Buzz could have us in the Dance more often than not and clearly can put some good teams in the floor that could go deep. I know baseball before Schloss, Coach G, and Blair after 2011 have been examples in fan frustration. But how long can Buzz stick around with regular NCAA appearances without getting fired?

I'd offer 20 years assuming one or S16 runs.

Tobias Funke said:

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Aggie Dad 26 said:

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bobinator said:

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please explain how it's goaltending to ask if anyone really has the opinion that he's saying a lot of people have

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Your constant, at all costs, defending Buzz, even when he laid out the facts about the program, and what Buzz has done

Youre constantly goaltending and it works here because there's enough of our fanbase that keeps their heads in the sand

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This is absurd and incorrect, and I would counter with "your negativity that just turns into sour bashing due to your inability to get everybody here to agree with you has made you one of the bottom 5 most unlikable posters on this board".

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This. The dude spends every waking minute refreshing texags and smearing his dumb opinions over multiple forums. It's people like him who make this site so insufferable.

bobinator said:

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They gave him an absolutely insane contract. He's got a fully guaranteed deal through 2030 that escalates up to 7.5 mil by the end of it. He also has an $18M buyout through 2026, drops to $10M after that for two years.

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(talking about Hurley)

Bobinator-

I dont know much about basketball coaching salaries, but that doesnt sound excessive to me for one of the best coaches out there.

I think Texas Tech has one of the best coaches in America. I think his deal started at 3.8MM last year, and adds $1MM each year up to 2030. So, in 2030 he'd be at 9.8MM. 5 years from now a LOT will change.

I think there are a lot of schools that would pay that much if they could hire him.

Think how CRAZY everyone went when we signed Jimbo to 7.5MM for 10 years. Within 3 years, that was considered CHEAP.

greg.w.h said:

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Buzz could have us in the Dance more often than not and clearly can put some good teams in the floor that could go deep.,,,

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Not at all clear based on performance to date.

I'm not saying it's crazy that they gave it to him, I just mean it's insane if you want to try to hire Oats out of Alabama. Between the buyout and his salary you'd be looking at $20M+ right out of the gate.

I'm not saying don't call McCasland. On paper his deal isn't that big of a hurdle, but my guess is all it would accomplish is getting him a raise and a new contract at Tech.

KearneyAg said:

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How is Bama keeping Oats? Why is their commitment to recruiting in football and basketball so much greater than ours?

They must have a lot more NIL/donor support than we do?

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Because Alabama has taken the running of their athletic department like professionals. Ours is a good old boy system. Our biggest donors use aggie sports as their play toy and constantly meddle

Divining Rod said:

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a. 9th seed. second round 2pt loss to #1 Final Four UCLA on virtually their home court getting screwed on last second shot;

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Oh yeah, there is zero chance McCasland would come here, as I said. I would even say don't call him. He has pretty deep Lubbock ties. I was just using his contract as an example. I wasnt focusing on the total cost (buyout plus of someone like Hurley). thanks for clarfying.

f1ghtintexasaggie said:

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Divining Rod said:

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a. 9th seed. second round 2pt loss to #1 Final Four UCLA on virtually their home court getting screwed on last second shot;

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yeah, still hurt even to write that....


p.s. but I would say, I was also miffed that Sloan took it down the lane when the play called for a Dominique Kirk 3ptr and Kirk was in his spot, open. I think Sloan stole that once-in-a-lifetime chance for that senior. though I never heard Kirk complain of it.

That entire play was the biggest "What If" in Aggie basketball history, aside from our OT loss to eventual NC Louisville with a team that was playing FANTASTIC basketball and jelling at the perfect time. (1980?)

Everyone is also making the assumption that an upgrade to Buzz is point certain. I don't believe that. the first three years were rough and we probably could and, maybe even, should have canned him. But cutting ties on a hot hand of getting wins with progressively harder schedules and getting into the tourney every year is worth giving our full attention to for another 12-24 months, IMO. If he can get into the tourney next year, it might be his best coaching job ever. I think Buzz just put up the equivalent of RC Slocums 1991, 1992 and 1993 seasons. Good to great regular seasons and terrible bowl game defeats. But we gave him the opportunity to prove he could win at the highest level until he proved he couldn't. IMO, this conversation is one year too early to decide. Plenty of coaches have broken through the glass ceiling of first weekend fallouts after multiple consecutive years of getting there. Some of them HOF coaches...

In a hypothetical situation in which Buzz stays here for another 10-15 years, I would guess that we would make the tournament almost every year in the 5-10 seed range, sometimes as high as 3-4 seed and sometimes missing the tournament. I would expect more teams that lack high level talent, but play hard and find a way to be pretty solid overall.

There is plenty of reason to be unsatisfied with that and to aim for a coach with a higher ceiling, but being "pretty good" probably isn't worth nothing. If you consistently are pretty good for a decade, perhaps the fan culture changes and the perception of the school changes for recruits from a basketball standpoint, which would make the jump to the next level easier.

Either way, it's not like he's getting fired anytime soon, so it is what it is. And I doubt anyone is going to pay him more than what he's already getting here.

I'm fascinated by people who think our athletic department is run by complete idiots but also think we'll definitely hire a coach better than Buzz if he leaves.

I think you could be wrong about someone paying him more than he gets here and I also don't think we'll get a good and experienced P5 coach for notably less than we pay Buzz. An up & comer with a few good yrs as a head coach would probably get paid less but if he were successful we'll be right back where we are now in a few years wrt a head coach.

I don't believe we've seen Buzz' ceiling like many do. Having said that , I hope he stays but I wouldn't give him a 20% raise to stay.

Original Op question, yes , we've been at this level before and had one more win in the tourney what … 4x? Shelby did it once, BCG did it but we couldn't keep him, Turge did it but we couldn't keep him and he was clearly trending down in recruiting , Kennedy did it twice but once he lost his ace recruiter and tactician it was trending down. It's been spotty at best . One might assume the trend is down with Buzz with all of the departing seniors but the recruiting seems ok and he has done pretty well in the portal . I wouldn't be shocked to see A& M as a bubble type team next yr if Buzz stays . If he leaves , next yr could be very very ugly because I presume he cherry picks who he wants to take with him (Payne at a minimum).

Even though we were in a good place this year, we could easily be bottom four in the SEC next season if Buzz leaves and it is 100% roster turnover with a new coach that on paper isn't going to compare well against the numerous other good SEC coaches. There is no program 'momentum' that will carry over. We could drop like a rock in water fast. See LSU basketball right now. That could now easily be us for the foreseeable future.

Now BCG, Turgeon, and Buzz have shown that yes you can build a consistent NCAAT quality basketball program (Sweet Sixteen ceiling so far) at A&M. And even Kennedy that you got enough resources in a big state to occasionally Sweet Sixteen.

I feel like Bob does a very good job at looking at things from a realistic, "this is the way things are" perspective.

100% he's one of the better posters on the board.

He also likes to take one person's topic, discount it's relevance, then post almost the exact same topic himself a few weeks later for discussion

What's a little topic hijackery among friends

Because threads are like coaching searches, timing is everything

Pumpkinhead said:

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Even though we were in a good place this year, we could easily be bottom four in the SEC next season if Buzz leaves and it is 100% roster turnover with a new coach that on paper isn't going to compare well against the numerous other good SEC coaches. There is no program 'momentum' that will carry over. We could drop like a rock in water fast. See LSU basketball right now. That could now easily be us for the foreseeable future.

Now BCG, Turgeon, and Buzz have shown that yes you can build a consistent NCAAT quality basketball program (Sweet Sixteen ceiling so far) at A&M. And even Kennedy that you got enough resources in a big state to occasionally Sweet Sixteen.

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If Buzz leaves next year is going to be ugly

It may still be with Buzz, but there is at least a path to where it isn't and we are good again

Of your three comparable (better) coaches, two -- Gillespie and Turgeon -- tossed us in the dust to take their successes to "better programs" at better pay. Yet neither then performed at levels A&M now seems to expect.

If we found another "miracle" (Gillespie's three years) why would he stay longer? How long did it take us to find him?

Most of us have no idea what Williams has in mind for the future, but if he was interested in finishing a career at College Station, I wouldn't complain.

GrayMatter said:

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You know you should really get used to the idea that Buzz is going to be here unless he decides otherwise.

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He tried to leave last year and is shopping himself around this season.

OP laid out a good argument that Buzz hasn't been that spectacular. But, he's been pretty good… too good for A&M to buy out the $15MM that it'd cost to fire him. So, unless someone hires him away, I expect Buzz to be back.

Build a dedicated basketball field house. Move out of the multi purpose tractor pull place.

Picadillo said:

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Build a dedicated basketball field house. Move out of the multi purpose tractor pull place.

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That doesn't change anything except cost us 300-500 million more

And who's gonna pay for it?

bobinator said:

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Well yeah he's been working the right people to up their NIL game for sure.

This is one of my biggest Buzz criticisms, he isn't exactly out there inspiring people to donate to help us get players.

I think it's true that a) our NIL situation for basketball is better than a lot of people on here think it is, but b) it's not as good as it could be if we had the right coach out there trying to work every possible angle to make it better.

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It's a mystery, because Buzz has the ability to do it well.

He does a masterful job of shmoozing the national media - they love him.

It would seem easy to apply the same skill set to relations with big cigar Ags…and it benefits everyone for him to do it.

1. The athletic dept is in "cost cutting" mode. Trev has all but said this. Why does anyone think Joni hasn't been fired, they wanted to hire Stoops before settling on Elko, they hired an assistant coach for the baseball team, and they don't care if Buzz leaves? They don't care about winning - only saving $$ for some reason, despite the fact A&M is flowing in $$. This leads me to point 2:

2. Seems like the major sports donors don't really care about winning, but just extending their $$ making gravy train. I have no other explanation for how we hire or keep coaches other than this. I'd love to see another viable explanation. A&M has tons of money, yet, here we are.

3. It sucks for all Aggie sports fans. I've not watched a game for any team for a month or so.