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Post by ad1770 on Mar 6, 2020 10:51:49 GMT -6
Look, I’m not one who will normally scream for someone to go unless I have some kind of fact to back it up. That said, I believe this is a notion that we do need to discuss like rational people, not just scream and wave pitchforks. So I start this thread. It is true that we are all split on every subject we talk about, including who should stay, go, be hired, be fired, etc.
That said, I will present my reasons on why Mr. Spencer should be fired, and lastly, the main reason he won’t be.
1. Athletic department level dumpster fire: We have discussed how the basketball teams have been a dumpster fire, but in truth, the entirety of the athletic department is a dumpster fire. Our combined records (in conference) from volleyball, both soccer teams, and both basketball teams this year is 8-60-2. That is correct. 8 wins, 60 losses, and 2 ties, including a stellar record of 0-45 from men’s and women’s basketball, and men’s soccer. Ultimately, this has to fall on the AD. It is he that decides who should be coaching these teams.
2. Lack of any noticeable marketing from the athletic department. In all honesty, does anyone have any idea when any of our teams play, let alone that they even exist if you don’t search through gopurpleaces? Does anyone else see where this is a problem? School wants to scream poverty, but won’t promote sports that could bring additional revenue? This falls on the athletic department, and who is in charge of that? Mr. Spencer.
3. Mr. Spencer is an internet troll. Remember all of his twitter wars over the past couple of years? Yeah. Enough said there.
Now, for the reason he won’t be fired. His shiny new extension he signed a couple of years ago. He will be here at least one more year because of it. And the problem is that gives him one more year to tear the athletic department down.
Truth is, Spencer needs to go. If he had any kind of honor, he would resign. But he won’t because he knows that if he does, he gets nothing. If he is fired, he gets his buyout for his contract. And we get to continue to complain about it all.
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Post by theaceofspades on Mar 6, 2020 12:44:25 GMT -6
Preach.
Even from purely a men's basketball perspective:
1) Hired a head coach who flamed out and nationally embarrassed the university and bottomed out the program midseason. Maybe setting it back a few years? There was talk of McCarty "chasing skirts" even a year before he was fired--and even insinuations that the university had previously warned him of his inappropriate behavior.
Why wait so long to get rid of that cancer?
2) Replaced him midseason with a retread coach, who's 65 years old, wasn't good at his last two stops as a head coach (including Marian), initially stepped down as a UE assistant for "health reasons" (although maybe that's because he knew what McCarty was), and runs a slow it down style that is pretty similar to "Marty ball".
[Note: I'm not against teams slowing it down and playing great defense: Virginia, Texas Tech, Purdue, and Butler recently, but if you're going to slow it down, you better be elite defensively].
Instead of the Aces running a national coaching search in the offseason, Spencer made a panic move to save his job in the hopes the team would rally behind Lickliter--but guess what, they won as many games as they did under the interim coach Seltzer: 0.
The Aces should've been trying to find the next Nate Oats. A young coach who can win here for a few seasons and take UE back to national relevancy while playing a high tempo, fun style of basketball. That's easier said than done, but the program owed it to itself to at least give it a fair shot of trying.
Now they not only had an embarrassment, but they're tied to Lickliter for at least another season--who's pretty much a lukewarm coach with no upside.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 6, 2020 12:58:52 GMT -6
I think a commitment to competitive athletics is fairly easy to achieve, even without tons of free walking-around cash. The women's basketball program could be upgraded with a coach who at least can discuss UE with about 300 qualified young ladies within an hour of Evansville who could -- by accident -- win more than 3 games a year. That's very do-able.
As far as spring sports, I think just being somewhere 'in the hunt' for post-season trophies is all right. Baseball requires pitching. That isn't easy to recruit. Softball -- meh, I find the game tedious. As far as the rest, I can't comment.
The men's basketball program is the one marquee sport and everyone who could screw that up seemed to have a hand in it. I mean, you have to work at being this inept.
I am not on record as defending or condemning the AD without insight. But if UE wants to continue looking like it just joined the league -- this isn't going to change without something of a do-over, which isn't cosmetic. The Valley is a national conference and it's committed to top programs. Evansville could compete just as well in the Summit as they have in the Valley.
Maybe, yeah ... fire the AD and evaluate what you want athletics to do for your school. It's worth it to beat UK and it's not worth it to poop all over your shoes because people were either naive, stupid, self-absorbed ... or a combination of that.
