REFUTED: Travis Hines: A look into the ISU BBall program and the Athletic Dept

[Jer]

Going to cross-post something I put in another thread...

I think part of the problem here is that Hines tried to use a couple really shaky examples to push an underlying message that should have been presented on it's own. Rather than people focusing on the potential for the perception of cheapness to get in the way of taking the next step in our programs, people were given the topic of the hotel ballroom to focus on - and when that became largely diminished in impact, the rest dissolves away with it.

The underlying concerns are very real - that JP has ****** off a lot of players, employees, coaches, and especially, donors by being overly stubborn, egotistical, and penny pinching to the point of it possibly preventing us from making big strides at times. The examples used to say that without actually saying it made this whole thing a cluster**** that was ill-timed and inadequately sourced.

I have never been to a journalist related class, but in my opinion... If one is going to attempt to publish a thorough expose, the thesis statement should be what you build around rather than presenting unresearched rumors as the crux of the piece. Develop around the underlying issue and surround it with verifiable facts. Simply reporting unvetted rumors does nobody any good and only hurts every party involved (including the reporter).

There is a story to be told, I know that for a fact, but it's likely never going to get told with how this unfolded.

 

[carvers4math]

Hines pushed sensationalism and lost all credibility. But gained the almighty clicks.

 

[CyJack13]

So he chose 3 of the most easily verifiable (but left unchecked) allegations but Hines' conclusion is he doesn't know if it had any impact? Why is that a story again?

A guy left a $2.3mm job for a $5mm job which happened to be his dream job and the author cites sitting in a hotel lobby in HI for several hours as a reason? Ad revenue for the Trib must be down.

Hey man, he talked to at least six and possibly as many as nine people for this story!How much work do you want him to do?

 

[jahfg]

It is hilarious that people are so critical of unnamed sources when the don't like an article but are ok with it other times. If it wasn't for unnamed sources there would be a lot less news articles.
Also funny people think it was a story sensationalized.
Hines basically says in there he doesn't know if any of it had a part in Fred leaving and also stated that Pollard and Fred maintained a good working relationship.
Doesn't mean he enjoyed working for him. Fred is a professional.

Is that newsworthy? C'mon. Hines presented this as a bombshell when it was nothing close. This was a writer trying to promote himself.

 

[CycloneWarning]

Hoiberg wasn't willing to be quoted as saying it's BS.

Pretty sure he publicly did that just yesterday on the air. You not listen to the interview?

 

[isufbcurt]

Winning a conference championship and making a Final Four would have represented big strides last year. Did MBB not have the coach, the practice facilities, the sold-out arena, the great fan base, and the talent to achieve that?

How is it JP's fault we did not make bigger strides? Should we have flown the team to NCAA first round on a fleet of G5's to not lay an egg against UAB?

If the AD spent the money to fly each BB team member to the NCAA tourny site in their own stealth bomber they would have beat UAB I guarantee it

 

[CyRann22]

While JP may be "cheap" he also has the responsibility of watching over a Athletic Department Budget, while large in many of our eyes, isn't that large when comapred to our peers and competitors so the ISU AD needs to be mindful of how it spends it's limited resources.

The fact that we are the largest school in our state and one of the larger schools in the Big 12 while at the same time towards the bottom in donations is very pathetic of our alumni base.

It's like what comes first the chciken or the egg? If fans/donors want us to be a big time program and spend like a big time program then they need to donate like we are a big time program. But currently the donations aren't such of a big time program so we can't spend like a big time program.

Might be totally wrong, but I get the impression from quite a few folks that there are a lot of donors that don't like the way JP handles things and so they don't contribute as much. I think that was ultimately what that article was supposed to be about, but just had terrible, not even valid, examples.

 

[carvers4math]

Wonder how our basketball budget compares to UAB's? Would stealth bomber escort help Jameel catch a pass?

 

[DeereClone]

Wonder how our basketball budget compares to UAB's? Would stealth bomber escort help Jameel catch a pass?

LOL yeah if JP had spent a little more money we would have won that game. And if he spends a little more money this week we might be able to make the "big stride" of beating Kansas on Saturday!

 

[2forISU]

You can disagree with JP but can't disagree with his total body of work at ISU. ISU is by far better today because of JP.

 

[johnnydugouts]

Hines wrote a sensationalized article based on nothing but hearsay from un-named sources, who were most likely former (possibly disgruntled) former employees. An article that has now been largely debunked on some of the key points by the two primary subjects of the article, who Hines for whatever reason did not bother to quote in the article, or even attempt to present what might be their side of the story.

The story now boils down to that the head coach may have had a disagreement with the AD during or after his salary negotiations, and a disagreement with how that salary was portrayed by the AD to the fan base and others. I'm sure that a problem like that only exists at ISU and has NEVER happened at another university, so of course it is newsworthy to a writer in Ames, Iowa who does not even work for a paper that is significant enough to publish a daily rag.

Yet, many on here are still trying to portray Hines as some sort of Ames, Iowa Woodstein.......even though it has been shown that most of the article was sensationalized b.s.- and again......from un-named sources who don't have the nerve to attach their name to their claims.

why exactly are "disgruntled" or "former" employees automatically not reliable? plenty of disgruntled employees have blown the lid off of big stories. im sure the truth lies somewhere in between Hines and JP/CFH. but face it, most stories like this involved someone who messed up or got screwed. thats why its even worth writing about.

