Cooper suspended for season - FromTheBlueSeats.com

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Originally Posted by Cool Hand Clyde

Not sure I would agree with that. I would say that the progress is not progressing fast enough.

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You stated this better ...we are set back a bit as compared to where we hoped to be at this time.

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Originally Posted by sharky

The W's and L's attest to what has happened on the court. Always have and always will.

Please point out the speculative matters and the mere conjecture. I am at a loss.

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Just a cursory reading of your previous posts should clear things up.

You speculate that Rupp had better options than Rolle, Cooper and White. You seem to imply that he should never take jucos. You moralize on how some hardworking, decent American family is denied a scholarship because of our international players. Alot of your postulations regarding--the way it oughta be--is conjecture.

Most coaches will tell you that it's more than about winning and losing--it's how you play the game.

What do you think our final record will be?

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Originally Posted by sharky

You are right. I do not know what other choices Rupp had and neither do you. You choose to support his decisions based on the same lack of information that you chastise me for criticizing him. There appears to be a disconnect in your logic somewhere. Perhaps you go through life basing things on how you feel instead of how you think. Seldom proves to be profitiable.

As for your analogy about dating and marriage and lack of information in between, I feel that I am unqualified to address the matter. I have been married to but one woman for 42 years. I got it right the first time and have no experience whatsoever about getting it wrong. Please accept my apology regarding my inability to relate to your example.

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I never said I supported his decisions. In fact, if you'll go back as far as when he took over, I complained about his taking transfers and what possible baggage they might bring. The difference between you and me is that because I don't know what other choices he had, I'm not so willing to be down on him. Am I skeptical about his recruiting decisions? Yes. However, I'm not one to start bashing a coach in year 2 of his tenure.

But there is one thing that we both know that had an effect on what choices he had and that is, as skilldawg pointed out, he didn't get hired until the end of recruiting season, so he was already behind schedule as far as being able to recruit athletes of the caliber he got in the transfers. Logically, that tells me he didn't have many other choices.

As far as my analogy. I don't know why you took it so personal. I wasn't insinuating that you had dated and married a girl who was a cheater. Although the fact that you took it that way helps to make it apparent why you have such a hard time understanding the obvious points others are making.

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Originally Posted by boxerdog

Just a cursory reading of your previous posts should clear things up.

You speculate that Rupp had better options than Rolle, Cooper and White. I don't recall saying that Rupp had better choices than Rolle, Cooper and White, but I do recall saying that I did not know what other choices he did have. We both know that he had the same choices that a multitude of other coaches had.

You seem to imply that he should never take jucos. If you go back and read one of my previous posts on this very thread you will see that I advocate building a sound program with a majority of good high school talent and sprinkle in a few jucos to fill in the critical voids. But I do disagree with a coach trying to make a living off jucos and transfers.

You moralize on how some hardworking, decent American family is denied a scholarship because of our international players. I did say that everytime a coach grants a scholarship to a foreign player (whose family never paid a penny in taxes to support any university in our country), an American player (whose family has paid local, state and federal taxes) goes lacking. Where is the discrepancy in my statement?

Alot of your postulations regarding--the way it oughta be--is conjecture. Please be more specific and point them out to me.

Most coaches will tell you that it's more than about winning and losing--it's how you play the game. Yep, and that is why coaches are held responsible for W'S and L's. Sorry, but I am not aware of a category in the box scores for style points.

What do you think our final record will be?

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Now you are asking me to speculate. I thought that was what you were scolding me about. I don't have a clue what our final record will be. I hope that we can win the conference, win the conference tournament and represent Tech well in the NCAA. This hope hasn't changed since the first game of the season.[/quote]

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Originally Posted by sharky

Now you are asking me to speculate. I thought that was what you were scolding me about. I don't have a clue what our final record will be. I hope that we can win the conference, win the conference tournament and represent Tech well in the NCAA. This hope hasn't changed since the first game of the season.

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No, i'm merely asking you to back up your clearly stated speculation that Rupp isn't a good coach by giving a more concrete prediction.

I think Utah State will win the conference. I also believe we can finish in the top 3 in the conference and win the conference tournament.

Our country has benefited from the productivity of many second generation immigrants. In fact, the father of the President of the United States is from another country. I could give countless examples of positive contributors to our economy who were born overseas.

I truly regret saying you should, "shut your trap." It was disrespectful and I had no business posting that. I think you're a smart guy. I would prefer that you be more open to entertaining both sides of an argument, but that's my problem.

I hope to meet you at a game some day and shake hands.

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Originally Posted by Dirtydawg

As far as my analogy. I don't know why you took it so personal. I wasn't insinuating that you had dated and married a girl who was a cheater. Although the fact that you took it that way helps to make it apparent why you have such a hard time understanding the obvious points others are making.

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I immediately recognized that your dating/marriage analogy was purely hypothetical and not directed at me. However, my response was a real life experience. I intended it to be tongue in cheek, but apparently it sailed over your head. Sorry.

