Where is the money for all this? Seriously, hear me out for a minute.
So, we want to get rid of Bobby Hurley. He hasn’t reached the heights we expect and demand. Ok, that may be valid but where is all this money coming from? We have a rising football program, our flagship program, that needs a ton of money and that is not even talking about NIL. That program should be a first priority for the majority of our dollars. We have a great young coach and we need to flood that program with the money needed to allow him to continue raising the program. Priority one by a huge amount. Once all that money is put there, you then can go after the other programs. I am not a Hurley apologist. He drives me nuts with the inability of his players to do the simple things like boxing friggin out. That is b’ball 101. We have allowed far more offensive rebounds by other teams than ever (18 vs the rats) and almost every game lose the offensive and defensive rebound battle. It isn’t hard, any guy shoots, you look for an opposing player and box him the heck away from the basket, THEN you look for the ball. It drives me crazy having played basketball for 50 years (yes I'm old...) as well as the offensive shooting stupidity of taking 3 points shots like they are good at it or something. Hey, I’m open, I should shoot it. No dummy, you are open because they want you to shoot it, they are playing the odds. Ok, you get my point so I am not an apologist BUT I am also able to understand simple math. Rossini only has soo much money, not an endless supply and again, Football needs everything they want as that is priority number 1.
Now Hurley is at least decent, has a name and gives us some excitement each year. Again, not saying I accept mediocrity, that isn’t the point. If you fire the coach, you will have to pay him his final year, then get a bunch more money to pay the new guy, start completely over because the recruiting class will disappear and we will be in a 2-3 year rebuild and likely in worst shape then we are right now. I know Mr. negative Denver keeps preaching Will Wade but like Sean Miller, he would pay players when others didn’t and Miller is finding out that without that advantage, he is just an average coach, and Wade may be the same. Oh, then other fans say just get some boosters to pay for it. Well, aren’t those boosters trying help the football team and fund the NIL? That is more important to be honest. Doesn’t seem like we have a Nike sugar daddy that has an endless supply of money so the question then becomes, is this the best way to spend our money because..,
We have 3 coaches that also have to be looked at to be fired. One of those has to be automatic.. The abysmal women’s basketball coach has to go. Her 3 year conference record is 6-40. 6-40 right now. Seriously? 6-40, let that sink in. For a program that had a perennial winner like CTT, this is just embarrassingly bad. We are a laughing stock in that sport right now. We all know she was not the right hire for this job. She didn’t earn it, just fit the right criteria for Ray Ray. The best choice was just 20 minutes away at Grand Canyon. Hmm, how is that GCU coach doing? Well, she is 20-2 this year (24-8 last year), has beaten ASU and Arizona as well as NAU (who also beat ASU and UA this year) this season so she legitimately is the state champion in women’s basketball. She also beat ASU last year. When I look at overall needs, this has to rank up there. This can not continue so Rossini will have to spend some money on getting a new coach. Now hopefully he just walks over to the GCU campus to get her but he needs some money to do that. In any case, I put this above the Hurley issue, not because women’s bball is more important, just because it is a bigger need.
Then, you have Megan Bartlett for softball and our alumni Willie Bloomquist in baseball. They need to show something as well. Our softball program was elite with 2 national titles since 2008 and we had a top level coach in Tricia Ford that Ray Ray let walk without even a moderate counter offer to keep her because we supposedly didn’t have the money but then Ray Ray got a $2.1M academic bonus a week later. I like coach Bartlett but she is not showing the signs of being elite. She is 42-57 in 2 years and just 9-39 in league play. Atrocious numbers, maybe not like our women’s basketball coach dumpster fire but still bad. Keep in mind that Arizona is a high level softball state. I have a daughter that played D-1 and I have coached at the club and high school level. There is always a ton of high end talent in this state in softball. Not super hard to recruit if you are good. She has to be on the clock this year as the first two years were bad. If she has another one like that, she has to be gone as well. More money needed.
Then throw in Willie. I love the guy, saw him when he played but he has to make the tournament and have a good year or is he the right guy? Now in his 4th year, the dance has to be a requirement, or this starts to feel like Tracy Smith all over again. He is 90-81 overall so hanging in there and is 46-43 in league play but this is ASU baseball. If there is a sport we expect more, this is it as we have a great history even if it is quite awhile ago. Never should have gotten rid of Pat Murphy. Ahh, I digress. In any case, hoping he shows something more this year. Crossing my fingers but if not, more money Graham Rossini may have to spend….
Oh, we do have an amazing 2nd year Volleyball coach so we hopefully have already extended that guy. Those type coaches and what he did his first 2 years do not come along very often, need to make him happy. Our Hockey coach as well, amazing coaches, need to support them because they are outstanding so money needs to be invested there.
So, back to my points, where is all the money to go do this stuff? We don’t have a NIKE guy funding us. Maybe we need to look at Hurley and hope that he will be like Baylor’s Scott Drew, who took 8 years to figure it out before he got it going. Do I think Bobby can get us there? Probably not but maybe? Still, I love his energy and his record is actually better than what we have had even if only slightly better. Not accepting mediocrity but I think it could be worse. What coach looks at ASU as a destination job? No rising star alumni out there so we either get a retread who was fired somewhere else (like when Crow tried to hire Tom Herman in football) or an up and coming guy who you don’t know whether they will elevate or not and if so, they will be gone in a heartbeat to a better basketball school. If you try to get an established winning coach like the guy at Creighton, that will take some serious money from what some believe is an endless supply but the reality is much different. Again, where is all this money? I guess this is the bird in the hand versus the 2 in the bush thing? It might make more sense to play out his contract or even give him a 2nd year at the same level and use the other money elsewhere because there may be more pressing needs for Rossini to deal with. Thoughts?
