WOW won 20 games and MAC Semi-Finals , now say that again, MAC Semi-Finals in 5 years, If you want to accept FAILURE that's on you, but I don't accept it, As far as Schaus, he made the hire and he has realized he made a BAD hire, hence no contract extension, so kudo's to Schaus for nipping it in the bud now. All AD's make bad hire's in their tenure, you learn and move on.

Here's a fun fact OUCountry….. OUr last 4 Head Coaches have made the MAC Championship game in their 1st 5 years and 3 of them won it (Hunter, O'Shea, Groce) only Christian lost and Ohio went to NIT.

I wonder if Phillips would WANT to come back if the team were to finish on a roll, then win the MAC Tournament, even if he were offered an extension. His thought process might be " **** you Ohio, I'm the very same coach that I was when you didn't want to offer me an extension and now that I've gotten the team in the NCAA tourney, now you want to extend me?!?" He might just feel the dye's been cast and want to leave Ohio no matter what.

Or, he might just happily take the extension and reap the financial rewards that presumably come with it.

But I'm not sure it's an automatic he'd accept an extension at this point.

I see what you're saying, but he'd be stupid not to accept it. He has to see the writing on the wall. He knows what his record is at Ohio. If he wants to be mad at some fans and the AD for having higher expectations than where they've been during his tenure?

Well, there's the door -->

+1.

Agreed - It is OK that we disagree. I think the goals, every year should be similar to wait you laid out in the first list. For me, the goal most years should be, in order of what I find important. The first one has nothing to do with wins and losses because without it, winning is harder:

Minimally:
-Recruiting guards and wings that allow the team to match up defensively against programs with more resources to steal OOC wins. Guard play and defense wins in March, and the run up to March. Defense travels to tough environments when bad shooting happens.
-Play an entertaining brand of basketball fans can get behind.
-Getting to Cleveland in general, regardless of record, annually. Because anything can happen in conference tournament basketball. 2010 proved that.


After that, every year the goal should be:
-Top 4 finish to get the bye to Cleveland
-Getting to the MAC Semi's on average, every other year, because winning in conference tournament basketball is sometimes a crap shoot. I leave out the finals because of that, even though that should be the ultimate goal.

For me, it all starts with playing defense and rebounding better than all but the other elite teams in your conference. In 2016-17, Ohio was that type of team.


Now, obviously, the ultimate goals are:

Hanging one of, or both conference championship banners. But you can't get to those if the foundations aren't in place. And right now, the foundations are not in place. At this moment, I don't personally think we have any healthy guards that would even get time on the floor If the ultimate, ultimate goal is to be where UB is, and being in the at-large conversation, it requires some dollars invested that I'm not sure Ohio is going to spend.

And NCAA success has two parts in my opinion. The first is goal number one at the top - playing defense that can match up and hopefully keep you in a tournament game. The second is just flat getting lucky in your draw on Selection Sunday.



Beyond that though, me as a fan an alumnus, I want to see entertaining basketball, and have the chance to attend games that matter in fun environments with a lot of butts in seats. We're a few years removed from that here. I was at BG vs Toledo Saturday night, and it was the best game I've been at in person in 2-3 years. It was the best MAC game I've seen in person since the OU vs Akron undefeated match-up in 2013. I'd really like to see those days again in Athens - sooner than later.

Another factor that doesn't often get discussed is how the team(s) represent the university. One thing I've always appreciated with Saul's teams is that we don't have players creating issues off the court for the most part. That also matters to me when it comes to my expectations of the program, and "success".

I guess at the end of the day, I rarely come into a season with a "for me to enjoy this season, or supporting this program over the next few years, they have to check these boxes for me." More than anything, I want to watch entertaining basketball, and have a nice game day experience that makes me want to drive the 86-88 miles one way from Columbus for literally every game. That, without hesitation, are the boxes that I want checked. Both parts of that statement have remained unchecked for two years. And while winning masks a lot of the lacking gameday experiences and atmosphere, that's part of the picture for me, and it's absolutely lacking. And the fan experience is something that can, and should, always been very good regardless of wins and losses. I don't think it is right now.