[Cider Jim]

According to Lang (though I've NEVER heard this story before):

After the 1998-89 season, when the Flames went 21-8 and lost to Georgia in the NCAAs, things turned sour for Reeves.

Liberty athletics director Chuck Burch had left for Gardner-Webb, and the school had a new A.D. and president. The A.D., Kim Graham, asked Reeves to become the men’s basketball coach, a request Reeves denied. He enjoyed coaching women’s basketball too much to want to make the switch.

Reeves decided to take the open job at Southern Mississippi, but before he left, he recommended three people to take his place — assistant coach Roger Hodge, Porter and Green.

http://www.newsadvance.com/lna/sports/c ... ing/12059/

Somebody help me with the dates. Would that have been between Meyer and Hanky?

[Stevev]

I have never heard of LU giving Reeves an offer to coach mens hoops. Interesting! It had to have been between Meyer and Hanky since when Hanky was let go Cary Green was the coach after Reeves bolted to Southern Miss.

[Hold My Own]

That is 1000000% true...KG told JF what he was thinking about doing and JF asked some of his close friends that he relied on for athletic situations and they thought it was a joke....JF politely told him no way...it may have gotten to Reeves to "turn down" but it didnt receive the seal of approval that was needed back in the day when decision making wasnt trusted (you see why?)


Why some people think it's a simple transition to go from WBB to MBB is beyond me...it's why you dont see it happen to often.

[RagingTireFire]

After the 1998-89 season, when the Flames went 21-8 and lost to Georgia in the NCAAs, things turned sour for Reeves.

That must have been a very interesting year. Or years.

[Baldspot]

Remember the context, Myers left the program just before the start of the season leaving LU scrambling for a quick fix interim coach until they could actively recruit a bonafide coach the following season and RD wasn't exactly well liked internally to be their first choice (just my opinion).

[Sly Fox]

We don't even want to bring up that aspect, Baldie.

It is funny that the rumor I heard back in the day was the Reeves asked for the mens gig and when he was rebuffed he took the USM job. The true story turned out to be even more interesting.

[Baldspot]

I agree. Sorry about that. I was trying to show how context can change how decisions are later viewed.

[Cider Jim]

So if Reeves would have taken the MBB job, we would have never had RD or Hanky as a head coaches??? Very interesting!

[ATrain]

So if Reeves would have taken the MBB job, we would have never had RD or Hanky as a head coaches??? Very interesting!

And maybe not even McKay

[Fumblerooskies]

So if Reeves would have taken the MBB job, we would have never had RD or Hanky as a head coaches??? Very interesting!

And maybe not even McKay

...and maybe not SETH

[grm]

So if Reeves would have taken the MBB job, we would have never had RD or Hanky as a head coaches??? Very interesting!

And maybe we never have that 2004 Big South championship 45-point-win over High Point (89-44) with official attendance of 8,515. Let's see, last in Hankey's final season, 2nd in Dunton's 1st season, Champs in Dunton's 2nd season. Yeah, those were terrible times all right.

(Revisonist history is just amazing.)

In Mckay's first year, he took us from 3rd down to 4th in the regular season, wins a tournament game, and gets wasted in the next, and there's dancing in the streets.

I support Coach McKay. Barber (and others, apparently) wanted a change, and many people seem very happy about it.

Can we leave it at that? I can - at least on this forum.

Sincerely -

grm

[jcmanson]

Anyone else having deja vu? geese, go away if this is all you want to talk about. Someone lock this thread.

[grm]

... geese, go away if this is all you want to talk about....."

Let's see if I can read what this means, and then I'll stop.

"Go Away?"

This admonition is probably not referring to Cider Jim, who has 5,213 posts and is a key member of FlameFans. It offends me, not all that much that shots are taken at a guy that I think very highly of, but that if I merely defend my friend with statistical facts, then I am considered to be a troublemaker.

I honestly feel like that is an unfair position to be taken.

Again, sincerely -

grm

[Sly Fox]

Aye ... Let's please avoid going down this path again. Emotions still ride way too high.

Personally I wish Coach Dunton nothing but the best and I appreciate his years of service to the university.

As for Coach Reeves, I agree that it would've been a disastrous move. Although we might've had a much more Euro flavor to our mens lineup.

[jcmanson]

... geese, go away if this is all you want to talk about....."

Let's see if I can read what this means, and then I'll stop.

"Go Away?"

This admonition is probably not referring to Cider Jim, who has 5,213 posts and is a key member of FlameFans. It offends me, not all that much that shots are taken at a guy that I think very highly of, but that if I merely defend my friend with statistical facts, then I am considered to be a troublemaker.

I honestly feel like that is an unfair position to be taken.

Again, sincerely -

grm

We've talked about this with no end in the past. Leave it there. We are done with it. It wasn't a shot CJ took at Dunton. CJ loves sarcasm. We don't want to talk about RD on here. Please.

[grm]

Fair enough.

Plus - it's almost game time.

God bless

[jcmanson]

Cool - thanks

[Hold My Own]

Although we might've had a much more Euro flavor to our mens lineup.

Nah, Juice cant send us but so many...let's not act like it was a miraculous recruiting effort ...just keeping it real

[olldflame]

Julius got us Elena, and Reeves (and later Green) did a good job of keeping the Lithuanian connection open for several years, with the players we had giving us leads on prospects back home. Who knows, maybe Jelena Antic will be able to help us get that pipeline going again.

Reeves is a decent mid major womens coach who reached his level of incompetency in conference USA. I think it would have been a disaster if he had tried to coach our mens team. I have always said, and will maintain that WBB and MBB are not even the same sport. I've heard people say that Pat Summitt could be a great MBB coach, and I tend to disagree (although it would be interesting to see her try). She is an ALL TIME GREAT WBB coach. Why would she want to minimize her accomplishments there by risking failure in another sport?

[Hold My Own]

Yeah I was talking about the only one that had talent that you wouldnt have been able to find in the states. The others you could have found around here but not EK

[Baldspot]

Reeves is a decent mid major womens coach who went to Southern Miss where it didn't work out. I think it would have been a disaster if he had tried to coach our mens team.

FIFY. Reeves turned down the MBB position which was a bad idea to begin with but perhaps offered due to the circumstances the school was in, then went on to Southern Miss where some things didn't come thru for him on USM's end but he got to coach his kids which would be dream for most parent's like myself.

[Hold My Own]

He didnt turn it down...the person giving it to him didnt have the authority to give it to him even if he wanted it...I'll offer you our MBB coach right now if you want it

[Baldspot]

Turned down an opportunity for a position he didn't want and then wasn't offered. In the end, perhaps its the same difference.

The newspaper article is pretty clear and Coach Reeves is a very stand-up guy. He would have been room, I certainly wasn't and hearsay evidence from years ago is always dicey. To split hairs over something that didn't occur, a long time ago, probably says more about those making the arguments than those involved in the story.

[coolhandluke]

Julius got us Elena, and Reeves (and later Green) did a good job of keeping the Lithuanian connection open for several years, with the players we had giving us leads on prospects back home. Who knows, maybe Jelena Antic will be able to help us get that pipeline going again.
?

Jelena is Macedonian.

[olldflame]

Yeah, I guess I knew that, but wasn't thinking. Most of the Euro girls we had back then were Lithuanian, but not all of them. I'm not so sure Macedonia is the basketball hotbed Lithuania is.