can take it out of Tom O'Connor's retirement. He did this.

 

[psyclone]

How much is the buyout if we fire him?

It's his current salary--Pablo sent the Washington Times link that compared his salary and incentives to Larranaga's, when I asked the same thing about a week ago.

 

[GSII]

By law (section 7-200-2f) all budgeted items within contract are kept in escrow until contract is altered or cancelled. Thus the money is shown as used each year. A vote can be taken to use money for different purpose within athletic dept. I guess that means a BOV vote.

 

[A.-Siegfried]

CAA & MACC Assistants typically don't. If the trend continues going forward, than you have a point.

Also, Mike Gillian.

What about Mike Gillian? I said D1 programs. They were still D2 when he took over.

 

[MasonFanatic]

I tend to think Larranaga came home from the 2011 NCAA tournament and realized that he had nothing left to prove in Fairfax. His one unfulfilled coaching goal was to be an ACC head coach. Once he realized he could have the Miami job, he was gone. I don't think there was anything Mason could have done. And obviously Merten retiring had a big impact in that decision, too.

Losing Coach L shouldn't have been a death sentence for Mason basketball. Tom O'Connor's big blunder wasn't letting OCM leave. It was hiring the wrong guy to replace him. He went for the big splash, instead of a good coach. Maybe he also wanted to stick it to Larranaga by showing that he could have a Final Four coach for cheaper than L was demanding? Who knows.

 

[KAOriginal]

I also don't buy the argument about investment in basketball as a requirement to stay. If that was true, Miami is one of the worst BCS programs to have chosen to jump to. Miami basketball is about as relevant to that university as men's volleyball is to ours.

While it may not be relevant, I am sure a bad basketball budget year at Miami for hoops in terms of salary, atmosphere, working conditions, etc is far greater than any anything Mason could dream of.....

For goodness sakes I am sure for the same money to have matching shoes from Nike, gamplanning Duke at Cameron on national tv thanis far more fun for the money than beating Towson or losing to vcu in their dump away from home in Richmond.

 

[gmu05]

I tend to think Larranaga came home from the 2011 NCAA tournament and realized that he had nothing left to prove in Fairfax. His one unfulfilled coaching goal was to be an ACC head coach. Once he realized he could have the Miami job, he was gone.

Wish more Mason fans were smart enough to realize this...

 

[GMUgemini]

While it may not be relevant, I am sure a bad basketball budget year at Miami for hoops in terms of salary, atmosphere, working conditions, etc is far greater than any anything Mason could dream of.....

For goodness sakes I am sure for the same money to have matching shoes from Nike, gamplanning Duke at Cameron on national tv thanis far more fun for the money than beating Towson or losing to vcu in their dump away from home in Richmond.

Miami atmosphere is about what ours is like, quite apathetic. Last year's average attendance was 5,800 as a point of comparison. And yes coaching in the ACC would have its appeal, but he is doing so at a disadvantage funding wise. Whereas Mason was near the top of the CAA, Miami is near the bottom. I would equate their program to Penn State's.

You have to ask yourself why he was offered only 1.3 million to coach at Miami while Shaka was offered 2.5 million to coach at Illinois.

 

[KAOriginal]

I tend to think Larranaga came home from the 2011 NCAA tournament and realized that he had nothing left to prove in Fairfax. His one unfulfilled coaching goal was to be an ACC head coach. Once he realized he could have the Miami job, he was gone.

And beating vcu in the CAA tourney....thats still out there...

 

[Patriot Lawdog]

Losing Coach L shouldn't have been a death sentence for Mason basketball. Tom O'Connor's big blunder wasn't letting OCM leave. It was hiring the wrong guy to replace him. He went for the big splash, instead of a good coach. Maybe he also wanted to stick it to Larranaga by showing that he could have a Final Four coach for cheaper than L was demanding? Who knows.

I think that we can all agree now that job searches that begin by eliminating a big pool of qualified candidates is totally foolish.

 

[Washingtonian]

Miami lost to Green Bay today, 68-55.

 

[Quentin Daniels]

Would love to steal away their coach.

http://www.greenbayphoenix.com/View...&DB_OEM_ID=22500&ATCLID=3754213&Q_SEASON=2014