Coaching Carousel 2023

[JimP]

No offense but that attitude is a big reason why Mason is known for Masoning things up.

We can agree to disagree on a lot of things, but if you have decided that Kim is your guy — WHICH DR. WASHINGTON CLEARLY DID — and you know he’s on the radar for other jobs (which he was), you don’t drag your feet when asked for a ridiculously small amount of money to increase the salaries of his assistant coaches.

Whether he “deserved” to make such an ask is effing irrelevant. He had the leverage to do so, and failing to recognize that fact has us back in rebuilding mode after losing a coach our president really wanted to keep.

If you can’t see why that’s a problem, I don’t have time to explain it to you.

Sure sounds like the admin. needs to learn a lesson on this one. However, it’s hard for me to believe that Kim wasn't gonna use any excuse to leave. Sure, he complained about the administration. However, does anyone have any idea how hard he actually lobbied for the things he wanted that would have supposedly resulted in him staying at Mason? Guessing not that hard.

 

[gmujim92]

"Your fate is set, a lifelong letdown yet.
Go sob in your gatherings, you miserable pet.
Your worth to the discussions is all in your mind,
None cares for your presence, the truth is unkind."

Ok that was effing brilliant, I bow in your general direction

 

[MasonSAE4]

No offense but that attitude is a big reason why Mason is known for Masoning things up.

We can agree to disagree on a lot of things, but if you have decided that Kim is your guy — WHICH DR. WASHINGTON CLEARLY DID — and you know he’s on the radar for other jobs (which he was), you don’t drag your feet when asked for a ridiculously small amount of money to increase the salaries of his assistant coaches.

Whether he “deserved” to make such an ask is effing irrelevant. He had the leverage to do so, and failing to recognize that fact has us back in rebuilding mode after losing a coach our president really wanted to keep.

If you can’t see why that’s a problem, I don’t have time to explain it to you.

Agree on the salary for assistants and whatnot, but I think others are correct in that from a physical infrastructure point of view we have adequate facilities to be competitive in the A10. Could we be better? Of course. But EBA isn't that bad and the RAC facility is fine I suppose. Mason just can't get out of its own way and decide if we want a great facility at the RAC, or to build on to EBA, and we end up with neither.

 

[gmujim92]

Agree on the salary for assistants and whatnot, but I think others are correct in that from a physical infrastructure point of view we have adequate facilities to be competitive in the A10. Could we be better? Of course. But EBA isn't that bad and the RAC facility is fine I suppose. Mason just can't get out of its own way and decide if we want a great facility at the RAC, or to build on to EBA, and we end up with neither.

“Adequate,” “Isn’t that bad” and “fine” are what get you middle of the pack or worse once the A-10 gets back to being a multibid league. There is a lot of money being thrown around by our peers these days. I’m convinced we can and must do better.

 

[GMUgemini]

He asked for a little more $ for the assistant coaches

Does anyone believe, though, that if we offered Kim 2 more years and tossed 50-100k at the assistants he would still be coach here? I don’t.

Maybe they should have done it, but I think he’s Providence coach either way.

 

[Verdad]

If that had happened, then Kim is probably content, doesn’t tell Barnes anything to the contrary, and maybe Barnes doesn’t reach out to Providence when Coley left.

Or maybe the later parts all happened anyway and he still would have been gone. Only Kim could possibly say.

 

[MasonSAE4]

“Adequate,” “Isn’t that bad” and “fine” are what get you middle of the pack or worse once the A-10 gets back to being a multibid league. There is a lot of money being thrown around by our peers these days. I’m convinced we can and must do better.

I don't disagree, but I just don't think KE could reasonably point to these and say "get me better, and ASAP" and then bolt if told no. Not in the same way he could with assistant's salaries.

