what now?

[SisyphusMiner]

I started typing a completely different post about what we should look for in the next head basketball coach.  But decided to re-orient towards things we can do right now to improve our situation.

Right now we have CRT, and CRT requires high level athletes to win.  We are currently getting better players on the transfer market than we are recruiting as freshmen.  TBH, we have pretty much given up on recruiting freshmen.

So it seems to me the best way to get decent transfers is to adopt an anyone, anytime, anywhere attitude.  Play every P5 school that will play us no matter what.  There is no downside to this anymore.  Used to be if you could rack up 25 wins you might get an invite. Now it all comes down to winning the conference tourney.  It doesn't matter if we get beat up by the big schools.  I feel like pllaying them will at least give us a better shot at some of the better transfers and better prepare us for conference play. 

I like that we played St. Mary's, AZ, AZ St, and Kansas.  Sure we only went 1-3, but I don't think it hurt us a bit.  I don't think a home W against Benedictine Mesa is better for us than a road loss to AZ.  Obviously you'd like a couple cupcakes your first few games as you work on things, but after that go crazy.

[kyyote]

There has always been a choice between building a tough team by playing tough teams early and team cohesion schedules that play cupcakes and build confidence. That is for normal situations. What you are talking about isn?t the normal way of doing things but a higher level strategy.  But the flip side is the fact that we can?t beat the teams in our conference that we used to turn our noses up at the thought of lowering our standards to play them. If you can?t beat cuss teams you aren?t going to be the giant killers looking for the next Goliath to slay. We just become a shit sponge team. A doormat to be disrespected because they aren?t willing or capable of doing things right. Win the conference like it is scrimmage for the bigs. Gonzaga doesn?t slay dragons and then lose to Delta State. Here?s a real goal for next year.  To be able to beat the cusa teams on our schedule.  That would be a great start. I personally think that we should be preparing to be ditched again by ten teams looking to get rid of the anchor teams like us around their necks. Our football team drags every team in the conference down. We would be a doormat in the Sunbelt Conference. Whatever we have done since firing Price has been like jumping off of a cliff to get us to the bottom as fast as we have.  Even nmsu  had to step aside to not get smashed by the falling miners.
By the way, I mention Price to say that we are not incapable of winning because no one wants to play in sleepy middle of nowhere UTEP. Desert and distance aren?t the problem. Coaching is. Ask yourself how Stull could win with the losing team he took over and Price took Nords team and instantly turned it around.  If Urban came in do you think he couldn?t use the exact same players we already have and be able to win?  Plus his name would bring upgrades.  Instead we go buy a used tire from the rack at Discount tire. A used tire that was traded in because it was shitty.  But we are looking for deals. At the used tire rack at Discount Tires.
For those who wonder how we are almost always bad there is this saying, ?You get what you pay for.?

[SisyphusMiner]

If they can get top talent to Spokane, you can get top talent to EP.

[Chanson]

"Shit sponge" & "used tires." You need to post more analogies. This is creative writing at it's best. I can't stop laughing.

[kyyote]

Seriously, money, money, money. Follow the money choices. The people in charge of the money have made a choice and it was many years ago to spend money on education and not athletics. There is a debate to be had about whether or not both can be more than just part of the well rounded education. The athletic department can be the representation of the quality of the school itself.
But I think we have already decided many years ago to not even really try. We decided that public image would be based on academics. Academics only. We gaze up on the idea that we could do both. One requires a belief a faith kind of like in advertising. It is really hard to measure but we know it works in both bad and good ways. Powers decided that the return on their investment in advertising and athletics wasn?t the best use of their money. If we were a grocery store,at one time we were a neighborhood market in a nice small town. Then the chains moved in and we decided we could expand and advertise to keep up or depend on our great customers and their loyalty. We are now reduced to the Sunset Grocery.
So what kind of great deals do you think will be seen in the Sunset  Grocery this fall?  I know. You don?t shop there to save money. You shop there for sentimental reasons.
So I really no longer go into the UTEP store expecting any deals. I still go in because the owners are friends.
Getting a new produce manager at the store isn?t the solution until the owners decide to try and compete for customers. Unfortunately right now I don?t see us making any commitment to compete. The owner needs a new owner more than a new produce manager.

