Coach Alvin Brooks to be the head coach at Lamar

Waiting on Kellen’s new born son to come in a few yrs n take an Asst Coaching position! :grin:

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Best of luck to Alvin. I wish Lamar was staying in the Southland conference though. The WAC is gonna be tough to win in. Grand Canyon, New Mexico St, Stephen F Austin,Sam Houston St, Abilene Christian and Southern Utah who was 20-4 last year.

Kenpom last year: Abilene Christian: 84, GCU: 103, NMSU: 150, SFA: 151, Sam Houston: 184, Southern Utah: 135. Lamar: 307

Add in Utah Valley (former LA Laker Mark Madsen is coaching), Seattle U (where Cam Tyson is going), Tarleton (where Billie Gillespie is coaching)

I believe the UH administration started the decline !!! Brooks just happened to be their first mistake !

I respectfully disagree that the decline started with Foster, but it really depends on the definition of decline? Did the decline start with Foster, or did it start earlier? Is decline the beginning of a series of losing records? If so, we have to look beyond Foster.

If we are under the impression that the decline started with Foster, then perhaps we need to look closer. In GVL last two years, the BB program went 16-14 and 14-14. He was pushed out because the powers-that-be believed his better years were behind him. Hard to argue when PSJ didn’t win a NC. He wasn’t going to have a better collection of talent than PSJ; therefore, a coaching change was in the works.

Enter Foster. He coached seven (7) years and his worst record was 17-14, the only year that UH didn’t receive a post season bid. Six post season invitations, but no tournament advancement soured the administration and fan base against him. If the fan base expected PSJ results under Foster, then they were sorely delusional. You don’t get another PSJ without another Olajuwon, Drexler, Young, Micheaux, Anders, Williams, Gettys, etc. They were a once in a lifetime gift of talent from heaven.

Sensing that he was going to be removed, he preemptively took the Nevada job. Foster was a good coach, but not an elite coach, but he was vastly more respectable than what was to befall the program the next ten years with Brooks, Drexler and McCallum.

The mistake that was made was not hiring Tubby Smith from Tulsa after Foster left. Tubby was an elite coach in the making. He was interested in the UH HC position. However, the politics that he would have had to accept caused him to walk away from the negotiation.

What was Tubby Smith’s track record? He led Tulsa to two Sweet 16 appearances in a row. The next year, he led Georgia to a Sweet 16 appearance making it three Sweet 16 appearances in a row!!

Two years later, Tubby led Kentucky to the NC.

Not hiring Tubby Smith was the turning point of the UH BB program. It was a COLOSSAL mistake.

Additionally, there was pressure from the administration/athletic department to hire the next HC from within Foster’s staff. There was too much interference by actors (faculty) knowing little to nothing about how to run a successful BB program.

The other example of the administration/athletic department’s contribution to the decline was the mismanagement of PSJ. By the time they realized what they had in PSJ, it was too late to market PSJ properly. We should have gotten better recruiting, revenue and marketing of the vastly talented group of players. If we had similar PSJ talent today, I believe today’s administration/athletic department management would have capitalized better on the marketing aspect of the program.

If you define decline with losing, then look at the UH head coaching history and draw your own conclusion. IMO, it wasn’t so much who we hired, but who we didn’t hire when the non-hire (Tubby Smith) wanted to be here.

Houston head coaches:

Coach Tenure Record CT TA NC
Kelvin Sampson 2014-Pres 167-64 2 3 0
James Dickey 2010-14 64-62 0 0 0
Tom Penders 2004-10 121-77 0 1 0
Ray McCallum 2000-04 44-73 0 0 0
Clyde Drexler 1998-2000 19-39 0 0 0
Alvin Brooks 1993-98 54-84 0 0 0
Pat Foster 1986-93 142-73 1 3 0
Guy Lewis 1956-86 592-279 2 14 0
Alden Pasche 1945-56 135-116 1 (3^) 1 (2^) 0
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Pawd Slama Jama podcast said they’re hearing Sampson will most likely promote from within.

Goose has a pretty good history. We also made mistakes during that era with shoe contracts and we were antagonistic towards AAU. Then the recruiting money game changed and we were coming out of the Texas depression.

Anybody else notice K.C. Beard who has been the video coordinator now has Assistant Men’s basketball coach on his twitter bio??

image

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Glad Brooks is getting another chance. He wasnt ready the first time at UH. Its interesting after he got axed by UH his next job was at Tech as an assistant. But thats not entirely true. I used to work for and oil and gas company in the Greenspoint area. Frequently service companies bring food in the mornings to the office before they talk to Drilling Dept/Purchasing. One day a sales guy came in and Brooks was with him. I was shocked. I asked him what he was doing. Trying to be an oilfield salesman. But I said to the sales guy he is a BB coach. Anyway the next time the sales guy was there I asked him about Brooks. He just told me it didnt work out. I guess this gig only lasted a few months after he was axed at the end of the 1998 season.

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Brooks is having a rough start to the season. 1-7.
Currently down by 5 to Our Lady of the Lake.

I hope they give him time to build his program.

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Yikees.

Thats definitely not good. I watched Lamar vs Ga Tech and the only thing I noticed was how undersized they were in the backcourt. Hopefully they can turn it around and get some wins.

With the transfer portal there’s no excuses for not turning things around.

If you can’t get good transfers, you’re not gonna be there long

“I wanna recruit and develop MY players”. Depending on your record, you might only get 3 years to prove yourself.

Good luck to him.

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Lamar having a tough season.

The WAC is a very good basketball league. They’re losing New Mexico St and Sam Houston St. But adding:
*UT Arlington
*Incarnate Word
*Southern Utah

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Appreciate the love for the BearKats :grin:. Big game at home Sat against very good GCU team. Huge match up next Saturday against former Coog-- Cameron Tyson n current League leader Seattle. All I got!

Who is this Jesse22 character, and what has he done with the OG, Jess22?

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:grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes::smiley:.

Edit: finally had the mods put an ‘e’ on end of my name to keep y’all happy. Seem to be some confusion on whether I was M/F. I have no idea how! :upside_down_face:

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Didn’t know if we found ourselves in another Pearland situation.

Glad we don’t have an imposter amongst us.

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Nope. All good.

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That’s a good game. It’s always red. Haha :crazy_face: