Breaking: Craig Neal Will Not Return Next Year

[LoboMan59]

1 hour ago, UofMTigers said:

the good thing about Crean and Gottfried is Indiana and NC State will be augmenting their salaries for the next few seasons.

example: Indiana will owe Tom Crean  4 million over three years but it's offset by whatever he makes at his next job.

NM offers him a 5 year 5 million dollar contract (1 million per year)

but for the next three seasons he would be making 1 million from NM and 333,333 from Indiana.

1.33+ million is pretty good pay to coach NM. It would also offer him a good landing spot with nice facilities in a decent hoops conference (top-10 RPI conference) 

Oh God... I can hear the fan base uproar now if UNM hires another million dollar coach! We'll never hear the end of the "we're just a poor state, and we should be paying someone that much to coach basketball" crowd... but get us the the NCAA's regularly!

If we get a million plus hire coach, and he doesn't produce right away... he'll soon be in the cross hairs of the Lobo fan base... like Neal was!

[PTR]

Another interesting tidbit that has come out is the effect that fans going apeshit about retaining Neal had on Krebs. Daniel Libit filed a FOIA request on his emails.

 

[cherrycrush]

I like what the coach down at CSU Bakersfield has done with the program. Rod Barns, he has built the team from nothing to either winning the WAC every year or going to New York NIT final 4 this year.  Very underrated IMO

[cherrycrush]

11 minutes ago, PTR said:

Another interesting tidbit that has come out is the effect that fans going apeshit about retaining Neal had on Krebs. Daniel Libit filed a FOIA request on his emails.

 

LMFAO

 

i wasn't a season ticket holder when I sent mine haha. Never have been, just gone to individual games every year. But football yes, I have had season tickets many years.

[Aslowhiteguy]

1 hour ago, PTR said:

I'm not really big on UNM rushing to hire Tim Miles. We could do a lot worse, but if what we're hearing is true and 6-8 coaches and or their agents have contacted UNM (even before a formal search has begun), that tells me that UNM needs to do their due diligence here. We saw what a rushed emotional hire did to the program last time.

 

 

With the transfers hanging out there, how long is too long to wait before putting the new guy in place? 

I wonder what your AD has been doing behind the scenes for the past week or so?  

[PTR]

6 minutes ago, Aslowhiteguy said:

With the transfers hanging out there, how long is too long to wait before putting the new guy in place? 

I wonder what your AD has been doing behind the scenes for the past week or so?  

UNM didn't decide to fire Neal until 11 p.m. last night. I doubt Krebs did much behind the scenes in terms of a new coach search, because I think his initial plan was to try and retain Neal with an amended contract and kick the can down the road. But the fans threw a shit fit and everybody got cold feet at the last minute. I think you conduct a search this week will the goal of making an offer within that time frame. With the exception of Elijah Brown, I think the potential transfers are probably looking at transferring to programs that would be a step down from UNM's and they would have to sit out a year. My guess is that when it's all said and done all of them but EB will reconsider and be back (and that's assuming the new coach wants them back).

 

 

[PTR]

Looks like interviews will start tomorrow. 

 

[Aslowhiteguy]

1 minute ago, PTR said:

UNM didn't decide to fire Neal until 11 p.m. last night. I doubt Krebs did much behind the scenes in terms of a new coach search, because I think his initial plan was to try and retain Neal with an amended contract and kick the can down the road. But the fans threw a shit fit and everybody got cold feet at the last minute. I think you conduct a search this week will the goal of making an offer within that time frame. With the exception of Elijah Brown, I think the potential transfers are probably looking at transferring to programs that would be a step down from UNM's and they would have to sit out a year. My guess is that when it's all said and done all of them but EB will be back (and that's assuming the new coach wants them back).

 

 

Surely it wasn't a sudden decision and had to be at least considered over the past several days.  

The AD or conference commish are never as dumb or lost as the fanbase thinks they are. 

[Aslowhiteguy]

1 minute ago, PTR said:

Looks like interviews will start tomorrow. 

 

It's a very desirable job and the timing is perfect for a new hire.     You guys will get a good coach. 

