The Forgotten Years: The History of Wayne Morgan

[VeloClone]

He would have been blasted because it is a waste to use a scholarship on the coach's son, regardless of talent. There is no way around it. Hindsight is not needed to say McD whiffed on Barnes AND his son. It was just another indication of why McD was a complete failure here- he was never really committed. You have a son that is at least a Valley level player and you have been getting your *** kicked by Valley teams? He better be walking on to ISU. How the hell are you going to sell Barnes to ISU when you do not even want your son joining your program?

By the time Doug was choosing a school it was clear to McDermott that he wasn't going to last at ISU the next four years and he didn't want his son caught in the middle of that **** storm. You can argue it as bad coaching to not take him anyway, but I'm sure he sent him away as a parent.

 

[Nycclone]

Wayne is selling life insurance now. We invited him to a game watch in NYC as a guest and around halftime, he gave a spiel regarding all the great products he had to offer through new York life. I think two or three people took his card. I didn't though.

When he asked me what I do, I said go bars and drink beer. He didn't really follow up with any questions despite my rather unhealthy lifestyle clearly leading to the need of some life insurance in my future.

One of the three who took his card was the alumni president for the NYC group and afterwards Wayne was calling in on the regular to try to meet with him to talk business. The guy humored him, mostly to see if he would come to another game watch, but it became clear that he just wanted to sell him some crap so after a while he started ignoring Wayne's calls and texts.

During the summer Wayne came back to the bar and was bragging about how he used to coach Iowa state to the owner of the bar. Like how important he is and how he should buy his insurance. My understanding is the guy told Wayne to, to put subtly, go away and die and no one has seen or heard from Wayne in my world since. . .

So anywho, if anyone wants some life insurance or other great financial products offered by new York life, let me know. I can get his number for you so y'all can talk business.

Are we talking as a basketball coach or as a satellite dish salesman?

 

[MartyFine]

Wayne is selling life insurance now. We invited him to a game watch in NYC as a guest and around halftime, he gave a spiel regarding all the great products he had to offer through new York life. I think two or three people took his card. I didn't though.

When he asked me what I do, I said go bars and drink beer. He didn't really follow up with any questions despite my rather unhealthy lifestyle clearly leading to the need of some life insurance in my future.

One of the three who took his card was the alumni president for the NYC group and afterwards Wayne was calling in on the regular to try to meet with him to talk business. The guy humored him, mostly to see if he would come to another game watch, but it became clear that he just wanted to sell him some crap so after a while he started ignoring Wayne's calls and texts.

During the summer Wayne came back to the bar and was bragging about how he used to coach Iowa state to the owner of the bar. Like how important he is and how he should buy his insurance. My understanding is the guy told Wayne to, to put subtly, go away and die and no one has seen or heard from Wayne in my world since. . .

So anywho, if anyone wants some life insurance or other great financial products offered by new York life, let me know. I can get his number for you so y'all can talk business.

Thanks for the update Coach McDoormat. No one will ever forget your long and storied tenure at ISU.

 

[kingcy]

I appreciate what Morgan did at ISU. He took over a crap situation and gave us some success right away. He freakin won at KU and should have had two wins there if it were not for two insanely bad calls to help KU get it to overtime. People forget, but his team had bad injury issues in his first year on the job and his last year on the job. Homan sprained an ankle his first year on the job and was limited at the critical time of the year, that team could have made the NCAA had he stayed healthy. He could recruit, his teams played an exciting brand of basketball and had some success here, that was a big deal especially after coming out of the LE mess. His teams did frustrate me at times and I felt they gave a few games away they should have won.

Rumor is he got the job because he threated to take incoming players with him. Yes it was a bad situation and bad time to hire a coach, but he should have been interim coach for a year. He would have probably earned the job with what he did with that first team though.

 

[Spam]

Wayne is selling life insurance now. We invited him to a game watch in NYC as a guest and around halftime, he gave a spiel regarding all the great products he had to offer through new York life. I think two or three people took his card. I didn't though.

When he asked me what I do, I said go bars and drink beer. He didn't really follow up with any questions despite my rather unhealthy lifestyle clearly leading to the need of some life insurance in my future.

One of the three who took his card was the alumni president for the NYC group and afterwards Wayne was calling in on the regular to try to meet with him to talk business. The guy humored him, mostly to see if he would come to another game watch, but it became clear that he just wanted to sell him some crap so after a while he started ignoring Wayne's calls and texts.

During the summer Wayne came back to the bar and was bragging about how he used to coach Iowa state to the owner of the bar. Like how important he is and how he should buy his insurance. My understanding is the guy told Wayne to, to put subtly, go away and die and no one has seen or heard from Wayne in my world since. . .

So anywho, if anyone wants some life insurance or other great financial products offered by new York life, let me know. I can get his number for you so y'all can talk business.

You sound like a winner.

