Confirmed: Paul Mills to Wichita State

[ORU40]

18 hours ago, Otis 83 said:

@ORU40I'm with TheEagleman on this one.  Sam, I totally get your point but as I read your post I'm reminded of something I would say to my children when I was trying to help them develop their own moral compas "Just because something is common doesn't make it right."  Coach Mills is a coach and you seem to be holding him to a standard that would be common for a coach.  I have no quarrel with that approach.  Coach Mills also is a very public believer.  Goodness he earned a masters in theology.  I hold him to the standard of a believer...which is to always tell the truth.  Do we all fall short of the glory of God?  Absolutely!   But just because that is common that doesn't make it right.

You say we shouldn't be surprised and I don't disagree with that.  When Shaq missed important free throws, Lakers fans weren't surprised but that doesn't mean they weren't disapointed or frustrated.

@Otis 83 I hear you and we all agree with your main point that there is or at least should just be right or wrong. But college basketball/athletics is not what it should be in terms of ethics or integrity and that's wrong, but it is what is, and ORU isn't going to change that try as we may.  Oral realized over 50 years ago that it was important to the university's mission, exposure and growth to develop a winning basketball team at the highest level of college basketball knowing full well all that entailed (including the bad but knew the good outweighed the bad). I think that's still true over 50 years later. I'm not in a position to judge coach Mills, but I think he was being honest until he felt the school's leaders let him down. It's not always about money in mbb, coach Bennett at St Mary's in CA who we played 3 years ago has been there over 20 years. His salary was in the low mid-major range to start, he had success including several NCAA bids and the school committed to him in word and deed long ago, he still has a low D1 salary for the results he's had, but he's currently working in a 10-year contract extension.  Did ORU's top brass make that type of full commitment to Mills, I don't know for sure, but I doubt it. Instead of locking in a winning coach for the long term we built the Carter center, which has not and will not get us 1 recruit or win a single game. Why blame Mills for leaving and not blame the administration. Hopefully, in the 2 years since we lost coach Mills and our program has cratered, we & the ORU senior leadership see the true overall value of a winning coach and program to the entire university. Our next coach hire could not be more critical, we are at a fork in the road, and like Yogi said when you get to a fork in the road...take it.  

Edited March 16, 2025 by ORU40
Additional thought

[theeagleman5]

TheEagleman will agree that ORU cheaped out and probably should have given Coach Mills a new 5 year deal with a nice bump in pay after the 30-6 season....that was the right thing to do because we were riding high with Mills and the school had huge visability....his contract should have exceeded what Scott Sutton was paid.....but Billy W. failed to step up and the rest is history....can never outbid WSU but maybe doubling his pay would have at least kept HCPM in Tulsa....then again, maybe not....we will never know....wish Wilson and Johnson would have at least called TheEagleman for a consult.....  

[2014Grad]

1 hour ago, theeagleman5 said:

TheEagleman will agree that ORU cheaped out and probably should have given Coach Mills a new 5 year deal with a nice bump in pay after the 30-6 season....that was the right thing to do because we were riding high with Mills and the school had huge visability....his contract should have exceeded what Scott Sutton was paid.....but Billy W. failed to step up and the rest is history....can never outbid WSU but maybe doubling his pay would have at least kept HCPM in Tulsa....then again, maybe not....we will never know....wish Wilson and Johnson would have at least called TheEagleman for a consult.....  

I wonder how often they lurk this board…ADTJ for sure, but maybe Billy too??

[ORUSwagger]

6 minutes ago, 2014Grad said:

I wonder how often they lurk this board…ADTJ for sure, but maybe Billy too??

I’m Sure President Wilson has @theeagleman5 on his list of Alumni to invite out for Dinner one day. 

[Keenan Henderson]

Paul Mills and the Shockers are in the NIT @Ok State.  How did the Cowboys get a home game in the NIT with a losing record?  I guess the Crown tournament really gutted the NIT, because it looks very weak.

[ORUSwagger]

10 minutes ago, Keenan Henderson said:

Paul Mills and the Shockers are in the NIT @Ok State.  How did the Cowboys get a home game in the NIT with a losing record?  I guess the Crown tournament really gutted the NIT, because it looks very weak.

Wow! I was upset and hurt when Mills left, but man has he done a good job getting WSU to be a competitive program.

Hope WSU can pull off the win.

[Otis 83]

9 minutes ago, ORUSwagger said:

Hope WSU can pull off the win.

Not me

[ORUSwagger]

1 minute ago, Otis 83 said:

Not me

That’s fair. Should be a good game still.

