Plus, it was equally as weak last year also, so it is becoming such a pattern, that one has to wonder how and why does ISU do this....or more accurately...why does Tim Jankovich does this.
It's an embarrassment for the school, for the fans, and a horrible embarrassment for the Missouri Valley Conference.
But there is proof that it is actually designed this way...based on Tim Jankovich's long held scheduling philosophy!
Even the ISU fans have abandoned any idea of defending this horrid schedule. Last year's schedule actually got a fair amount of NEGATIVE national publicity, since ISU was winning well over 20 games against the soft schedule full of patsies, and indeed it did come back to hurt them, as the are the only team in history to have back to back seasons of 24 and 25 wins and not get any consideration for an at large bid.
Their schedule was the single factor that kept them OUT of the NCAA!
But how and why does ISU do this to itself, it's fans, and to the MVC?
I think I have some answers, and it is being discussed a little even by the ISU fans. Much of the answers are revealed in this column that was written back in March of 2007...
These words were uttered 2 1/2 years ago when Jank was first hired, but they pretty clearly reveal that Jankovich has long held a philosophy of wanting to avoid playing anyone tough if you don't have to. He even unilaterally quit a D-I head coaching job and preferred to coach at a junior college instead of facing tough opponents and risk actually taking losses on his career record.
http://pantagraph.com/sports/college/illinois-state/article_17dd7b7d-c99f-5971-a5ed-0080f73390fa.html
Normally, every coach wants to play the toughest opponents possible, to play "up" instead of "down". But this is clearly NOT Tim Jankovich's philosophy....Jank's philosophy is to seek out the softest easiest opponents and try to rack up the most wins possible regardless of how weak the schedule was! If forced to play tough opponents, and face the possibility of actually losing more than winning, this scares Jank. It caused him to bolt a perfectly good D-I head coaching job and seek out a far lesser job coaching at a junior college!
Read what Jankovich says about his early coaching career....
Back in 1993 he says this....
"Jankovich admitted he would have taken any head coaching job in 1993. He was Colorado
State's associate head coach when he was named at North Texas and inherited a 5-22 squad."
so Jank wasn't selective at all...he'd have taken ANY head coaching job...those are his own words!
Then Jank has a couple decent years, but in such a weak conference, that hardly anyone noticed...
"They (North Texas) were 287 of 301 on the (RPI) computer. Basically, I took the worst team in America short of 13," he said. "I looked at it and I was really, really young and ambitious. I didn't think it through like this situation. When you're 31 or 32 you think, 'I don't need anything. Just get a job.' But it was still a good decision because I looked at it as I could get them to the top of the league fast."North Texas was in the Southland Conference, which Jankovich said ranked 27th of 31 leagues in the country. He got North Texas to the Southland Tournament championship game two of his first three years. However, the athletic director who hired Jankovich left, and North Texas was making a move to play Division I-A football."
So he just wanted a job where he could get "to the top of the league fast".
But now.....North Texas was going to MOVE UP and play in a tougher conference and against MUCH tougher opponents...and Jank suddenly didn't want that and chickened out...read this...
"North Texas also moved to the tougher Big West Conference."We went from the 27th league to the 12th. It would be like Illinois State moving to the Eastern Division of the NBA," Jankovich said. "You have this team in the Southland, and now you're playing in the 12th league. That's fine, but we didn't have any money to do this."That's not the job I took."So, Jankovich left after the 1996-97 season with a 53-57 record."
" Jankovich walked away from North Texas also with three years left on his pact.
"I thought (staying) was career suicide at that time," Jankovich said."
So Jank had a good D-I head coaching job and ran from it because the schedule was going to get harder, and they'd even have to play guarantee games, huh??
Jank went 9-9, then 9-9, then 12-6 when he had Texas State in the terribly weak Southland Conference.
THEN, when they moved to the Big West (a much tougher conference), in the FIRST season, he went 6-10 (the only season he stayed after the team's move), and then up and quit because "that's not the job I took"!!
He objected to a tougher schedule being foisted upon him against his wishes!
So I think this reveals a whole lot about why he hides from tough opponents, and why he favors a really soft non-conference schedule. I think it helps explain the horrid ISU schedule and why it looks like this year after year....
It is no accident...it is his basic philosophy....stay away from strong opponents, don't do guarantee games, and try to rack up easy wins in preference to actually facing a good schedule.
I can't see it any other way...those are Tim Jankovich's own words...and the facts 2 1/2 years later, looking at the ISU schedules, seems to bear this out....
Even on ISU fan posts this about Janovich's scheduling philosophy...
"It is better to try and fail, than to fail to try."
One more comment....it isn't hard to notice how incredibly bad and weak those non-conference opponents are...but just in case you ask why did ISU go out and seek to bring in teams like SEMO, Grambling and Central Michigan University in to Redbird Arena on 12/05/09...then check this out...
Grambling is going to be devastated, and so is SEMO......they were hit with two sets of NCAA sanctions and their team is destroyed!
Then.......of all the years to play CMU, this is a real aberration...
Of course they're weak every year, but they should be especially and incredibly weak this year...
they've essentiall had to clean house...
They have had academic and legal issues and FIVE of their better players have been dismissed.
Their team is gutted this year and will likely have one of their worst years ever...they should be be a 300+ RPI team. But Jank likely would have known that, so you have to wonmder if that was actually an appealing feature....that he could bring them in and catch then when they were as soft as ever.
http://www.cm-life.com/2009/09/28/mens-basketball-ex-player-sentenced-to-jail-transfers/
So the teams they're bringing in are an amazing set of hand picked, crippled teams that even their JV ought to be able to rack up a win against!
--
-
-
I have yet to hear any report of how the Flash Flanagan event went yesterday in Bloomington/Normal....hopefully someone will come up with a report.
Great news!!...Will Egolf says he is all the way back now....
http://twitter.com/willFREEMAN21/status/4432710683
No comments:
Post a Comment