 

[ISUChippewa]

Morgan was fired because he was found to have ties to a pipeline that was landing him players from the inner cities. I have no idea what exactly was illegal about it, but I know one of his assistants was in worse hot water than he was, and I would assume he was paying this guy to get kids here. Morgan was also an A-hole with a capital A.

What makes you write this? I don't think he was the greatest coach ever at ISU (although he was a damn sight better than McDermott, and anyone arguing otherwise, which has been done on this forum, is just plain stupid and deserves to be called out as such), but my dad, who used to be a professor at ISU, got to know WM a bit, and as a result of that relationship I got the chance to catch a few minutes of a practice back in the fall of '04 and WM could not have been kinder or more gracious to me, who he didn't know from Adam.

 

[jsb]

You didn't leave early/angry when we lost to South Dakota State in '08? Did you happen to catch our 35 point loss to Drake when GMAC was coach? Yeah.......but that Colorado game when Wayne was coach....!

I had a McDermott game in there.

 

[BigBake]

LE, WM and McD all played key roles in a very very very dark period of ISU Basketball. Each of them is equally responsible for what happened. It all started with a tourney loss to Baylor....

 

[Spam]

LE, WM and McD all played key roles in a very very very dark period of ISU Basketball. Each of them is equally responsible for what happened. It all started with a tourney loss to Baylor....

They're also responsible for contributing to a very dark period. But at least LE and WM brought a smile or two for cyclone fans. The only times McD brought smiles were on the day he was hired and the day he quit.

 

[Chitowncy]

I appreciate what Morgan did at ISU. He took over a crap situation and gave us some success right away. He freakin won at KU and should have had two wins there if it were not for two insanely bad calls to help KU get it to overtime. People forget, but his team had bad injury issues in his first year on the job and his last year on the job. Homan sprained an ankle his first year on the job and was limited at the critical time of the year, that team could have made the NCAA had he stayed healthy. He could recruit, his teams played an exciting brand of basketball and had some success here, that was a big deal especially after coming out of the LE mess. His teams did frustrate me at times and I felt they gave a few games away they should have won.

Very good points. I, for one, also get bothered that people on here lump in Morgan with McDermott's years. Plus, I completely disagree with the poster who claimed Morgan was an *******. I only had a couple face-to-face dealings with Morgan, but each time he was very professional. He was also a player's coach. I tried to walk on Morgan's first team (wasn't good enough), when Coach Sunvold was basically running the walk-on tryouts, and was able to witness a practice. Morgan, while he had a funny high-pitched voice when he screamed, was professional and seemed like a decent coach to me.

I also find it somewhat hypocritical that Jamie Pollard allowed McDermott to stay around 5 years (without making any progress with ISU's once proud program), not make a single postseason tourney - not even the NIT, and seemingly was going to have another year before he miraculously left ISU on his own. Yet, he was quick to fire Morgan after two postseasons and one season where the Cyclones didn't meet expectations and failed to make the postseason. Time will tell, but I think Pollard has an affinity for his own hires and it seems difficult for him to fire his hires. All of you calling for CPR's head - and I am not one of those people - should watch this carefully. Pollard showed an absolute unwillingness to fire the man who was truly torpedoing the program. That's tough to say because McDermott always seemed like a nice guy, but his teams just weren't winning.

 

[keepngoal]

People without perspective (newer fans through no fault of their own) don't realize McD was was one of the worst coaches in the history of ISU basketball. It's really ******* hard to be that ******.

history started in 1980?

McDermott could coach as evidenced before and after ISU, he could not recruit and keep players. Morgan was the opposite, great recruiter who kept players happy, but a lousy head coach. I was surprised he didn't get hired as a assistant for his recruiting alone after being fired. Maybe his bitter scorched earth exit had something to do with that. He burned the program to the ground when he was forced out.

He burned it to the ground...

Oh yeah, another black mark for the program was one of the assistant coaches was charged for child p.rn.graphy. Basically our program got more and more negative publicity every day during the period.

wasn't that a MBB office person?

Very good points. I, for one, also get bothered that people on here lump in Morgan with McDermott's years. Plus, I completely disagree with the poster who claimed Morgan was an *******. I only had a couple face-to-face dealings with Morgan, but each time he was very professional. He was also a player's coach. I tried to walk on Morgan's first team (wasn't good enough), when Coach Sunvold was basically running the walk-on tryouts, and was able to witness a practice. Morgan, while he had a funny high-pitched voice when he screamed, was professional and seemed like a decent coach to me.

I also find it somewhat hypocritical that Jamie Pollard allowed McDermott to stay around 5 years (without making any progress with ISU's once proud program), not make a single postseason tourney - not even the NIT, and seemingly was going to have another year before he miraculously left ISU on his own. Yet, he was quick to fire Morgan after two postseasons and one season where the Cyclones didn't meet expectations and failed to make the postseason. Time will tell, but I think Pollard has an affinity for his own hires and it seems difficult for him to fire his hires. All of you calling for CPR's head - and I am not one of those people - should watch this carefully. Pollard showed an absolute unwillingness to fire the man who was truly torpedoing the program. That's tough to say because McDermott always seemed like a nice guy, but his teams just weren't winning.

