Popular Post Old Titan Posted February 4 Popular Post Posted February 4 The following story/editorial ran in the Tulsa World on Monday morning: Context: while lining up under the basket near the student section just before halftime for the HOF festivities Saturday night, I glanced up at the Media Section and noticed Bill Haisten of the Tulsa World in attendance, prompting me to mention to Mike Carter next to me, "Well, that can't be good..." "Why do you say that?" Mr. Carter inquired. "Because Bill Haisten isn't here at this time and place to write anything positive," I responded. Turns out, I was (in the words of Miracle Max in "The Princess Bride") mostly right. This is a strange article: it appears in spots that Haisten was aiming for a coup de grace on Russell Springmann amidst the current losing streak, only to be thwarted by the home court victory for the good guys and HCRS's candid and sincere responses to the "gotcha" questions re: his future in the postgame press conference. Frankly, I felt the piece made HCRS a sympathetic (almost heroic) figure; as if Haisten just didn't have the heart to lower the boom and instead pulled his punches in the face of such bravery. Sure, a couple of jabs at the ORU program did rub me the wrong way: trying to make the head coaching job at ORU sound like professional suicide due to a supposed propensity for untimely firings since 1968 seemed like a bit of a stretch: you know how many head football and basketball coaches have been fired at TU during that same time? At Oklahoma and Oklahoma State? At ANY school in a 55-year period? And confronting HCRS with the shameful "people are talking" nugget to elicit coach's immediate emotional response fell somewhere between Geraldo Rivera and Piers Morgan on the journalistic tackiness scale. "People were talking" about firing head football coach Ryan Day at Ohio State after their regular season home loss to Michigan; he seems pretty safe now after winning the national championship a month later. People ALWAYS talk in the wake of a bad loss or a lengthy losing streak. So all in all, not the earth-shaking referendum piece that may have initially been intended. In fact, should Springmann & Co. weather the current storm and sail into a third season with some season-ending momentum, we may look back at this particular article as a harbinger of when the tide turned in their favor... 1 1 6
GoldenEagleFan Posted February 4 Posted February 4 I actually thought it was a good and lively crowd. Reported at 4,035 in attendance. 1
Keenan Henderson Posted February 4 Posted February 4 Sure, the Eagles are struggling, and attendance is down, but Springmann will be back for season 3. If he has another season like this one next year, then yes, I expect ORU to look somewhere else. I think they will give him the old baseball saying: three strikes and you are out! Next year has to show some improvement.
theeagleman5 Posted February 4 Posted February 4 Springmann will get a 3rd year if he wants it....ORU not likely to fire this guy....and he is a good man and deserves a year to turn this thing around....Haisten is the one who needs to be fired or just retire, will ya???...Bill just needs to go and stay away...... 2
Sterns78 Posted February 5 Posted February 5 Old Titan, your post is outstanding. Your observations are spot on. P.S. It was great seeing you walk the Hall of Fame walk with your father’s photo. You helped us honor his memory. 1 1 1
darrenj Posted February 5 Posted February 5 Was the crowd closer to 4,000 or 2,000 as in the article? When you lose games and people stop showing up that is when a coach will get in trouble. It really doesn't matter whether a coach deserves another year or not. That is part of taking a head job. The difference from moving 1 seat on the bench is the results are all on you. I have seen a couple of mentions of Mills was given time to rebuild but the difference is he inherited a program that was really struggling. With Springmann he inherited a program that had just won 30 games plus a lot of program improvements. The patience of the decision makers may be much shorter. Coaching in college is much harder now with the NIL and nonstop transferring but that is not going to change anytime soon. Just the way it is. Hopefully the season will turn around and guys can get healthy going forward and momentum will be built up for next season. 1 4
oruvoice Posted February 5 Posted February 5 32 minutes ago, darrenj said: Was the crowd closer to 4,000 or 2,000 as in the article? When you lose games and people stop showing up that is when a coach will get in trouble. It really doesn't matter whether a coach deserves another year or not. That is part of taking a head job. The difference from moving 1 seat on the bench is the results are all on you. I have seen a couple of mentions of Mills was given time to rebuild but the difference is he inherited a program that was really struggling. With Springmann he inherited a program that had just won 30 games plus a lot of program improvements. The patience of the decision makers may be much shorter. Coaching in college is much harder now with the NIL and nonstop transferring but that is not going to change anytime soon. Just the way it is. Hopefully the season will turn around and guys can get healthy going forward and momentum will be built up for next season. I think you have to give him one more year. As far as actual attendance, if the 4,035 number is accurate, that means every seat in the lower bowl was full. Not a big Haisten fan, but that part of his article is accurate. If things don't turn around next year, the argument could be made that the next hire will be one of the most important in school history. Just can't afford another few years of 20-loss men's basketball. 1
theeagleman5 Posted February 5 Posted February 5 Springmanns' answers to Haisten's post game questions were very well said and thought out...gotta respect the man for that....HCRS has his head and heart in the right place and TheEagleman has to root for a guy like that....but he surely has a tall task....hopefully his kids have bought in and no indications so far from you guys that the team is splintered as it apparently was last season....most of those players last year were Mills' guys....Russ deserves another year to mold and teach this crew.....praying we start to see some progress on the court..... 2
GoldenEagleFan Posted February 5 Posted February 5 27 minutes ago, oruvoice said: As far as actual attendance, if the 4,035 number is accurate, that means every seat in the lower bowl was full. Not a big Haisten fan, but that part of his article is accurate. Lower bowl seats 6,000 people. The crowd was definitely closer to 4,000 than 2,500. But not the main point of the article. Barring any moral failure or NCAA infractions it would be a very poor decision to not give Springmann his third year of a 3-year contract.
