Stand Down, Everyone!
by Brewtown Andy on May 11, 2011 8:17 AM CDT
in Rumormongering
Email
PrintAt some point yesterday, someone in College Station, TX, decided to turn on one of those new fangled Google machines and investigate how much money it was going to take to match and then outdo what Marquette is paying head coach Buzz Williams. Based on the tweets from San Antonio Express-News reporter Brent Zwerneman, it appears to have come as a complete shock to everyone related to Texas A&M University that Buzz is being compensated to the tune of nearly $4 million a year. I don't understand how this is possible, seeing as it has only been 42 days since Buzz and Marquette agreed to his brand new contract, not to mention that a school in their own conference, the University of Oklahoma, is largely responsible for that new contract existing.
The thing in the SAEN story that I'm actually most interested by is the part about who A&M would be hiring as an assistant coach. The story claims that, after swiping Buzz from MU, A&M would hire a local high school coach who's currently coaching an ESPN top 50 2012 recruit. Oh, and he also happens to be said recruit's father. Am I insane or is both hiring a high school coach AND hiring a recruit's parent in order to land that recruit a massive NCAA violation?
Seeing as the A&M athletic department's PR skills are a complete joke (seriously, who lets out both "What? He's making HOW much? Oh, we're NEVER paying that!" and "Hey, we're gonna hire that kid's dad so he comes here!" to reporters?), I am forced to believe the list of coaches in this Dallas Morning News article is completely legit. So now A&M has gone from Buzz or Josh Pastner (who flat won't even consider talking to A&M, surprising NO ONE), to two guys who couldn't finish over .500 in the conference that A&M is in, the guy who replaced Mark Turgeon at Wichita State, and a 53 year old who hasn't coached in 9 years. Smooth.
25 comments
|
0 recs |
Do you like this story?
Comments
Like I said last night:
A&M went from “Buzz is our man, we’ll pay whatever it takes to land him” to “HELLZ NO, we’re not paying that for a fourth-year coach, he’s totally overpaid” in about twelve hours. I believe that’s some kind of record.
We pull our pants up and do our jobs here.
Has there been a job opening in the last 3 years
that Fraschilla hasn’t been mentioned for? Does he have Crean’s agent?
"When a guy takes off his coat, he's not going to fight. When a guy takes off his wristwatch, watch out!"
- Al McGuire
www.anonymouseagle.com
Things I just looked up
Lavin is only 6 years younger than Fraschilla.
That almost seems impossible, doesn’t it?
Restoring carousel. Come help.
by Brewtown Andy on May 11, 2011 8:47 AM CDT up reply actions
I don't know where these guys get their numbers
But I have a hard time believing that Buzz’s compensation nears 4mil before the buyout. That HAS to be a completely inaccurate statement. Perhaps they’re finding excuses for why they can’t land the coaches that are at the top of their list.
I think it's probably pretty close
when you factor in what his assistants are paid, charter travel, etc. He’s well taken care of here.
We pull our pants up and do our jobs here.
Agree that he's taken care of on top of his base
But I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone tack on all of the amenities as part of the total salary. That’s just assumed expenses for Universities and I would guess that every school has different amenities to offer that at the end of the day are a wash when it comes accepting another job.
Compensation includes
The university’s contribution to Buzz’s retirement plan. Now that he’s been here more than 2 years, if Buzz chips in 5% (and why wouldn’t he?), the university chips in 8%. An extra $160K is nothing to sneeze at.
Restoring carousel. Come help.
by Brewtown Andy on May 11, 2011 9:47 AM CDT via mobile up reply actions
Further, what makes them think that their school is such a desired destination?
Oh wait, it must be “one of the nation’s top programs” like Maryland, Oklahoma, and Arkansas.
As a former A&M SID, I find it odd that you criticize folks for not getting their facts straight when you obviously don’t understand how things work. The athletic department’s PR department has NOTHING to do with the rumors and numbers being thrown around. SID folks NEVER get involved in this stuff. Their job doesn’t start until the next coach is hired, bo back off the snide comments.
BTW, I worked with Buzz when he was at A&M and he’s tremendous. You guys have a good one and I’m glad your AD realizes it.
Andy didn't say that the problem was with the SIDs or the PR department.
He said someone in A&M’s athletic department is leaking stuff — e.g., “holy crap, how much would we have to pay just to talk to him??” — that looks really bad from a PR standpoint.
We pull our pants up and do our jobs here.
Who said I was talking about the SID guys?