[ORU40]

31 minutes ago, 2014Grad said:

I wonder how often they lurk this board…ADTJ for sure, but maybe Billy too??

I hope they do because our basketball program is crucial to our university, the overall difference between a winning program and what we've endured the last 2 seasons is night and day on so many levels. ORU is a basketball school, it's a very important part of our identity. Our schools' leaders have proven again that you can't just plug anyone into the HC job and win, no matter how smart the admin thinks they are, a good HC is a coveted commodity which is why they are compensated well. They let Mills walk out the door; and we lost that decision, he went on to getting WSU back to 19 wins, a W over a top 20 team and a NIT bid and trending upward. ORU finished last 2 years in a row in the Summit and losing 2 straight play-in games in the conference tourney. Our program is at rock bottom. ADTJ needs to stop helping design useless buildings like the Carter and start focusing on trying to design a winning basketball program. If he misses on the next HC hire, he and President Wilson will have no one left to blame but themselves.   

[Keenan Henderson]

When I went to the Homecoming last year, one of the professors was taking about all the new buildings and the growth of the campus.  So, I asked him is this because of the basketball success?  He said yes, it is.  But somehow the other leaders missed that and failed to give Paul Mills a reason to come back.  

[oruvoice]

12 hours ago, ORUSwagger said:

Wow! I was upset and hurt when Mills left, but man has he done a good job getting WSU to be a competitive program.

Hope WSU can pull off the win.

Yes. WSU was terrible before Mills got there and he's built their program all the way up to 8th place in the worst AAC on record. I mean, those Shocker fans have to be thankful for such an amazing coach! 

[Otis 83]

There seems to be an emerging narrative in this thread the we "let Mills go" and/or "Mills didn't feel appreciated so he left."  Those could be accurate assessments of what happened.  

I'm a Finance guy.  I like numbers.  I look at the numbers and I struggle to get on board with either of those perspectives. 

According to ORU's Form 990, Paul Mills made $372,184 in his last year at ORU.  According to public reports, Paul Mills average annual salary under his Wichita St contract is $1.7 million.  

Let's say that ORU offered Mills a $25,000 bonus for the tournament appearance and bumped his salary to $500,000.  Said "no thanks" to the donor that offered to build the Carter Center and decided to put more of our resources towards keeping Mills happy by throwing money at him.  I don't think he turns down an additional $1.2 million a year.  Maybe I'm wrong.

What's the economic tipping point for Mills' pocketbook and ego?  I will say it again, there is nothing wrong with a coach wanting to exploit all of his economic and professional opportunities.

[MrsSmith]

13 hours ago, ORU40 said:

ADTJ needs to stop helping design useless buildings like the Carter and start focusing on trying to design a winning basketball program. If he misses on the next HC hire, he and President Wilson will have no one left to blame but themselves.   

I totally disagree that the new Carter center is useless.  This is a wonderful recruiting tool.  And certainly a boost to get a good coach in here.  A practice gym for men's and women's bb, wonderful weight room, much better offices for athletic staff, new study room for athletes.

Have you been in the building?

[Otis 83]

1 hour ago, oruvoice said:

Yes. WSU was terrible before Mills got there and he's built their program all the way up to 8th place in the worst AAC on record. I mean, those Shocker fans have to be thankful for such an amazing coach! 

Coming from where they have, I guess it is okay to "go to Grandma's house" because they haven't been to Disneyworld in a really long time.  What a stupid metaphor that was.

[ORU40]

1 hour ago, MrsSmith said:

I totally disagree that the new Carter center is useless.  This is a wonderful recruiting tool.  And certainly a boost to get a good coach in here.  A practice gym for men's and women's bb, wonderful weight room, much better offices for athletic staff, new study room for athletes.

Have you been in the building?

The Carter center is very nice and up until a few years ago I would have agreed with you 100%, but in the current NIL and transfer portal era I don't think our facilities, other than the renovated Mabee center, matter that much to coaches and recruits/players.  

[ORU40]

53 minutes ago, ORU40 said:

new study room for athletes.

I was at a BBQ yesterday and joking about this with a former ORU baseball player from the 80's,

If they wanted to get the baseball team from the 80's to the new study room in the Carter center, they would have had to name it "The Bull & Bear"

[Idig32]

I always thought that upgrades in facilities was something Mills pushed when he was here. I remember right after he was hired, they redid the locker rooms. I guess I assumed that part of the reason the Carter Center was built was to give Mills what he said he needed to win. 

[theeagleman5]

Maybe Mills should bring his Shockers down to Tulsa to the Carter Center because they aren't doing a whole lot of winning up there.....