There's no reason to fire Aston unless you can hire a coach that can beat Kim. Aston does well playing for second place.

skilledup said:

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I hope they give Travis Mays an opportunity

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Mays and his collection of bowties may not be coaching anywhere for a while once SMU fires him (and they should). I don't have paywall access to the DMN, but a not very flattering picture of his coaching style is emerging. Wonder if he learned that from his time with Karen.

https://www.dallasnews.com/sports/smu-mustangs/2020/02/04/mentally-traumatic-former-players-lament-debilitating-culture-of-travis-mays-womens-basketball-program-at-smu/

I had just read that article before returning to this board to see if it was posted. Then I read this thread and was going to reply to skilledup the same way you did. The article probably deserves a thread of its own. Mays has a 30-50 record at SMU and the direction doesn't appear upward. I assume UT thought he would gain experience there and then they'd hire him to replace Aston. That would seem to be a bad look now.

Valkyrie said:

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There's no reason to fire Aston unless you can hire a coach that can beat Kim. Aston does well playing for second place.

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Truth. It would be like USF firing Jose Fernandez because he can't beat Geno Auriemma. Aside from her first year, she's won 20 games every year, never finished worse than 3rd in the B12 (Goestenkors never finished better than a tie for 4th in her 5 years), has made the NCAA tourney in every one of those years (including 3 Sweet 16s and an Elite 8) and even beat the #1 team at the time this year.

Heck, in Jody Conradt's last 10 years at UT, she finished 7th or 8th twice as often as she won a B12 title, had 2 losing seasons and didn't make the NCAAs her last two years. In her 10 years coaching on the B12, Conradt finished 4th or worse in the conference 7 times. Aston has never even approached that kind of futility.

Aston checks a lot of UT culture boxes and they would really be rolling the dice with a replacement. They will NEVER hire a man for her job.

****no. I don't want to lose Brock

The coach at Abilene Christian is going a great job out west.. maybe they should try her/him..I also heard that Pat Summit's son is still available after his short stint at La.Tech. he he

If I am UT, I would be really hesitant to replace Aston. It would almost be like replacing Mack Brown in football, it needed to be done but they are still trying to recover from that loss. And, they may never get back to a championship game in football. For me, a replacement for Aston would have to be someone that has skins on the wall at a P5 school or I would keep Aston. The only reason to replace Aston is to beat Kim, a tall order indeed.

Valkyrie said:

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If I am UT, I would be really hesitant to replace Aston. It would almost be like replacing Mack Brown in football, it needed to be done but they are still trying to recover from that loss. And, they may never get back to a championship game in football. For me, a replacement for Aston would have to be someone that has skins on the wall at a P5 school or I would keep Aston. The only reason to replace Aston is to beat Kim, a tall order indeed.

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There's a lot of sound basis here.

Valkyrie said:

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If I am UT, I would be really hesitant to replace Aston. It would almost be like replacing Mack Brown in football, it needed to be done but they are still trying to recover from that loss. And, they may never get back to a championship game in football. For me, a replacement for Aston would have to be someone that has skins on the wall at a P5 school or I would keep Aston. The only reason to replace Aston is to beat Kim, a tall order indeed.

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The difference here is that Mack Brown actually won something at Texas. He had a national title and played for another. Karen Aston's biggest success is an Elite Eight finish, despite many years of top recruiting classes. Considering the current state of recruiting, the program is definitely trending down. Looking at what they have coming back, they will be lucky to finish in 3rd place next season and will be borderline for making the tournament. Her contract expiring this year is perfect timing to introduce some new blood and get the program trending up again. Keeping her around is just putting off the inevitable. The replacement might not have much more luck beating Kim, but could at least turn them into a top 25 team, which the Big 12 desperately needs.

bearbone11 said:

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Valkyrie said:

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If I am UT, I would be really hesitant to replace Aston. It would almost be like replacing Mack Brown in football, it needed to be done but they are still trying to recover from that loss. And, they may never get back to a championship game in football. For me, a replacement for Aston would have to be someone that has skins on the wall at a P5 school or I would keep Aston. The only reason to replace Aston is to beat Kim, a tall order indeed.

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The difference here is that Mack Brown actually won something at Texas. He had a national title and played for another. Karen Aston's biggest success is an Elite Eight finish, despite many years of top recruiting classes. Considering the current state of recruiting, the program is definitely trending down. Looking at what they have coming back, they will be lucky to finish in 3rd place next season and will be borderline for making the tournament. Her contract expiring this year is perfect timing to introduce some new blood and get the program trending up again. Keeping her around is just putting off the inevitable. The replacement might not have much more luck beating Kim, but could at least turn them into a top 25 team, which the Big 12 desperately needs.

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I think for the most part we are in agreement. I too think Aston needs to be replaced but there is a giant risk that the program can turn for the worse. I just don't think UT is willing to invest enough to get an established and proven P5 caliber coach.

Valkyrie said:

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bearbone11 said:

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Valkyrie said:

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If I am UT, I would be really hesitant to replace Aston. It would almost be like replacing Mack Brown in football, it needed to be done but they are still trying to recover from that loss. And, they may never get back to a championship game in football. For me, a replacement for Aston would have to be someone that has skins on the wall at a P5 school or I would keep Aston. The only reason to replace Aston is to beat Kim, a tall order indeed.

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The difference here is that Mack Brown actually won something at Texas. He had a national title and played for another. Karen Aston's biggest success is an Elite Eight finish, despite many years of top recruiting classes. Considering the current state of recruiting, the program is definitely trending down. Looking at what they have coming back, they will be lucky to finish in 3rd place next season and will be borderline for making the tournament. Her contract expiring this year is perfect timing to introduce some new blood and get the program trending up again. Keeping her around is just putting off the inevitable. The replacement might not have much more luck beating Kim, but could at least turn them into a top 25 team, which the Big 12 desperately needs.

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I think for the most part we are in agreement. I too think Aston needs to be replaced but there is a giant risk that the program can turn for the worse. I just don't think UT is willing to invest enough to get an established and proven P5 caliber coach.

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I think they can do better than Aston no matter what their goal is. If they just want a base level of competitiveness, maybe contending for the conference every few years, there are dozens of coaches who could achieve that for less than they are currently paying Aston. With their resources, it just shouldn't be that hard to put together a contender. If they want to contend nationally, then they will have to swing for the fences and try to get a proven coach, which may still fail like it did with Gail Gostenkors. Either way, I think they can do better than Aston. I think what Aston is doing right now is the minimum level of success for that program, so there is not that much risk in moving on at this point.

Doubt there are plans to replace Aston...yet. They seem to play well except vs BU. The reason for that is of course is KM. She has her number. So they won't fire her is she continues to finish behind us. Someday they will beat us like I always said about MBB vs. KU in Lawrence. I do not see any reason to replace her at this point of time unless it is a mutual thing, but she is unlikely to go anywhere else. That is a pretty cush job she has down in the California of Texas.