Cincy firing Brannen

Cougar Basketball
41

This was his second year at UCLA.

42

Yes Covid year just blocked from memory. :joy:

43

His team was trending down. His last season we did not make the NCAA even though we were better than texas who did make it was because we didn’t perform well in the tournament. How many
NCAA tournamentss did he make after UH?

44

Where is the downward trend? His last 4 years were better than his first 3 years. Only 1 year without a post season tournament. The knock on Foster was he relied too heavily on JuCo’s and couldn’t get out of the first round of the NCAA Tournament. That is why he was run off. Not due to “trending down”.

1986-1987: 18 - 12 NCAA
1987-1988: 18 - 13 NIT
1988-1989: 17 - 14
1989-1990: 25 - 8 NCAA
1990-1991: 18 - 11 NIT
1991-1992: 25 - 6 NCAA
1992-1993: 21 - 9 NIT

I’m not trying to champion Pat Foster as a Hall of Fame coach. What he did at UH was far from awful. Awful was the next 30 years after he left. There was some intermittent success with Tom Penders, but for the most part we were irrelevant after Foster left until Coach Sampson saved us.

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45

Did we actually fire Foster or did he just bail? I’m thinking the latter. It seems like he didn’t like being the guy who followed Guy and being compared and disliked by the fans. I didn’t like the way he shut down the post game parties in Melcher after home games.

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46

Well, I am a super weird guy. I am sure if Cronin came to UH, I would be a convert like I was with Penders.

47

Well, when Kellen retires, Cronin will have retired also. I’m expecting Kellen to be here for a very long time once he takes over for Kelvin.

48

Mine was very much a hypothetical. It was meant to show I can be swayed to like a coach if he comes to UH.

Speaking of Kellen, I was not around much when the contract extension for his dad was announced. I guess Kellen is good waiting for Dad to retire in 2026? I don’t know exactly but I am guessing Kellen will be 40ish when he takes over assuming everything goes as planned. How long can you keep that coach-in-waiting waiting?

49

Mick Cronin stats (from CBS Sports article) prior to his Juzang magic in 2021:

6-11 Career Tournament Record
1 of 6 wins was against a team seeded #8 or better
1 Sweet 16 appearance (2012)
3-7 in last 7 trips to the tourney

50

They did not fire Foster. He was an excellent coach but didn’t like our fickle fans comparing him Guy V.
He left on his own and took the Nevada gig

51

Hmm, Foster’s situation reminds me of Shaka Smart.

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52

Kinda.
I liked Foster.

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53

I was a frustrated fan because first round NCAA exits wasn’t good enough. I wanted more. Unfortunately, it took decades to get there.

54

He bailed and went to Nevada. Many years later, he supposedly said that leaving UH was a big mistake.

I use to see him at a lot of UH games.

Our AD’s at the time we’re less than spectacular !

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55

He got fired but left on his own ???

56

That was a typo on Butch’s part. When Foster quit, it left us in a lurch and Alvin was hired by the interim AD who was not really ready for that kind of hire, nor was Alvin ready at that time.

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57

Pat Foster was a good coach but didn’t get the backing he needed and the SWC had lost national respect. His final season at UH the Coogs finished third in SWC and did not receive an at-large bid into the NCAA Tournament. That was final straw and Foster left for Nevada, which seemed like a lateral move at best.
At UH Foster’s hands were tied in many ways, much more than just financial. There’s a reason Foster signed mainly international players, junior college players and brought in transfers, and I will leave it at that.

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58

We had Tubby Smith hired and our AD insisted he retain Alvin Brooks on staff. Tubby showed that AD his middle finger. We were stuck and hired Alvin to be the HC even though at that time he was primarily our recruiter. and not ready. Alvin brought in some very nice recruits at first but


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59

No I said he wasn’t fired!

60

I was the one who said he was fired. That was my mistake.

I was a student at the time and going to games. I remember the year before he left, he had us running a first team and a second team in games. Then when it came time for the tournament, he decided to drop mass substituting the second team and we got a quick exit from the NCAA tournament. I remember thinking how can you abandon a formula that had been working for you the entire season.