oruvoice Posted February 5 Posted February 5 1 minute ago, GoldenEagleFan said: Lower bowl seats 6,000 people. No. It does not. The lower bowl had about 5,000 seats before the renovations to put in the suites, which removed hundreds of seats. Not to mention the loss of seats from original construction, where the band & media sit. There is no need for dishonesty. 1
GoldenEagleFan Posted February 5 Posted February 5 45 minutes ago, oruvoice said: No. It does not. The lower bowl had about 5,000 seats before the renovations to put in the suites, which removed hundreds of seats. Not to mention the loss of seats from original construction, where the band & media sit. There is no need for dishonesty. I stand corrected thank you sir!
Otis 83 Posted February 5 Posted February 5 I've never been a Halston fan. I don't read the Tulsa World with any regularity so this is, more than likely, unfair but it feels like he covers ORU opportunistically. By that I mean when things are going really well or very poorly. When he can ride a wave of publicity or kick us when we are down. Again, maybe that's unfair. There's nothing I read here that appears to be good journalism. It feels like he's bragging about how he broke the news to the coach that people are talking about his job security. What people? @ORU40 ? (that's not a shot friend). I mean seriously what does that even mean and is that really the appropriate role of a "journalist?" Mad props to HCRS for handling this "gotcha" moment so graciously and in line with our university's values and world view. I'd give him another year just for that. 3 1 2
eagle88 Posted February 5 Posted February 5 Springmann is a class act and an even better person. If he can figure things out and turn the ship around this would be great for ORU. I believe he knows the deficiencies and will address and fix them. 2
Dr. Cornelius Posted February 5 Posted February 5 1 hour ago, GoldenEagleFan said: Lower bowl seats 6,000 people. The crowd was definitely closer to 4,000 than 2,500. But not the main point of the article. Barring any moral failure or NCAA infractions it would be a very poor decision to not give Springmann his third year of a 3-year contract. The difficult part is you can’t go into next season without extending. A coach can’t really recruit if there’s no indication he’ll be around. 4
oruvoice Posted February 5 Posted February 5 17 minutes ago, GoldenEagleFan said: I stand corrected thank you sir! No biggie. The current maximum capacity for basketball is 9,026 as shown on this link. https://mabeecenter.com/visit/seating-charts/ The original capacity was 10,500 when built, with about 5,000 in the lower bowl and 5,500 in the upper bowl. The upper bowl capacity is still at about 5,500 of the 9,026. But I agree that he should get another year. Don't know him personally, but from those that do, he's a good fella. 2
Mr_TwoFive Posted February 5 Posted February 5 1 hour ago, oruvoice said: I think you have to give him one more year. As far as actual attendance, if the 4,035 number is accurate, that means every seat in the lower bowl was full. Not a big Haisten fan, but that part of his article is accurate. If things don't turn around next year, the argument could be made that the next hire will be one of the most important in school history. Just can't afford another few years of 20-loss men's basketball. I pray that I am wrong because I am a huge Springmann fan, but I heard he only signed a 2-year deal - which is absolutely insane if true... 1
oruvoice Posted February 5 Posted February 5 3 minutes ago, Mr_TwoFive said: I pray that I am wrong because I am a huge Springmann fan, but I heard he only signed a 2-year deal - which is absolutely insane if true... If that's true (2 year deal), then perhaps Haisten's article wasn't a coincidence...
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