With regard to Kenny Cooper, perhaps several other coaches could have salvaged him. We may never know. Then again he may be another Ryan Perriloux and be beyond hope. Perhaps Kerry Rupp and Les Miles should get together and compare notes on how to deal with attitude problems.

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Originally Posted by sharky

I immediately recognized that your dating/marriage analogy was purely hypothetical and not directed at me. However, my response was a real life experience. I intended it to be tongue in cheek, but apparently it sailed over your head. Sorry.

With regard to Kenny Cooper, perhaps several other coaches could have salvaged him. We may never know. Then again he may be another Ryan Perriloux and be beyond hope. Perhaps Kerry Rupp and Les Miles should get together and compare notes on how to deal with attitude problems.

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I don't think you can compare Perriloux and Cooper. As far as I know, Cooper hasn't had any legal problems. Before he left OK State, Sutton said that Coop was well-liked by his teammates and was to be a pivotal part of the playing rotation. Coop just said that he was "homesick". Again, Rupp stated that Cooper lacked in the "commitment" aspect of being on the team. I do not understand why you can't respect him for that--it was nothing like the situation in Baton Rouge.

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Originally Posted by sharky

I immediately recognized that your dating/marriage analogy was purely hypothetical and not directed at me. However, my response was a real life experience. I intended it to be tongue in cheek, but apparently it sailed over your head. Sorry.

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That's what those little faces on the side of box you're posting in are for. Emoticons. I sometimes forget them myself and am misunderstood as well.

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Originally Posted by sharky

Coach Rupp could have KaHooNa's made out of marshmellows and he still would have had to terminate Clark and White. Their behavior problem was so severe that there was no way that he could have done otherwise. So much for the KaHooNa's in the first instance.

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NO! He didn't HAVE to do anything. He very easily count have put his fingers in his ears, pretended like it never happen and hope that the WINS would pile up quicker than the trouble that he would create.

Being a supervisor, I had similar choses that I had to make as well. Some things occured with my shift and another shift. The other supervisor put his fingers in his ears and pretended that he didn't see or hear a thing. I CHOSE to do the responsible thing and wrote up the incident which ended the employment of on of the individuals. Some of the subordinates new the other guy was wrong and were glad that he was fired, but others just thought that I was an asshole on a power trip.

Coach Rupp CHOSE to do the right thing in this situation, even when some people thought that he was just pulling triggers and on a power trip.

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He had Cooper all last year and at practice every day last season and then this season until he finally got enough. When did Cooper's behavoir problems began to surface. I do not have a clue except that he left the bench during a game at the Alaska tournament. My guess is that he was a problem much before that. But in the end Rupp did what he had to do.

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Sorry for personalizing this, but it's a very similar situation.

This other guy was a decent worker for me. He would occasionally show up a few minutes late, but when he got there he worked for me and made sure to get things done. I didn't really know that there was a problem until I started looking at the statistics on my days off. He would go from doing 45-55 cases a night (that I was there) to 15-20 on the nights that I wasn't there. The other two workers were constantly in the 60's. At first when I would ask them what was going on, they told me that he was handling some other work and maybe he was taking a while, but he wasn't slacking off. Come to find out a few weeks later, that slacking off was ALL that he was doing. Sitting on the phone all night long, going to lunch for over an hour, and kicking his feet up and taking naps. I "knew" that something was going on, but I couldn't prove it.

I had a few talks with him but nothing else seemed to help. The same pattern went on for 3 months. Finally another situation happened, and I was able to have PROOF that he was not taking care of business and we terminated him. (in government, that almost takes an act of Barack Osama :icon_wink:)

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My goal is not to have a coach that scares away problem athletes, but to have a coach that never seeks them in the first place. Rupp still has the opportunity to be that coach. "An ounce of prevention is worth more than a pound of cure." You probably heard that from your parents.

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In a perfect theoretical world, this would be nice, but this is real life.

The funny thing about my situation, is that this guy really came across good in his interview, seemed very passionate about the law enforcement profession and even volunteered as a Caddo Deputy Constable. His previous job vowed that he was a good worker that always did the right thing. EVERYTHING that I had to go on was good with this guy.

It took KaHooNa's to cut someone loose that I had been working on and training for 5 months and to admit to my boss and the Asst Chief that I made a mistake, then it would have been for me to ignore that final thing and just let him make it to 6 months and become certified.

I'm DAMN proud that we have a coach that doesn't stick his fingers in his ears and ignore the things that are going on under him and I'm DAMN proud that he was man enough to pull the trigger and get rid of the problems. If he gets fooled again by a guy that "looks perfect" for the job, but ends up not doing the things that he suppose to, then I hope that he CONTINUES to keep doing the right thing and he corrects the behavior or cuts the kid loose.

...well, here's wishing Kenny Cooper the best; maybe he can learn from this situation and get better from it, wherever he ends up in life. As much as I'd like to see the Bulldogs win, we need to do it the right way - so kudos to Coach Rupp for making what I'm sure was a really difficult decision.

That being said...

this basketball season is getting old, and I hope we can finish strong and be better prepared for next year, because in my mind it's time to start showing the fruits of the labor.