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Ernie Baer

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Everything posted by Ernie Baer

  1. Yes he is a great guy, quite a character. He still lives in Henderson.
  2. That season was primarily a disaster because Cle pulled a cue on Howie. Team was playing pretty well under Howie.
  3. BITW, at the end of the day last spring was a game of chicken between the boosters who wanted Howland and those who supported Rice. In the game of chicken it was the Riceolytes who were willing to drive their car off the cliff. Those who supported Howland, while frustrated, weren't willing to go to the extent of the opposition and essentially pull funding, burn the house down, placing Tina in a bind. While I disagree with the ultimate decision, i do understand.
  4. You mean the mess she inherited from your hero Jim Livengood. You should be far more appreciative of Tina. She caved for his USF bluff when she didn’t have to, she could have made some strong allies last spring and fought for Howland but she didn’t. Bought Rice two additional seasons which HE failed to capitalize on. And you have an awfully short memory. You have forgotten in addition to the extension, she delivered on several of the things Rice wanted when he made his USF power grab. Even with the department not doing well financially funds were raised for Max Good, improvements were made for academic support. The one thing she hasn’t delivered on because of the cost was more chartered flights.
  5. Not a definitive, but one thing to watch is whether or not his coaches show airs tomorrow night. If some decision comes relatively quickly hard to believe it will air tomorrow night.
  6. Still find it difficult to believe he won't last the season, but Youmans was accurate on his Katin reporting a few years ago so have to get his story some credence. Tina's contract I believe expires at the end of this year. She needs to rebuild support among a good group of folks following the Howland situation last spring, making this move now certainly wouldn't hurt her in that regard. They also need to worry about walk up attendance the rest of the season. Could only imagine what the numbers would look like for New Mexico with him returning as head coach for UNM. May not quite reach the Rollie 93-94 tumbleweed era, but difficult seeing more than around 6,000. Wrote back in the spring how close he was to going at the end of last season. Heard from multiple people there was a good chance he would be out had they lost to Nevada during the MWC tournament. So it was close at that time. Also lets just say it is interesting that Rice's old roommate Greg Anthony, who has sat silent throughout all of this, came out yesterday evening issuing a public show of support for Dave.
  7. Looks like my check to Lopez cleared! Seriously, add his name to Morant and Kendall Smith with similar comments. But you know according to the “experts”, they were lazy, didn’t want to put in the effort, agendas with axes to grind.
  8. Yeah, will “miss” those prognostications. Such as guarantying Arizona not making the NCAA tournament this season, and my personal favorite, UNLV would be a top 30 three point shooting team this season.
  9. Your recollection of the situation is correct. Oklahoma’s AD made several overtures towards Kruger before he finally agreed. Kruger turned Castigliano down a couple of times but he was very persistent and continued upping the ante each time. I agree, I think had Livengood been more proactive and tried to even remotely come close to matching OU’s salary offer (which I believe doubled his pay) Kruger would have stayed. Everything I heard was Kruger, and his family, really liked Las Vegas. In addition to the things you mentioned I know he had a big home custom built in Southern Highlands. Also, we have to remember Kruger had turned down some other quality jobs in previous years to stay at UNLV. Not exactly the signs of someone looking to bolt. In the end I think it was a combination of the salary offer as well as I think similar to Rollie and Villanova, Kruger felt a bit unappreciated by that point. While the level of contempt among some UNLV fans didn’t reach the level of it did towards Rollie, or even Rice today, between the recruiting as well as feeling the program had peaked, there was a growing group of groans from people/boosters towards him. Those voices grew louder following the Illinois loss.
