Donlon out at Wright State

[oklahomamick]

http://collegebasketball.nbcsports.com/2016/03/16/billy-donlon-wright-state-part-ways/

[agibson]

Wild.

[tweet]710180766286741504[/tweet]

Popular candidate for coach of the year.

I suppose it's why they're not playing in the post-season.

[covufan]

http://collegebasketball.nbcsports.com/2016/03/16/billy-donlon-wright-state-part-ways/

This doesn't make sense.  One of the better programs in the HL.  I get that he didn't do as well as Brownell, but what are Wright State's expectations? 

[HC]

Wow, I don't like Donlon but he is a good coach.

[Kyle321n]

What? Really? I mean I don't think he's that great a coach, but holy crap they made it to the HL championship 3 of the past 4 seasons.  If that's not good enough, I don't know what is...

[valpotx]

This is ridiculous.  The AD expected Wright State to win the title this season, when Valpo was returning everyone?  The fact that they beat us twice with subpar talent, demonstrates how good of a coach he is.

[covufan]

I'd think that with the number of openings and his record, he should be able to find something. 

[oklahomamick]

The kicker is Slocon's option at YSU got picked up for next year.

[historyman]

I suppose the complaining at his HL tourney press conference about the double bye and losing at UIC didn't help his cause. I would have thought that beating Valpo twice and beating Oakland in Detroit would have made up for it though. I wonder if the AD thinks he has a better coach he can bring in.

[HC]

Donlon to Clemson perhaps

[VULB#62]

Who did Donjon have coming in as the class of 2016?  Bet some will decommit and, if he gets a job quickly, will follow him. His teams are always tough and scrappy.  He's a no-nonsense guy.  Schools would be nuts to pass on him with what he's been able to accomplish despite obviously less institutional support than most.

[a3uge]

He always does the most with the crappy players he recruits...

He took Wright State from a team right up there with Butler (even winning the regular season in 2006-2007) and turned them into a little bit above average team. His mean RPI was 181 and median RPI 163.

A big problem with the Horizon League is the amount of programs content with mediocrity. Each Horizon League team should break 100 RPI every 4 or 5 years. That shouldn't be too difficult if you want to be a top program. 100 RPI is a 14-15 seed in a typical year. There's a lot of talk about the bottom of the league, but what has been really missing is multiple teams at the top. If the 2,3,4 seed in the conference makes a run and wins the league, they should be in line for a decent enough seed. This year our 2+ seeds were all 15-seed levels (if not for a billion teams losing their tournament also).

So I don't really blame an athletic director that isn't content with a 15-seed program year after year.

[motowntitan]

I agree that he has done the most with the least recruited players.  All I see is how a coach can do the least with the more talented recruits. 

Those being said, any coach in the HL that hasn't won a NCAA tourney game since 2011 should be on the hot seat.

[a3uge]

I agree that he has done the most with the least recruited players.  All I see is how a coach can do the least with the more talented recruits. 

Those being said, any coach in the HL that hasn't won a NCAA tourney game since 2011 should be on the hot seat.

I think evaluating coaches on 1 or 2 game sample sizes is a bit silly. But I do enjoy the fact Wardle wasn't able to get to the tournament, despite having a couple of the most talented Horizon League teams.

[StlVUFan]

I don't know if this news has been confirmed yet, but I'm assuming it has or will be.  DDN does have more links up on it, including Tom Archdeacon weighing in, but so far, no official word from WSU athletic department that I'm aware of.

Assuming it is true, this is absolutely insane.

Piecing this together with Amanda Braun's declining any postseason on behalf of her Men's basketball team and one of the rationale's we all heard for moving the conference tournament to a "neutral site", it is starting to sound like there's a common theme running through all 3:

The way to become a multi-bid league is to start pretending to be one.

And that, if true, is absolutely ridiculous.

There's a difference between stretch goals and stress goals.  The former are used to challenge yourself and avoid complacency.  The latter are an excellent way to guarantee failure -- and Billy almost cheated that one.

For Milwaukee's situation, there have been schools who have parlayed a long run in a non-NCAA tourney into NCAA tourney success and consistency, including the University that just hosted the First Four.  VCU parlayed it into a final four run (some uncommon sense from the selection committee helped, of course).

For WSU's case, they have just given themselves a splendid opportunity to find a new coach who *can't* out-coach Bryce or maximize his talent or whatever mojo it was that they had over Valpo this year, so as a Valpo fan I'm ecstatic, but as a Horizon League fan, I'm with Paul Oren who went on a 13-tweet rant this afternoon that could basically be summed up as WTF??

