Norm Peterson

So, if I’m Trev, I might approach Fred and say “if you would rather not coach again next year, let me know and we can probably release you from your contract.“

I’ve stopped checking the recruiting board. I haven’t looked at it for the last several weeks. I’ve decided it’s completely superfluous until sometime in March, at the very earliest.

I thought that little run to end the game really gives us something to build on for the rest of the season. If we can just play against the other team‘s walk-ons and deep bench, I feel like we could do pretty well.

Adolf be like “thank you Fred! I thought that monkey was never coming off my back.“

if this is true, then you would have to agree that our highest paid assistant in program history, whose only real responsibility is recruiting, has been a catastrophic failure in his job.

I'm expecting some of the bathwater to change itself.

Staff changes aren’t gonna be Fred’s choice.

You say that as though Doc Sadler has ANY control over this team or how it plays. You've gone on record wanting to blame Doc (whom you apparently hold more responsible than Fred for some reason) for the team's lack of success even though he's not even an assistant coach and doesn't have any coaching responsibilities. At all. Or, we can play your game of "prove it" like you did in your next post upthread and you can explain what involvement in coaching you think Doc has and how it is you know this as fact.

I'm sorry, everyone. I was mistaken. Matt Abdelmassih does NOT make $375,000/year. He makes $400,000/year. Four hundred grand. To circle names on the Rivals 150 like it's a race form at Pimlico. I guarantee he doesn't know crap about horses. Has no idea how to train them to run faster. Someone just taught him how to read a racing form and put him in charge of placing the bets.

That's what happens when you put a glad-handing schmoozer who doesn't really know the game in charge of assembling your roster.

I would fold this into #3. When I was going through leadership training in the Army many decades ago, I remember learning about great leaders and the attributes that made them great. Getting players to buy-in is a responsibility of leadership. Setting a standard and enforcing it is a responsibility of leadership. Motivating your troops to accomplish the mission is a responsibility of leadership. I was always told there's no such thing as bad soldiers, only bad leaders. If there's a lack of focus or effort or commitment to doing the little things to be successful, that is totally a fault of the leaders under #3, in my opinion. I kind of envisioned #3 to include everything a coach should be, know and do to get his players to execute his plan to the best of their talent.

I'm actually enjoying reading the insightful comments from each of you who have picked a different issue as being the primary cause of our sustained difficulties. I think a person could reasonably and rationally defend any of the options. And it just goes to show what a hot mess our program is right now.

I hear ya, but see what Wyoming is doing with a buncha nobodies who are at least on the same page. I'm not saying our talent level is great. But even Doc Sadler could take the mighty-mites and nearly get them into the NCAA tourney. Is the problem the talent? Or in whose hands the talent is being developed? Would Kevin Cross be playing as well if he'd stayed here? Is there any reason for us to think that he would be given what we've seen of the other players on this roster? I really question it. We've got the opposite of synergy going on here: the whole is WAY less than the sum of the parts.

Which one is the worst?

I've said this before (and I'm probably not the first person to come up with this idea) but I think there are three dimensions to success in a team sport: talent, scheme, and the ability of the coach to apply the scheme to the talent. What "talent" means is pretty self-evident. It's a combination of skill and athleticism, apropos to a particular sport, position or athletic endeavor. Scheme is the structure given to the strategy and philosophy of the coach. Application of scheme to the talent could also be called "coaching" but it relates specifically to that portion of the coach's job outside of recruiting and scheming. It involves educating players on their role within the scheme, training them, drilling them, motivating them, and leading them so that the players you have execute the scheme you've chosen. You might also call this last factor "leadership" because leadership encompasses all the elements of training, educating, developing, motivating, etc. So, our record speaks for itself. There's a breakdown here somewhere. At least one of the legs of this three-legged stool is failing to function optimally. Where is the biggest breakdown occurring? Is our biggest limitation talent? Is it scheme? Is it leadership/coaching? Thoughts, folks?

Would any sane D1 head basketball coach hire me to be their sole recruiting assistant, armed with nothing more than the latest iteration of the Rivals 150 rankings? I mean, I'm OK with trying to find more talented players. And there's certainly a correlation between Rivals rankings and skill level. But, at a certain point, you have to be able to spot talent regardless of what Rivals says about a guy.

You want more frustration? Their second-leading scorer is a 5th-year senior who has played all five seasons ... for Wyoming. Stuck it out through a coaching change. Didn't get cut. Didn't get sent packing. Stuck around. Developed. And he's averaging almost 20 ppg. Their 3rd-leading scorer was an unranked 2020 juco recruit who came out in the same class as Teddy Allen and Lat Mayen, who were both top 20 juco recruits. Except their guy is averaging 47.5% from 3-point range. Their 4th-leading scorer is a true sophomore guard who was unranked as a recruit and chose Wyoming over offers from Montana and Northern Colorado. And he's shooting 37% from 3. And their 5th-leading scorer is another true sophomore. Who turned down offers from Illinois State, New Mexico, and the University of Chicago, to attend Wyoming. So, THREE TRUE SOPHOMORES (who could all officially be freshmen, just like Eduardo), a 2nd-year unranked juco kid, and a 5th year senior who's spent his whole career at Wyoming. And they're KenPom top 50. We're doing something wrong here.

Graham Ike is a true sophomore from Colorado who didn't even get a composite score from 24/7 recruiting. He's the same recruiting class as Eduardo Andre, who was the #226 recruit nationally according to 24/7. Ike is averaging 20 points per game. In his 2nd actual season of college ball. And we're paying a guy $375,000/year to find these guys.

Look at their frickin roster. They're KenPom top 50 with a veritable who's who who's that? of nobodies. This is their best player: Graham Ike, 2020 Center - Rivals.com

Wow. WTF.

There seems to be a curious disconnect in some of the voting. At least half the people who want to give Fred another couple of years don't think he'll get the program turned around. If you think he'll eventually make it happen, then I could see saying give him more time. But what's the justification to give him more time if you don't think he's going to get things turned around? I'm just curious about that.

If both McGowens came back, that would be a big help. That's probably not likely, but it would be the best chance for significant improvement in our record to have a guy like Bryce in a 2nd year of college ball having a better sense of the lay of the land. Fred needs to find a floor general who looks to pass first but can make the shot when it's there. Not sure that guy is on our current roster or list of recruits for next year. And Blaise Keita needs to be all that and a bag of chips. And Wilhelm needs to heal and return. And the guys who are supposed to be shooters need to figure out how to light it up. And then we have a shot to be a .500 or so team. Maybe.

I get more of a Starsky and Hutch vibe.

Hmmmm. You sure about that, boss? I mean, I am not blown away by any of the guys we have signed, TBH. Had big hopes for Blaise Keita, but is he even playing these days? Or injured?

Where do you lean?