Found this gem from our own Mike Camunas

[Brad]

while I was looking for another article about USF Basketball:

President of athletic booster defends McCullum, denies reports

By Mike Camunas The Oracle

Tampa, FL (CSTV U-WIRE) -- In response to the several articles that have been published about a "prominent" booster club allocating nearly $1 million to oust men's basketball coach Robert McCullum and hire former Cincinnati coach Bob Huggins, the primary president of the USF athletics booster club has spoken up.

Passionately.

President Mike Charles addressed several media outlets Tuesday to disclaim the articles published on SI.com and in the Tampa Tribune about a booster group wanting to buy out the remaining three years on McCullum's contract.

But not only did Charles forcefully disclaim them, he reiterated that all boosters do not want to fire McCullum despite the Bulls having the nation's second-longest losing streak and being two losses away from going winless in conference play.

"There are no negotiations," Charles said of the reports that Huggins' Cincinnati lawyer Richard Katz had been in contact with boosters about the buyout. "I support our coach and the coaching staff 100 percent, and I also feel (McCullum) will be the coach next season."

While McCullum is 27-57 in three years at USF, his buyout will cost between $850,000 and $900,000. Charles says hiring a new coach would cost more than $1 million and goes against the philosophy of the Athletic Department.

"(Everyone) is familiar with the new facility we built (on campus)," Charles said. "It has the Academic Enrichment Center, which is very important part of our athletic program, to make sure (USF) athletes are students also.

"There will be no change. There's no million dollars out there, there's not negotiations with the Huggins handlers that anybody I know is aware of. There is nothing going on to hire Huggins." Charles also said administration will sit down after the season and "evaluate the season like it does every season, like they do every year, whether (the team) wins one game or 25 games. They do it every year whether they are hiring or firing coaches."

Charles also stated that "many other boosters have come forward to support McCullum" and have said they "are not part" of the movement to buy out the contract.

USF has, however, ousted a men's basketball coach once before. On Jan. 15, 1980, according to an Oracle article, "a decision" to remove former coach Chip Conner was made "based on meetings with students, faculty, alumni and community supporters of the Bulls." Conner, who had a 59-62 record in five years at USF, continued to receive paychecks until his contract expired in September 1980, but resigned after being told of the "decision" not to rehire him.

The next season, Lee Rose was hired, and he led the Bulls to their first-ever NIT Tournament berth as well as two other NITs and compiled a 106-69 record.

But Charles said he doesn't believe the media are talking about "facts." He believes most of what has been published has been "mostly hype" in which has been produced by people who "fantasize" about a "coach who doesn't have a job and whose name is going to come up no matter if you're in Florida or in Indiana."

"People like to write stuff that's more interesting," Charles said. "I don't think we're talking about facts, because if we were, I would certainly know what was going on, and I'm telling you there are no grounds behind anything to hire a new coach. There are more boosters behind McCullum than there are against him."

© 2006 The Oracle via CSTV U-WIRE

..sure the article is dated, but with all the myths floated on this board, it may be good to brush up on facts as we near the end of the season.  All emphasis added by me.

Link to Story

[Kyle]

God Brad, why do you have to be so negative?!

[Jihme]

if it's any consolation, it can only go up from here.  here's to RMC being coach of the year next year!

[Guest JulmisteForPrez]

Awesome.  We'll continue to be nationally famous for how bad we are then.

Why on earth did we ever give this guy a six-year contract??   [smiley=seth.gif]

[Brad]

Why on earth did we ever give this guy a six-year contract??   [smiley=seth.gif]

Probably because the AD knew the extent of the recovery operation needed.  And perhaps, there were few coaches that would walk into such a mess on on a shorter contract.

[Rizman]

I would give him one more year, if he continues to improve, which he has from last year then good for us.

[Brad]

Pass the blame around for USF hoops failures

GARY SHELTON

Published April 4, 2003

Seth Greenberg is leaving. Does it matter?

South Florida is looking. Should it bother?

They finally parted ways, the underachieving coach and the unambitious program. Greenberg walked out of the door, and USF held it open for him, and for the first time in seven years, it's hard to blame either one.

Basketball has become invisible at USF. It is a flat-lined, under-the-radar, inconsequential game that stirred neither passion nor imagination. For a very long time, basketball has been unimpressive and unbothered by it, ignored and inconsequential.

Now, a team going nowhere needs new leadership. Should we care?

Go ahead, discuss whether it was USF that let Greenberg down, or if it was the other way around. Why not? You have a few minutes, and besides, it would be the first time anyone has discussed USF basketball in a long time.

It has been a molehill of a program, a speed bump on the way to nowhere. Most teams have an R.P.I. factor. This one had an R.I.P. factor. In the world of college basketball, it was just another score in the agate. It never made waves. It never reached the NCAA postseason. It just kind of dribbled along.

