I had no problem with Horn till his parting shots when he left. My opinion I think he did less with more than any coach other than Stansbury. My though has always been its easier to correct a ship with the captain you got...

unless they are truly an idiot (like our former football coach) and hasnt shown any sign they doing most things correct. Horn was learning and brought in talent and with offseason changes on the coaching staff (Cherry) he corrected things on the defense. Defense was something Horn was not good at in coaching.

Stansbury might get it correct at some point and I believe we would have been back to the NCAA Tourney with Harper as coach. While he doesnt recruit like Stansbury. Harper was getting almost all 3 stars by the time he left. There should be no question the man can coach and win championships. Having the right pieces is the most important thing in recruiting. Not the stars by a players name.

Stansbury will get at least 2 more years and I suspect in that time he will figure it out. Then the question will be can he repeat it.

Harper: In my years as a WKU fan I have never seen anything quite like that 2011-12 season. We were 5-11. On track to have our worst season in SCHOOL HISTORY. Coach McDonald gets fired, Harper takes over as interim coach. 21 days later Harper wins the Sunbelt tournament. It just goes to show that the impact a coach can have on a program.

Harper had a disappointing 2nd season that was plagued by injuries but when the team got healthy at the end of the season again made a run and wins the Sunbelt tournament. Harper looks like a magician.

But he continued to have disappointing regular seasons and never again sniffed the tourney. I almost wonder if Harper had a couple of tricks and once the conference solved those tricks he just floundered.


Stansbury: As far as recruiting highly rated recruits... what else is there to say?

Obviously Bassey was special. Josh Anderson is an amazing athlete. Although he never actually played here I got to see Mitchell Robinson play in a high school game. WOW that guy would have been amazing.

So Stansbury has been to the CUSA game three times and lost three close games.


Comparing him to other top coaches in CUSA:

Stansbury: 5 seasons, NIT final four, 63.2% at WKU, 67.4% against CUSA. Remember that in that first season because he literally had no guards on his roster when he arrived and only a few months to recruit some.

Jeff Jones: 8 seasons, NIT semifinal, and a first round NCAA loss. 64.5% at ODU, 67.4% against CUSA (identical to Stansbury).

Grant McCasland: 4 seasons, 60.5% at UNT, 57.4% against CUSA, one trip to the 2nd round of the NCAAs.

Dan D'Antoni: 7 seasons, 56.4% at Marshall, 58.2% against CUSA, one trip to the 2nd round of the NCAA's.

With the notable exception of the NCAA trips, Stansbury's record is comparable to or better than all of these coaches. And in all three championship games Stansbury coached in a bounce of the ball here, a 50/50 ball there, another made shot could have changed the outcome. I mean... North Texas shot 71% in that first half against us. Is that really because Rick Stansbury a bad coach? It might be because McCasland is a good coach. But if they shot 61% instead of 71% it still would have been a really good half. But it probably would have flipped the outcome of the game. Then would anybody be questioning Stansbury's coaching ability?

The truth is we play a relatively small number of tournament games. And a small sample size can make for freakish outlier results. Like three championship games with no wins. But if Stansbury was a bad coach wouldn't those shortcomings have kept him from winning the regular season? Wouldn't those shortcomings have prevented him from reaching the championship game three times (which those other supposedly better coaches have not done)?

I dunno. Personally I hope he keeps pounding that pavement, recruiting like hell, and eventually he'll break through.

For those of you who don't know... Stansbury has a 5-star point guard coming in next year to go with a 7 footer that was at one time the #1 rated JUCO in the country. As special as Bassey was... basketball really revolves around the point guard position. Had Stansbury recruited a stud point guard 3 years ago to develop with Bassey, Hollingsworth, and Anderson this might be a very different conversation. I expect that we'll have a rebuilding year next year with what we lose but the future is bright for Stansbury. I really believe that.