Trouble in Hattiesburg

[HuskerCager]

Will be interesting to see how things work out for Doc.

 

http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/11833052/southern-mississippi-men-basketball-ncaa-review

[49r]

http://board.huskerhoopscentral.com/topic/6055-man-gotta-kinda-feel-for-doc-on-this-one/

[Huskerpapa]

It is a hard job to clean up the mess of somebody else.  Hope that Doc is able to work through any issues that he will encounter.

[jimmykc]

 Doc's basketball fortunes remind me of an old character in the comic strip L'il Abner named Joe Btfsplk. Those youngsters who have no clue what I am talking about can google him and thank me for the lesson in useless American trivia.

[Silverbacked1]

Could be a blessing because it might make it so he doesn't have to win right now as much.

[Norm Peterson]

Could be a blessing because it might make it so he doesn't have to win right now as much.

A few years ago, I would probably have agreed with you, but anymore I don't think that's a blessing, actually.  I think in order to have a successful coaching stint when you take over a struggling program, evidence of a turnaround needs to happen right away.  Yeah, the administration might have more patience and that might buy you an extra year, but that only helps if you expect to get fired eventually and need to another year of steady income.

 

I don't think Doc or any other major college coach wants a situation where the administration is patient.  In order to win in the long term, you have to attract recruits.  In order to attract recruits, you have to generate positive excitement surrounding the program.  In order to generate positive excitement surrounding the program, you have to win more than expected and sooner than expected.  And, in order to win more than expected and sooner than expected, you have to NOT have problems like what Doc is potentially facing in Hattiesburg.

 

All patience means is that you get an extra year or two before you get fired.