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UNI locks in on Ben Jacobson with 10-year deal

It would be great for the Valley if he stayed though. He could rival Dana Altman as the "Premier" coach in the league if he keeps this up. Unfortunately though, unless you are a Gonzaga or Xavier being this good usually runs in 3 or 4 year cycles when you get a senior heavy team that can really excel. That is why a mid major coach will almost always jump to the next level. Bigger money and payday, plus better facilities(most of the time) and bigger budgets. This means you have a chance to be good almost every year.
 
Stryker said:
It would be great for the Valley if he stayed though. He could rival Dana Altman as the "Premier" coach in the league if he keeps this up. Unfortunately though, unless you are a Gonzaga or Xavier being this good usually runs in 3 or 4 year cycles when you get a senior heavy team that can really excel. That is why a mid major coach will almost always jump to the next level. Bigger money and payday, plus better facilities(most of the time) and bigger budgets. This means you have a chance to be good almost every year.
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The bigger schools mean bigger endorsement, radio, summer camp deals. I'd be completely surprised if he sticks around but pleasantly happy. The MVC is a good conference which can only get better with great coaches that stick around for a long time. In reality the MVC has the programs in CU, UNI, WSU and us, I'd like to add ISU and SIU to this equation but will not, to create a very dynamic consistant league. When you look at potential of the MVC there is a lot to be happy but let's face it the league has underperformed a bit since 2006 and a few programs have been an anchor.
 
Like everyone else I hope he stays, but now he will probably be at the top of the list for anyone that wants him. I think he will succeed whether he stays or goes, seems like a good coach who gets the right players to fit his system.
 
I would say with 89-42 record (.679), 47-26 conference record (.644), 2 conference titles, 2 conference tournament titles, 2 NCAA's, and a Sweet 16 that he's earned it. Well done Ben!
 
Stryker said:
It would be great for the Valley if he stayed though. He could rival Dana Altman as the "Premier" coach in the league if he keeps this up. Unfortunately though, unless you are a Gonzaga or Xavier being this good usually runs in 3 or 4 year cycles when you get a senior heavy team that can really excel. That is why a mid major coach will almost always jump to the next level. Bigger money and payday, plus better facilities(most of the time) and bigger budgets. This means you have a chance to be good almost every year.
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Jumping to the next level did not work for Dan Monson of Gonzaga or Todd Licklieter of Butler. So there's no guarantee that that would work for Jacobson other than a big paycheck.

OTOH, Chris Lowery staying put at SIU has not worked out too well either, though for the likes of Dana Altman, Mark Few, Fran Dunphy (Temple), Jim Larranaga (George Mason) and Fran McCaffery (Siena), staying put has been great for them. But again, there are no guarantees in life and sometimes a little luck goes a long way.
 
SFP said:
The bigger schools mean bigger endorsement, radio, summer camp deals. I'd be completely surprised if he sticks around but pleasantly happy. The MVC is a good conference which can only get better with great coaches that stick around for a long time. In reality the MVC has the programs in CU, UNI, WSU and us, I'd like to add ISU and SIU to this equation but will not, to create a very dynamic consistant league. When you look at potential of the MVC there is a lot to be happy but let's face it the league has underperformed a bit since 2006 and a few programs have been an anchor.
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I don't think the MVC will consistently rise to the level of the MWC and A-10 of this year or the MVC of 2005 to 2007 if we don't do whatever it takes to keep the coaches around for more than a year or two. Notice that our "decline" coincided with all of the coaching turnover over the last couple of years. So hopefully Jacobson will become the fourth coach in the league that sticks around for awhile because I think the MVC can become a destination conference if the coaching carosel stabilizes and Valley teams start scheduling up like they did about five years ago.

OTOH, UNI has certainly elevated the Valley back into national prominence with their Sweet Sixteen run, but we now need multiple bids to back that up. George Mason's run four years ago did not elevate the CAA up too much because with the exception of 2006 and 2007 they have also been a consistent one bid league. Ditto with the Horizon and WCC, but it's nice to have a major team in a mid-major conference. Still, multiple bids would do all of these conferences some good, but unfortunately there's only so many at-large spots left after the BCS teams raid the pool of eligible teams. That's a variable that probably won't change for quite awhile.
 
Jacobsen's definitely deserving. I hope he sticks around because it seems to me he can really coach. I'm still betting someone will offer him a whole lot of money soon though.
 
What's funny is that the spin we always hear about the past coaching search is that people withdrew because we supposedly couldn't pay a competitive salary. But I look at what the coach makes now, and what other, more successful coaches like Jacobson are making (which is almost exactly the same), and it makes think BS. Brian Gregory immediately comes to mind as a guy in that category of guys we ran off because we supposedly couldn't pay.

We also hear that we wanted a coach who would be committed to BU and not leave after a few good years. Again, this article about Gregory makes me think that excuse was BS too.

http://www.daytondailynews.com/dayt...xtension-calls-ud-a-special-place-110449.html
 
I think you are showing a bit of bias in saying things like "guys we ran off because we supposedly couldn't pay". Bradley did not run Gregory off by any stretch of the imagination. The salary Bradley was offering in 2002 was comparable to most midmajors at that time. Yet Michigan State, a Top 5 program, could afford to pay him more. Your suggestion that Bradley was lowballing candidates in 2002, is absurd. At that time, there were only a couple MVC coaches earning more than what was being offered.

As far as Gregory, the salary might have been the public reason given, but he withdrew as much for personal reasons related to issues he perceived among the search committee.
 
Brian Gregory not only ACTIVELY pursued the job at Bradley in 2002, he came fully prepared
to give a vigorous presentation for why he should be the choice of the committee....
hardly the actions of a candidate who didn't want the job or who wanted to back out
because of the pay offered, which he knew about for the entirety of the hiring process!

In the end the reason he asked his name be withdrawn was that Gregory preceived a dischord among the committee members -
and he did not want to deal with them any further.....
 
The Minnesota fan base recalls the last coach they hired from a midmajor- Dan Monson. And how did that work out?
I doubt they go after another midmajor coach.
IMO, if your scenario happens (and I don't think it will) they would hire someone with credentials more like Tubby's.
 
Da Coach said:
The Minnesota fan base recalls the last coach they hired from a midmajor- Dan Monson. And how did that work out?
I doubt they go after another midmajor coach.
IMO, if your scenario happens (and I don't think it will) they would hire someone with credentials more like Tubby's.
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..like coaching a MVC team to 2 consecutive MVC championships and S16?
 
Last edited:
Are you referring to Jacobson? Did you mean Sweet 16?
Nobody recently has taken an MVC team to the Elite 8.:)

Would Jacobson come with a guarantee that he could take Minnesota to the Sweet 16?
Unless he did, the memory of Dan Monson is still too strong in the UM fans' minds. Recall that Monson also had tremendous success too, before taking the UM job.
 
Ben Jacobson will have his pick and any school who has an opening would be lucky to get him regardless. The leaders of the school cannot worry about what their fan support thinks about a possible candidate. It really is about who can possibly be the most successful coach in the long run. Success solves a ton of problems. If I'm Ben I'd wait it out for a school that really knows what they want and has the means to make it happen. Minnesota and Iowa are not what you call hot bed recruiting grounds and getting those urban players to go there is not easy compared to other schools.
 
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