rma

3 hours ago, verandaman said:

Can't a "nepo hire" be qualified?   

No, don't you see in order to make great hires you need to find a group of coaches that you've never worked with before. It worked out great with our last regime! Mo found a bunch of coordinators that stuck around just long enough to get the long term AirBNB discount.

Leipold stuck by his guys for better or worse and it worked out for him a hell of a lot better. It's not the only way to do business, but just because Lembo worked with somebody a decade ago doesn't make them unqualified.

The guy hasn't even coached a game for us (well those of us here that are fans) and already its started.

23 minutes ago, DaBulls99 said:

Pretty bold considering they were all tweeting about it yesterday lol

About as bold as saying they’re gonna hire a S&C coach for an open position and magically a S&C coach is hired!

1 hour ago, BrooklynBull said:

I was not hyping anything, as I had no information on who is being or when someone is about to be hired.  (Nor do I have any information before anybody is being fired or resigning.)  It was the last major assistant job still open.

I’m gonna make a bold prediction. Now that Pete has his staff mostly in place, he’s going to start hitting the road and getting offers out to high school juniors.

Watson put up an absurd 47 points yesterday against a very good Toledo team. She's also scored above her current average of 24.9 in 8 of the last 9 games.

Things to consider:

• She currently has 449 points, and as stated above is averaging 24.9 per game
• There's 11 games left in the regular season
• Two of those games are against top MAC teams (though she has scored 28 and 31 against them already this year)
• 12 games would imply the ladies make it to Cleveland, making the finals would give a total of 14 games.
• Double teaming Watson appears to be ineffective, perhaps a team will attempt to triple team her

Predicting the number of games is hard especially with the number of top teams in the conference. A 4 or 5 seed will be much better than a 6 seed, which will likely face either Kent State, Toledo, or Ball State. I'll play it safe and say 13 games (losing in the semifinals), and bumping up her average a little bit because she's a baller and been on a tear, putting her right below Fair's 796. Breaking CD's record is going to involve 14 games and 29.1 points per game in those games.

40 points for Watson. Will probably break Dillard's record of 43.

Watson tied for 16th most points in a game for UB (34) and there's still 10 minutes of basketball left.

Shotclock went off, we're only down 3. We're battling back against one of the top teams in the MAC.

Lembo contract out per TBN:

$500k base

$225k additional comp - this matches the $725k he made at USC (east)

$15k for 8 wins

$20k for 9 wins

$25k for 10 wins

$30k for 11 wins

$35k for 12 wins

$15k detroit

$35k championship

$25k bowl game

$60k bowl win

------

Lembo leaves, owes UB:

$1.5m before Dec 10, 2024

$1m before Dec 10, 2025

$750k before Dec 10, 2026

$500k before Dec 10, 2027

$250k before Dec 1, 2028

------

We fire Lembo, we owe $500k for each year left on the contract

The DL hire has inspired a "Fucking Pete" thread on the Ball State board. Maybe a bit of a rivalry while Lembo is here? Maybe I'll have to try the Olive Garden in Muncie, as Lembo highlighted that in the press conference I posted earlier in the thread. Looks to be the highest rated of the three Italian restaurants in Muncie.

Edit: Actually it appears that there's only two Italian restaurants in Muncie, as one is either an Applebee's or Ruby Tuesday's pretending to be an Italian restaurant on google. And this is of course counting Olive Garden as Italian.....

18 minutes ago, zigo230 said:

 

This looks to be an excellent hire. Ball State was 14th in the nation in rushing yards per game allowed. And I like the idea of hiring a coach from the conference for the exact same job here.

After the game Burke said that we have the best freshman in the conference. I think I agree! 🤘

7 hours ago, RapidsFan said:

I'm sure there won't be a Buffalo News article written by Rachel Lenzi in the next month giving a blow-by-blow account of how Pete Lembo was so nice making small-talk with donors at a meet and greet, and really likes chicken wings

Reporters are not invited to donor events, and even if this does happen it’s nothing compared to what the local media does to the Buffalo Bills. They write hard-hitting articles on behalf of Terry and Kim Pegula such as:

”Rochester-area couple names new baby after Josh Allen”

”Young Bills Fan Breaks Down in Tears When Meeting Josh Allen”

”Shop puts up Bills flower display at Genesee and Ellicott”

7 hours ago, RapidsFan said:

Did Alnutt really conduct a nationwide coaching search in 5 days, or were there other factors that led to that short-list of names

I wonder what other factors there were? Take a look at Mo’s resume with some critical thinking skills.

Other schools around this time of year filled their vacancies in 2-3 days, so 5 is not unreasonable. 

32 minutes ago, RapidsFan said:

Mo gave notice last month

So you're saying UB allowed a non-employee to hire an offensive coordinator? Or that he knew Saban was retiring last month?

