What's the deal? South Florida just announced they have hired a former world number five Jimmy Arias as their assistant Any chance we get someone like that?

South Florida gets Jimmy Arias and the Aggies get Kevin O'Shea! That is really funny!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Pretty certain that Kevin is the new asst, not sure why there hasn't been an announcement yet.

Mckinley official retirement date Aug 1, job posted for 10 days, then O'Shea announced

Maybe they are going to just try to sneak this hire without publicity.

Bob is still listed as the asst on the website. I know Kevin has been recruiting though. Not sure why nothing has been made public yet.

It may have something to do with the announcement of the new assistant to take Kevin's old position.

quote:

---

It may have something to do with the announcement of the new assistant to take Kevin's old position.

---

Which should be soon...

Hey Raven! You are funny! What exact position are you referring to? Being a volunteer coach? Is that really a legitimate job that is news worthy? That is really hilarious! You should work in the media. That is some great spin!

quote:

---

Hey Raven! You are funny! What exact position are you referring to? Being a volunteer coach? Is that really a legitimate job that is news worthy? That is really hilarious! You should work in the media. That is some great spin!

---

He could be right. The volunteer asst is already a done deal. I am wondering if they are waiting until school starts tomorrow. Who knows.

It is a volunteer position. Hence it means next to nothing. How can this even be a factor in anything? You all are too much!

No matter how you slice it, we've taken a big step back from Bob McKinley.

Very disappointing hire for a program of our stature and potential.

Any of you all know how many schollies the program has to offer this year?

A big splash volunteer hire, are you kidding? Can it even be called a "hire", since its volunteering?

quote:

---

Any of you all know how many schollies the program has to offer this year?

---

I know Janglin transferred to Rice.

BTW O'Shea is on the roster now as the assistant. They snuck him in.

Now all of you will see how important Bob McKinley was and how mediocre Steve Denton is as a coach. This program has gone from the best assistant coach in the nation to one of the least qualified hires for any major program in the nation.

quote:

---

Now all of you will see how important Bob McKinley was and how mediocre Steve Denton is as a coach. This program has gone from the best assistant coach in the nation to one of the least qualified hires for any major program in the nation.

---

I'm a big fan of Bob as well, but I don't know that you could call him the best asst in the nation.

Please elaborate my good friend. Who would you put ahead of Bob McKinley?

Best or not he was really good. Thats like replacing John Chavis with Dave South!

The correct answer is 1/2. The program has half a scholarship to award this year.

Carl: can you elaborate on how that is broken down. It always seems very fluid to me one semester to the next. Does that include guys coming in January?

Raven, the program has 4.5 scholarships to award per year (thank you Title IX). I don't know who receives how much, and I don't know if the Janglin transfer is factored into the 1/2 available for this year or not. The purpose of posting that information was to illustrate what the coaching staff has to work with in pursuing recruits for the November signing period. That half scholarship could be entirely awarded to a single player or it could be further portioned out to two or more players. Like all of the other non-revenue men's sports, tennis has to make due with what the NCAA and A&M gives them. It's not just as simple a process as SlickRick would have one believe where the program can throw money at recruits and then see who bites (and per SR's MO, then b!*ch about ineffective recruiting, crappy coaching, etc, etc, etc...ad nauseum).

It would be VERY interesting to see how other programs handle the limited scholarships and if or how they bridge the gap between a partial scholarship and having the remainder of a player's tuition/room/board funded through other mechanisms such as academic scholarships or grants.

quote:

---

Raven, the program has 4.5 scholarships to award per year (thank you Title IX). I don't know who receives how much, and I don't know if the Janglin transfer is factored into the 1/2 available for this year or not. The purpose of posting that information was to illustrate what the coaching staff has to work with in pursuing recruits for the November signing period. That half scholarship could be entirely awarded to a single player or it could be further portioned out to two or more players. Like all of the other non-revenue men's sports, tennis has to make due with what the NCAA and A&M gives them. It's not just as simple a process as SlickRick would have one believe where the program can throw money at recruits and then see who bites (and per SR's MO, then b!*ch about ineffective recruiting, crappy coaching, etc, etc, etc...ad nauseum).

It would be VERY interesting to see how other programs handle the limited scholarships and if or how they bridge the gap between a partial scholarship and having the remainder of a player's tuition/room/board funded through other mechanisms such as academic scholarships or grants.

---

Rick's reply to this should be good...

He'll probably pop off about Jimmy Arias and rail about the Ag's inability to hire someone he deems acceptable. The Arias comment is really funny when you take into consideration that Arias lives in Sarasota, a stone's throw away from USF in Tampa. I guess under those parameters the Ags should pursue Sammy Giammalva.

All of the great explanations mean very little. Denton is battling with the same exact issues that all of the other NCAA Division 1 coaches are dealing with in regards to scholarships and recruiting so those points mean nothing to me. OShea is just a weak hire and everybody knows it. He has no resume whatsoever. Do any of you honestly believe that his resume is even close to any other assistant coach's at a top program?

You know how I know you're clueless? In all of your ranting and raving, not once have you produced a name to replace O'Shea. Maybe you're struggling with finding someone with 10 years' experience with USTA as a High Performance Coach. Or maybe you can't find someone who is a USPTA Certified Professional 1 Coach. Or six years as director of tennis operations at a major D-1 school. Whatever it is, you come across like the poo-flinging chimp at the local zoo. Carry on, Cheeta.

Actually Carl, you are showing that you are clueless. The accomplishments that you list prove it. All of that garbage is far below any other assistant coach at a major program. The only thing funnier was the high school level program that Bigfoot spouted about the great Oshea played his low level college at.

Still waiting on a name, Cheeta.

It wasn't my job to find an actual qualified assistant coach. It was Steve Denton's.

And yet you won't even mention what criteria meets SlickRick's qualifying standards. Like Caesar, it's either thumbs up or thumbs down. Typical.

How about somebody who has actually recruited before. How about somebody who has either been a head coach or even an assistant coach for that matter. If the person has not passed any of this criteria, which OShea hasn't, they need to have some sort of playing experience either at the pro tour or high collegiate level.

Now we're getting somewhere!

Once you've identified someone with at least two of your criteria (because only having recruited or only having been an asst coach won't appease you and having only played professionally or at a "high collegiate level" hardly qualifies one to coach), how do you lure that individual to A&M? Building the indoor facility would be a major benefit but at the moment, what attracts this "top assistant" to Aggieland? Other than SEC-SEC-SEC?

With McKinley leaving as the head person at Newks, one would have to assume that he was paid well at A&M to stay here for 10 years. Considering that money lures most people in taking a job that would be more than sufficient motivation for someone to come here.

McKinley was one of the highest paid assistants in the country. Here is a list of guys currently working in tennis at some level that I would have been a lot more excited about. Not sure if they would have all taken the job though other than Szabo...

Jordan Szabo, Shuon Madden, John Nallon, Jeff Dadamo, Niall Angus or any good recruiting assistant at a top program.