CNN-SI Article on 5 Coaches

[IndianSaint]

sportsillustrated.cnn.com/college-basketball/news/20130802/hoop-thoughts/?sct=uk_t11_a2

Nice article about Fran & Iowa. This guy can turn programs around. I sure miss him (the What If he stayed thoughts).

[billmurray]

He was never going to stay. That is my thought.

[IndianSaint]

Aug 2, 2013 15:17:11 GMT -5 billmurray said:

He was never going to stay. That is my thought.

I agree that he wasn't going to stay forever, but I still wonder what would have happened if he did stay a few more years.

I also wonder "what if" Siena beat Minnesota, or Penn State (NIT), or Louisville, Kansas, Pitt, Purdue, etc.. Could have made it to the Sweet 16 on two occasions.

It's those "what ifs" that drive me crazy, just like "what if" Fran stayed a few more years.

[Tony]

Beating Minnesota, wouldn’t have done much for Siena in long term- the Siena admin was in a different place back then. I agree Fran was never going to stay, the MAAC just isn’t set up that way. In Mids that keep their coach- ( think Butler, Gonzaga, VCU and even they occasionally lose their coach) their coaches make in excess of a million a year. And the reason for that is the conference NCAA revenue sharing. In places like the A10 the team that goes to NCAA gets to keep about 70% of the NCAA revenue, now each NCAA unit is worth about 300K a year for 7 years . SO take Fran's last year with the 5 NCAA units – had Siena been in a revenue sharing conference Siena would have been assured of getting close to a million a year from NCAA—so they could have easily paid Fran 1.1 , 1,2 million a year and put other improvements in program. In the MAAC you get 70K for 1st game and 20K for second game the year you go- the out years ( 6 years) Siena gets nothing it all goes to MAAC – the MAAC is set up to share the money no matter how much you put into your program.

Now would Fran have stayed if he was making 1.2 a year at Siena? We will never know, but Iowa gave him 1.2 a year, so it would have been a much tougher choice. And had he stayed it doesn’t take a crystal ball to see Siena would have at the very least been in A10—and probably a decent shot at the new big east.. and its not all on Fran- Siena's admin bungled the ball hiring a known questionable coach and giving him a guaranteed 4 year contract

[MTS]

Too young to remember the Minnesota game but from reading about it Siena could have won it had the team just not run out of gas (i.e. Marc Brown). Penn State was the NIT... tough loss but not a game changer. The Louisville game will always be my "what if" game...had we held on - and we were about another couple of makes from putting Louisville in a position they probably don't come out of - I think we beat Arizona in the sweet 16 and who knows maybe Siena would have joined the likes of George Mason, Butler, VCU and Wichita State in the final four. Atlas it did not happen but the sweet 16 should be the next glass ceiling for the program to crack.

Fran probably would not have stayed for much longer Siena did just about everything in their power to keep him- 8 years at $550K a year is pretty good... he did give us 5 great years (only one less than Stevens was the HC at Butler for example) good coaches don't last forever at mid-majors but Siena blew it (not to rehash old wounds) when they hired the PW. Had we picked another top level coach there would have only been at worst a small dropoff and we're likely in the Atlantic-10 right now. I still think the A10 will happen down the road but Jimmy has work to do!

[billmurray]

If Fran had stayed 1 or2 years we would be in year 1 or 2 of Mitch's tenure and likely to be getting hammered in whatever conference we were in for another year or two. Count your blessings.

[mrsiena]

I believe it was more Jeff Robinson than Biz that ran out of gas against Minny. The Penn State loss was a truly homer loss with refs that were auditioning to get into the Big 10. The winning basket was made when a traveling was blatantly obvious, in the same fashion Siena lost to Temple at the Palestra. That game at Penn State would only have strengthened Siena's recruiting with high school players. And had Clarence been able to play I believe Siena would have beaten Purdue for its 3rd straight 1st round win.

[diamonddog]

I agree with mrsiena. If Clarence was healthy, we would have taken down Purdue, and would have done more in the 2010 NCAA tournament in my opinion.

I still remember being at the selection show at the ARC and the crowd just gasped when he was on crutches. It really was a pity.

Let's hope all the players on this years squad stays healthy.

[Deleted]

Aug 3, 2013 11:55:42 GMT -5 billmurray said:

If Fran had stayed 1 or2 years we would be in year 1 or 2 of Mitch's tenure and likely to be getting hammered in whatever conference we were in for another year or two. Count your blessings.

Not really. If Fran stayed another year or two, Siena never would have hired Mitch.