33 minutes ago, RapidsFan said:

As we're talking about in the basketball thread,  Rachel Lenzi is less of a journalist and more of a propaganda arm

Agreed, I'm tired of seeing tweets about empty seats for women's basketball games and pictures of men's basketball games 30 minutes before tip. If she has an anti-UB agenda it's really starting to show.

38 minutes ago, RapidsFan said:

See also: the podcast above hosted by UB employee Scott Wilson

Scott Wilson is not a UB employee

6 hours ago, RapidsFan said:

 

For whatever it's worth, Alnutt is openly lying about the timeline.

'Right there, in my mind, I am in search mode': How UB's hire of Pete Lembo took days, not weeks

A few hours before a social media post surfaced about a major change in the University at Buffalo athletic program, Mark Alnutt got a phone call from Maurice Linguist in the early afternoon on Jan. 16.

Linguist was about to begin his fourth season as the UB football coach, but he told Alnutt, the school’s athletic director, that he had a good shot at joining Kalen DeBoer’s football coaching staff at Alabama, and had just had a conversation with the athletic department in Tuscaloosa about the opportunity to become a co-defensive coordinator with the Crimson Tide.

About 10 minutes after the initial conversation with Linguist, Alnutt said he got a call from Alabama athletic director Greg Byrne about the football program’s interest in Linguist as an assistant coach and coordinator.

...

That set off a chain of events that began with Alnutt calling Linguist and asking him, “Is this true?” Linguist, Alnutt said, answered in the affirmative, and immediately Alnutt sprang into action to find the next UB football coach. He quickly formulated a short list with three potential candidates. UB didn’t use a search firm to find and vet candidates. They had virtual interviews Thursday and Friday, and wanted to close the interview process Friday.

So what's in the ... that you cut off?

Mo talked to Bama, Mo then talks to Alnutt, Byrne called Alnutt and said he thinks it will happen, reports surface that Mo is set to go to Bama, Alnutt calls Mo asking him if it's true after Mo didn't keep him posted. There's nothing contradictory there.

1 hour ago, Big 4 Hoops Blogger said:

I covered Ball State a little bit when I was a sports anchor in Fort Wayne.

Lembo calls Fort Wayne a cultural "hub" to the likes of Vienna or Istanbul compared to Muncie. He's a big fan of the oyster bar there.

Just looking at the USC (east) reaction to this it would be a home run hire. Seems like he’s really liked there. But then you look at his decline at Ball State and it doesn’t look as good. I look forward to hopefully keeping quality coordinators for more then one (1) year.

I thought the Leipold hire was exceptional, Leipold was great

I thought the Mo hire was great, Mo was not great

I think this is an awful hire. I really hope I’m proven wrong. 

8 hours ago, RapidsFan said:

btw - congrats to Tunney Murchie for his UB Athletics Hall of Fame induction!

Let's take a look at those Hall of Fame stats!

Bill Greiner was inducted into the UB Athletics HoF and didn’t even play in a single hockey game for UB! What a sham! 

8 minutes ago, RapidsFan said:

His kids run the show now

I don't think that's accurate. He's at every basketball game.

8 minutes ago, RapidsFan said:

DII or DIII coach won't make donors open their pocketbooks

UB Athletics' most prominent donor seemed to have no issue opening up his wallet to a D3 football coach and a former high school math teacher.

24 minutes ago, Big 4 Hoops Blogger said:

don't have the budget to hire anyone that has an impressive resume so they're going after retreads.

Absolutely not.

Tony Annese (D2 Ferris State) makes $150k

Jason Eck (Idaho) makes $300k

Matt Entz (NDSU) made $400k, unknown what he makes at USC as an assistant, a job he took recently

Drew Cronic (Mercer) made an unknown salary, just took the OC job at Navy which does not disclose salaries

Mo made $675k, in the upper half of the MAC.

All of the above are coaches that have HC experience and would get a significant raise in accepting a UB HC job compared to their 2023 salary.

5 hours ago, UB Horns Up said:

Did Maurice Linquist think of his staff that are married with small children to take care of?

Did Mo know when he was hiring these staff members that he 100% had an Alabama offer? I don't disagree with you but if he didn't have the job offer, he needed to be acting as if he was going to be here in the fall.

Unrelated, @Jeseph we might need the dog to be taken on a walk...

Is our lack of a Raising Cane's hurting our recruiting?

My 24 page analysis will be finalized shortly

32 minutes ago, everlast2504 said:

 

He made just shy of $700k last year.

I don't even think Alabama is paying the defensive assistant coach near $2 million.

 

They (Mo and/or Bama) also have the UB buyout to deal with too. Mo's an expensive hire for somebody with a reputation of jumping from job to job.

Great game from Watson. Nice to pick up a road win at NIU too.