Reply To: To Pull the Upset

Forum Forum Lehigh Sports Lehigh Men’s Basketball To Pull the Upset Reply To: To Pull the Upset

#5381

lehigh90
Participant

This is reminiscent of McCaffrey’s time at Lehigh. He hitched his wagon to Queenan and Polaha, then got quickly out of town when they graduated. And, he only got an assistant’s job at Notre Dame under Digger Phelps and John McLeod, not even a head job. He had to sit and wait another 11 years to get a head job, and it was at UNC-G, not exactly a powerhouse. And, he was only a .500 coach there. Actually, McCaffrey’s career seemed dead in the water until he had success at Siena, which he parlayed into the big time at Iowa. He has not been that impressive at Iowa, and may be on some shaky ground if he doesn’t start winning.

Billy Taylor got lucky to get out of Lehigh at the time as he was about a .500 coach as well. If you take away the games the team had to forfeit in 04-05, he is well below .500. Fortunately, for him, nobody wanted the Ball St. job as the program was such a disaster. He has resurrected them from the dead, but a lot of people are calling for his dismissal at Ball St. right now. So, he is on shaky ground.

Reed is going to do the same. Hook himself to CJ’s coattails, then try to parlay it into a bigger job. But, it’s not an easy haul. Sometimes, you may be better staying put, as you have earned respect where you are, and a longer leash. If you take a new job, and don’t win in 3-4 years, you are probably done.

But, that being said, he is not exactly cashing in at Lehigh money wise. I think he is making about $150K give or take? McCaffrey got a 6 year guaranteed $1.1M per year job at Iowa. For Reed to make $6.6M at Lehigh he would need to coach 44 years.

Question is … could you build a mid-major powerhouse, which would entice a good coach to stay? With the lack of fan support at Stabler, the answer appears to be no.

  • This reply was modified 12 years, 11 months ago by  lehigh90.