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Message: [QUOTE="Sherman20, post: 5689201, member: 6357"] First, if we want to compete, we’re gonna have to pay a top coach. You don’t think Wildhack and the administration was prepared that they might have to let Red go this season and looked at the market for coaches and understood that they would have to pay the market rate for a top coach—$3-4 million? I have to assume they know the financials are extremely high if we can get attendance back to our historic levels. We’re one of the top 5 revenue producing teams in college basketball. Those numbers have likely decreased the past few years, and we need success to fix those financials. The administration should know what’s possible in revenue if we can get back to being at the heights we were for most of our history, including the high water 2009-2016 period. A Hop hire will be greeted with the same skepticism that Red’s hire was, probably even worse. If we don’t have a quick turnaround and in both style of play and success, the fanbase is going to know that we aren’t serious about basketball here and will further erode the enthusiasm. Second, I would argue that Hodgson is not the #2 candidate on the coaching market this season. He’s probably in the top 5 but not necessarily # 2. He might be #1 for us because of his upstate ties and his desire for the job. I would say Schertz, Calhoun, Olen, Mack and a few others are in the mix too, depending on how the rest of the season plays out. LSU, if they actually fire their coach (not a given), could make a play for Will Wade to return. Arizona State is likely looking at a west coast guy like Olen or Leon Rice, etc. Oklahoma could be a competitor but they will likely look at Chris Beard (who’s having a bad year at backwater Ole Miss but won big there last year and is a proven commodity) or Calhoun. I’m not worried about Kansas State. That’s not an appealing job. It’s in a backwater area and is in the shadow of KU. They hired a career assistant last time. They might also be on the hook for serious money for Tang and will likely not be in a position to spend big. And I haven’t even mentioned Schertz yet. Finally, those schools you cited—LSU, Oklahoma, Kansas State and Arizona State—also have a much bigger priority for them: Football. Donors and their administrations are focused on that largely to the exclusion of basketball, especially since several of them need football turnarounds and are trying to compete with more well resourced conferences rivals. They also aren’t historically top basketball programs, except for Oklahoma, so basketball has never been the priority. [/QUOTE]

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