Post by aggiejazz on Jan 11, 2007 9:02:36 GMT -5
It is time for the administration to stop looking at that coaches carousel for men’s basketball. The Aggies have a coach in Jerry Eaves. As I watched Monday’s game against Howard University, I realized that this was the first time since the early 1990’s that the men’s basketball team really looks like a good team. The program has come a long way since its one win season four years ago. Yea, I know they are currently under .500 but think, when was the last time the Aggies had six wins by January 8th?
I say give Eaves his extension so he can go out and recruit players without having to give an embarrassing answer to “how much longer do you have on your contract?” The contract extension should be a multi-year not a one year. A lot of old Aggies want to go back to the good ole days when we dominated the MEAC but they don’t understand you can’t go back to dominating the MEAC on a Division II, CIAA shoestring budget in today’s Division I hoping for a quick turn-around success story. It took Eaves this long to figure out how to work with the constraints of administration changes, little money and a multi-year losing record long before he got to Aggieland. There were some loud “get rid of Eaves” fans but those fans were just fantasizing about a past long gone that was “did in” by administration neglect. They couldn’t see that times were changing. No money, no ticket to the NCAA Tournament. Yes, the Aggies lucked out twice in the 1990’s just like the four-win FAMU did one season but those coaches could never build a program like that of the 1980’s. Both coaches saw the writing on the wall and left.
It is time for A&T to keep a coach around for the next 15 years and Eaves is a good one to keep. If you don’t extend Eaves soon, he too, will take his hard lessons learned, his dedication and tremendous coaching experience at a HBCU and leave A&T and once again we will see another A&T administration looking at a coaches carousel without enough money to pick a “top shelf “ men’s basketball coach.
I say give Eaves his extension so he can go out and recruit players without having to give an embarrassing answer to “how much longer do you have on your contract?” The contract extension should be a multi-year not a one year. A lot of old Aggies want to go back to the good ole days when we dominated the MEAC but they don’t understand you can’t go back to dominating the MEAC on a Division II, CIAA shoestring budget in today’s Division I hoping for a quick turn-around success story. It took Eaves this long to figure out how to work with the constraints of administration changes, little money and a multi-year losing record long before he got to Aggieland. There were some loud “get rid of Eaves” fans but those fans were just fantasizing about a past long gone that was “did in” by administration neglect. They couldn’t see that times were changing. No money, no ticket to the NCAA Tournament. Yes, the Aggies lucked out twice in the 1990’s just like the four-win FAMU did one season but those coaches could never build a program like that of the 1980’s. Both coaches saw the writing on the wall and left.
It is time for A&T to keep a coach around for the next 15 years and Eaves is a good one to keep. If you don’t extend Eaves soon, he too, will take his hard lessons learned, his dedication and tremendous coaching experience at a HBCU and leave A&T and once again we will see another A&T administration looking at a coaches carousel without enough money to pick a “top shelf “ men’s basketball coach.