Warde Manuel to be on WTIC Sportstalk...

[Duncan Idaho]

Oh my. The boneyard is all of a sudden Warde lovers. Yak. Nelsom is right, and Scooter, to an extent. This board was ready to run this fraud out on a rail and now it's a Love fest for him? WTF? This AD never wanted Ollie and is not proactive nor out front explaining where he wants to take us.
Stop dog piling on Scooter et al. You guys seem to just like to eat your own

Yes he did. He could not have been more clear. If we want to be someplace else, buy football tickets, go to the games bring a guest, encourage past ticket holders to come back. If you cant be at the stadium, buy tickets and donate them. He hired a youngish dynamic coach who up to this point is helping in promoting the hell out of the program. Get there before kickoff. Stay. In the next few years the program and its fans need to show.

 

[junglehusky]

This AD never wanted Ollie...

Right. In fact, he was so anti-Ollie, he gave him a short term contract to evaluate him and didn't bring in a single other candidate to interview, then he signed him to a long term deal in the middle of the season instead of waiting till the end of the year , and then he bumped up the deal again after Ollie proved he was championship level. Boy, that Manuel sure knows how to hold a grudge![/QUOTE]

 

[Drew]

Can someone please for the love of God post the link to the interview in here so we can discuss the actual topic this thread was supposed to be about?

 

[EdgewoodNHV]

Your are right. We had absolutely no chance and it was obvious to everyone. So obvious that the consensus on the board was that the administration was quiet because our joining the ACC was a done deal and every talking head was convinced that we were in.... until we weren't. I'm not a fan of Warde bashing, but I think you are being a bit revisionist.

Just because something "seems" obvious doesn't make it so. Everybody looked at the ACC opening and thought, 'Huh, UConn makes the most sense.' Except the people who really mattered -- the ACC football schools like Clemson and FSU. Just because a bunch of people speculate wildly in the media about something that seems obvious doesn't mean the underlying facts aren't totally different.

 

[EdgewoodNHV]

Tom Jurich certainly acted like UConn had a chance. Pretending we never had a chance now is just spinning it. Maybe Warde could do nothing to change the outcome, but UConn was absolutely in the running.

Of course he did -- he's going to take credit for something if he can, even if it was essentially already written in stone. I can take credit for the sun shining today, too -- doesn't make it so.

 

[EdgewoodNHV]

Can someone please for the love of God post the link to the interview in here so we can discuss the actual topic this thread was supposed to be about?

I checked out the WTIC page and can't find it anywhere. They seem to do a fairly poor job archiving things on their site.

 

[J187Money]

Can someone please for the love of God post the link to the interview in here so we can discuss the actual topic this thread was supposed to be about?

Why don't you just ask for Israel and Hamas to reconcile? That might have a higher likelihood of occurring.

 

[warbler1055]

What killed UCONN chances was what Hathaway did in hiring Paul Pasqualoni and putting UCONN growth back years after plateauing under FHCRE. So put the blame where it goes and that is with former AD Hathaway

I am no fan of WM. This PP fiasco was the main reason UConn did not get the ACC invite. Our FB program sucked so bad under PP that UConn never had a chance. WM should have fired PP much sooner and let JC's picked his successor. JC built that BB program which put us on the map. He earned that right, that was his legacy and KO has proven JC was right all along. WM was too engrossed with his position to see that. We need to give WM credit for realizing KO's worth and moved on with the Champions BB Center, the hiring of BD and Cavanough (sp?). For the love of UConn let's hope that those hires will turn out OK. But let us face it, we are going nowhere if our FB does not improve on the field.

 

[junglehusky]

Jurich acted like Louisville had a chance and, as it turned out, they did. Maybe it's revisionist but my understanding is that UConn was close but never had a chance of getting to 75% between the southern football bloc and BC.