  10. The whole job search for Jerry’s replacement was a debacle. I never well forget then interim AD Dennis Finfrock’s comments following Jerry’s press conference announcing his resignation. Finfrock said he expected his phone to be ringing off the hook when he got back to his office. That is how much in demand he and Maxson thought the job would be. And of course they were dead wrong and for at least two reasons they showed just how little they understood the coaching profession. One, there is an old saying in the coaching profession that when a legend exits you always want to be the coach that follows the coach who followed the legend. At the time, outside of probably John Wooden no coach left as hot as Jerry was. There was going to be enormous pressure on whoever came in to continue his success. The other big thing hanging over the position was the pending NCAA sanctions due primarily to Lloyd Daniels recruitment. The only thing the NCAA would admit at the time was the school was not going to receive the death penalty. Hard to get a good coach to commit to a job which they would have to operate under pretty strong NCAA sanctions. Given those reasons there were a litany of name coaches who rejected Maxson’s big money/fringe benefit laden offer. People either forget or don’t know Rollie was like the 19th candidate for the job. Just off the top of my head Terry Holland, John Thompson, Tom Davis, Bobby Cremins, PJ Carliesimo, Rick Majerus, Jim Calhoun, Tom Penders, Gary Williams, Randy Ayers and Pat Kennedy among others turned them down. Rollie was eventually offered the job. Jim Weaver who by this point was UNLV’s permanent AD, and coached football at Villanova in the 70s, was using Rollie as a sounding board for perspective candidates. After all of the rejections Weaver thought he would ask Rollie about his interest as he had nothing to lose. It was a perfect marriage as UNLV was desperate for a big name and Rollie was desperate to get out of Villanova. A couple of years after winning the national title Rollie arranged a meeting with Villanova’s president to discuss a succession plan. Rollie wanted to coach a couple of more years and then retire. He told the president he wanted to become the school’s AD and have his son Tom who was an assistant at the time take over as head coach. To be kind, the president rejected his proposal. Rollie felt betrayed after all he had done for the school. Between this and a declining record, Rollie was looking to land somewhere where he would be appreciated, get a new start, and UNLV was a nice landing spot. It was a really nice pre-retirement gig. He got a great payday, very sweet deal, and as you mentioned, erroneously thought things would be easier. Of course it didn’t work out for a number of reasons.
  11. While I understand where you are coming from, for every “diamond in the rough” assistant that makes it there are multiple ones who get opportunities such as Rice that do not pan out. Nothing is for certain but when you spend good money you typically are getting a proven commodity in return. Go cheap for a very lower level D1 head coach, or certainly a career assistant, and the chances are greater things will not work out. Its an odds game and after Rice not too many UNLV supporters are going to be willing to go that route. Rollie was a unique situation which I’ll add to momentarily. The only other coach UNLV has secured based on a solid salary was Kruger and he panned out pretty well.
  12. I recognize a few names left over there who are willing to tell it like it is, don’t subscribe to their company line. By and large though that site is a joke. To each their own but why anyone would pay $100+ for their “premium” content is beyond me. Little information that is accurate and worse you are told how to think. They claim they welcome different viewpoints, yet the minute someone does present one the company line goon squad comes out to pounce on you. Venturing over there this morning for an early laugh; you have the annual “Place Blame to Save Dave” award for which Seagers is a run away winner, people advocating to give Rice another year because he has finally landed a point guard in next year’s recruiting class, can’t get rid of Rice because recruiting will never be this good again, and now fans simply need to lower their expectations.
  13. Anything that remotely resembles last year’s conference record or worse is going to make it extremely difficult for Rice’s supporters to mount an argument for his return. Just missing the NCAA tournament, NIT appearance, and progress will be cited with the addition of another quality recruiting class to a returning core group which assuredly to them will guarantee a NCAA appearance for 16-17. It will be de ja vu all over again.
  14. One has to understand while yes there were prominent folks who wanted Rice out last season, Dave had more than his fair share of support as well. He has some influential boosters behind him also. For example I know of one who has won Booster of the Year (RAF has a specific name for it) before for which I think Dave could go 5-30 with a couple of non D-1 wins and they would still be behind him, continue contributing good money. They have been friends for a long time and this person truly believes in him. Added to that a parent of a highly coveted recruit stirring the pot as well as Gerg's public comments in the Sun which certainly will carry weight with some, and Tina was getting hammered by both sides. She was truly in an unenviable position. I would have still made the call to move forward with Howland because long term it was in the best interest, but I do understand what a difficult position she was in. I also agree with the above comments that making a change with the football coach within basically six months certainly could have been a pretty big factor. Barring an epic collapse to finish out the season I still see a repeat of what transpired the last two springs happening again. Yes, there will be some new voices joining those from last year who want Rice out. At the same time Dave will still have his fair share of support. These are people who fought long and hard to see he got the job, they have fought hard the last two springs to see he has kept it, they will not go quietly. I'll reiterate what I've written before that in addition to the wins/losses the box office is also going to play a big factor. If Tina gets a significant amount of communication from season ticket holders indicating they are not going to renew if he is retained, walk up sales over the remaining two months are mediocre/poor and people threaten to significantly decrease if not outright withhold contributions that will weigh heavily on her decision.