So, we want to get rid of Bobby Hurley. He hasn’t reached the heights we expect and demand. Ok, that may be valid but where is all this money coming from? We have a rising football program, our flagship program, that needs a ton of money and that is not even talking about NIL. That program should be a first priority for the majority of our dollars. We have a great young coach and we need to flood that program with the money needed to allow him to continue raising the program. Priority one by a huge amount. Once all that money is put there, you then can go after the other programs. I am not a Hurley apologist. He drives me nuts with the inability of his players to do the simple things like boxing friggin out. That is b’ball 101. We have allowed far more offensive rebounds by other teams than ever (18 vs the rats) and almost every game lose the offensive and defensive rebound battle. It isn’t hard, any guy shoots, you look for an opposing player and box him the heck away from the basket, THEN you look for the ball. It drives me crazy having played basketball for 50 years (yes I'm old...) as well as the offensive shooting stupidity of taking 3 points shots like they are good at it or something. Hey, I’m open, I should shoot it. No dummy, you are open because they want you to shoot it, they are playing the odds. Ok, you get my point so I am not an apologist BUT I am also able to understand simple math. Rossini only has soo much money, not an endless supply and again, Football needs everything they want as that is priority number 1.
Now Hurley is at least decent, has a name and gives us some excitement each year. Again, not saying I accept mediocrity, that isn’t the point. If you fire the coach, you will have to pay him his final year, then get a bunch more money to pay the new guy, start completely over because the recruiting class will disappear and we will be in a 2-3 year rebuild and likely in worst shape then we are right now. I know Mr. negative Denver keeps preaching Will Wade but like Sean Miller, he would pay players when others didn’t and Miller is finding out that without that advantage, he is just an average coach, and Wade may be the same. Oh, then other fans say just get some boosters to pay for it. Well, aren’t those boosters trying help the football team and fund the NIL? That is more important to be honest. Doesn’t seem like we have a Nike sugar daddy that has an endless supply of money so the question then becomes, is this the best way to spend our money because..,
We have 3 coaches that also have to be looked at to be fired. One of those has to be automatic.. The abysmal women’s basketball coach has to go. Her 3 year conference record is 6-40. 6-40 right now. Seriously? 6-40, let that sink in. For a program that had a perennial winner like CTT, this is just embarrassingly bad. We are a laughing stock in that sport right now. We all know she was not the right hire for this job. She didn’t earn it, just fit the right criteria for Ray Ray. The best choice was just 20 minutes away at Grand Canyon. Hmm, how is that GCU coach doing? Well, she is 20-2 this year (24-8 last year), has beaten ASU and Arizona as well as NAU (who also beat ASU and UA this year) this season so she legitimately is the state champion in women’s basketball. She also beat ASU last year. When I look at overall needs, this has to rank up there. This can not continue so Rossini will have to spend some money on getting a new coach. Now hopefully he just walks over to the GCU campus to get her but he needs some money to do that. In any case, I put this above the Hurley issue, not because women’s bball is more important, just because it is a bigger need.
Then, you have Megan Bartlett for softball and our alumni Willie Bloomquist in baseball. They need to show something as well. Our softball program was elite with 2 national titles since 2008 and we had a top level coach in Tricia Ford that Ray Ray let walk without even a moderate counter offer to keep her because we supposedly didn’t have the money but then Ray Ray got a $2.1M academic bonus a week later. I like coach Bartlett but she is not showing the signs of being elite. She is 42-57 in 2 years and just 9-39 in league play. Atrocious numbers, maybe not like our women’s basketball coach dumpster fire but still bad. Keep in mind that Arizona is a high level softball state. I have a daughter that played D-1 and I have coached at the club and high school level. There is always a ton of high end talent in this state in softball. Not super hard to recruit if you are good. She has to be on the clock this year as the first two years were bad. If she has another one like that, she has to be gone as well. More money needed.
Then throw in Willie. I love the guy, saw him when he played but he has to make the tournament and have a good year or is he the right guy? Now in his 4th year, the dance has to be a requirement, or this starts to feel like Tracy Smith all over again. He is 90-81 overall so hanging in there and is 46-43 in league play but this is ASU baseball. If there is a sport we expect more, this is it as we have a great history even if it is quite awhile ago. Never should have gotten rid of Pat Murphy. Ahh, I digress. In any case, hoping he shows something more this year. Crossing my fingers but if not, more money Graham Rossini may have to spend….
Oh, we do have an amazing 2nd year Volleyball coach so we hopefully have already extended that guy. Those type coaches and what he did his first 2 years do not come along very often, need to make him happy. Our Hockey coach as well, amazing coaches, need to support them because they are outstanding so money needs to be invested there.
So, back to my points, where is all the money to go do this stuff? We don’t have a NIKE guy funding us. Maybe we need to look at Hurley and hope that he will be like Baylor’s Scott Drew, who took 8 years to figure it out before he got it going. Do I think Bobby can get us there? Probably not but maybe? Still, I love his energy and his record is actually better than what we have had even if only slightly better. Not accepting mediocrity but I think it could be worse. What coach looks at ASU as a destination job? No rising star alumni out there so we either get a retread who was fired somewhere else (like when Crow tried to hire Tom Herman in football) or an up and coming guy who you don’t know whether they will elevate or not and if so, they will be gone in a heartbeat to a better basketball school. If you try to get an established winning coach like the guy at Creighton, that will take some serious money from what some believe is an endless supply but the reality is much different. Again, where is all this money? I guess this is the bird in the hand versus the 2 in the bush thing? It might make more sense to play out his contract or even give him a 2nd year at the same level and use the other money elsewhere because there may be more pressing needs for Rossini to deal with. Thoughts?
