Random Post Billy Tubbs Question

[WaymanFan]

I was never a Donnie Duncan fan, but he hired 2 good basketball coaches.

Donnie Duncan had nothing to do with hiring Sherri Coale. Sherri was hired sometime in the spring of 1996, a full two years after Kelvin Sampson was hired. By the spring of 1996, Steve Owens was in "Acting AD" mode and calling the shots. After hiring John Blake (winter of '96) and Sherri, he defended those hires by saying something to the effect of: "I'm tired of the perception that good coaches can't be found right here in the state of Oklahoma." Well, he batted .500 on those two hires.

I don't think Donnie Duncan would have hired either of those two coaches.

 

[Big Old Booger]

Donnie Duncan had nothing to do with hiring Sherri Coale. Sherri was hired sometime in the spring of 1996, a full two years after Kelvin Sampson was hired. By the spring of 1996, Steve Owens was in "Acting AD" mode and calling the shots. After hiring John Blake (winter of '96) and Sherri, he defended those hires by saying something to the effect of: "I'm tired of the perception that good coaches can't be found right here in the state of Oklahoma." Well, he batted .500 on those two hires.

I don't think Donnie Duncan would have hired either of those two coaches.

No offense, but you are wrong. Duncan didn't depart the athletics department until sometime late spring or early summer of 96. Then Owens was hired. One of his last acts as AD was the hiring of Sherri Coale. Like I said, I don't care for Duncan, but he deserves credit for the hire, or for listening to Marita Hynes (on both Coale and Gasso).

From a Berry Tramel article about Oklahoma's Century celebration:

http://centennial.newsok.com/topcontributors

73. Donnie Duncan, OU
Sooner athletic director didn’t always hire correctly (Howard Schnellenberger, John Blake) but sometimes did (Sherri Coale, Patty Gasso), and more important, he put together the Big 12 Conference that solidified the futures of OU and OSU.

From an article about Marita Hynes:

http://www.oufoundation.org/sm/summer2003/story.asp?ID=50

Six years earlier, Hynes had gone to bat for a young high school coach named Sherri Coale, as OU desperately searched for the right person to breathe life back into its women’s basketball program. While critics seemed to spring from every direction, Hynes managed to convince then athletics director Donnie Duncan and the OU Board of Regents that Coale was the right person for the job.

 

[sanguinetti]

for the first 4-6 years Kelvin had a very short bench and probably only 6-7 true Power conf type D-1 players per season....so, he had to control what he could and since his guys played better on-ball D than most, rebounded like their hair was on fire and usually shot the 3 pretty well...he uglied it up.

edit, that having been said. KS and the Sooners got utterly skunked by Chaney and Temple in the NCAA. i remember watching that game in a bar and OU cuts the lead to 6 with about 4 minutes left and it was still like being down 20. it just wasn't gonna happen.

 

[sanguinetti]

and, on the subject of Marty Fletcher (in post #4 of this thread) as a possible OU candidate. in the late 90's he was hired to resurrect the U of Denver's D-1 program. they were never very good under Fletcher startign from scratch but he built a foundation of sorts and they won the reg season Sun Belt under the next coach and then lost by 1 to La-Monroe on La-M's home court in the conference tournament to miss receiving the auto bid to the Dance. Chauncey Billups brother, Rodney, was on that team. current coach is Joe Scott, who was the coach at Air Force, who got that 3-4 year run of good AFA teams going that culminated with Bzdelik taking Scott's junior class to the NCAA. Scott took the Princeton job, stunk, and came back to DU.

of interest to no one i know. anyway Fletcher used to be on the radio in Denver some, funny guy.

for old timers, DU used to be the same conference that Abe Lemons' OCU teams were in....whatever that was called....and had some good teams inna day.

 

[Tony]

of interest to no one i know.

interests me. i've always said you should post more often, sanguinetti.

 

[Big Old Booger]

interests me. i've always said you should post more often, sanguinetti.

I agree. I like your posts and love your avatar.

 

[sanguinetti]

interests me. i've always said you should post more often, sanguinetti.

well, thanks T. i've been around these parts since boomersooner.net, so heck. no clue what i called myself, then.

 

[Tony]

well, thanks T. i've been around these parts since boomersooner.net, so heck. no clue what i called myself, then.

Were you Motherbird?

 

[sanguinetti]

i was not MB. no.

 

[Big Old Booger]

Were you Motherbird?

:ez-laugh:

I think bocabull was Motherbird.

 

[WaymanFan]

No offense, but you are wrong. Duncan didn't depart the athletics department until sometime late spring or early summer of 96. Then Owens was hired. One of his last acts as AD was the hiring of Sherri Coale. Like I said, I don't care for Duncan, but he deserves credit for the hire, or for listening to Marita Hynes (on both Coale and Gasso).

No offense taken. I understand DD was the "official" AD at the time of those two hires and that Steve Owens didn't "officially" take over as AD until August or September of '96...but he was calling the shots for several months up until that time. Again, if Owens wasn't in the picture, I doubt either Blake or Coale end up at OU.

 

[sybarite]

When were OU and OCU ever in the same conference? OU has always been in the MVC, Big Six, Big Seven, Big Eight, or Big Twelve. OCU was never in any of those. OSU was in the MVC as A&M before joining the Big Seven. That was during the days of Abe Lemon. OCU was an Independent under Lemon---I think.

Duncan terminated the women's basketball program and hired Sherri?

 

[Big Old Booger]

When were OU and OCU ever in the same conference? OU has always been in the MVC, Big Six, Big Seven, Big Eight, or Big Twelve. OCU was never in any of those. OSU was in the MVC as A&M before joining the Big Seven. That was during the days of Abe Lemon. OCU was an Independent under Lemon---I think.

Duncan terminated the women's basketball program and hired Sherri?

He was saying Denver was in the same conference as OCU, not OU (in same conf as OCU).

Yes. Duncan attempted to terminate the womens program in 1990, then hired the guy from Rose State who left a few years later and the program was turned over to Asst Berl plunkett who took his first team to an nit championship, then his 2nd team was really bad which led to his resignation and the hiring of Sherri coale.

 

[Big Old Booger]

No offense taken. I understand DD was the "official" AD at the time of those two hires and that Steve Owens didn't "officially" take over as AD until August or September of '96...but he was calling the shots for several months up until that time. Again, if Owens wasn't in the picture, I doubt either Blake or Coale end up at OU.

Do you realize how crazy that sounds? Why would Donnie Duncan hand the reigns of the athletic dept over to an insurance salesman who was not even on the OU payroll? Owens was hired after Duncan left OU to work for the Big 12 which he helped to create.

Duncan, as cited by 2 sources, was the AD and therefore deserves the credit for the hiring of Coale. Owens was selling insurance at that time and had very little influence on the womens programs.

 

[sanguinetti]

He was saying Denver was in the same conference as OCU, not OU (in same conf as OCU).

without looking too hard to find out, looking at old Denver schedules they play home-home with OCU every year from 63-69. i just assumed there was a conference structure there.....but, maybe just home-home? i can't find anything that states there was a conference. DU's schedules are hard to figure (home-homes with Utah State, Seattle...which would seem like an unlikely conf for OCU to be in) and without any OCU schedules to compare it's hard to know. maybe both were independent and just played the yearly home-homes. Sybarite may be correct about OCU being indy.

that's way before my time...i just remember my dad talking about it on occasion since 1. he had a law school buddy at OU who played for DU and 2. we talked briefly about it (OCU/Lemons and DU playing) when i worked at DU from 06-08.