IIRC: there wasn't much left of the program when McD stepped in ... that gave him a few years to bank before being accountable. Pollard didn't like what was going on in the program under Morgan and was there to see if first hand. I still trust his judgement in that regard. 20/20 McD can't coach at a P5 school... but very few guessed that at the time of his hire. At the time, the hiring of McD was a solid choice, more so than the Hoiberg hire.

 

[Chitowncy]

history started in 1980?

IIRC: there wasn't much left of the program when McD stepped in ... that gave him a few years to bank before being accountable. Pollard didn't like what was going on in the program under Morgan and was there to see if first hand. I still trust his judgement in that regard. 20/20 McD can't coach at a P5 school... but very few guessed that at the time of his hire. At the time, the hiring of McD was a solid choice, more so than the Hoiberg hire.

I agree completely regarding the hiring of McDermott. It seemed like a great hire at the time, and I'm very happy ISU didn't have to fire him. It worked out unbelievably well. Still, I don't like the comparisons lumping in Morgan's 3 - mostly exciting - years with McDermott's 5 subpar years. Just rubs me the wrong way and seems unfair to Morgan.

 

[keepngoal]

I agree completely regarding the hiring of McDermott. It seemed like a great hire at the time, and I'm very happy ISU didn't have to fire him. It worked out unbelievably well. Still, I don't like the comparisons lumping in Morgan's 3 - mostly exciting - years with McDermott's 5 subpar years. Just rubs me the wrong way and seems unfair to Morgan.

we will have to disagree on the last part... I for one was glad Morgan was fired, so I am biased.

 

[Senolcyc]

There's a reason it's forgotten. Nobody gives a **** anymore. And it has more than one part?

 

[CYKOFAN]

LE, WM and McD all played key roles in a very very very dark period of ISU Basketball. Each of them is equally responsible for what happened. It all started with a tourney loss to Baylor....

Wow, just wow. Now even lumping in LE AND the Morgan years with the GMac years. LE gave us some of the greatest years and greatest victories in ISU basketball history. Yes he had a bad personal problem and it got him canned, but that doesn't take away the many great times Clone fans enjoyed watching most of his teams. Wayne also gave us winning seasons, post season wins, and great victories, including at Kansas. Lumping in the LE and Morgan years with the worthless GMac years when there was absolutely nothing to cheer about is beyond incredible.

 

[exCYtement]

history started in 1980?

He burned it to the ground...

wasn't that a MBB office person?

Randy Brown was the assistant coach under L.E.
http://www.iowastatedaily.com/news/article_2946a62f-1880-5750-97a4-0ad9c151b568.html

Actually a pretty impressive story now. He live in the Ames area and has gotten his life together and does a lot to help people who struggle with addictions.

 

[CYKOFAN]

What makes you write this? I don't think he was the greatest coach ever at ISU (although he was a damn sight better than McDermott, and anyone arguing otherwise, which has been done on this forum, is just plain stupid and deserves to be called out as such), but my dad, who used to be a professor at ISU, got to know WM a bit, and as a result of that relationship I got the chance to catch a few minutes of a practice back in the fall of '04 and WM could not have been kinder or more gracious to me, who he didn't know from Adam.

I also got to talk to WM at the Farmers Market in Des Moines while he was still our coach, and he couldn't have been nicer. I've also talked to one of his main players who flat out said he and the players loved the guy, and it was evident, especially on senior days, how much he was liked by his players. But some on here seem willing to spread about any story or rumor they can come up with to try to slander him and justify his firing. The post that there was some sinister connection to recruiting inner city kids is a new one on me, though I don't know what would be wrong with that. Like I said, on and on it goes for some.

 

[ISUChippewa]

I also got to talk to WM at the Farmers Market in Des Moines while he was still our coach, and he couldn't have been nicer. I've also talked to one of his main players who flat out said he and the players loved the guy, and it was evident, especially on senior days, how much he was liked by his players. But some on here seem willing to spread about any story or rumor they can come up with to try to slander him and justify his firing. The post that there was some sinister connection to recruiting inner city kids is a new one on me, though I don't know what would be wrong with that. Like I said, on and on it goes for some.

Yeah. But, the original agenda of this website and its founder was to get WM canned, so as regrettable and unfair as it is I think there will always be an inherent bias against WM by a vocal minority on here.

 

[CYKOFAN]

Yeah. But, the original agenda of this website and its founder was to get WM canned, so as regrettable and unfair as it is I think there will always be an inherent bias against WM by a vocal minority on here.

That might be, I don't know, but there are new people and a different owner I believe.

 

[keepngoal]

Yeah. But, the original agenda of this website and its founder was to get WM canned, so as regrettable and unfair as it is I think there will always be an inherent bias against WM by a vocal minority on here.

I have now read it all.

-keep