[Minermojo]

You're right Ky, UTEP thinks that just because they painted the exterior that people will shop there more. They don't care if the fruit is being to rot and the meat in the deli is starting to turn a purplish shade. But, "hey we painted the outside". They continue selling the same outdated merchandise whose EXPIRATION DATE has arrived. They know that most of the stuff that they sell "stinks" to high heaven but at least they think we still have food...that no one wants to buy with their hard earned money. Like hoodlums that sell protection guarantees and don't produce squat that's what our coaches are. They take the money and give us nothing and yet they want us to continue buying at the store. It stinks to high heaven.

[kyyote]

I think I spent too much time on the current situation without addressing the actual question of what now might involve in actions going forward. Do nothing and I would say the downward spiral will continue but I?m not sure what comes after bottom. I would donate $500 towards a coach that could come in and get the team out of the coma and back to living a productive life. I signed twenty two one year contracts. Seems to me that if the money is right one year is enough. You show us what you can do. Win and you are wonderful. Lose and leave. Simple. Your students score the scores or you find somewhere else to work. I laugh my ass off at the thought of telling my bosses to ?Trust the process.?  Then having my students fail every subject tested. The process is you win or you are worthless. If we wanted to build character courses on Dale Carnegie might be cool and much cheaper. But in football there is a score for a reason. It determines winners. Glorious winners. But it doesn?t just determine glorious winners. It also determines losers.  Now everyone respects that you win some and you lose some.  That is normal. But if you lose them all and it is all the time people start to associate the losing with you. And then the losing is rooted in you. What do we think of Dimel? 
What kind of pisses me off is that it is the comfortableness with which it is accepted. The leaders of UTEP and El Paso should be on the same page, working hand in hand to make the brightest star in El Paso shine a light out to the world. Instead we go with the ?We are simple farmers with no money for shoes with the nails in the soles.?  Bullshit bullshit bullshit! 
Can the public take signs to games that demand Wilson to fix it or be the first head to roll?  She is where the buck stops in El Paso. Someone in the media who still have some guts needs to ask her point blank if the football team is acceptable. If she starts talking about trust she needs to be fired and the people in Austin need to be called out if they don?t as being bigoted. But I would start with holding Wilson?s feet to the damned fire. Now. Like you have already allowed more than enough losing since your arrival.

[SisyphusMiner]

To be fair, Wilson didn't hire the AD.  His contract is nearly up.  If she doesn't fire him and hire her own AD then we know she doesn't give a crap.  We don't know what's happening behind closed doors but I personally wouldn't be undermining him publicly if I were president.

She signed off on extending Terry a year for taking a pay cut.  Well OK, it was a weird year with basically no revenues.  I'm actually OK with that.

As far as Dimel is concerned, I think he's uttterly incompetent at running an offense, but there seems to be more evidence of building a program than what Terry is doing.  Terry is hoping to hit a home run on transfers.  Of course if he hits the jackpot then he can start to get better recruits, so maybe it kind of makes a weird sort of sense.

[kyyote]

