(03-08-2018 05:39 PM)TripleA Wrote:  

(03-08-2018 05:14 PM)WhoseHouse? Wrote:  I'm just glad UH wasn't as short sighted with Sampson as Memphis is being right now.

I felt that way until this past week. The well is so poisoned at Memphis that Tubby needs to go. It's not obvious to fans outside Memphis, but here are a few issues:

1. Quotes by Tubby:

"Memphis fans have to realize this is not the Memphis of 10 years ago."

"We are going to be a top team in the conference this year (2017-18)."

"Memphis fans need to learn to have patience."

Many more I can't recall . Maybe others can.

2. Tubby has refused to do much PR since he arrived. Almost zero. That has turned all the local media against him, and makes things worse.

3. Things fell apart in Season 1 when the team quit late, losing 6 of 7, and blowing a shot at an NCAAT berth, and certainly the NIT.

4. After Season 1, almost everybody should have returned, but everybody transferred out except Martin and Rivers. We had to sign 11 guys in April just to field a team for this season.

5. Tubby has yet to sign any Memphis recruits, although several top guys would fill needs for us. Until a couple of weeks ago, his only signee for 2018 is #337 in the rankings. He got a nice pickup late, Jones, #101 in 24/7, but still no Memphis kids.

He has so alienated the local Memphis AAU and HS coaches that nobody is helping him.

6. This season, we suffered our two worst RPI losses in 48 years, and the two worst losses in the same season, ever.

7. Our attendance has dropped from 12K with Pastner to 6K, and we are in danger of slipping low enough to lose our FedExForum lease next year.

8. Revenue is down by a couple million, and so far, next year looks even worse.

I could go on and on. There is much more. I have been supportive of Tubby, and think he should be given a fair chance, but no objective person can look at our performance and trends lately, plus consider all the above, and think we are definitely experiencing a program turnaround. We are staring at Year 3, with no end in sight.

Hell, Justin Fuente walked into a FB program that had won 3 games in 2 years, was at the bottom of the FBS rankings for 4 years, and had us winning, bowling and ranked in Year 3.

Basketball shouldn't be harder, right?

At any rate, given the publicity this week, which should have been kept under wraps, we don't have much choice now. Penny may be a risk, but he is a Memphis legend and our risk.

I bet our attendance immediately jumps back up to 12K, and other donations will also rise.

Time to take the plunge, I'm afraid.

ill start by saying im 100% for hiring penny if an elite assistant is there to guide him

but with that said almost everything listed here happened at UH too
sampson and tubby are identical type coaches, who are actually extremely good friends

1) sampson's not a great recruiter either...houston is one of the deepest recruiting hot beds in America and our team is almost exclusively out of state juco
a) rob gray -NC juco
b) corey davis louisana transfer/juco
c) devin davis indiana transfer/juco
d) starting center juco.
e) zanna nigeria/new york- mid major grad transfer

there are 3 houston kids on our active roster- galen (a legacy), chris harris (grades made him go to juco, we were the only one who stuck with him juco) and fabian white....
none of the houston kids we have were touted besides maybe fabian, who took 3 years to get ...and none of them were active in the main houston aau circuit...we haven't gotten an elite houston kid yet

even our big recruits next year are from Louisiana and north carolina

2) has made comments about our fans and program...like tubby, sampson is bruttally honest when talking to the media. he says how he actually feels

3) we have had horrible rpi losses every season, including this season.. his first season we lost back to back to 320+ rpi teams (which at the time, we debated in our forum if that was the worst 2 back to back losses in school history)

4) samspon was supposed in inherit an elite team, (1 5star and 3 4star) like memphis, we had an elite recruiter who couldnt coach ....and like memphis they all transferred out after we fired him.....also most of everyone on sampsons first team transferred out or declared aswell

5) it took sampson 4 years to finally get the ball rolling as a top 25..

agree on the last 2) this is why i actually think the penny move makes sense...houston wasnt relying on basketball revenues like memphis ..and houston was losing fans, didnt have ant to begin with. we had the ability to be patient

give tubby 4 years (2 more) and memphis will be a tourney team...like houston you probably wont be a elite local recruiter, but like houston the success itself will bring some decent recruits...your fanbase will be somewhat restored..8-9k from winning and youll be back to being a regular tourney team, just probably not as a regular high seed.. likely flying under the radar by the national media

i think penny brings a gamble but it could bring 13k+ plus back in 2 years, plus elite teams with tons of elite recruits and high media attention...if the assistants are legit ..memphis resurgence top a top 10 program could be there
and i know thats what memphis wants to be..tubby will never be that