• Hi Guest, want to participate in the discussions, keep track of read/unread posts and more? Create your free account and increase the benefits of your eGriz.com experience today!

Dear Kent Haslam, Please Keep Travis DeCuire as Head Coach.

What would it take besides just offering him the max contract he can offer? I’m guessing the state limits how much the university can pay him? I’m guessing it’s no where near what an eventual PAC12 suitor will offer. Is there anything else that can be done to convince him to stay here?
 
Why would DeCuire turn down a good job, especially a Pac-12 job?

Even if UM matched the Pac-12 salary, he would go to the Pac-12.

If AWF really wants to keep DeCuire, he should hope that the Griz lose most of their games the rest of the season, and certainly in the tournament.
 
I object to fans and ticket holders putting pressure on the AD like this. Plus applying pressure in a public forum like this? Shouldn't we all just defer to the AD and have confidence he will do the right thing?
 
alabamagrizzly said:
PlayerRep said:
Even if UM matched the Pac-12 salary, he would go to the Pac-12.

Just curious, why do you think this?

Because of the challenge of coaching in the Pac-12 and playing all the big boys week after week. It's what most coaches and competitive people do. They move up. They get better jobs. They pursue professional advancement. See all the UM coaches who have moved on and moved up.
 
PlayerRep said:
alabamagrizzly said:
PlayerRep said:
Even if UM matched the Pac-12 salary, he would go to the Pac-12.

Just curious, why do you think this?

Because of the challenge of coaching in the Pac-12 and playing all the big boys week after week. It's what most coaches and competitive people do. They move up. They get better jobs. They pursue professional advancement. See all the UM coaches who have moved on and moved up.

I believe most all of them have moved up due to a substantial pay raise for them and their assistants. If the challenge is what they’re looking for, turning Montana into a national power, like say Gonzaga, is far more challenging then taking an easier job at a PAC12. Combined with Montana being your alma mater, I’d enjoy that challenge far more, especially if the pay were equal. Cal may be the only PAC12 school that could give him the emotional motivation to leave Montana for equal pay due to his history there. Of course this discussion is mute though since Montana can’t come close to matching the pay of any PAC12 school.
 
alabamagrizzly said:
PlayerRep said:
alabamagrizzly said:
PlayerRep said:
Even if UM matched the Pac-12 salary, he would go to the Pac-12.

Just curious, why do you think this?

Because of the challenge of coaching in the Pac-12 and playing all the big boys week after week. It's what most coaches and competitive people do. They move up. They get better jobs. They pursue professional advancement. See all the UM coaches who have moved on and moved up.

I believe most all of them have moved up due to a substantial pay raise for them and their assistants. If the challenge is what they’re looking for, turning Montana into a national power, like say Gonzaga, is far more challenging then taking an easier job at a PAC12. Combined with Montana being your alma mater, I’d enjoy that challenge far more, especially if the pay were equal. Cal may be the only PAC12 school that could give him the emotional motivation to leave Montana for equal pay due to his history there. Of course this discussion is mute though since Montana can’t come close to matching the pay of any PAC12 school.
I bet if we could get big donors to pay Travis 500k per year he would stay over taking jobs on bigger conferences. Someone told me Montana is the only state who has a board of regents who oversees both university systems in the state. He said if Montana were to get the money to pay Travis 500k per year then Montana State would have to pay their basketaball coach the same when his contract is renewed. Don’t know if this is true, but would be embarrassing if it was.
 
'Bama, you are right on the money. I call it the Robin Selvig factor. He stayed a LONG time. This was where he wanted to be, and the Lady Griz were his challenge. There are other coaches across the , in various sports, who have opted for the same challenge, to make what he/she had and make good BETTER, perhaps a national power.
TDC is an alum, but not a Montana native. If he wants to be MBBs Robin Selvig, that's his choice. If he wants the lights, fame and money, he's gone. Ponying up some chump change(by national standards, not Montana's)won't keep him here.
As for…"just defer to the AD, and have confidence he will do the right thing..." Haslam, the guy who kept Delaney two years too long, then hired Stitt for three. Look what five years of his 'leadership' has done to the football program. Did he do the right thing then? I just don't have that much faith or confidence. I do agree its his job, but publicly pressuring him in this forum is inappropriate.
 
alabamagrizzly said:
PlayerRep said:
alabamagrizzly said:
PlayerRep said:
Even if UM matched the Pac-12 salary, he would go to the Pac-12.

Just curious, why do you think this?

Because of the challenge of coaching in the Pac-12 and playing all the big boys week after week. It's what most coaches and competitive people do. They move up. They get better jobs. They pursue professional advancement. See all the UM coaches who have moved on and moved up.

I believe most all of them have moved up due to a substantial pay raise for them and their assistants. If the challenge is what they’re looking for, turning Montana into a national power, like say Gonzaga, is far more challenging then taking an easier job at a PAC12. Combined with Montana being your alma mater, I’d enjoy that challenge far more, especially if the pay were equal. Cal may be the only PAC12 school that could give him the emotional motivation to leave Montana for equal pay due to his history there. Of course this discussion is mute though since Montana can’t come close to matching the pay of any PAC12 school.

