USFDaveG

 

For me, this is not just the usual fallout from a coaching change. This is another symptom in a continuing pattern of failures by the athletic department. You can blame Stan Heath, you can blame the kids, but the reality is the program is going back to square one AGAIN and, for me, under a coach that I have no confidence that he can get it done. I'm not saying he won't, I'm saying there's nothing that gives me confidence that better days are ahead. If you see it, you're just holding on to wishful thinking, because there is no track record to show it. The exact same thing goes for football. Being an assistant to John Calipari and Jim Harbaugh doesn't make you John Calipari and Jim Harbaugh. And you'll never see me bragging about recruiting class rankings. The only thing that matters is on-field performance. I don't want to argue with fellow Bulls. That's not my aim. I'm just a guy who - in the past - has been as close to the program as you can get. It's painful to see what's happening and I can't pour my heart and soul into it anymore. I did that for years. Again, Brad will vouch.

 

Maybe I am holding on to wishful thinking like you say, but maybe I'm able to see what the new coaching staff is doing and it's all positive. I haven't seen anything about USF basketball that isn't positive since Antigua took over.

 

If you are in so much pain then maybe you should go see a doctor of try over the counter medicine.

What exactly are you seeing that's positive? Player exits?

For me, this is not just the usual fallout from a coaching change. This is another symptom in a continuing pattern of failures by the athletic department. You can blame Stan Heath, you can blame the kids, but the reality is the program is going back to square one AGAIN and, for me, under a coach that I have no confidence that he can get it done. I'm not saying he won't, I'm saying there's nothing that gives me confidence that better days are ahead. If you see it, you're just holding on to wishful thinking, because there is no track record to show it. The exact same thing goes for football. Being an assistant to John Calipari and Jim Harbaugh doesn't make you John Calipari and Jim Harbaugh. And you'll never see me bragging about recruiting class rankings. The only thing that matters is on-field performance. I don't want to argue with fellow Bulls. That's not my aim. I'm just a guy who - in the past - has been as close to the program as you can get. It's painful to see what's happening and I can't pour my heart and soul into it anymore. I did that for years. Again, Brad will vouch.

 

 

 

What a train wreck. USF athletics is a complete embarrassment. I've been a diehard, bleed green & golder since 1984 - NEVER been called fair-weather - but that's officially it for me. I'll check back in around 2018 and see if anything has improved with football, men's basketball and baseball. Anthony Collins will be next and the 2014-15 Bulls won't be competitive with Hillsborough Community College.

You are really going to quit on the Bulls because half the team was apparently a bunch of soft quitters.   I will keep supporting them but right now I feel more embarrassed for anyone that was supporting the Stan Heath regime.   After seeing how many and how fast these guys are quitting I think the decision to fire him was 100 percent justified, and I am excited to see what kind of USF BULLS that Antigua can bring in. 

 

 

So just curious. If you're a die harder since 1984, why did you wait until March, 2014 to become a member of TBP?

 

You can ask Brad about my track record.

 

What a train wreck. USF athletics is a complete embarrassment. I've been a diehard, bleed green & golder since 1984 - NEVER been called fair-weather - but that's officially it for me. I'll check back in around 2018 and see if anything has improved with football, men's basketball and baseball. Anthony Collins will be next and the 2014-15 Bulls won't be competitive with Hillsborough Community College.

You are really going to quit on the Bulls because half the team was apparently a bunch of soft quitters.   I will keep supporting them but right now I feel more embarrassed for anyone that was supporting the Stan Heath regime.   After seeing how many and how fast these guys are quitting I think the decision to fire him was 100 percent justified, and I am excited to see what kind of USF BULLS that Antigua can bring in. 

 

What a train wreck. USF athletics is a complete embarrassment. I've been a diehard, bleed green & golder since 1984 - NEVER been called fair-weather - but that's officially it for me. I'll check back in around 2018 and see if anything has improved with football, men's basketball and baseball. Anthony Collins will be next and the 2014-15 Bulls won't be competitive with Hillsborough Community College.

Video of him looks like a young Ron Anderson Jr. Not real athletic, but a tough guy around the basket.

His offer list obviously wasn't very impressive, but neither was Toarlyn Fitzpatrick's and he was a really solid contributor during his career at USF. Let's hope he is one of those diamonds in the rough.

