Why some people call them lOSUr
Holder says he's regrouping (Andrea Cohen, Daily Oklahoman)
As Bill Self took a stage in Kansas to announce he will stay in Lawrence, questions about Oklahoma State athletic director Mike Holder's whereabouts swirled around Oklahoma.
Was the AD already in Nashville working on Plan B? What about a flight scheduled from Stillwater to Minneapolis?
In reality the AD was in his office, sitting at his desk, nursing a bit of a broken heart.
[snip]
"I told him he broke my heart, and I'm serious about that,” Holder said. "So I'm gonna have to kind of regroup and get over that, the loss, first. Then figure out where to go from here.”
"I think from my point of view I put a lot of energy and thought into the moment of truth with Bill Self when I sat down with him last night. I think at the end of the day I had myself sold on him coming to Oklahoma State but I couldn't sell Bill Self on coming to Oklahoma State.”
Self Rejection Is Big Punch (John Klein, Tulsa World)
Kansas coach Bill Self said Thursday that Oklahoma State athletic director Mike Holder did an unbelievable job in trying to woo him back to his alma mater as men's basketball coach.
It is doubtful anyone associated with OSU believes Holder did an unbelievable job.
Self is being nice. OSU fans aren't likely to be so forgiving to an athletic director that raises ticket prices, pushes a legendary OSU family out the door and then fails to land the only coach that could sooth the bitterness.
Self's rejection is a devastating blow to OSU basketball. It won't do much good for Holder, either.
Holder fires Sean Sutton and alienates the Sutton family and then fails to get the only coach that would have united the OSU fan base.There is no coach out there even close to what Self would have done for OSU.
Now, the Cowboys will have to settle for someone far less.
There is no way to spin this into a positive for OSU. The next coach will be no better than a second choice and you still have the Suttons unhappy about what happened.
If OSU could not get Self, Sean Sutton should have never been fired.
Boone Pickens and his little (unqualified to be AD a major university) buddy Mike Holder have absolutely bungled this whole basketball situation, for all the reasons laid out by Klein.
The fact is, nobody knows after this short time if Sean Sutton is a Big-12 caliber coach or not (for that matter, it's not clear if Mike Gundy is a Big-12 caliber coach, but he apparently has the Boone Pickens seal of approval in a way that the Sutton family did not). He certainly lost games at Gallagher-Iba this year that the old man would not have. But he might have grown into the job, and probably deserved a couple more years to prove himself given the fact that his family restored OSU basketball in the nearly two decades it was under their supervision.
Let anyone forget what the Suttons accomplished at OSU, here's a reminder:
When Eddie and Sean Sutton arrived at Oklahoma State University in 1990, Cowboy basketball had been to one NCAA Tournament in 25 years, had zero NCAA wins in 25 years and Gallagher-Iba Arena seated 6,381 and rarely was full.
[snip]
The Sutton era ended ... with the force-out of Sean as head coach. Three straight NIT appearances mark the end of the Sutton era, but the first 15 years were glorious.
Thirteen NCAA Tournaments. Six Sweet 16's. Three conference tournament titles. Two conference championships. Two Final Fours. And a glittering arena that seats 13,611 and was packed on many a winter night.
Eddie Sutton coached the Cowboys; Sean was point guard on his dad's first two teams, then returned after a year's absence and was his right-hand assistant for seasons.
"This is a great job,” OSU athletic director Mike Holder said while relieving Sean Sutton of that very post. "That's in part due to the Sutton family.
It's almost entirely due to the Sutton family.
OSU may find the right coach to get them back to where they think they belong, but the notion here is that despite the Boone Pickens millions, there's no reason for that program to expect to be in the Top 25 as often as it was under Eddie Sutton. Tossing all of that history aside for personal reasons may not turn out to be the best decision OSU has ever made.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/11/08 22:20 | Sports | Technorati
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Comments
...And for the record, I can best describe the reaction here in Lawrence as one of relief. The level of worry wasn't stratospheric, but fans here are still feeling burnt to a crisp over Roy Williams' departure to UNC. When Williams was shown in frame during the broadcast of the final game I heard booing around the block. 'Twas actually kinda scary. Thus it was natural to wonder if OSU would, in fact, present Bill Self with an offer he couldn't refuse.
Bottom line: AD Perkins is terrific at wringing cash out of boosters to pay for the facilities and salaries his coaches want - the level of commitment Self requested is going to be expensive.
Posted by ben @ 08:57 on 04/12/08
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