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Post by wildbill on Mar 6, 2020 13:49:32 GMT -6
Yes, I have previously posted he should be fired. I doubt they get rid of him though. We already had the Marty buyout, now we have TL locked in. There's no telling how much will be spent on legal settlements over the McCarty Party situation. I bet Spencer rides out his contract, then never serves as an AD at another D1 school.
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Post by castle69 on Mar 6, 2020 14:05:38 GMT -6
Speaking of McCarty, a friend watching the Drake ass-whooping of UNI today said he saw Walter near UNI's "D" POY Brown during a huddle. Must've been talking about FAILED strategy v. Drake's ROMAN PENN!
Makes ya wonder if UNI will get an at-large bid. Last I heard, they were in "bubbleville"...
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Post by wildbill on Mar 6, 2020 14:16:52 GMT -6
I wonder if McCarty will go back to the NBA? I don't think he's ever going to get another college job.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 6, 2020 14:31:49 GMT -6
Speaking of McCarty, a friend watching the Drake ass-whooping of UNI today said he saw Walter near UNI's "D" POY Brown during a huddle. Must've been talking about FAILED strategy v. Drake's ROMAN PENN!
Makes ya wonder if UNI will get an at-large bid. Last I heard, they were in "bubbleville"...
Getting bounced by the 8 seed on Day 2 doesn't advance their resume. Will be curious to see if Drake can pull the 4-pack in this. I am not sold on Loyola against Valpo tonight. Everyone else is a crap shoot.
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Post by ncace on Mar 6, 2020 15:46:11 GMT -6
Who knows what will happen to Spencer. If he didn’t go far enough in “counseling” WMc, he should be gone, and I hope he is given the door. Prez P doesn’t seem the kind of admin. to allow a high-level official to skate if he didn’t do his job. Spencer’s buyout is prob. Not in he range of WMc’s, but still 6 figures. He has failed to adequately select the majority of head coaches, but if he doesn’t get soccer, basketball, volleyball, and baseball right, a change needs to be made.
There is ZERO reason why UE can’t recruit athletes just as good as Valpo, Drake, Belmont, etc.......NONE. However, there needs to be a winning attitude throughout the Ath. Dept. As someone said, the Nate Oats folks are out there, but they aren’t going to come to you, and you cannot network, unless you ENGAGE....
I don’t mean to imply that he is AD-level, but just contrast the way Lance interacted with multiple entities; players, boosters, other schools’ officials, the media vs. the way Spencer interacts....or doesn’t.
Obviously, the AD has multiple responsibilities, and to me, performance of the team leads directly related to ticket sales, which leads to financial stability.
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Post by indymoon on Mar 6, 2020 15:52:35 GMT -6
Keep in mind there are several metrics to gauge the state of the Athletic Department. W/L is the most visible to fans but a balanced budget is huge as well as NCAA APR, GPA, and discipline issues.
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Post by Ace78 on Mar 7, 2020 12:52:44 GMT -6
Speaking of McCarty, a friend watching the Drake ass-whooping of UNI today said he saw Walter near UNI's "D" POY Brown during a huddle. Must've been talking about FAILED strategy v. Drake's ROMAN PENN!
Makes ya wonder if UNI will get an at-large bid. Last I heard, they were in "bubbleville"...
Last night, Joe Lunardi had UNI as the last of the "Last 4 In" group in his bracket. Teams that are in the "First 4 Out" and who haven't finished their season may bump UNI into the "Out" category, because UNI can't do anything else to help themselves. The MVC currently has UNI and Bradley (the highest remaining seed in the tournament) as making the NCAA field.
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Post by Ace78 on Mar 7, 2020 13:23:38 GMT -6
It will be interesting to see how UE approaches a lot of things this off season, including public relations. Last season, Lance and Joe Downs did an excellent job of promoting and stoking interest with the hire of McCarty, the new system, and the new recruits. I didn't see much PR buildup to this past season. I guess UE felt that it didn't need to. During the summer, information was kept secret on the status of Demontay Dixon, then we find out he wouldn't be coming here. At the time, I think most of us realized that was going to create depth problems with the front line, then we saw what happened when DeAndre got hurt. In addition, no box scores from the summer European games were provided. On top of that, UE fans saw where Cunliffe was not in uniform for one of the European games, and without information provided by UE, wild conjecture on his status ensued. Later on, Coach Commodore basically made fun of the fact that Aces fans were concerned about Sam's status and about the lack of box scores being provided. I thought that was disrespectful to Aces fans. Other teams playing summer games provided box scores and information to their fans, so why did UE feel the need to be secretive and withhold that info from their fans?
