UND92,96

I would at least hope that Faison has made an actual effort to raise the buyout funds that are only necessary due to his monumentally bad decision to extend Jones' contract so far into the future.

Yes. From the comments section of Miller's blog:

I don't believe there's another example of a coach at one of the other early 2000's NCC schools currently in division I surviving a season like Jones just had post transition. Yes, a couple had comparably bad seasons during their transition, particularly when year four coincided with the first year in their current conferences, but not after it ended, let alone three years removed from the end of it. Carolyn DeHoff is probably the closest comparison, and of course she didn't survive her 6-20 season.

One standard I would expect is to never finish last, with the possible exception of a situation where it's a new coach's first year and he was left with a completely bare cupboard. Finishing anywhere close to last this far into a tenure would have gotten virtually any previous UND men's basketball coach fired. And in terms of blaming the transition, IMO that really falls apart when you consider how Jones has done against UNO. Our head start hasn't meant much there.

How much have the standards for UND men's basketball changed in the last 30 years or so? In Dave Gunther's second-to-last year, he was 12-6 in the NCC, and finished in a tie for second place. He followed that up with an 8-10 NCC record, and was "strongly encouraged", I believe, to take another job within the athletic department. And that was with a hockey coach running the department. It's weird to think that Gunther was not even 50 years old when he stepped down.

It's just frustrating that a certain level of success was demanded at one time, but apparently not anymore.

I don't understand this either. Basketball seems to have been treated as a complete afterthought under Faison. Maybe this would have been more understandable if Gino were still a.d., but somebody with Faison's background? It seems odd.

So when you boil it all down, Jones' future is essentially dependent upon Hooker and a bunch of freshmen and sophomores who haven't proven themselves yet being roughly as good as a team next year as Huff, et al. were as juniors and seniors? Or maybe to be a bit more accurate, they don't necessarily have to be quite as good in terms of conference record (.600), but roughly as good in terms of overall record (.500)? And assuming .500 is good enough to save his job for another year (which I do not concede), does Jones get an extension if he approaches that, or would Faison simply let him come back for the final year of his contract and then reevaluate?

So four coaches achieved something this year that Jones never has. What does that say about the caliber of the Big Sky during the two years Jones actually had a decent conference record, with some of the most experienced teams in the country?

Keep in mind that Jones and Rahe are the only Big Sky coaches with nine or more years at their current schools. Katz achieved a 20-win season this year, along with three other coaches in the Big Sky. Verlin only has seven years at Idaho. We'll have to see whether he can last two more if he doesn't reach that threshold.

I predict a heavy dose of Mike Eruzione.

Just a guess, but I suspect you would have a difficult time finding another division I coach, or division II for that matter, with as many as nine years at his current job without so much as a single 20-win season to his credit.

You almost never see a head coach resign, unless he's retiring, taking a higher-paying job or is given the choice to resign or be fired. And for coaches making big money and who would be due significant buyouts if they are fired, I guess that's not surprising. But for a coach who doesn't make big money and who knows, or at least should know that he's on very, very thin ice, would it make sense to actively seek another job--most likely an assistant job--rather than waiting for the (almost) inevitable firing to occur? Or is it all about the money, i.e. getting a buyout, regardless of how small it might actually be, is more important than avoiding being fired?

Tyler also?

Do you know anything about Austin Lee from Berthold? I've never seen him play, and have no idea what level of college basketball he might be able to play, but I've heard he might be one of those under-the-radar types who could potentially end up being pretty good. I believe he shared the region player of the year award with Heidlebaugh, but I'm not certain on that.

At this point, I'd say Hooker, Crandall and Seales better be ready to play at least 35 minutes per game.

I will grant you that I didn't take Stefan into account. However, you have to use total points scored rather than ppg for the calculations to be truly accurate. UND scored a total of 2526 points in 2013-14, and collectively Huff, Anderson, Webb, Traylor, Schuler and Stefan scored 1757 of those. 1757 is 69.5% of 2526.

I'm not saying it's necessarily a bad thing. It's more to point out the obvious--that relying on transfers to that degree was an epic fail when you lose big AND you have to replace them after a year anyway. We're now potentially back in a similar situation as it was heading into last year--one proven scorer and a bunch of question marks.

If it does turn out that Tyler and DeRouen aren't returning, that would mean UND will be losing its second, third, fourth, fifth and sixth leading scorers from this past season. That's roughly 60% of the scoring. By comparison, roughly 65% of the scoring was lost after the 2013-14 season.

Yes, I'd assume one would go to Hobaugh. I wouldn't mind taking a chance on a 3-point specialist and hope he develops into a more well-rounded player.

Assuming this is true, it brings up an interesting question--does Jones go the transfer route again, or just try to find the best unsigned high school player(s) he can now that a scholarship or two is available? I know which option I'd prefer. The quick fix hasn't worked very well so far.

They have incredible size and athleticism, but I'm not sold on their guard play at all. As a team they are great defensively, but offensively? Not really. A team that controls the tempo and shoots a good percentage from behind the arc would stand a decent chance against them. Notre Dame would appear to have the best chance of the other remaining teams from that region.

Heidlebaugh named Mr. Basketball and MVP of state tournament.

He's on fire tonight in the championship game.

A 30 or 40 point blowout is pretty rare these days in the tournament. I give Richman full credit for what he did this year with a team that really wasn't particularly talented after Alexander. If he can win 20-plus games next year without Alexander, he's a coaching genius.