  15. This is true, but both are basically laughing stocks nationally with the amount of talent they somehow manage to squander.
  16. Johnny Jones of the west coast.
  17. What a joke right. Howland takes over a dumpsterfire of an MSU program and is suppose to work a miracle after five games. Rice takes over a fringe top 25 program that had become a fixture in the NCAA tournament. Talent abound over the past three seasons with nothing but declining results and certain people still giving him a pass. Still trying to silence any criticism, because you know you just don't have enough patience as the glory years are right around the corner from returning.
  18. When Jerry was coaching UNLV's fan base use to be that way.
  19. True, after about the first 8-9 minutes it looked no different than what we have seen over the course of Rice's tenure. That said, they did have the lead with about 5-6 minutes left. Then it got worse, meltdown mode.
  20. Exactly, wrote the same thing during the in-game discussion. If someone would have told me before the game Parker would have ended up with more fouls than points and rebounds I would have predicted at least a 7-8+ win for UNLV. Game was there for the taking, let it slip away with poor play in crunch time.
  21. You obviously fell asleep the last few minutes. Same basketball we've seen under Rice the last few seasons. Every player for themselves. Better get that corrected.
  22. You weren't writing that over the weekend. You penciled in automatic wins over UCLA and Arizona. By the way, in terms of talent, perhaps starters wise they may be close to being even but UNLV is the much deeper team, especially right now with Goloman out.
  23. Sure, I know Gerg was around some helping during the 2012-13 season after he left the Dallas Mavericks. Prior to joining Mike Brown’s staff in Cleveland for the following season he spent that time in between popping in various places helping friends like Rice and Augmon as well as George Karl in Denver. Mike Brown was also around a little bit that season after the Lakers fired him. It was the main reason Bennett went number one, they believed in him/pushed him to management. I know there are some who do not understand why he would make such statements in support of Rice yet has decided to remain in the NBA as opposed to joining UNLV’s staff full-time. He still struggles with what happened to him back in 94-95, much less with how Jerry and the staff was forced out by Maxson and his minions. The other thing about Gerg is when he has a job as he does with the Bucks he is dialed into that job 110%, practically no deviation. The occasional visit, phone call, is about the extent to which things are going to go as long as Rice has the job. Have a very difficult time seeing that ever changing.
  24. I still had a confidential subscription at the time too, no question there were some “sweaty palms” over there for a couple of weeks last spring. They were sweaty for a reason and it wasn’t simply because of Tina’s “vague" handling of the situation. They knew, which is why they went to such lengths to round the troops up and campaign so loudly for retaining him. In addition, contrary to what Rosegreen wrote, Gerg didn’t come out of his multiple decade long media cocoon simply to express some loyalty, he too knew what was taking place and felt he needed to help rally the troops. As I recall Rosegreen made it clear back in the spring what they thought of Howland. I think their disdain for him made it inconceivable to ever envision Howland coaching UNLV, to the point to where if Rice and Tina had a press conference this afternoon and confirmed what transpired they would still write it was impossible. I stand by why I wrote on here back in March from the information I was privy to during the time of Jerry’s funeral as well as the public remembrance. The money was there for the buyout as well as Howland’s salary, the only thing missing was the green light from UNLV’s administration. Given all the contact had at that point between certain boosters and Howland and his representative of course there isn’t going to be any “public record” of what transpired. The process doesn’t always go down a conventional path. The Pitino courtship began similarly.
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