In my opinion, UE needs to show a LOT more appreciation (and not derision) that they still have a fan base after this disastrous season. I don't fault the players ... they aren't the ones in charge. But, whoever IS in charge of program communications and promotions (I assume it is Mark Spencer) is taking fans for granted and needs to get their act together. Personally, I'm not a fan of this AD and I think he needs to go.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 7, 2020 14:56:21 GMT -6
I think the AD being liable for soccer and baseball (softball) success is pinned to some things that he can't control. Soccer isn't a sport that's easy to recruit. Nationally strong programs are in places we don't recognize readily, which is the same for baseball. Baseball, you win if you get good pitching, which isn't as easy to recruit as it seems. Softball -- meh, who knows ... you get a pitcher and you win most of your games. 33 people will notice. Overall, there needs to be an accountability to the public, the sponsors, the conference and the programs. I don't see that UE is reaching that level. I think it's time for a change since not much is working, regardless of who should be doing it. UE did everything wrong after they fired Simmons and kept doing it wrong all the way up until Wednesday.
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Post by ncace on Mar 7, 2020 15:39:29 GMT -6
There are a couple of folks on this board that know much more about being an AD than I do, but I sense that Spencer is in over his head. Conversely, there are SEVERAL asst. ADs at P5 schools who would have the drive, personality, and skill to change the fortunes of UE athletics. I hope we can go out and find such a person. The entire approach to athletics falls short of what’s required to compete at D1 level.
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Post by ibleedpurple on Mar 7, 2020 15:41:21 GMT -6
It will be interesting to see how UE approaches a lot of things this off season, including public relations. Last season, Lance and Joe Downs did an excellent job of promoting and stoking interest with the hire of McCarty, the new system, and the new recruits. I didn't see much PR buildup to this past season. I guess UE felt that it didn't need to. During the summer, information was kept secret on the status of Demontay Dixon, then we find out he wouldn't be coming here. At the time, I think most of us realized that was going to create depth problems with the front line, then we saw what happened when DeAndre got hurt. In addition, no box scores from the summer European games were provided. On top of that, UE fans saw where Cunliffe was not in uniform for one of the European games, and without information provided by UE, wild conjecture on his status ensued. Later on, Coach Commodore basically made fun of the fact that Aces fans were concerned about Sam's status and about the lack of box scores being provided. I thought that was disrespectful to Aces fans. Other teams playing summer games provided box scores and information to their fans, so why did UE feel they needed to be secretive and withhold that info from their fans? In my opinion, UE needs to show a LOT more appreciation (and not derision) that they still have a fan base after this disastrous season. I don't fault the players ... they aren't the ones in charge. But, whoever IS in charge of program communications and promotions (I assume it is Mark Spencer) is taking fans for granted and needs to get their act together. Personally, I'm not a fan of this AD and I think he needs to go. ________________________________________________________________________ +100 I have to agree with this post. I heard this AD wanted to RAISE, yes RAISE the ticket prices for the 2019/20 season considerably because of "his Walter hire" and what he would bring. Well, we saw how that went. The only positive I saw was the push after we went to UK and beat them than they pushed the tickets and it paid off. This is one reason the attendance stayed up during the losing streak because UE had a number of new season ticket holders who had paid and were committed. The other reason was the kids continued to play hard and were competitive in nearly all the games after TL was brought in. The enthusiasm Joe and Lance had for UE was great and this has not been replaced. It's time to clean house. We don't need an AD with a big EGO and this is exactly what we have. Given the situation UE athletics is in I don't see how big change cannot occur because it is not just one sport, one issue, one mistake but a pile of issues. Other point about Spencer was how he was called and out (and rightfully so) by the Murray State coach after we lost at Murray last season for diminishing their win by questioning the officiating. As an AD you just don't publically do this, you get on a site like this, come up with a funny name and bash away..lol
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Post by aceshigh on Mar 7, 2020 15:45:58 GMT -6
I don’t have a dog in this hunt or really care about Spencer, but he was an Associate Athletic Director at Oregon State University for 8 years before coming to Evansville.
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