I don't agree. They moved for the challenge of immediately being able to get to a better program and compete week to week in the big time, as well as for the money. This is the challenge they sought. Yes, getting to UM to be a top program would be a challenge, perhaps an almost impossible challenge, but that is not the type of challenge most coaches would want. Getting UM to the big time would certainly be a huge and likely frustrating challenge. It would take a very special coach to want to do that.

Women's basketball is a different animal than men's. Where would Selvig have wanted to go? Where would he have been able to recruit? Also, I think Selvig was a different type of truly Montana guy, who mainly wanted to just stay at UM and in Montana. All of the MT grown men's coaches who left UM for other head coach jobs, had already been out of MT for a long time doing other things, like professional basketball.

I think it's interesting that you think that the primary motivation of coaches is money. That's not what I think.
 
tourist said:
'Bama, you are right on the money. I call it the Robin Selvig factor. He stayed a LONG time. This was where he wanted to be, and the Lady Griz were his challenge. There are other coaches across the , in various sports, who have opted for the same challenge, to make what he/she had and make good BETTER, perhaps a national power.
TDC is an alum, but not a Montana native. If he wants to be MBBs Robin Selvig, that's his choice. If he wants the lights, fame and money, he's gone. Ponying up some chump change(by national standards, not Montana's)won't keep him here.
As for…"just defer to the AD, and have confidence he will do the right thing..." Haslam, the guy who kept Delaney two years too long, then hired Stitt for three. Look what five years of his 'leadership' has done to the football program. Did he do the right thing then? I just don't have that much faith or confidence. I do agree its his job, but publicly pressuring him in this forum is inappropriate.

Tourist, think you may have missed the joke, in your last para.
 
As the saying goes, “There’s more than one way to skin the cat”. There are a combination of things that can be done thru the University system as well as privately to induce a coach such as Travis to stay at Montana. First of all Travis wouldn’t go to just any PAC-12 school. I know he would like to stay in the Northwest. His home grounds are Washington. Would he go to WSU, in my opinion no. One of the So. Cal schools, highly doubtful but a possibility. They throw enough money his way perhaps.i don’t think Travis has a high enough profile, at least not yet.
There are things within the athletic budget that can be used to incentivize a coach that are outside the normal channels. Example, grades, graduation rate, game attendance, wins, tournament appearance and there are more. Does the private sector need to pitch in, absolutely. Don’t think there aren’t discussions already. Just because they aren’t being published to the general public doesn’t mean there isn’t an effort underway. Kent H. is no dummy, he knows another coach of the caliber of Travis comes along not very often. All one has to due is look 180 miles to the East to see
the effects of a poor decision.
GO GRIZ
 
Coaches have to be paid through the university and can't be paid by donors or boosters, is my understanding. I suppose a big pot of money from boosters might be able to get the university, and the board of regents, to boost the salary and bonus structure. But I think it's true that UM and MSU coaches need to be paid the same, or roughly the same. Extra donor/booster money tends to be short-term and not something that is committed to come in every year, to bolster the coach's comp.

I doubt that there's any donor/booster initiative, now, to raise DeCuire's comp.
 
Not to be argumentative with someone as well connected as yourself PlayerRep, and not an attempt to make myself more important than I am but I do belong to that group of which you speak.
 
Sport said:
Not to be argumentative with someone as well connected as yourself PlayerRep, and not an attempt to make myself more important than I am but I do belong to that group of which you speak.

What group do you think I'm speaking of?
 
This seems to be a conversation that we have every year. DeCuire has done an excellent job here, but despite fan desires for something greater, Montana might just be at this point what it is. A middling mid-major with hypothetical potential in March but nothing more. We have little support in the community, less so in the booster class, and the program has struggled to get the type of footing regionally that would elevate beyond a second or third tier national program. Am I being a bit of a downer here? Likely.

I say this because I believe there is a pretty hard ceiling here, and if you are an aspiring coach, if there are better options in a better conference at a school that can haul in better recruiting classes per year, then you take it. We want it to be the next Gonzaga, but there isn’t much of a chance of that happening to be honest. Our conference is like a lead baloon and as much as we pine to leave it, that won’t be happening any time soon. So if you are a coach who has higher visions, you are going to look eventually for the next opportunity.

Wayne did, and he had every incentive to stay. Travis will get opportunities, because he has talent. The question is, and I don’t know Travis or his intent at all, is where does DeCuire want to be next year, five or ten years. Is he Randy Rahe or Robin Selvig? I honestly do not know the answer to that.

If and when he does leave, did he elevate the program. I think he has. Then it would be time for one of his assistants if possible to further push the bar higher.

Sorry to be a wet blanket here. I just don’t think it is a matter of money.
 
#bsc.



Until we cut off the cement shoes taking us to straight to the bottom of the shit pond, we’ll never get quality coaches to stay in the program.
 
Back
Top