That egg we laid stinks worse...

[StrayDawg]

Sorry to disappoint. Some of you obviously have an emotional attachment to NWST's coach. A 200-204 record (.495), 6 winning seasons, 6 losing seasons, and 1 .500 season is the definition of mediocrity. I never said anything about him as a person. I'm sure he's a great man. Again, I was only commenting on his supposed "loyalty" to NWST. My point was that NWST was more loyal to him than he was to NWST. That's all.

I see your point, but just for the sake of argument....

Mike McConathy has a career coaching record of 559-341, which is a career win percentage of 62% over 900 games. That's pretty good. He was 352-145 before taking the NSU gig, and is 207-196 since. During his time at NSU, he has taken them to the NCAA tourney twice (this will be the third time), and they have won their first game in each of the two previous visits. If I were a flamer who hated Louisiana Tech, I would compare that to the coaches that Tech has had during the 14 years that McConathy has been at NSU and I think the comparison would be favorable to NSU. Then we could fight about strength of schedule, but that is fairly subjective, and the difference would probably not be that great anyway.

Before Mike was hired as their head coach, you could have told NSU fans how the next 14 years would unfold, and I think they would have been okay with it. Winning seasons and NCAA berths weren't exactly falling in their laps every year.

[HogDawg]

I see your point, but just for the sake of argument....

Mike McConathy has a career coaching record of 559-341, which is a career win percentage of 62% over 900 games. That's pretty good. He was 352-145 before taking the NSU gig, and is 207-196 since. During his time at NSU, he has taken them to the NCAA tourney twice (this will be the third time), and they have won their first game in each of the two previous visits. If I were a flamer who hated Louisiana Tech, I would compare that to the coaches that Tech has had during the 14 years that McConathy has been at NSU and I think the comparison would be favorable to NSU. Then we could fight about strength of schedule, but that is fairly subjective, and the difference would probably not be that great anyway.

Before Mike was hired as their head coach, you could have told NSU fans how the next 14 years would unfold, and I think they would have been okay with it. Winning seasons and NCAA berths weren't exactly falling in their laps every year.

All valid points. It's tough for some LA Tech fans to accept the fact that we've made so many mistakes when it comes to mens BB coaching hires. Especially when we let the "home grown" good ones --like McConathy-- get away. I'd glady trade some of the clowns we had coaching here over the last 14 years for Mike McConathy and his 3 NCAA Tournament appearances and his 2 (and counting) NCAA Tournament wins.

[Tech77]

All valid points. It's tough for some LA Tech fans to accept the fact that we've made so many mistakes when it comes to mens BB coaching hires. Especially when we let the "home grown" good ones --like McConathy-- get away. I'd glady trade some of the clowns we had coaching here over the last 14 years for Mike McConathy and his 3 NCAA Tournament appearances and his 2 (and counting) NCAA Tournament wins.

I agree.

[ETXBULLDOG]

I also agree except I prefer the Coach White we have now

[PawDawg]

All valid points. It's tough for some LA Tech fans to accept the fact that we've made so many mistakes when it comes to mens BB coaching hires. Especially when we let the "home grown" good ones --like McConathy-- get away. I'd glady trade some of the clowns we had coaching here over the last 14 years for Mike McConathy and his 3 NCAA Tournament appearances and his 2 (and counting) NCAA Tournament wins.

We passed on him twice right? The Richard hire and the Rupp hire? Trying to remember, but Richard was promoted from the staff mostly because of his recruiting ability. He did get us some guys that we otherwise would not have gotten. Looking back, Rupp was all about what Malone demanded. Bad hire, bad decision by DR. What else is new?

[Dwayne From Minden]

Mainly on the Woolridge hire -

And to some extent on the Lloyd hire and Rupp hire (I think he said thanks but no thanks on this one) -

The Richard hire was at an odd time in the year when Woo left for the Bulls

[Lindale Dog]

We passed on him twice right? The Richard hire and the Rupp hire? Trying to remember, but Richard was promoted from the staff mostly because of his recruiting ability. He did get us some guys that we otherwise would not have gotten. Looking back, Rupp was all about what Malone demanded. Bad hire, bad decision by DR. What else is new?

We actually passed on him when we hired Wooldridge. I was on the team at that time. We, the guys that new and grew up around Ruston, wanted Mike McConathy. When I finished college, I started working for a company that put me in contact with McConathy often. He was still the coach at BPCC. We both expressed our wishes of him being hired at La Tech. I can guarantee you that he had ill feelings.

[Dawg06]

Had we not hired Rupp, we would still have bubble letters and WAC stickers on our court...

[PawDawg]

Had we not hired Rupp, we would still have bubble letters and WAC stickers on our court...

Nobody is denying that. I suppose besides the floor Rupp did get our APR in order. That had to be worth something too.

Still a bad hire and badly handled situation IMO.

BTW, how much did we actually get from Malone for the floor? I know we got some from him for the weight room that is named after him, but that was before he demanded the Rupp hire right?

[boxerdog]

Rupp's downfall was how he mismanaged the players, imo. Something he did created a divison b/t "his" players and the "rest of them"--maybe letting it be known he was cutting schollys didn't help. As hard as those guys played for him that first year, he undermined his own values (which he constantly preached) by throwing them to the curb. After that, he signed a multitude of players that either transferred or flaked out.

On the other hand, White invested himself in the players he inherited. I still can't believe the degree of improvement we saw in Souza last year. He lets everybody know they have a stake in the team. That's why we don't see a bunch of bickering and whining....

[Dawg06]

Nobody is denying that. I suppose besides the floor Rupp did get our APR in order. That had to be worth something too.

Still a bad hire and badly handled situation IMO.

BTW, how much did we actually get from Malone for the floor? I know we got some from him for the weight room that is named after him, but that was before he demanded the Rupp hire right?

I honestly don't think we had much of a choice with Rupp. Karl launched the ATAC campaign and put in a new court. He became a member of the staff and was integral in recruiting. Rupp certainly was a poor cultural fit, but I don't think Tech was in a position to turn down what Karl was offering.

[skilldawg]

The APR improvement under Rupp was a very big thing; in my opinion, that was the thing that Rupp did best and it got us back a scholarship that we are enjoying the use of today.

As far a McConathy, I think more than anything it has been timing. I had absolutely no problem taking Woo over McConathy. Woo had been successful at a higher level of coaching than Mike had been at that time. He also had a little more swagger. They were both TECH guys; in fact they were teammates here in the 70's.

I would have preferred Mike over Richard even when the hire was made. But, it wasn't an unreasonable choice to hire Richard. As Dwayne stated, Richard was already here, the hire was made at a weird time of the year and Richard really was a very good recruiter as an assistant at ULM and at TECH.

I very much would have preferred Mike over Rupp, but the dye was cast very early on in that hire.

As far as White goes... the powers that be obviously finally made a very good choice. At the time, I already felt like McConathy's time had passed as far as making the move to TECH.