USA Today Reports on new Geno Contract
- Thread starter bschwartz
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$13M for a basketball coach??? I wouldn't pay him a penny over $12.9M....
Seriously, I do think things have got way, way out of hand, but, given that Geno didn't start this and that whatever you pay him won't affect the craziness one iota, he's worth it all...and a lot, lot more.
Seriously, I do think things have got way, way out of hand, but, given that Geno didn't start this and that whatever you pay him won't affect the craziness one iota, he's worth it all...and a lot, lot more.
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But the UConn men's coach is making nearly a million bucks more a year?!? Seriously? Kevin Ollie is a run-of-the-mill coach, but compared to the best women's coach in history, Ollie gets paid millions more.
There has to be a serious problem in this.
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Is it bad that I'm disappointed it's not a ten year deal?
Sluconn Husky
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It's really just a three year extension. They tore up the last two years of his current deal.
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Yes, and it reportedly only goes to the end of the 2020-2021 season, his 36th as head coach. Auriemma will be 66 in 2021.
CBear01
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I guess I have to be the one who says a "run-of-the-mill" coach doesn't put a team on his shoulders and win a National Championship in the first year he's eligible to do so. Yes, we had very special players, we always do, but please please please don't think he's ordinary. He was a great choice as a successor of JC and has already proven his worth
Not if you consider men's and women's basketball as businesses, which they certainly are. In that context I believe that men's basketball earns a profit for the Athletic Department while women's basketball is now in the red again. Geno is the best that has been in what he does, but he and Ollie are not really comparable.
triaddukefan
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Who would pay him that much?
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I loved Ollie as a player and he is an even better person but he is not a good basketball coach. He won a national championship because Napier put the team on his back. Ollie has struggled to develop players, recruit elite players, and is among the worst in game adjustment coaches there is! The pro style iso offense he continues to run is as boring and basic as it comes. I understand that injuries have hurt this team but even before they were shorthanded UConn was embarrassed by Wagner and Northeastern. The fact is that he was/is not ready to be a coach at a high level D1 basketball school.
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Someone with deep pockets and wanting a no. 1 program. Do you really think all these terrific players come to UConn for UConn? They come to play for Geno!
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Geno is worth every penny of that contract and more. Where in this country would anyone talk about the University of Connecticut at all if it was not for the fame of the Women's basketball program. Certainly, the men's program cannot even compete, and the football program has been mediocre since I can remember back to the 1950's. Soccer has had its moments but does not get publicity.
I live in New Mexico, where the only thing going for it is the land. However, every time Connecticut women play basketball, there is a blurb either in the Santa Fe News or the Albuquerque Journal. There was more coverage about the 100th victory than the University of New Mexico men or women's basketball team.
In my opinion, they should have the men's basketball players go to every women's game and watch them play and learn something. From what I see, on the men's side, they don't play with the heart and intensity and spirit of the women.
I live in New Mexico, where the only thing going for it is the land. However, every time Connecticut women play basketball, there is a blurb either in the Santa Fe News or the Albuquerque Journal. There was more coverage about the 100th victory than the University of New Mexico men or women's basketball team.
In my opinion, they should have the men's basketball players go to every women's game and watch them play and learn something. From what I see, on the men's side, they don't play with the heart and intensity and spirit of the women.
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I have a feeling that Tennessee would back up the Brinks truck to sign Geno and regain their mystique they had when Pat was there.
Icebear
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Duke
Icebear
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No, they hate Geno too much and clearly the AD doesn't care about Women's basketball anymore.
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I love Geno and believe his performance at UConn is nothing short miraculous. He is the best coach is the history of the game (men's or womens's) and he has single handed carried UConn athletics for the last few years. The value of the UConn women is hard to fully quantify for the university. They have truly put UConn on the map and made UConn women's basketball synonymous with excellence and dominance in a manner no other program ever has. In terms of marketing and branding there is not another women's program which is even close.
All that said, I don't understand how $20 million would be his market value? Women's basketball does not generate a profit. Even the most prolific program, UConn, in a state which embraces women's basketball like Connecticut loses money. No women's basketball program could assess Geno's market value at $20 million because market value is in large part measured by profit generated. If Geno wanted to maximize his salary he would need to move to coaching the men's game and most likely in the NBA.
Geno's contract should be a reminder of what is at stake for UConn in the next few years. Programs like Rutgers will bring in nearly $50 million next year from the Big10 while UConn brings in $3 million from the AAC. How do you pay a women's coach more than he brings in? By dipping into that $50 million Big10 payout. If UConn doesn't get into a P5 conference it will become increasingly difficult to maintain our women's program.
I know our BY boards like to function like separate communites and it is a rare poster who visits and contributes to men's football, men's basketball and women's basketball. I am actually horrified by the amount of animus between the boards. But we can't continue to view the world as a "football versus basketball" issue or a "men's basketball versus women's basketball" issue or a "women's sports versus men's sport" issue. If UConn can't unite it's fan bases it will never make it to the P5 and all UConn sports will suffer.
Geno deserves every penny he gets paid but to quote Clint Eastwood from the movie "The Unforgiven" when Gene Hackman said he didn't deserve to die...."deserves got nothing to do with it."
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I agree with this 100%.
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Context matters.
Coach K supposedly makes $7.3M a year. http://sports.usatoday.com/ncaa/salaries/mens-basketball
Should he be getting paid 3x what Geno is paid?
With that in mind, Ollie, the 'run-of-the-mill'
coach makes less than half of what Coach K does. In terms of going market rates, what's the problem?- Joined
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I wonder what the real numbers are for revenues brought in for women's as opposed to men's basketball at UConn. Wonder whether the UConn women aren't far more profitable than the men. We know that UConn football is a massive financial black hole, causing some $24 million in subsidies from the university, which, if memory serves is the highest in the country?
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Context matters.
Coach K supposedly makes $7.3M a year. http://sports.usatoday.com/ncaa/salaries/mens-basketball
Should he be getting paid 3x what Geno is paid?
With that in mind, Ollie, the 'run-of-the-mill'
The question is not what a coach does with the players he inherits from his predecessor, but what he does with the players he actually recruits. Time after time, a coach does fine in his/her first, second, or even third year, then sees a distinct fall-off from then on, as the players he/she has recruited and trained turn out to be sub-par compared with the departed coach's performance.