Warde's long, strong ties to Parker Exec. Search

[ZooCougar]

It's not so much who Warde has on his list. It's also who has UConn on their list? Are their people worth consideration that we haven't identified out there? Also if people don't automatically consider UConn then how can we broaden or articulate the appeal of this job? That's a great deal for one AD with a small staff to orchestrate. By outsourcing some of the dialogue, the AD can stay above the fray to a greater extent and keep himself guiding the ship from the wheelhouse instead of spending tons of time in the engine room.

A big search run from the AD's organic capability would consume the entire dept in short order and result in a less thorough search.

In short, Warde doesn't have a Charlie Strong somewhere that he can hire with much less legwork. Our situation is going to be far more protracted.

 

[ruskin]

In short, Warde doesn't have a Charlie Strong somewhere that he can hire with much less legwork. Our situation is going to be far more protracted.

We'll see. Week of Dec. 9 will be telling. No coach by Friday and this will have been proven true. Does UConn start the dominoes or have to wait because of the 'lack of attractiveness' of job?

 

[ZooCougar]

We'll see. Week of Dec. 9 will be telling. No coach by Friday and this will have been proven true. Does UConn start the dominoes or have to wait because of the 'lack of attractiveness' of job?

You're framing this all wrong. And you are doing it in a way that just skews what you you to believe to be reality.

It's not a matter of waiting due to lack of attractiveness or simply picking who we want. It's more like UConn looking for the best available, conducting interviews, making an offer and subsequently a hire.

It appears that the search firm handles a lion's share of the logistical issues.

 

[ruskin]

You're framing this all wrong. And you are doing it in a way that just skews what you you to believe to be reality.

It's not a matter of waiting due to lack of attractiveness or simply picking who we want. It's more like UConn looking for the best available, conducting interviews, making an offer and subsequently a hire.

It appears that the search firm handles a lion's share of the logistical issues.

I believe reality is making a hire as close to Dec. 9 as possible is in the best interests of the program and that all the groundwork (in whatever form, like flying in the middle of the night to Louisville, let's say) should have started as soon as it was apparent TJ was not the guy.

 

[J187Money]

It appears that the search firm handles a lion's share of the logistical issues.

They do, down to the booking of flights to handling of the expenses, scheduling, prepping, etc.

 

[ZooCougar]

I believe reality is making a hire as close to Dec. 9 as possible is in the best interests of the program and that all the groundwork (in whatever form, like flying in the middle of the night to Louisville, let's say) should have started as soon as it was apparent TJ was not the guy.

True and a search firm was hired to assist Warde in reaching that end state.

 

[ZooCougar]

They do, down to the booking of flights to handling of the expenses, scheduling, prepping, etc.

I saw that on their website. It's a clever niche they have.

 

[huskymedic]

They do, down to the booking of flights to handling of the expenses, scheduling, prepping, etc.

All outside the eyes of FOI'ing of expense reports, phone records, Flight Tracking, etc...

 

[FAIRTIDES]

Yes. World could use more of these kind of confident leaders who trust their ability to size up people and don't spend money just because they can. I'm sure they paid for the 'due dilgence' we all agree is needed for this hire (background checks, etc) but didn't farm out the sizing up part.

By the way, isn't it funny that every time you weigh back in the "didn't use a search firm" list seems to grow?

Very surprising to me that more don't think UConn (via Hathaway, McHugh) got hustled out of $50-$100K two years ago and that someone should do some 'due dilgence' to make sure it doesn't happen again. Read this story again (I generally like the writer in question, but this reads more like a press release) and it's hard not to laugh out loud given the way things turned out.

Jurich hired two coaches. Present guy is good. But, his method also resulted in a Kragthorpe.

 

[junglehusky]

All outside the eyes of FOI'ing of expense reports, phone records, Flight Tracking, etc...

Darn! That means the Boneyard/Twitter Hivemind will be rendered useless! Now what do we do for entertainment?

 

[FfldCntyFan]

We'll see. Week of Dec. 9 will be telling. No coach by Friday and this will have been proven true. Does UConn start the dominoes or have to wait because of the 'lack of attractiveness' of job?

One thing that I believe everyone can agree on is the there will be three categories of potential candidates: A) current assistants at high level programs B) head coaches at programs where UConn will be a step up at least in terms of compensation and exposure (we can debate whether moving from the MAC to the AAC would also be a step up in competition) and C) Out of work, larger names who want to use us as an opportunity to restore their name (if the Nutt rumors were true he would be one of these).

If hypothetically there are forty candidates among those three categories who are legitimately qualified, it is very likely that as few as fifteen have a true understanding of what UConn can offer while the remainder know what little they could have gathered from listening to pundits and ESPiN (who primarily knock us). Do you really want to go through with this job search with the understanding that nearly two thirds of the best targets will dismiss us immediately? Keep in mind that about a year before we hired him Jim Calhoun turned down an offer from Northwestern on the advice of Bobby Knight.

A third party can do a much better job than an insider of convincing someone that yes we can be a quality football program, that we will have the commitment to build a program and that we can be a legitimate expansion candidate for the B1G and/or ACC. A third party can prevent WM from wasting his time chasing the handful of candidates who would never consider us even after a major job of selling our positives. In my opinion I believe that if utilized correctly this could be money very well spent. Where you and I differ is that I don't see WM as someone who would purchase a tool without any clue as to how it should be used. He won't take a chisel and use it to tighten a screw. He knows enough to use a screwdriver for that job. JH on the other hand,... well,.....

 

[J187Money]

I saw that on their website. It's a clever niche they have.

I didn't look at their site, but that's how it has worked when I've used retained search firms. Makes it so much easier on the internal folks not to have to deal with the nonsense.

 

[ruskin]

All outside the eyes of FOI'ing of expense reports, phone records, Flight Tracking, etc...

That's another thing folks are accepting, that Parker's activities can't be FOI'd. Given they have a contract with a state entity aren't their activities subject to those regs? Now, if Parker signed a contract with one of the "quasi-public" foundations at UConn I suspect it would be harder to do so.

The other thing -- Warde has to keep in contact with Parker in some fashion. Other than using the Bat-signal aren't his emails and cell phone records subject to FOI?

 

[ruskin]

Keep in mind that about a year before we hired him Jim Calhoun turned down an offer from Northwestern on the advice of Bobby Knight.

Another thing in UConn's favor in this search. Whatever you think of Knight he said something along the lines of "you want to be with the University OF something". Hopefully there's a mentor out there giving the same advice to one of UConn's targets.

 

[huskymedic]

That's another thing folks are accepting, that Parker's activities can't be FOI'd. Given they have a contract with a state entity aren't their activities subject to those regs? Now, if Parker signed a contract with one of the "quasi-public" foundations at UConn I suspect it would be harder to do so.

The other thing -- Warde has to keep in contact with Parker in some fashion. Other than using the Bat-signal aren't his emails and cell phone records subject to FOI?

Never said they couldn't - Skilled people (who are counseled) leave much less of a trail and make it much harder to obtain info in the time frame necessary to blow things up.

How much info will you get from a phone log that shows a number of calls to/from area code 770 as opposed to area codes 517 or 765? If it's sensitive info do you really think WM is going to do it by email (possible of course but...).