[UofMTigers]

41 minutes ago, LoboMan59 said:

Oh God... I can hear the fan base uproar now if UNM hires another million dollar coach! We'll never hear the end of the "we're just a poor state, and we should be paying someone that much to coach basketball" crowd... but get us the the NCAA's regularly!

If we get a million plus hire coach, and he doesn't produce right away... he'll soon be in the cross hairs of the Lobo fan base... like Neal was!

it would be 1 million from NM and 333,000 from Indiana...for the first three years.

[PTR]

1 minute ago, Aslowhiteguy said:

Surely it wasn't a sudden decision and had to be at least considered over the past several days.  

The AD or conference commish are never as dumb or lost as the fanbase thinks they are. 

All reports seem to indicate it was that chaotic. UNM also agreed to eat the entire 1 million dollar buyout as it was written in the initial contract. Likely a complete shit show that almost didn't get done before the midnight deadline. It will be interesting to find out the details, but I think Neal agreed to thegeneral framework of an amended contract which would have kept him here, but eventually balked at the reduction of the buyout amount. Not to mention that there were a constant stream of people calling to cancel their season tickets and "Lobo Club" donations for the entire day yesterday. 

Whatever the case may be, we dodged a major bullet by canning Neal this year instead of the middle of next.

[cherrycrush]

So happy and excited right now

[aztech]

29 minutes ago, PTR said:

All reports seem to indicate it was that chaotic. UNM also agreed to eat the entire 1 million dollar buyout as it was written in the initial contract. Likely a complete shit show that almost didn't get done before the midnight deadline. It will be interesting to find out the details, but I think Neal agreed to thegeneral framework of an amended contract which would have kept him here, but eventually balked at the reduction of the buyout amount. Not to mention that there were a constant stream of people calling to cancel their season tickets and "Lobo Club" donations for the entire day yesterday. 

Whatever the case may be, we dodged a major bullet by canning Neal this year instead of the middle of next.

It was a wise move to can him as soon as possible.  Now it gives you more time to hire somebody and most of all get a head start with recruiting.

[Aslowhiteguy]

5 minutes ago, aztech said:

It was a wise move to can him as soon as possible.  Now it gives you more time to hire somebody and most of all get a head start with recruiting.

Did they fire him "as soon as possible," or wait 'till the last minute?  

I think they were on the hook for more $ if they waited beyond 03/31, but I could be wrong. 

[sebasour]

James Borrego is a name I'm becoming more and more of a fan of the more I think of it. Just not sure what kind of salary he would command, don't really know what assistants in the NBA make

[trvitmvnz]

Tom Crean 

[PTR]

33 minutes ago, sebasour said:

James Borrego is a name I'm becoming more and more of a fan of the more I think of it. Just not sure what kind of salary he would command, don't really know what assistants in the NBA make

I like James and I think he has a tremendous ceiling as a potential college head coach (incredibly driven, smart, hard-working, high level of leadership etc.) His ties to New Mexico would also be a huge bonus. Best case scenario he could become our Lute Olson type figure. I think it's the ultimate boon or bust possibility. Honestly though, it's just too risky at this point in time. Coaching and recruiting college kids would be a huge adjustment. Would he even be interested? 

 

[aztech]

1 hour ago, Aslowhiteguy said:

Did they fire him "as soon as possible," or wait 'till the last minute?  

I think they were on the hook for more $ if they waited beyond 03/31, but I could be wrong. 

You answered your own question.

[aztech]

2 hours ago, PTR said:

UNM didn't decide to fire Neal until 11 p.m. last night. I doubt Krebs did much behind the scenes in terms of a new coach search, because I think his initial plan was to try and retain Neal with an amended contract and kick the can down the road. But the fans threw a shit fit and everybody got cold feet at the last minute. I think you conduct a search this week will the goal of making an offer within that time frame. With the exception of Elijah Brown, I think the potential transfers are probably looking at transferring to programs that would be a step down from UNM's and they would have to sit out a year. My guess is that when it's all said and done all of them but EB will reconsider and be back (and that's assuming the new coach wants them back).

You guys are one step ahead of us.  We don't know how well Fisher's replacement (Dutcher) will do either.       

[sebasour]

According to Mark Joe Dooley appears to be the early favorite. That's fine, but I'd prefer the retread route.