[Sly Fox]

Cool insight into Monday's newser:

Flames choose McKay

By Chris Lang
Lynchburg News & Advance
March 27, 2007

Ritchie McKay rarely finds himself nervous to speak in public. College basketball coaches speak at hundreds of press conferences and booster functions throughout their careers. It's part of the job.

But Monday morning was different. A few minutes before he was introduced as Liberty University's seventh basketball coach, he began to sweat a bit.

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[PAmedic]

McKay will sign a five-year deal with Liberty. Neither Barber nor McKay would disclose McKay's salary, but Barber said McKay would be the second highest-paid coach in the Big South, behind Winthrop's Gregg Marshall.

that oughta answer the question SOMEWHAT.

my guess: 150-200k

[paradox]

In addition, McKay's buyout fron UNM is worth nearly 600K.

[ATrain]

"We've got some work to do," McKay said. "We've got to draw the student body in and the community in. But I think they'll like how hard our guys play, how together our guys play."

Finally...a coach who can understand that a team needs chemistry.

[whmatthews]

Good write-up Chris. I've been pretty quiet about this whole McKay situation. I'm pretty excited, and whether the players are or not, I don't know. I don't see any player who doesn't like the move coming out publicly with it, so I'm not convinced we should beleive the players are all about the change. I just hope some of the guys on the fence won't leave, though it wouldn't be in their best interest.

[Louist]

Great Article, i miss ritchie in abq already.

[hurricane fan]

Good write-up Chris. I've been pretty quiet about this whole McKay situation. I'm pretty excited, and whether the players are or not, I don't know. I don't see any player who doesn't like the move coming out publicly with it, so I'm not convinced we should beleive the players are all about the change. I just hope some of the guys on the fence won't leave, though it wouldn't be in their best interest.

IMO, if they leave, they shouldn't have been here in the first place.

[EarlLacker]

"We've got some work to do," McKay said. "We've got to draw the student body in and the community in. But I think they'll like how hard our guys play, how together our guys play."

Finally...a coach who can understand that a team needs chemistry.

He may understand it, but can he mix the proper ingredients in the chem lab? Unfortunately, the lack of chemistry on this year's team led to his downfall. There is no doubt though that for the most part his teams play hard.

One disturbing flaw this year's team had was the tendency to blow big leads -- including a 20 point lead AT ranked Air Force. That alone was responsible for at least 5-6 losses.

[thepostman]

"We've got some work to do," McKay said. "We've got to draw the student body in and the community in. But I think they'll like how hard our guys play, how together our guys play."

Finally...a coach who can understand that a team needs chemistry.

He may understand it, but can he mix the proper ingredients in the chem lab? Unfortunately, the lack of chemistry on this year's team led to his downfall. There is no doubt though that for the most part his teams play hard.

One disturbing flaw this year's team had was the tendency to blow big leads -- including a 20 point lead AT ranked Air Force. That alone was responsible for at least 5-6 losses.

Yes...but he has said many times that he was distracted while at New Mexico last year because of the AD situation there....Which he took complete blame for....I don't know if he will be instant success or not...time will tell...but I think there is a lot more to blame at New Mexico then just the coach....

[EarlLacker]

Finally...a coach who can understand that a team needs chemistry.

He may understand it, but can he mix the proper ingredients in the chem lab? Unfortunately, the lack of chemistry on this year's team led to his downfall. There is no doubt though that for the most part his teams play hard.

One disturbing flaw this year's team had was the tendency to blow big leads -- including a 20 point lead AT ranked Air Force. That alone was responsible for at least 5-6 losses.

Yes...but he has said many times that he was distracted while at New Mexico last year because of the AD situation there....Which he took complete blame for....I don't know if he will be instant success or not...time will tell...but I think there is a lot more to blame at New Mexico then just the coach....

No doubt he was distracted if reports are correct that our AD told him six weeks prior to his actual firing he wouldn't be back next season.

But, I've NEVER read or heard him say that in any Albuquerque media -- and I think that's a cop out, an excuse. The players didn't know his status. How do you constantly blow big leads in the second halves of games? The other teams would adjust to us, and Ritchie just couldn't adjust to their adjustments. This wasn't the first year it happened either.

Our 04-05 team had great chemistry. The 05-06 team had numerous problems including one kid quitting the team THREE times, and of course, there was this year's disaster.

[grm]

These boards sure do bring in a range and variety of perspectives, don't they.

[TallyW]

I'm not saying this simply b/c McKay is here but frankly I'm glad the kids didn't know that he was let go 6 weeks prior... If he was able to be around the kids and do his best to keep their season going in spite of that issue weighing on him, good for him... It's one thing to "think" you may not be around... but to have someone basically write you off, that has to distract you.

I'm not saying he's immune to criticism... we've done enough of that here ourselves... but I actually see some good in the statement of our friends from Albq.