Good for Clay. He moved here because he has a child that frequents the med center and I’m sure he figured there’s a high chance he could be out of a job after next season.
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Absolutely. You can’t blame him for taking that job at all. And putting all that aside, who would you rather work for? Tough choice.
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Does Rice pay their baseball staff decent compared to others (conference mates and us)?
I am sure when they hired Pierce they allowed a much higher allowance for his assistants. I don’t know the exact amount, though. Since they are a private school, they don’t have to release that data.
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Wait, are you saying that you want to keep Van Hook? Isn’t this whole staff what has been the ire of UH fans on here all season?
Van Hook is a very good assistant coach. He was at UT and OU for a number of years and did a really good job. There is a reason pierce wants him. I don’t know what kind of impact he had on the team this year because TW takes control of everything when things start going downhill.
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At this point, if you’re going to get a new coach, you might as well clean house and go in a new direction with the staff as well, in order to get your new coach’s staff in there, so I don’t see what the fuss is about Van Hook moving to a new team. Did you have a son on the team under Whitting?
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The assistants that were a$$holes to the kids are gone….nobody was upset at the current assistants……
He wasn’t going to stay with the new staff anyways and it’s not like he is making the difference between making the tournament next season or not. So, I don’t get the comment that he made, as if him moving on is such significant development.
I would say it is a pretty big development at any Power 5 Baseball program when the top assistant leaves to take a job at a school that plays in an inferior conference because the coach at the Power 5 school can’t get it done.
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Whitting hasn’t been great. But you’re putting all of this on Whitting. As if his assistants and the players don’t matter either. As if ALL of the bad should solely be put on him. I don’t agree with that. Van Hook was at Rice from 12-17, so he already has some connections there too, so it makes sense to get on the staff there, with the likely coaching change next season.
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Whitting hires the assistants. If his assistants fail, it’s on him. Same for the players.
It’s his program. The buck stops with him.
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Who do you think recruits the players!?
It is 100% on TW.
He is the “leader” of the program!
He hires the assistants, he oversees everything!
So yes, all “of the bad” is put on him.
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So if the assistants aren’t effective, then why make a fuss if they move on to another team?
Did anyone say all assistants were ineffective?
And he’s been here for almost 15 years. There’s simply no way to put the last 6 years of failure on a revolving cast of players and assistants when the one constant is also the guy in charge. Blaming anyone else is just a preposterous idea on its face.
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What was he in charge of? Recruiting? What else?
That didn’t answer my question. I’ve seen multiple people on this thread say Van Hook was a good coach.
In any case, he was only here 10 months.
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It’s related to your question. Who cares what people outside of the program say?
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Recruiting, Hitting and Infield. TW is ultimately in charge of everything, though. He is the main face of everything. If an assistant has a really good career and goes to a new school, which then has a bad season, that is on the head coach. TW handles everything. He recruits the players and hires the coaches.
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