Just because something "seems" obvious doesn't make it so. Everybody looked at the ACC opening and thought, 'Huh, UConn makes the most sense.' Except the people who really mattered -- the ACC football schools like Clemson and FSU. Just because a bunch of people speculate wildly in the media about something that seems obvious doesn't mean the underlying facts aren't totally different.

It's interesting to look back on that period after Maryland left the ACC to re-examine just where the perception came from that UConn was a shoe-in. My recollection is that in the first week afterwards, the media brought up UConn as the most likely fit, primarily because our academics and research profile matching the ACC schools like UNC, UVA, and with the ACC having just added a bunch of northern schools. So over the course of a few days, with some back and forth over twitter and op-ed pieces being published, it sort of snowballed from "it COULD be UConn" into a consensus that "it WILL be UConn".

But this was without any examination of the actual political power to decide that move, which is namely what the ACC presidents were thinking. We initially heard positive things from (ugh) Duke's Krzyzewsi. At that time we did not hear about FSU's or Clemson's reservations. This solidified the initial UConn-to-the-ACC narrative in the media and on social media. If there was an error on UConn's part, it may have been that the administration didn't dig deep enough into ACC politics. We know Herbst has contacts at Duke and probably UNC, and we know that Manuel was talking to Wake Forest's AD in the Bahamas. We didn't know at the time we were talking to the wrong people. Perhaps there was an error in thinking that Cuse and Pitt might support UConn, or at least not c*ckblock us. Either way, UConn's people had the perception that we had it in the bag (I got forwarded a PM that we were in about a week before the decision, I assume some of you guys got that too).

Now, if the above is true, does it mean WM is a *ty AD? No. That's actually not his domain. It's Herbst's and the trustees. And a little bit on the media for not digging into the ACC politics. But mostly, you have to give some credit to Jurich for A) the job he was doing for YEARS at UL while Hathaway was twiddling his thumbs, positioning UL for the opportunity B) knowing how to play ACC politics. But in the end, I don't think you can overstate the simplicity of UL's football perception driving the decision, coupled with geography. It was a long game, that Jurich won because he was on the job for a long time and UConn had a guy in a dunce cap who wound up failing down to Hofstra. We needed a Manuel type to succeed Perkins, and we needed an even bigger head start, that's the only way we could have beat out UL.

 

[mcs333]

UCONN Never had a chance to go to the ACC. Right from the beginning Fl.St, Clemson, NC. St, GT and BC aligned against us and stated they would never vote for UCONN. No spinning that the facts and was reported in the media multiple times early on in CR. They wanted a better FB school and they perceived Ville to be that school. Nothing Warde could do to change that. Some of you just want to rewrite history and blame Warde for not getting into the ACC.

 

[J187Money]

UCONN Never had a chance to go to the ACC. Right from the beginning Fl.St, Clemson, NC. St, GT and BC aligned against us and stated they would never vote for UCONN. No spinning that the facts and was reported in the media multiple times early on in CR. They wanted a better FB school and they perceived Ville to be that school. Nothing Warde could do to change that. Some of you just want to rewrite history and blame Warde for not getting into the ACC.

Let's be fair. LV "was" and "is" that school. No objective facts could lead you to believe that in any way other than potential that UCONN was a better program.

 

[Dooley]

What killed UCONN chances was what Hathaway did in hiring Paul Pasqualoni and putting UCONN growth back years after plateauing under FHCRE. So put the blame where it goes and that is with former AD Hathaway

This is such a simple concept to grasp that I think some of our fanbase takes a "that's too good/easy to be true" approach and, instead, places the residual blame on Warde. Warde didn't hire Pasqualoni. If he should get any kind of blame for anything, maybe it's not firing Pasqualoni after 2012 for failing to get to a bowl game with the defense that we had that year. But that decision happened AFTER the ACC invited Louisville. If Warde brought PP back or fired him, Louisville was already tapped for the ACC. We can argue the what could have beens had we turned the page on him sooner but perhaps we wouldn't have hired Diaco (who I think is PERFECT for our program's growth right now).

Hathaway hired Pasqualoni. Hathaway allowed APR to happen under his watch. Hathaway alienated the football program's biggest booster to the point that he once wanted his family's name removed from the on-campus practice facility. Hathaway couldn't raise a dime for a basketball facility. Hathaway rubbed our highest profile coaches in the worst way that Edsall escaped on the Baltimore Colts' midnight moving truck and Calhoun's last few years were filled with stress and angst. Hathaway had sold out Rents and failed to expand the stadium, instead citing "we need to sell out the stadium on a season ticket basis". He did absolutely nothing to advance any of our athletic programs and simply coasted on the hard work of others to put it on cruise control and collect paychecks. Then, to wrap his horrendous tenure up in a ball-kicking bow, he accepted a job with the NCAA Basketball Committee for $1 to continue to receive a paycheck from UCONN (while we were being kicked in the other sack thanks to the NCAA's tough APR stance...the only time they've taken a "tough" stance in 30 years).

Warde ultimately got Ollie right. He played it perfectly actually. He had to see if Ollie was his guy too. He could've fired him or brought in a higher profile "Assistant" coach to force onto Ollie's staff. He didn't. He gave Ollie freedom to manage his own staff. I don't think anyone knew that Ollie was going to be an instant success. Not even Calhoun. His only demand was excellence in the classroom. UCONN's MBB just won a National Championship and achieved a perfect 1000 APR score. And guess what? Warde raised Ollie into the Top 10 coaches in the country...on a well-documented lower revenue stream compared to our P5 r1vals. He DOUBLED his salary. Some have questioned Warde's clause in Ollie's extension that he can void his deal if Warde or President Herbst left the University. I don't see it in a negative way. I see it in a positive light: Ollie LOVES UCONN, we all know. Ollie must feel comfortable with our leadership and Administration that he likes the direction we're going in. Ollie knows that he can only go as far as what a strong UCONN will allow. Can you even imagine if Hathaway was still our AD? Good Lord. Not only would Ollie have been fired, but Hathaway would have brought in a Mike Dunleavy type as our head coach and then have been content to be a NIT team. So if Ollie is over "how badly he was slighted", how come some of our fanbase can't get over it??

 

[Jimmy Serrano]

I am no fan of WM. This PP fiasco was the main reason UConn did not get the ACC invite. Our FB program sucked so bad under PP that UConn never had a chance. WM should have fired PP much sooner and let JC's picked his successor. JC built that BB program which put us on the map. He earned that right, that was his legacy and KO has proven JC was right all along. WM was too engrossed with his position to see that. We need to give WM credit for realizing KO's worth and moved on with the Champions BB Center, the hiring of BD and Cavanough (sp?). For the love of UConn let's hope that those hires will turn out OK. But let us face it, we are going nowhere if our FB does not improve on the field.

If WM lets JC pick his successor who is held accountable if that hand picked successor doesn't pan out?

 

[nelsonmuntz]

Yes everyone was surprised to learn, at the 11th hour, that UConn never had a chance - we all thought the opposite. Doesn't change the fact that UConn never had a chance.

It was UConn's bid to lose.

 

[Dooley]

If WM lets JC pick his successor who is held accountable if that hand picked successor doesn't pan out?

Exactly. UCONN fans would run him out of town if Warde let JC pick his successor then we went on to win 15 games per season. Warde handled the only piece that he had control over in the best way possible: he gave Ollie a substantial raise at exactly the right time.

 

[J187Money]

It was UConn's bid to lose.

Tell me the 5 point nelsonmuntz plan to convince the football schools in the ACC to say yes.

 

[Dooley]

It was UConn's bid to lose.