In the end, that was Seth's legacy. Better than bad. But not good enough to require your attention.

The galling part of all was that, for those in charge at USF, this was just swell.

Seven years without an NCAA appearance? Fine. No victories over Associated Press Top 25 teams? No problem. Constant collapses down the stretch? Okay.

And, hey, Seth?

How about a contract extension?

If you suspected, even for a second, the standards for basketball were higher than the top of a sneaker, that should have set you straight. Greenberg had 20 games against Top 25 teams, and he lost them all. He was 16 games under .500 in league play.

And that gets you an extension? Sheesh. If he ever won 20, would they have made him school president?

Frankly, this is great news for Greenberg. Bully for him. He's going to make a lot of money, and he gets a fresh new canvas, and he'll save a lot of time now that he isn't going to Kinko's every March to make photocopies of his resume to send out.

I'm not quite sure what Virginia Tech saw in Greenberg that impressed the school so much. Who knows? Maybe he sent in George O'Leary's resume. Or Billy Donovan's. Maybe it happened on one of those nights when the rest of us weren't paying attention to USF basketball. There were a few of those.

Really, it doesn't matter what you think about Greenberg going, and it doesn't matter, really, who you think might be coming. What matters are those who are staying.

This is the time to pay attention to Lee Roy Selmon, who has spent a lot of his time at USF on cruise control. No one is going to argue Selmon's legend, and not many would debate how badly the school needed him as a calming influence when he was named athletic director.

Really, has there been a blip on the radar since Selmon took over? Except for football - and how about that schedule - is any program really better off for his stewardship? He has been the guy in charge of contract extensions.

Now Selmon has to hire a basketball coach. This just in: Mike Krzyzewski is not expected to apply. Nor is Tom Izzo or Donovan or Rick Barnes. Ben Howland, darn the luck, took the UCLA job a day too soon, and Roy Williams already has the North Carolina rumors to deal with. And who would have believed it? Jim Harrick picked the wrong year to give up not getting caught. Matt Doherty just called; he prefers unemployment.

What Selmon needs is a young, energetic coach who isn't afraid of Rick Pitino's shadow, or Bob Huggins' or John Calipari's or Tom Crean's. He needs someone who can recruit, someone who can lead, someone who can teach free-throw shooting.

What Selmon doesn't need is someone else to tell USF how hard it is to win at USF. He doesn't need someone talking about difficult schedules or unfortunate injuries or, for goodness' sake, rebuilding. How can you rebuild when you were never built to begin with?

Look, we all know the problems. We know Conference USA is much, much better as a basketball conference than it is as a football conference. We know Florida isn't a basketball state. We know USF doesn't have the money of some schools. We know it's a suitcase college.

We also know this: other schools have those problems, too. And it doesn't stop them from dreaming.

Around here, no one bothered to dream anymore. Basketball had reached this comfortable little ledge. The Bulls weren't going to have a winning record, but at the end of the year, you weren't going to remember any of their victories, either.

Had Seth not taken the Virginia Tech job, could you visualize that changing?

Me, neither. Under Greenberg, you could count on USF being 17-15 forever.

It's a shame. Most of us expected more. Greenberg had personality, and he had a reputation as a recruiter. Who knew he arrived the day someone in the department broke a mirror? As South Florida begins to search for his replacement, it needs to ask itself this: Does it want to be better than this? Is a program that doesn't lose, but doesn't matter, enough for the school?

If what Greenberg has delivered has been enough, then USF suffered a critical loss on Thursday.

If, on the other hand, the school would like for basketball to matter, then Virginia Tech might have done it a favor.

Link

Once again, emphasis added by me.  For those that like to distribute blame to RMc, a little history for you.  I hope you read it thoroughly.  This was written before RMc entered the fray.  You get a feeling from Mr. Shelton, it's going to take more than just a new coach at USF.

[Bullpride08]

Ah Brad, reality is to painful for many of these darksiders.  Like I said the darksiders are not 'realists' as they claim to be, they're 'idealists' with not one notion of reality or how to come to grips with it.

This is not to say "CRM is your coach forever, deal with it," but rather the cost associated with raising the profile of hoops is more than a coaches salary and until more alum and the community start taking the program more seriously then we're in for much of the same- REGARDLESS WHO THE COACH IS!  This isn't a bad coaching hire, this is a bad hoops program, and regardless of the coach.

It's hard to tell who is to blame or who to be the most mad at.  I don't know if Mac even made all the right moves up to this point if his record would be much better.  A program that needs more dollars, more facilities, and more fans.

[Triple B]

Pass the blame around for USF hoops failures

GARY SHELTON

Published April 4, 2003

Seth Greenberg is leaving. Does it matter?

South Florida is looking. Should it bother?

