(03-06-2018 04:58 PM)WKUYG Wrote:  

(03-06-2018 02:07 PM)Rojogrande Wrote:  

(03-06-2018 01:22 PM)WKUYG Wrote:  

(03-06-2018 12:49 PM)JCMiner Wrote:  Can anyone from WKU tell me exactly what forced the Harper resignation. He started off really hot. Was he mainly using the previous coach players and then once his recruits came in the talent dropped off?

He never was the choice of Western's president but after taking over from the mess of KDM then turning around the team and fans ( avg attendance in the 5500 range) then winning the SBC and going to the NCAA Tourney....

President Ransdall had no choice but to hire Harper. But Harper had his hands tied and couldn't clean house because of APR numbers . Then in year two our pg was out 10 games in the middle of the season and Western loss some close game....once the PG came back Western started winning and won the SBC tourney again.

With that in mind...Harper is the only coach in the history of Western that did not get the roll over year. Other wise in July a coaches contract rolls over for another year and a coach is always working with a 4 year contract.

Three players on Harpers last team ran a train on a girl and it was recorded. The tape got out and daddy didn't like the fact of it. All three we suspended. From what I heard the girl was a willing figure in the sex and recording....

yet she was not kicked off the tennis (I believe it was tennis) team. Don't know if it's true or not but I was told this was the 2nd sex tape this girl had made.

No one can make me believe that if it was white players it would have been a issue. I was also told that two of the player could have returned if Stansbury wanted them. He didn't so they were released of their scholarship.

Harper is about as good of a bench coach there is His weakness is recruiting but with a good budget I think that could be fixed. Again for the first time that I've been keeping up with Western's budgets....the Mens basketball team was cut almost $200,000 in Harpers 3rd season.

5.5 seasons and 3 ncaa tourneys and the least amount of games he won was 18, 20,20,20,21.

But in the end he wasn't the hire Gary Ransdell....back to back ncaa tourney bid and the team held their own vs Kansas and #1 uk and did not earn a roll over year...that tells you what Western was thinking

Sounds like a lot of Harper love from you Guns.

You are correct on the sex incident. She was a soccer player however and had done something similar with some baseball players from what I was told. The reason the basketball players got in trouble was that it happened in the team facilities and not in an apartment or dorm. One of those players (Marlon Hunter) is on Harper's Jacksonville St team now.

You posted Harper's record, but those are misleading as he never won 20 games in the regular season here. He never crossed the 20 win mark until the conference tournament. And both of his NCAA trips at WKU were as a 16 seed. Was he ham stringed by some APR issues that KMac left him with....yes. But he had 4 years to right the ship. And his 4th full year at WKU was his worst finishing 8th in CUSA. And by then the APR issues were over and he had his "own guys" in there.

That said, Harper is a great X's and O's coach and get can maximum effort out of the talent he has. However, he is just not a very good recruiter. He got us Justin Johnson, but not much else. Harper is best suited for a lower level Division 1 school. His ability is not at a mid to high CUSA level.

You could have stopped with...

you are correct, guns.

Western's President did not want Harper.
Western's president dictated on recruiting
Western's President/AD not once gave a coach coming off back to back NCAA bids a Roll over year.
Western cut the basketball budget by $200,000

I don't know about you but I will take a 16 seed and a conference championship over not winning either. You act like winning a conference championship and going to the ncaa tourney is bad. A 16 seed pays as much as a 8 seed (any seed) hell actually it paid more because out of those 2 16 seeds...western earned 3 ncaa units. Each unit is worth $1.67 million over six years to the conference


Again if those players were white.....

you and I both know nothing would have been said or done. How do we know this....the girl was not kicked out of school. She screwed all 3 in team facilities. If the fact it happened on school property was the reason all 3 were kicked off the team and out of school.... why wasn't the girl.

You bring up JJ and act like thats the only good recruit Harper brought in

He was lead recruiter on Fant (his family loved Harper and still does)
He had to beg KMD to give TJ a scholarship
Trency Jackson would be the best damn defensive player on this team
CHD didn't workout like we all though but he played a role in some major wins
There's no one on this team...star rating or not that was better than Fredrick Edmond
Chris McNeal was the best young PG that we had for a long time at Western

As for the part in bold...being handcuffed by Western on recruiting for his first 2 seasons.....

Western finished tied for 4th and one game from 2nd in Harpers first year coaching in CUSA and 8th his second. Come on that statement shows who's bias.

Harpers last year in CUSA with 9 new players on the team....loss 6 games by 4 points or less and 2 others by 6 or less.

In summary nothing but excuses above...

UTEP you can do better than Harper I would hope. Bigger question is wonder why Harper is not happy at Jax St? seems to be a good fit for him with zero pressure after getting them to dance last season...