For the tournament, you can't just wave your hand and change something and instantly turn this into a multi-bid conference.

That is all.

[agibson]

This deserves its own thread, but, quickly posted: Jeter's also been fired. I believe there as an announcement this time. Balance of contract will be paid out.

(Donlon had time left on his contract too.)

Slocum remains.

[a3uge]

The Wright State board is interesting. Seems like they would have been terrible next year anyways - losing 3 of their top 4 scorers. Donlon just isn't a good recruiter. He makes the most with the players HE RECRUITS. That's really half the battle. Looking at verbal commits, there's 0 players signed on the current roster that were above 2 stars - typically meaning you were in some database somewhere. There were 3 recruits that amassed a rating between 2.0 and 2.5 and they all transfered out. I really don't want to hear a sob story about how they're under budgeted - YSU has more 3 star recruits.

Another poster said it was put up or shut up time for the League (with UWM's response to the CIT in mind). Having ADs set the bar for success past the CBI or CIT is good. Or setting the bar past a potential 15 seed in the tournament. Saying a team should at least hit the top 100 RPI every 4 or 5 years is reasonable.

[FWalum]

Still think that Donlon and Jeter were good coaches.  I understand all of the concerns about recruiting and such, but the issue remains... does Slocum have something on the YSU administration or something?  The fact that he remains at YSU just baffles me. 

[a3uge]

Still think that Donlon and Jeter were good coaches.  I understand all of the concerns about recruiting and such, but the issue remains... does Slocum have something on the YSU administration or something?  The fact that he remains at YSU just baffles me. 

Slocum getting re-signed is infuriating. It's baffling how anyone can defend that guy.

[SanityLost17]

I don't understand why you guys are defending him...  Do you want to go up against a really well coached, terrible RPI team, 3 times a year?  Seems to me like that is a recipe for disaster to me.   It does not help us that they improve as the year goes on.  This is a GOOD thing. 

Simple truth is that Donlon SUCKED every year in the non-conference.  The last thing we need is a coach at WSU who has an RPI 175 team playing like a 70 RPI team at the end of the season every year. 

I mean, if the HL is going to have bad RPI's, they might as well at least play like bad RPI teams.       

[a3uge]

I don't understand why you guys are defending him...  Do you want to go up against a really well coached, terrible RPI team, 3 times a year?  Seems to me like that is a recipe for disaster to me.   It does not help us that they improve as the year goes on.  This is a GOOD thing. 

Simple truth is that Donlon SUCKED every year in the non-conference.  The last thing we need is a coach at WSU who has an RPI 175 team playing like a 70 RPI team at the end of the season every year. 

I mean, if the HL is going to have bad RPI's, they might as well at least play like bad RPI teams.     

This!

[StlVUFan]

Still think that Donlon and Jeter were good coaches.  I understand all of the concerns about recruiting and such, but the issue remains... does Slocum have something on the YSU administration or something?  The fact that he remains at YSU just baffles me. 

Slocum is not the problem at YSU.  The problem at YSU is football gets at least 85 % of the support, fan-wise, money-wise, every-wise.  A coaching change at YSU is going to change *nothing*.  If I had to guess, they are tickled that Slocum is willing to do the job.

[FWalum]

Still think that Donlon and Jeter were good coaches.  I understand all of the concerns about recruiting and such, but the issue remains... does Slocum have something on the YSU administration or something?  The fact that he remains at YSU just baffles me. 

Slocum is not the problem at YSU.  The problem at YSU is football gets at least 85 % of the support, fan-wise, money-wise, every-wise.  A coaching change at YSU is going to change *nothing*.  If I had to guess, they are tickled that Slocum is willing to do the job.

Can't really agree about Slocum. Yes, everything you have said about the program is true, YSU is a football school and resources, support and money go to football.... and Slocum knows that!  Whether he is a good coach is not the question (he has had a good record of success at other schools, 700 wins is quite an accomplishment), he is just beaten down by the situation year after year.  He doesn't believe anymore and it shows on his face and in his posture.  They need someone who is naive to the situation, that has energy and still thinks they can change the culture.  To me it looks like Slocum is beaten before the teams even hit the floor.

[StlVUFan]

Good luck with that.

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[bbtds]

Good luck with that.

Good luck to our AD when he must replace Bryce.