They finally parted ways, the underachieving coach and the unambitious program. Greenberg walked out of the door, and USF held it open for him, and for the first time in seven years, it's hard to blame either one.

Basketball has become invisible at USF. It is a flat-lined, under-the-radar, inconsequential game that stirred neither passion nor imagination. For a very long time, basketball has been unimpressive and unbothered by it, ignored and inconsequential.

Now, a team going nowhere needs new leadership. Should we care?

Go ahead, discuss whether it was USF that let Greenberg down, or if it was the other way around. Why not? You have a few minutes, and besides, it would be the first time anyone has discussed USF basketball in a long time.

It has been a molehill of a program, a speed bump on the way to nowhere. Most teams have an R.P.I. factor. This one had an R.I.P. factor. In the world of college basketball, it was just another score in the agate. It never made waves. It never reached the NCAA postseason. It just kind of dribbled along.

In the end, that was Seth's legacy. Better than bad. But not good enough to require your attention.

The galling part of all was that, for those in charge at USF, this was just swell.

Seven years without an NCAA appearance? Fine. No victories over Associated Press Top 25 teams? No problem. Constant collapses down the stretch? Okay.

And, hey, Seth?

How about a contract extension?

If you suspected, even for a second, the standards for basketball were higher than the top of a sneaker, that should have set you straight. Greenberg had 20 games against Top 25 teams, and he lost them all. He was 16 games under .500 in league play.

And that gets you an extension? Sheesh. If he ever won 20, would they have made him school president?

Frankly, this is great news for Greenberg. Bully for him. He's going to make a lot of money, and he gets a fresh new canvas, and he'll save a lot of time now that he isn't going to Kinko's every March to make photocopies of his resume to send out.

I'm not quite sure what Virginia Tech saw in Greenberg that impressed the school so much. Who knows? Maybe he sent in George O'Leary's resume. Or Billy Donovan's. Maybe it happened on one of those nights when the rest of us weren't paying attention to USF basketball. There were a few of those.

Really, it doesn't matter what you think about Greenberg going, and it doesn't matter, really, who you think might be coming. What matters are those who are staying.

This is the time to pay attention to Lee Roy Selmon, who has spent a lot of his time at USF on cruise control. No one is going to argue Selmon's legend, and not many would debate how badly the school needed him as a calming influence when he was named athletic director.

Really, has there been a blip on the radar since Selmon took over? Except for football - and how about that schedule - is any program really better off for his stewardship? He has been the guy in charge of contract extensions.

Now Selmon has to hire a basketball coach. This just in: Mike Krzyzewski is not expected to apply. Nor is Tom Izzo or Donovan or Rick Barnes. Ben Howland, darn the luck, took the UCLA job a day too soon, and Roy Williams already has the North Carolina rumors to deal with. And who would have believed it? Jim Harrick picked the wrong year to give up not getting caught. Matt Doherty just called; he prefers unemployment.

What Selmon needs is a young, energetic coach who isn't afraid of Rick Pitino's shadow, or Bob Huggins' or John Calipari's or Tom Crean's. He needs someone who can recruit, someone who can lead, someone who can teach free-throw shooting.

What Selmon doesn't need is someone else to tell USF how hard it is to win at USF. He doesn't need someone talking about difficult schedules or unfortunate injuries or, for goodness' sake, rebuilding. How can you rebuild when you were never built to begin with?

Look, we all know the problems. We know Conference USA is much, much better as a basketball conference than it is as a football conference. We know Florida isn't a basketball state. We know USF doesn't have the money of some schools. We know it's a suitcase college.

We also know this: other schools have those problems, too. And it doesn't stop them from dreaming.

Around here, no one bothered to dream anymore. Basketball had reached this comfortable little ledge. The Bulls weren't going to have a winning record, but at the end of the year, you weren't going to remember any of their victories, either.

Had Seth not taken the Virginia Tech job, could you visualize that changing?

Me, neither. Under Greenberg, you could count on USF being 17-15 forever.

It's a shame. Most of us expected more. Greenberg had personality, and he had a reputation as a recruiter. Who knew he arrived the day someone in the department broke a mirror? As South Florida begins to search for his replacement, it needs to ask itself this: Does it want to be better than this? Is a program that doesn't lose, but doesn't matter, enough for the school?

If what Greenberg has delivered has been enough, then USF suffered a critical loss on Thursday.

If, on the other hand, the school would like for basketball to matter, then Virginia Tech might have done it a favor.

Link

Once again, emphasis added by me.  For those that like to distribute blame to RMc, a little history for you.  I hope you read it thoroughly.  This was written before RMc entered the fray.  You get a feeling from Mr. Shelton, it's going to take more than just a new coach at USF.

You are on a roll today. I'm sure certain parts of that article will be pulled out and "discussed".

[flsportsfan83]

how many games under .500 is CRM in league play?