I think It's MADDENING that the university can't be transparent as to where we are with "Pase II" or an EBA practice facility or whatever. Doesn't help that they seemingly leak small nuggets to people to calm people down. Hell, it's in public BOV documents that the state has given us 15 mil and the project is waiting on fundraising and internal authorization. So like wtf. Just give literally any update. Or ask for money. Anything.

 

[gmujim92]

Does anyone believe, though, that if we offered Kim 2 more years and tossed 50-100k at the assistants he would still be coach here? I don’t.

Maybe they should have done it, but I think he’s Providence coach either way.

Never suggested otherwise, it’s just indicative of how the situation was handled. If it ever comes out how much Mason supposedly offered Kim to stay people’s heads would explode

 

[gmutom]

For the sake of harmony — and because I like Jim and Chank — I'm going to say you are both right. There's no doubt our athletic department could have had a better dialogue with Kim about a possible extension even if the goal was to put it off until the new AD was hired. I do push back on the notion that everything is as it's always been at Mason, because President Washington is a huge sports fan who greatly understands and values its importance to the university. The same can not be said for Cabrera and Merten.

But I also think anybody who doesn't believe Kim was out the door the second the Providence job was offered — regardless of what the school did — is also fooling themself. And just to be clear, I don't mean that as a dig at all to English or begrudge him for leaving. We knew he was a ladder-climber with high ambition when we hired him. I believe he was genuinely a rah-rah Mason guy for the roughly 730 days he was here, but I'm also realistic enough to acknowledge that we were merely a rung in his overall plan.

I've said this to several fellow fans this week and still maintain it to be true: There is no villain in this story. I don't blame Kim, I don't blame Providence, and I don't blame Mason. A better job opened, Kim jumped at it, and it's time to move on to the next era of Mason basketball.

 

[ProfessorCFK]

Do we know what the assistants made?

According to online public records search, Felton's base salary was $200,000, Simpkin's was $173,000, and Tomlinson's was $150,000 for the 2021-2022 season.

 

[Dawgs99]

All these insiders seem to know the package that was offered to keep CKE but won't say so on the boards....if you know or think you know than come out with it, otherwise STFU.

 

[GMU79]

CKE was likely in a situation where he was saying why don't we do "this" or why don't we do "that" and here's what we should be doing. Then the AD staff sat back on their routines and watched CKE do all the work. CKE was leading by example, but the problem with that is no one wanted to change, no one wanted to improve, no one wanted to leave their comfort zone and grow (hence, adherence to a status quo).

Any leader, CKE included, knows that a leader can't do it all himself. The problem is that CKE did not possess the leverage to enact and enforce change upon those whom he had to rely upon for support, that's for an [... wait for it...] AD to do. Mason was, and is, devoid of an AD.

It's not difficult to recognize and understand the dynamics. It happens to those who work hard and possess a drive to achieve. If the support is not there then one either bails to save oneself or burns oneself out. CKE bailed. He left us and his players holding the bag of sh!t. The only saving grace is that maybe Mason, Dr. W, and the new AD are starkly aware of the problem and can seize the opportunity borne from this crisis to improve. It just sucks that we fans and the athletes have to suffer from the fallout. But we rebuild.

I have a good feeling about Dr. W.
I don't blame him for any of this. He had just come on board last year and had an entire university to get to know and run.
I believe he is intimately involved in this AD/coach process. And I have a feeling he knows what he wants and WILL get it.

 

[99 Patriot]

Probably deserving of its' own thread, but do we think the A-10 is our long-term home? vcu has ambitions of becoming a Big East program, and probably could pull it off. UMass I'm told by some of their people are looking to invest big in football, which may mean an eventual conference move. If that happens, I think it leaves Mason and Rhode Island as the only 2 public schools in the conference.

An entirely new staff and roster might be all we can handle this week, but this probably deserves some July/August discussion as well once things quiet down here.