 

[Spam]

You can disagree with JP but can't disagree with his total body of work at ISU. ISU is by far better today because of JP.

Definitely. He's done a lot. Seems like there's a need for fresh ideas. But even if Jamie stays, it's not the worst thing that can happen. There are others above him on the must fire list.

 

[isufbcurt]

Might be totally wrong, but I get the impression from quite a few folks that there are a lot of donors that don't like the way JP handles things and so they don't contribute as much. I think that was ultimately what that article was supposed to be about, but just had terrible, not even valid, examples.

Well if so those donor's have been sitting on money for a long time (through Gene Smith, BVD and now Pollard) for some excuse or another and it's time to put excuses aside. If the donor's don't like the way things are handled then restrict the money for a particular purpose, by doing this the AD has to spend the money as the donor tells them (ex. I donate 1,000,000 to get white helmets for the football team).

Like I said it's the chicken or the egg issue.

 

[Dryburn]

I don't think calling JP cheap is really the right word. Frugal.....no doubt. How the hell else do you add over 150 million in facility improvements over 10 years despite your main revenue sport having only 2 (barely) winning records in those 10 years. You don't do that by being a spendthrift or acting like you have the money Texas or Kentucky has. Name one other school with a similar budget that has improved the facilities to the point ISU has over the last decade.

It was a sensationalized article....based on virtually no facts that were totally accurate but rather just b.s. from un-named sources that don't have the nerve or decency to have their name connected to the story or the claims they made. Yeah....that is truly great journalism.

 

[CyJack13]

Winning a conference championship and making a Final Four would have represented big strides last year. Did MBB not have the coach, the practice facilities, the sold-out arena, the great fan base, and the talent to achieve that?

How is it JP's fault we did not make bigger strides? Should we have flown the team to NCAA first round on a fleet of G5's to not lay an egg against UAB?

Also, if we have one of the largest recruiting budgets in the country, what exactly was Fred using it on? We seemed to be recruiting a very low number of high school kids over the last few years compared to most schools, and landing even fewer, recruiting transfers is a very quick process and can't be that costly since it all occurs over a couple of months at most.

 

[silvercybone]

Also, if we have one of the largest recruiting budgets in the country, what exactly was Fred using it on? We seemed to be recruiting a very low number of high school kids over the last few years compared to most schools, and landing even fewer, recruiting transfers is a very quick process and can't be that costly since it all occurs over a couple of months at most.

Couldn't speak to that, but we're #8 over the last 5 years: http://db.desmoinesregister.com/college-basketball-recruiting/page=1&ordercol=col9&orderdir=desc

 

[clone52]

Might be totally wrong, but I get the impression from quite a few folks that there are a lot of donors that don't like the way JP handles things and so they don't contribute as much. I think that was ultimately what that article was supposed to be about, but just had terrible, not even valid, examples.

You can't make every donor happy. Sure, there may be some donors that would give more money if Pollard did things differently, but I'm sure there are donors that would give less. Its up to Pollard to decide what is best.

The fact is, donations as a whole are up under Pollard. Small donations and big donations. If those numbers stagnate, that would be a reason to get rid of Pollard. Not because a few donors are unhappy.

Personally, I think giving Fred a 5 year/$25 million dollar contract would have been foolish right. In a few years, he may have been worth it, but who knows. If he had teams that lost in the first round of the NCAA tournament the next 2 years, people probably would complain that Pollard gave him a ludicrous contract. Plus, I don't know how those donations actually work. If the donors said they would pay $5 million per year, are they committing to 5 years of donations or could they back out? What if they decided to back out after 1 or 2 years? The the Athletic Department would be on the hook for everything.

 

[clone52]

I'm starting to believe he blew that out of proportion on purpose. It's either that or he's totally incompetent.

Its got to be one or the other. The hotel story tells it all. The fact that his story got turned into "Cyclones forced to sleep in hotel ballroom" headlines either means he intended to generate that reaction or he explained the story so poorly that other members of the media completely misinterpreted it.

 

[Dryburn]

why exactly are "disgruntled" or "former" employees automatically not reliable? plenty of disgruntled employees have blown the lid off of big stories. im sure the truth lies somewhere in between Hines and JP/CFH. but face it, most stories like this involved someone who messed up or got screwed. thats why its even worth writing about.

LOL.....is this a serious question? Yeah, there have been some former disgruntled employees who have given us big stories, and there have been just as many if not more that have come forward with stories that were complete b.s. To me, personally, I have a hard time really trusting a story when none of the sources are named, none will go on record with their comments being quoted, and the writer (and apparently many readers) just seem to accept what the writer presents as facts. Plus, the writer barely even attempts to present the other side of the story, or what information he did gather from the other side in his article.

For all anyone knows.......Hines could very easily have made up every single "source". Can you guarantee that he didn't? Like I said before, everything he wrote was based on hearsay.....with virtually no factual information. The whole damn story is written from an "I heard" perspective.

Maybe you and others are naive enough to just accept it even though it has been refuted by the two principal parties named in the story (although of course their side is never presented) and parts of it have now been proven to be incorrect, but I need a little more proof if I am going to believe this writer on this story, or anything else he writes from this point on.

 

[Spam]

One area we were screwing Hoiberg was salary. For the year 2014, Fred made less than $100K more than Rhoads.