[Dave in Green]

Does anyone on this forum really know for a fact that KD hasn't gotten an offer for more money from a bigger program than Duquesne, or is this an assumption based on the fact that no previous offer has showed up on Twitter?

[pdt1420]

How far do you want to take it? If we pay him the most, then every year when another coach gets more we have to pay him more. That is an upward spiral neither we, nor the other schools in the league can afford. Will it be a $1 million in five years? Can we cut his pay if he doesn't win the MAC again next year?

KD isn't going to leave Akron because the only jobs he will get will be the Duquesnes of the world, which wolud be career suicide. He isn't going to get an offer for a BCS level school where guys make over a million a year because he is too old at this point and his resume doesn't warrant it.

KD likes to play everything safe. He has a safe style of basketball. He recruits safe players who probably will never be a problem. He likes to schedule in a safe manner that gives him 20 guaranteed wins a year. He likes playing in the MAC because most of the teams are relatively easy to beat and the path to 20 wins is relatively easy. Akron is a safe zone for KD. He has organized his entire career to limit risk to his job. With that limiting philosophy comes a limiting of income and I'm sure he knows it and is very comfortable with it. He could be the coach at Akron for the next 15 years even if the program never got better and never produced greater accomplishments greater than they already have. The fans love him and he is well protected by the Board of Trustees. The truth is, he does do a good job and we should be happy with him. When I worked in corporate America, we called guys like him "survivors". They were good at their job, liked their jobs, never said/did anything controversial and underpaid for what they could make somewhere else. Everything they did centered around them surviving for another year. There is nothing wrong with the "survivors" as they are frequently valuable employees.

I believe his question was who deserves to be paid higher?

[Captain Kangaroo]

Gary Waters is one of the best coaches that I have seen come through the MAC in 20 years. In 16 years his teams have made the NCAAs 3 times and he has 2 wins. He has 2 more wins than us, I get that, but it is not like he is regularly making the tourney.

If this were a discussion on dating, I think that's like saying Gary Waters has dated only two more supermodels than KD.

Waters 2
Dambrot 0

isn't a huge disparity if we were talking baseball. But it's a huge disparity in supermodel dating, just like it is in NCAA tourney wins.

You also can't overlook Waters' team being taken to the Elite 8 by Stan Heath. The absolute worst case scenario for Waters coaching that Huffman/Gates/Mitchell/Shaw team is 1 NCAA win. 2 or 3 wins being much more likely.

Waters' last two CSU teams have choked in February, for some odd reason. This year, injuries are the scape goat. But when comparing CSU to the Zips, or Waters to Dambrot, Waters has the edge in every category. Wins. Championships. Players in the NBA. Head-to-Head.

That's just the way it is. Hope it starts to change this upcoming season.

[GP1]

KD is running the UA basketball program exactly the way UA wants him to run the basketball program. If he was doing something they didn't like, they'd instruct him to change. If he didn't, they'd replace him.

KD has had enough success that replacing him at this point would be a PR disaster for the program and you of all people should know that. What you are really saying is KD and the University are on the same page with the direction of the program. They want him to survive as bad as he does and they will put up with the lack of success in post season beyond the MAC Tournament to keep the safety in place.

[GP1]

Does anyone on this forum really know for a fact that KD hasn't gotten an offer for more money from a bigger program than Duquesne, or is this an assumption based on the fact that no previous offer has showed up on Twitter?

Big time programs tend to have big time media around them and things get out. There aren't many reports out there about Dambrot being looked at by big time programs because he isn't being looked at by big time programs. He might get a sniff, but not beyond that.