Watkins out at aTm

[Drbio]

0-16 in conference play when Baylor had such a hard time fielding a team?????


A&M should be booted from the Big 12. What a suck ass team. 7-20? Good grief. There is no excuse for that. They should be kicked out of the Big 12. Blah blah blah.





Sound familiar? Watkins did need to go though. He really sucked.

[Drbio]

Here's the story BTW.....




DALLAS -- After Texas A&M went 14-14 last season, ending a skid of eight straight losing seasons, coach Melvin Watkins was hoping better days were ahead.





He knew he was wrong on the first day of practice this season.



A&M lived down to his dismal expectations, going 0-16 in Big 12 games and 7-20 overall. So on Wednesday, Watkins announced he's resigning as soon as the Aggies are eliminated from the postseason.



"Hopefully that last game will be winning the national championship," he said, smiling.



The end could come as soon as Thursday night, when A&M faces Missouri in the first round of the conference tournament. Watkins had wanted to make his announcement after the Aggies' next loss, but decided to get it out of the way to avoid speculation distracting the team.



Watkins was hired in 1998 after leading North Carolina-Charlotte, his alma mater, to the second round of the NCAA tournament in his first two seasons as a head coach.



Over six seasons at A&M, his teams never won more than six conference games and never finished higher than tied for seventh. They've also never won a game in the conference tournament. His record with the Aggies is 60-111 overall, 21-75 in Big 12 play.



"It's been great, but you have to win games," Watkins said. "We feel the program is in better shape than when I got here, but it's time to step aside and let someone else get it turned around."



His problems were status quo for the Aggies.



The school last made the NCAA tournament in 1987 and has only been to the NIT once since then, in 1994, which also was its last winning season.



Athletic director Bill Byrne, who came from Nebraska in December 2002, said he believes A&M's basketball team can be as successful as some of the school's other programs. He added that he'll be hiring the coach expected to make the breakthrough.



"You'd like to do these things as quickly as possible," Byrne said. "Many we'd be interested in will have teams that will likely be in postseason play. Their performance will dictate the timetable."



Two possible candidates include UTEP coach Billy Gillispie and former Texas Tech coach James Dickey, an assistant at No. 7 Oklahoma State, the Big 12 regular-season champion.



Byrne was in Dallas last month to watch UTEP play SMU. The Miners went 22-6, winning a share of the WAC title and he was named the league's coach of the year. It was an impressive turnaround from last season, when he was hired a week before the opener and went 6-24. Gillispie's previous job was as an assistant at Illinois under Bill Self, now the coach at Kansas.



"Our team needs to be fundamentally sound, do the basics well and play exciting basketball," Byrne said.



The Aggies actually opened this season 7-4. Yet those wins came against Arkansas Pine Bluff, Alabama A&M, Prairie View A&M, Texas-San Antonio, Grambling and Long Island. Two of the losses were to Oakland (Mich.) and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi.



A&M hasn't won since Jan. 6.



Byrne said a home loss to scholarship-strapped Baylor on Feb. 25 was "real gut-wrenching." The last two conference losses were by 26 and 29 points.



So even though Watkins' contract was extended by three years in January, he's expected for weeks not to be back. He waved to the crowd and clapped as he left the court following the home finale.



Watkins helped UNCC reach the Final Four as a player, then spent 18 years there as an assistant coach. He went 42-20 in two seasons as a head coach.



The Aggies brought him in hoping to build a program that could fill the 12,500 seats at Reed Arena, which opened in his first season. The school also was looking to keep up with their geographic rivals in the Big 12, primarily Texas, Oklahoma and Oklahoma State.



Instead, A&M remained on par with Baylor. This year's Aggies joined the 1999 Bears as the only squads to go 0-16 since the Big 12 began. A&M hadn't gone winless in league play since 1944.


Among Watkins' failures was not recruiting many Texans to College Station. Only four players on this season's roster went to Texas high schools -- and one of them was his son.



Watkins said he's not sure what he'll do next, but he would like to continue coaching.

[Dooby]

I heard the UTEP coach is rumoured.

[Drbio]

UTEP's Billy Gillespie is a former Baylor assistant and has been rumored to be the front runner.

[Dooby]

That would be a mistake, you heard it here first.

[dirno2000]

Tom Penders had been rumored too. Lon Kruger is supposed to be a lock at UNLV, but in my mind A&M is a better job. Byrne would be foolish not to place a call. Then again, big name coaches may be scared off by a school with no tradition in a killer conference.

[Drbio]

Originally posted by: Dooby
That would be a mistake, you heard it here first.

If it means the Aggies will suck even more I am all for it. [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif[/img]

[Dooby]

Gillespie would be a mistake at A&M.

More than half of UTEP's roster is JuCo. Nothing wrong with that. JuCo recruiting is a big part of maintaining a good program. The total reliance (and I mean UTEP totally relies) on JuCo will lead to moderate success in a mid-major. However, in the big conferences, reliance on JuCo's will never lead to much success. The talent is too good already.

[ocelot_ark]

Rumors out of Fayetteville are saying that it could be Nolan Richardson.

[Drbio]

As a BAylor fan, I would hate for Nolan to show up College Station. He would bring immediate credibility to Aggieville.

[Dooby]

I read previously that U. of Houston might be interested in Nolan Richardson, as well.

[dirno2000]

Originally posted by: Drbio
As a BAylor fan, I would hate for Nolan to show up College Station. He would bring immediate credibility to Aggieville.

As a Baylor fan, shouldn't you want them to be as strong as possible? You have to play them twice a year so a victory or two would help your RPI. Not to mention the fact that more tournament teams means more mony to the conference which filters back to the schools.

[ocelot_ark]

I do think it would be funny if Nolan went to aTm. Both of Arkansas previous basketball (girls and boys) would then be coaching for the Aggies. This was Gary Blair's 2nd (might have been 1st) season coaching the lady Aggies.

[Drbio]

Originally posted by: dirno2000

As a Baylor fan, shouldn't you want them to be as strong as possible? You have to play them twice a year so a victory or two would help your RPI. Not to mention the fact that more tournament teams means more mony to the conference which filters back to the schools.

No. You obviously do not appreciate the Battle of the Brazos and the bitter rivalry between A&M and Baylor.

[Drbio]

Originally posted by: ocelot_ark
I do think it would be funny if Nolan went to aTm. Both of Arkansas previous basketball (girls and boys) would then be coaching for the Aggies. This was Gary Blair's 2nd (might have been 1st) season coaching the lady Aggies.

I like Blair. he was the SFA coach when I was at SFA and the lady jacks were awesome. He hasn't panned out yet at A&M though.

[ocelot_ark]

If nothing else, Blair's supposed to be a great guy. One of my good friends wasn't a heavily recruited basketball player out of high school. I desperately wanter her to go to Arkansas, but she settled on Houston. Anyway...she did say that Gary Blair was REALLY nice, but she was a "city" girl.