I am currently too depressed for words so I should probably give up the internet for a week or so.
How long, lord? How long must we go round and round like this?
Would Coach Shyatt have felt so compelled to retire and turn over the reins to his staff if the Board of Trustees had not been so criminally stupid and wrong last year in dragging out his contract extension talks for months, all over a less than $250k sticking point that had to do with the retention of those very assistants?
I don't know the answer to that. But I wonder.
Will our basketball program now, truly, take a big step forward? Consider that Shy's total guaranteed compensation was about $720,000, which put him about 4th in the league. Edwards will earn $490,000, which puts him somewhere around 6th.
What happens to that $230,000 that was in the basketball budget the last 5 years but won't be this year? I'd like to think it will be reinvested into scheduling or scouting or recruiting. But I know better. It will be set on fire and cast without thinking into the gaping maw of our football program.
When given an opportunity to succeed in basketball the Wyoming Athletic Department will always step on its dork. Always. Thus it has ever been, thus it ever will be.
And let's say Edwards does, against the odds, take Wyoming to even greater heights over the next two years. How long will we be able to retain him when he makes a salary like that?
Would Coach Shyatt have felt so burned out if the AD had taken a more aggressive posture toward our corrupt and shitty league when they retaliated against our best player following Shyatt's (ethically appropriate) comments in defense of the full league tournament?
Would Coach Shyatt have felt as ready to turn the page if the league presidents hadn't followed that swine Thompson off the conference tournament cliff in the first place?
Would Shyatt be as ready to retire if the basketball program had been presented with even just slightly greater resources over the past 5 years? Would we have been on guys like Glaze or Boucher earlier or differently if a larger recruiting budget had allowed us to cast a wider net?
Would we have been able to bring in different players if our academic transfer rules had actually been fixed over the past 5 years and not just talked about?
Would we be where we are today if the AA had been completed on time, like every one of the $91 million worth of football projects that will have been completed once the HAPC is done (and you know goddamn well that building won't be allowed to sit unfinished)?
Certainly, any one of these things alone would not seem to be enough to cause a decision like this. But all of these things accumulated over time? I wonder.
So, here we go again. Edwards looks like a great hire, and we are finally hiring from within. Terrific. Except I kind of remember a hire like this on the football side in the late 90's not working out so great.
But what the hell. It's cheaper than the alternative.
We won a championship a year ago and that's probably enough for the next decade or so to satisfy the blue hairs in Casper and the folks in the administration who always have and always will worship at the altar of football.
How could I have been so stupid? I thought after that championship they might see what is possible and double down on basketball. Increase the budgets. Increase salaries for all the staff. Do whatever is necessary, and more, to make sure that Shyatt felt like this university had his back and was ready to ride for him.
I should have known it would never happen.
How could it? It never has.
How long, lord? How long must we go round and round like this?
Would Coach Shyatt have felt so compelled to retire and turn over the reins to his staff if the Board of Trustees had not been so criminally stupid and wrong last year in dragging out his contract extension talks for months, all over a less than $250k sticking point that had to do with the retention of those very assistants?
I don't know the answer to that. But I wonder.
Will our basketball program now, truly, take a big step forward? Consider that Shy's total guaranteed compensation was about $720,000, which put him about 4th in the league. Edwards will earn $490,000, which puts him somewhere around 6th.
What happens to that $230,000 that was in the basketball budget the last 5 years but won't be this year? I'd like to think it will be reinvested into scheduling or scouting or recruiting. But I know better. It will be set on fire and cast without thinking into the gaping maw of our football program.
When given an opportunity to succeed in basketball the Wyoming Athletic Department will always step on its dork. Always. Thus it has ever been, thus it ever will be.
And let's say Edwards does, against the odds, take Wyoming to even greater heights over the next two years. How long will we be able to retain him when he makes a salary like that?
Would Coach Shyatt have felt so burned out if the AD had taken a more aggressive posture toward our corrupt and shitty league when they retaliated against our best player following Shyatt's (ethically appropriate) comments in defense of the full league tournament?
Would Coach Shyatt have felt as ready to turn the page if the league presidents hadn't followed that swine Thompson off the conference tournament cliff in the first place?
Would Shyatt be as ready to retire if the basketball program had been presented with even just slightly greater resources over the past 5 years? Would we have been on guys like Glaze or Boucher earlier or differently if a larger recruiting budget had allowed us to cast a wider net?
Would we have been able to bring in different players if our academic transfer rules had actually been fixed over the past 5 years and not just talked about?
Would we be where we are today if the AA had been completed on time, like every one of the $91 million worth of football projects that will have been completed once the HAPC is done (and you know goddamn well that building won't be allowed to sit unfinished)?
Certainly, any one of these things alone would not seem to be enough to cause a decision like this. But all of these things accumulated over time? I wonder.
So, here we go again. Edwards looks like a great hire, and we are finally hiring from within. Terrific. Except I kind of remember a hire like this on the football side in the late 90's not working out so great.
But what the hell. It's cheaper than the alternative.
We won a championship a year ago and that's probably enough for the next decade or so to satisfy the blue hairs in Casper and the folks in the administration who always have and always will worship at the altar of football.
How could I have been so stupid? I thought after that championship they might see what is possible and double down on basketball. Increase the budgets. Increase salaries for all the staff. Do whatever is necessary, and more, to make sure that Shyatt felt like this university had his back and was ready to ride for him.
I should have known it would never happen.
How could it? It never has.
