UNC-W's hiring of Louisville assistant Kevin Keats leaves a lot of questions in my mind. Two days after telling Eddie Biedenbach he'd be considered with all other candidates for the vacant Seahawk position, Wilmington AD Jimmy Bass went for broke and for a big name and hired a Rick Pitino assistant coach. Wonder if he's checked Keats' transcripts carefully to see if he really does hold a legitimate college diploma. Anyone remember Manhattan's Steve Masiello and his "creative vita" caper at USF?

Then there the question of $$$$$$$$$$. UNC-W's athletic department is already strapped for cash. They bought out Benny Moss' contract with three years remaining and had to borrow a large lump sum to buy those remaining three years. Then they hired Buzz and gave him a four year contract--and shortly thereafter gave him a two year extension. Then after his fourth year, they fired him with two years of salary still due. The athletic department is borrowing the money to pay Peterson monthly from the UNC-W Foundation at an interest rate of 0.49 percent. After 24 months, they will have paid Peterson an additional $880,000 to do nothing. That's just after paying Moss to do nothing for three years.

It remains to be seen how much Keats will be paid to coach the hapless Seahawks and how much of it will have to be borrowed from reserve funds set aside for the renovation of Trask Coliseum. I'm serious. That's how Keats will be paid initially, at least.

That's a helluva lot of bad management at UNC-W in the last 10 years. Jimmy Bass has just managed to dig the Seahawk hole deeper. It's just that very few know just how deep and whether he has a ladder to climb out.

Kinda makes ASU's current monetary situation seem inconsequential. It may look very different in two years if the Seahawks soar under Keats and the Mountaineers continue to be bottom feeders. Only time will tell. Just another case of big name hires v. safe hires. Kinda seems like we've already been here.

Didn't UNC-W hire a big name last time (Peterson)? Didn't ASU go for the cheap, safe hire (Capel)? Both failed miserably. Has anyone learned anything at all?

This is all so true. People give Charlie Cobb a lot of hate, and yes I agree he could have handled the firing of Coach Moore better, but things could be so much worse.

Yes our basketball program is down right now and it's embarrassing, but our athletic program is in a much better place now: higher-profile recruits, better facilities, better brand-marketing, est. than it was 10 years ago. UNCW can't at all say that. Their athletic program is a big train wreck.

Ultimately it looks like both schools are looking for opposites in head coaches. They went with a veteran that had experience success and failure and failed, we went with the young up-and-comer and failed. Now we are looking for an experienced coach that has had success and failure and they are hiring the next up-and-comer.

by the time Buzz became the head coach at UNCW, you can question if Buzz was any longer a big time coach, he was out of coaching when we threw a lifeline the second time around, only to have him con his way into a bigger and better contract with UNCW. I do agree with you, they seem to be in deep, deep financial debt, you can make a case of mismanagement, by the athletic dept. I wonder where they are coming up with the money to pay their new coach, coming from Louisville, you know he probably wasn't going to come cheap, I would guess over 300,000. An average contract for collage coaches but a big one for UNCW.

Do we, down deep, really care who UNC-W hires at any given point in time? If so, why?

JCline0429 wrote:Do we, down deep, really care who UNC-W hires at any given point in time? If so, why?

Yes, because we are in competition with them for students, for faculty members, for assistant coaches, for players, for game opponents, for fan dollars, for state dollars and for sheer pride. UNC-W is our sister institution. We don't want them advancing one inch in any direction at ASU's possible expense.

Actually we have about 13 sister institutions, technically, whom we compete with in one way or another. In basketball even WCU out did us this season. UNC by the Sea is the least of our worries. WCU is more of a sister institution than any other school, although, we abhor admitting it.