Zwerneman sources both things as “coaching contact” and “program insider.” He obviously trusts both sources. If A&M doesn’t want me ripping their PR skills (which is what I did, NOT the PR department), then they need to put a lid on whoever those sources are.
Restoring carousel. Come help.
by Brewtown Andy on May 11, 2011 10:37 AM CDT via mobile up reply actions
Point of Clarification
You can hire a friend/relative/AAU coach/high school to your staff to land a prospect, but you must hire them to the one of the three main assistant coaching positions (not video coordinator or any lower level position). I’d assume that the point being is that you would not waste a valuable assistant position on someone unqualified. From the sounds of it, John Reese (father of 2012 top 50 prospect J’Mychal Reese) is actually a successful high school coach and potentially worthy of an assistant position. It would be like Tom Crean hiring Tom Diener as assistant at Marquette when Travis was a junior in high school.
If you have to hire his dad/coach
to get a kid who goes to high school in your city, that’s pathetic.
Restoring carousel. Come help.
by Brewtown Andy on May 11, 2011 4:30 PM CDT up reply actions
Anyone who posts this:
Am I insane or is both hiring a high school coach AND hiring a recruit’s parent in order to land that recruit a massive NCAA violation?
really shouldn’t question the competence of anyone else.
The Dallas Morning News doesn’t know what they’re talking about, and Chuck Carlton is finding his material by reading bulletin boards and blogs online, but your ignorance of NCAA rules really isn’t much better. Carlton is literally throwing names at the wall, he has no sources at A&M.
I have been informed
That there are 3 jobs on a college campus you can hire a high school coach/recruit’s parents to perform. Those three are the three full time assistant coaches. You can’t hire them to do anything else out of the thousands of jobs at any university.
So that makes me, what, 99% right?
Besides, talking about unsigned recruits IS an NCAA violation, and I would figure talking about hiring a recruit’s HS coach/parent would qualify as talking about that recruit.
Restoring carousel. Come help.
by Brewtown Andy on May 12, 2011 7:22 AM CDT up reply actions
do you follow basketball recruiting at all?
I’m wondering, because I don’t follow basketball recruiting, and yet I’m aware that hiring AAU coaches as assistants to get recruits, and hiring high school coaches as assistants is a fairly common practice.
Besides, talking about unsigned recruits IS an NCAA violation, and I would figure talking about hiring a recruit’s HS coach/parent would qualify as talking about that recruit.
You figure wrong – again.
BTW, the issue with Williams isn’t the money involved, because we easily have enough to outbid Marquette. The new television contracts for the Big 12 guarantee A&M will make more money off of television revenue alone than Marquette’s whole athletic department makes in a year. The issue is simply one of value; even if you can afford it, paying $4 million for a coach who hasn’t won a conference championship or gone to the Final Four is a stretch.
With Buzz, I don't have to follow recruiting at all.
There’s no point when he’s pulling impact players like Davante Gardner out of nowhere.
And on the topic of money, if that’s what helps you sleep at night, you go ahead and believe A&M will pay for value. But with Texas lawmakers freaking out about Rick Barnes getting boosted to $2.4 million, and Mike Sherman making $1.8 million, there’s no chance A&M’s paying anyone any huge number to do anything.
Restoring carousel. Come help.
by Brewtown Andy on May 13, 2011 7:27 AM CDT up reply actions
those Texas lawmakers are just posturing to look good for the cameras
the money used to give Barnes his raise is from texas’ athletic department, which includes no state funds or taxpayer money, so politicians commenting on it is really irrelevant
As for Sherman making $1.8 million, two things: 1) he makes more than that when you consider television/radio/shoe contract/bonus clauses in his contract and 2) he actually requested less money than we offered him when he was hired b/c he wanted a bigger budget to hire assistants. Sherman was an NFL coach for 11 years, including 6 as a head coach; he isn’t hurting for money.
That's nice.
Restoring carousel. Come help.
by Brewtown Andy on May 18, 2011 6:41 PM CDT up reply actions
What's with all of this sensitivity coming from A&M fans?
It’s as if AE went to their campus and poisoned their trees then impregnated their girlfriends. Sheesh!
I hereby nominate “A&M fan” as our next subject for “Adjective Survivor”
They got pantsed on a national stage
And they’re upset that I took a picture of it.
Restoring carousel. Come help.
by Brewtown Andy on May 13, 2011 9:45 AM CDT up reply actions
Comments For This Post Are Closed
Secondary Sidebar
User Tools
FanPosts
Community blog posts and discussion.