 

[Patriot8]

Kaufman is coming for y’all.. you better “cool it” @gmujim92 @Leesburg Chankenstank III

 

[Patriot8]

Kaufman is coming for y’all.. you better “cool it” @gmujim92 @Leesburg Chankenstank III

 

[gmujim92]

For the sake of harmony — and because I like Jim and Chank — I'm going to say you are both right. There's no doubt our athletic department could have had a better dialogue with Kim about a possible extension even if the goal was to put it off until the new AD was hired. I do push back on the notion that everything is as it's always been at Mason, because President Washington is a huge sports fan who greatly understands and values its importance to the university. The same can not be said for Cabrera and Merten.

But I also think anybody who doesn't believe Kim was out the door the second the Providence job was offered — regardless of what the school did — is also fooling themself. And just to be clear, I don't mean that as a dig at all to English or begrudge him for leaving. We knew he was a ladder-climber with high ambition when we hired him. I believe he was genuinely a rah-rah Mason guy for the roughly 730 days he was here, but I'm also realistic enough to acknowledge that we were merely a rung in his overall plan.

I've said this to several fellow fans this week and still maintain it to be true: There is no villain in this story. I don't blame Kim, I don't blame Villanova, and I don't blame Mason. A better job opened, Kim jumped at it, and it's time to move on to the next era of Mason basketball.

I’m too old to be naive, but Providence is not widely regarded as a great job. Cooley validated that to some extent by leaving for another school in the same conference.

This wasn’t Syracuse or UConn. Mason could have made it a much harder decision for Kim and hopefully will in the future if/when our next coach is offered a new job.

 

[By George.]

I have refrained from posting much the last couple days because I may have been one of the people most angry at the way this situation was handled that lead to CKE leaving for PC. If you have any doubt about that, you can ask gmutom, mkaufman, masonfanatic, gmujim92 and others that I talked to privately, I was pretty salty. Why? I and my family dedicated a large portion of our time, effort and money to support the CKE era at Mason 100% for the last two years and we felt like our hearts had been ripped out. But, I wanted to get both sides of the story before finalizing my opinion and saying much in a public forum. I don't want to go into any details and start another blame session, though. I also wanted to decide where I go from here as it relates to my fandom based on what I found. This isn't inteneded to about me, but I wanted to give a little background for the next paragraph and to show that if I can come back from being so down on Mason as a program, hopefully those of you feeling similarly might as well.

I am over the anger now and ready to move forward supporting Mason fully. Why? Maybe I am naive, but I have been convinced that Mason has learned from this whole really bad situation, they are dedicated to resolving it in a positive manner with appropriate urgency, AND possibly most important, dedicated to resolving the systemic issues that contributed to it. I hope you will join me in moving forward, continuing to support Mason and giving them the opportunity to prove to you their new found commitment to making the program the best it can be.

I put this all in the coaching thread as I am convinced we will be happy with with the coach they pick and it will be done in a timely manner.

We stand with you Brian, but can you touch on the changes that will be made?

 

[By George.]

For the record: KE did not demand an extension, he was disappointed it was not offered to him. Once Mason was caught with their pants down, they did make an aggressive offer. It was too late.

 

[He15man]

I don't disagree, but I just don't think KE could reasonably point to these and say "get me better, and ASAP" and then bolt if told no. Not in the same way he could with assistant's salaries.

I think It's MADDENING that the university can't be transparent as to where we are with "Pase II" or an EBA practice facility or whatever. Doesn't help that they seemingly leak small nuggets to people to calm people down. Hell, it's in public BOV documents that the state has given us 15 mil and the project is waiting on fundraising and internal authorization. So like wtf. Just give literally any update. Or ask for money. Anything.

I'm under the impression that the kind of insights you're looking for infrastructure investment wise are going to come out soon. I know everyone will believe it when they see it, but i have no reason to not believe what i'm being told in that improvements are coming.

 

[Patriotsince81]

For the record: KE did not demand an extension, he was disappointed it was not offered to him. Once Mason was caught with their pants down, they did make an aggressive offer. It was too late.

Sounds like a swollen ego to me.