Sis, I am old and waiting is a luxury I no longer have. Like I said I want the question asked and I will learn a lot from it. If she says no! If she says that the losing is intolerable that is one thing but if she starts blowing smoke up my ass I instantly know what I need to know. Actually I want more than that. I want her to publicly say that UTEP football is intolerable and the damned seat is glowing red!  I want to see outrage from the right people.  I want to see a passion and anger that mirrors mine. I want the people running things to be as outraged and hurt by the humiliation and disrespect that they have allowed to happen to our beautiful school.  Does Wilson love UTEP?  Senter?  Dimel?  Terry?  Anyone?  I don?t see it. At all. No passion. No love. We?ve got a process. And it doesn?t have to be that way. This school had a very strong basketball tradition that was allowed to wither and dry up to near death. The football program had been dragged kicking and screaming from being sucked into a black hole of losing by Price and it was pissed away in the blink of an eye. I understand Natalicio wanting the academics. But I will never forgive Stull for not standing up for the athletic department as the public representation of the school as much as he should have. He fucking rode the damned gravy train.
I want Wilson to hold a press conference to announce that she is going to do whatever it takes to fire Dimel, that he had had way too long to do way more than he has. I want to hear her say that UTEP and losing will no longer be synonymous and that it stops today. Senter, you sir are on the clock and I am just looking for any sign that you aren?t fighting for your fucking life to avoid another loss. Wilson is the Captain of the ship. It is a beautiful ship that has been allowed to get and look run down. The first mate tells me he?s working on the engine but it almost never runs and it has been three years.  Captain?  Captain?  Trust the process,Captain?  Bullshit!
My dad used to tell me to want in one hand and spit in the other and see which one fills up first.

[Minermojo]

You're absolutely right Ky, in everything. The trouble is that our citizens couldn't give a rats S with our athletic program. Heck, not even the students care. Sure, many of them are struggling with work and school and don't have time to devote to sports. Many of them would rather cheer for the Juarez soccer team and Mexican league teams. They are not interested in their school. UTEP is only an end to a means...a degree. Once, they're graduated UTEP is a school in their rear view mirrors never to see again.

Another thing, we here complain about it all the time and I could bet your that the powers that be at UTEP don't even know how much we're Ps'ed off at the program and they're not gonna do anything about it. They'll just continue giving easy money to the coaches and AD and that's all that they care about.

It sucks that the president doesn't read our posts.

[kyyote]

The reason people don?t give a rats ass is because no one, not from UTEP or El Paso is trying to sell the best thing El Paso has. El Paso Chihuahuas do a better job of selling than UTEP and El Paso combined. If you remember back to CMP, the El Paso tourism and convention people should have just given their salaries to Price. He made El Paso exciting on six or seven Saturdays. Business boomed!  There should be billboards selling UTEP all along I10. Instead we get Texas Tech decorations and monuments. Wilson is riding the damned gravy train too. Get off of your tired old ass!!  FIX THIS MESS!  Don?t tell me to trust the fucking process. The process is win or get the fuck gone. It takes brass balls the size of planets to win a game or two a year for years and say Trust the process. Stop for one moment and try to imagine having Dimels record at UT (as if they would have allowed this bad a shit show to make fools of their program) and telling them to trust the process. Would they laugh?  Throw shit at his ass?  Tar feathers and a rail?  Some dumb bastard thinks Dimel gave us a deal on his salary. His giving us a deal is ballsy. Got to say. How can you fire me when I am doing it for free.  EASY!  You aren?t free. You are costing us precious time, energy, kids lives spent wrongfully due to your ineptitude and failure to perform.

[zyxwvutsru]

The marketing was terrible, then the furloughs, and now layoffs.  UTEP Athletics is completely in a downward spiral. Covid fucked them big time.

[kyyote]

I hope we can recover. Serious damage was done and it will take years to fix if it can be. I think it can but won?t. It can if we had a winning team. But a losing team is sucking the last gasps of life out of  the program such as it is.

[SisyphusMiner]

I might be wrong, but I think the downhill spiral pretty much coincided with the departure of Mack Rhoades.  I think that's about when the marketing turned awful.  And it is abominably horribly gawdawful.

[Chanson]

I'm not sure if any of you are watching March Madness, but Gonzaga is looking like they just might take it all. The only team I see that can handle them is Baylor.
A Texas team will be in the final & it is possible TX might have 2 schools with a men's Bball D1 championship. I really want a TX team to win one soon however, I find myself wanting the Zags to win it all. This is a mid major small school that can stay undefeated.
It really is a great year for college basketball, in IMO.

Go Zags