OK, so we have a first-time head coach and his staff now includes:

1) his brother

2) a high school coach who was a college buddy

3) a guy who was busted down from his assistant position because of multiple DUIs

I'm hoping like hell that this works out, but strictly from the outside looking in, this looks like a potential mess waiting to happen.

Prado has to know it's over. Unless something miraculous happens from this point on, we will have a new regime in the dugout next year and, frankly, it's overdue. The only positive to letting it go this long is that we won't have to pay two baseball coaches next year the way we already are for football, basketball and the AD.

Nice. Rod Strickland brings his multiple DUIs to USF!

Don't know it it's been noted anywhere or not, but the little old American has teams in the Final Four of NCAA men (UConn), NCAA women (UConn), NIT men (SMU) and NIT women (USF).

There's no rest for Mark Harlan. He has Antigua on board, now he has to begin the search for a new baseball coach.

 

Isn't his base similar to Masiello's?

I gotta believe he's getting a million at least. We'll see.

That's one hell of a raise for a guy who's never been a head coach. Give him a deal loaded with incentives.

 

Isn't his base similar to Masiello's?

I gotta believe he's getting a million at least. We'll see.

That's one hell of a raise for a guy who's never been a head coach.

My guess is he gets Masiello money. $1.2 mil.

Tough to lower once it's out and still get a decent guy signed.

He's making $275,000 base salary at Kentucky. They'd be NUTS to give him $1-million a year. There's nothing that says he's deserving of that.

http://ftw.usatoday.com/2014/03/kentucky-coaches-ad-bonuses-330k-aaron-harrison-final-four/

Does anyone think the search firm failed miserably? Let's discount the hire for instance. Was there any secrecy whatsoever in the search? The financial figures were disclosed multiple times to the public. The potential candidates were always out in the media for everyone to scrutinize. Just kinda disappointed on the lack of confidentiality. Maybe my poor feelings to the search firm have boiled over and relate to the hire. Who knows - Antigua could be the greatest thing since sliced bread and I'm being abnormally harsh. However my instincts typically don't deceive me. Guess we'll find out. On board as always - doesn't mean I have to like it. Would have rather had Mussleman. I do prefer Antigua over the UNLV coach. I read nothing positive about him.  

Agreed on the search firm. I just don't get the whole concept. Isn't hiring supposed to be a big part of what an AD does? And since Harlan was the primary hoops AD at UCLA, shouldn't he have had a good pulse on the "industry" and who is out there? Could they have found Orlando Antigua at UK without paying a search firm $60,000? Hell, I'd never heard of Steve Masiello, but after watching Manhattan play Louisville, my brother and I looked at each other and said, "USF should check that guy out." Like you, I know I'm going to take heat from my fellow Bulls who want to look on the brighter side. I want to look on the brighter side, too. I want Antigua to succeed in the worst way. I've followed USF hoops religiously since I was a freshman in 1984. I know all the names and faces from the past 30 years of USF hoops. But, like the Sheriff, my gut tells me this was not the hire to move us forward. I had the same strong feeling when they announced the hirings of Robert McCullum and Lelo Prado, was wishy-washy about Skip Holtz (love Willie Taggart, so that one remains to be seen) so the intestinal track record is pretty good. I wish Orlando Antigua the very best and I'll be in the Sun Dome watching like I always am, but I won't have a lot of patience with this one. Stan's leaving two all-freshman bigs behind. The facilities are great. The conference is a better competitive match. It's not rebuilding time again. It's time to win now.

Kentucky fan here wanted to say congrats on the hire. You never know how an assistant will turn out, but you cant just link him to cal, he also coached under jamie dixon who no one seems to take issue with. All I can tell you is he played a huge role in getting big guys to kentucky anthony davis, nerlens noel, terrence jones to name a few. You may think anybody can recruit one and dones to kentucky but we have missed our fair share with shabazz muhammed, wiggins, kyrie irving. One thing I wanted to say is in hearing recruits talk they mention coach o about as often as they mention cal or kentucky as reasons for committing. Also as for being called a jerk by the memphis fan, this coaching staff at kentucky and the players too do so much for the community and put up with a crazy fan base and it is always done with a smile on their face. They are good people regardless of what people want to believe about cal and his past. The players go to class(highest apr in sec) they are at the childrens hospital nearly every weekend. Raised a million dollars in a telethon for haiti earthquake and nearly that much in another for floods in eastern kentucky. It is about more than basketball for these coaches.