UCONN lost that bid the second that BC was invited into the ACC. BC blocked us during the Fruit/Pitt basketball expansion. Then, BC got the league's heavyweight football schools to join the fight against UCONN (although, they probably didn't have to do much of anything to get the football schools to want to block UCONN at the time). The first expansion was basketball based and we were blocked by BC in favor of two programs that are inferior to UCONN. The second expansion was football based and, thanks to Jeff Hathaway, the Paul Pasqualoni train wreck tenure was in its second season and spiraling downward at the same time that Charlie Strong's program was talking about BCS games. Unless you have proof that Warde is somehow responsible for BC being admitted to the ACC and then working feverishly to try to protect "their turf", then you are way off base.

 

[Jimmy Serrano]

Tell me the 5 point nelsonmuntz plan to convince the football schools in the ACC to say yes.

You're asking an awful lot. I was just gonna ask how he knew it was UConn's bid to lose.

Saying the majority of the board thought that doesn't count as an answer.

 

[hardcorehusky]

Question- why do you think Warde did not fire PP as quickly as we wanted? Answer Hint - it had to do with money and sometimes your hands are tied.

 

[RegisteredUconn]

I'm telling you he was hired to counter the APR problem. UConn hoped that it would be enough to get the NCAA to back off. But even if it wasn't, his supposed "expertise" in this area would be useful to help with the PR on the issue, UConn could say "We take this issue very seriously. So seriously, in fact, that we hired the guy who got an award from the NCAA for his work turning the Buffalo APR problems completely around." It wasn't because he had played football at Michigan, or had whatever modest B-10 connections you might get as an assistant AD at a major program, or because he had hired Turner Gill at UB. Do you seriously think he was hired because of the grand job he did turning Buffalo into a national power? It wasn't because he was a "rock star." It was because of 3 letters, R, P, and A. This from a very good source who had input into the selection. Believe it or don't believe it.

I've been involved in a lot of decisions hiring people into complex jobs. They are never, never, never, ever made based on a single criterion. Never.

 

[RedSoloCup]

Can someone please for the love of God post the link to the interview in here so we can discuss the actual topic this thread was supposed to be about?

LOL, there is a real vortex here at the 'yard...

 

[RegisteredUconn]

Warde>parking meter>Hathaway.

I think I see where this is headed: Warde>parking meter>Hathaway>freescooter.

 

[warbler1055]

If WM lets JC pick his successor who is held accountable if that hand picked successor doesn't pan out?

I am not questioning the chain of command or the responsibility issue. I am questioning the lack of foresight and the impact of not taking into account JC's knowledge of the program and his ability of choosing the next HC. If WM had a national search we would have had a complete change of HC, assistants and program continuity not to mention lost of alumni loyalty. I do give credit that WM finally got the KO situation right. He saw for himself what JC already knew.

 

[Jimdish255]

Jurich acted like Louisville had a chance and, as it turned out, they did. Maybe it's revisionist but my understanding is that UConn was close but never had a chance of getting to 75% between the southern football bloc and BC.

I think your better off with lukewarm support and lukewarm objections than the endorsements and solid opposition of a handful of schools simultaneously. The sad state of our FB program at the time and the NCAA kangaroo court had to be part of it as well. I assume WM wishes he had handled it differently because the optics were terrible. He may have underestimated the opposition and the competition imo, but it's obvious we're working hard to position ourselves for the next round.

 

[Jimmy Serrano]

I am not questioning the chain of command or the responsibility issue. I am questioning the lack of foresight and the impact of not taking into account JC's knowledge of the program and his ability of choosing the next HC. If WM had a national search we would have had a complete change of HC, assistants and program continuity not to mention lost of alumni loyalty. I do give credit that WM finally got the KO situation right. He saw for himself what JC already knew.

How do you conduct a national search given the timing of JC's retirement?

Do you know what an impossible position Calhoun put him in? WM kept JC happy, kept his chops as AD, gave KO the contracts he deserved, and everything worked out. Criticizing him for his handling of the KO situation is just totally absurd.

I would also like to hear from the Nelson's of the world their insider scoop on how UConn was the top choice for the ACC and what we could've done to seal that deal. I can't wait for the responses.