Thanks for dropping by with the congrats, but my biggest concern is right there in your post. None of the kids you mention that were recruited to UK - or misses by UK - are the types that will give USF a sniff, even with Orlando Antigua. We're not selling the same thing. So if we're hiring him strictly based on his track record of bringing in those types of players, it's a failure from the get-go. USF hasn't and won't (with Antigua) work in the same recruiting circles that include names like Noel, Davis, Wiggins, Irving. He's going to have to find players on the second tier and be able to develop them. Can he do that? We have absolutely no idea and neither do you, even though you've had him on your staff. It's never been part of his job description. Now it most definitely is.

Who cares if you can recruit if you can't coach the talent - no track record on his head coaching experience and we now become the test grounds for him. How hard is it to recruit for Kentucky? Seriously. We paid how much to this search firm? USF isn't even in the same zip code with respect to Kentucky on any level with regards to hoops. Recruiting for USF hoops is not the same as recruiting for Kentucky hoops. Looks like the losing will continue - but at least we have diversity covered. I mean - what could Eric Mussleman really offer our program? Fail, fail, fail. And the misery continues...

I'm solidly in the Sheriff's posse on this one. I'll show my support in the stands, but this guy needs to prove things fast. If he keeps this team intact with Perry, Egbunu, Allen, etc., has a healthy AC and brings in Holston and another player or two, there is NO REASON he shouldn't win games next year. There is no reason for a Willie Taggart-like rookie season for Antigua.

All,

 

I am excited at the new hire, all of us are on the outside looking in, NONE of us know what he is like in person.

 

I am sure Mark Harlan wants to succeed at his position.  Try to have a positive outlook, can he be worse than Stan???

 

Thx

jonpfl

Can he be worse than Stan? Absolutely. I'm not saying he will be, but Stan gave us two of the four 20-win seasons in USF hoops history. Was Robert McCullum worse than Stan. Oh, yeah. So, can Antigua be worse than Stan? For our sakes, let's hope not, but yes, it's possible for him to be worse.

usfvictor: The NBA is obviously complicit, but again, you know the recruiting pitch at Kentucky is a simple one: "Come here for a year or two and we'll make you an NBA lottery pick." You know when USF officially announces the hire, Antigua's "recruiting prowess" is going to be at the top of the news release. How does that translate for him at USF? That was the selling point for hiring Willie Taggart, but he was recruiting at Stanford and Western Kentucky where there were challenges. It's not the same atmosphere - and we have absolutely no idea if he can make a decision as a floor coach. I'd probably look pretty good too if I had a roster full of McDonald's All-Americans. How does he recruit and coach players who don't have that kind of talent level, because that's what he'll have at USF? We'll find out and maybe he'll be great, but there's not a thing on his resume to me that relates to the situation he's walking into at USF. Bottom line is the same to me - if you were going to give up on Stan Heath, you'd better bring in someone with a track record that says he has a good chance of getting it done. I don't see anything that says that with Antigua. All I see is a guy who's followed Calipari around.

Completely unproven coaching ability and if they're going to tout his recruiting . . . give me a break . . . apples and oranges. Kids went to Memphis and now Kentucky because Calipari promised them one year and off to the NBA. We can't sell the same thing, so I'm not giving Antigua any credit for the recruiting at those stops. He may prove me completely wrong (and I sure hope he does) but I completely disagree with this hire. Calipari is everything that's wrong with collegiate sports and this guy has hitched his wagon there. Sitting in the second chair to that dirtbag doesn't mean anything to me. I'll go on record right now and say that I hate this choice. All the so-called "big name" interest we were told there was in this job and end up with a career coat-tail rider of the guy that has made a mockery of college basketball by creating a D-League NBA feeder team in the NCAA's midst.

Pupil of the guy I hate most in college athletics. Great.

Given the other options, this should be the guy. So much more potential upside than a career assistant like Antigua.

This team is Jimmy Herget and little else.

Stud guard he has committed chose UNLV because it's close to home.