Time to Fire Billy Wright and Rebuild the Basketball Program

[sealhall74]

I certainly hope so. If not will be lucky if home attendance averages much above 500.

Re attendance, I think Western is pretty much locked into attendance somewhere in the 1300-1500 range under the best of circumstances for most nights (we are winning a little, the weather is ideal, no conflicting high school things going on, etc.) I watched the WESPYS on the internet a couple Sundays back. Pretty darn good production put on by the university and athletic staff. You could post social medial comments while the event was in progress and some would get displayed, I assume the attendees could also see them as well on the big screen. IMO, the same thing needs to be done for home football and basketball events. Also IMHO, it will be much easier to increase online viewership than it will be to increase student and local attendance. I say that assuming you DONT want to give away big ticket items like TVs and Bose Radio boxes for every home event, of course. The real challenge is how to engage the online viewers so that they feel they are having an impact on the court and field just like the fans in the stands do. I think it is doable - the technology is certainly there. Just need to think outside the box a bit. Why not a few fan games during those breaks in the action that involve social media, giving people around the world a chance to play and maybe win something?

[ST_Lawson]

With basketball starting up, I was curious what everyone's thoughts on this now are.
Wright has been the HC for 5 years, with a record of 48-93 (.340), the 4th worst record of any WIU HC (3 that coached at least 1 full season).

What do you think it would take for Wright to keep his job after this season?
Does one big "statement" win over a big-time program (like Wisconsin a few years ago) do it?
Does he need to have a winning record this year?
Does he have to win the conference or conference tournament?

Or do you think we just keep on keepin' on with him until the wheels completely fall off?

[leatherneckcountry]

With basketball starting up, I was curious what everyone's thoughts on this now are.
Wright has been the HC for 5 years, with a record of 48-93 (.340), the 4th worst record of any WIU HC (3 that coached at least 1 full season).

What do you think it would take for Wright to keep his job after this season?
Does one big "statement" win over a big-time program (like Wisconsin a few years ago) do it?
Does he need to have a winning record this year?
Does he have to win the conference or conference tournament?

Or do you think we just keep on keepin' on with him until the wheels completely fall off?

This one is still tough for me the program has had a lot of success off the court with what the students have done in the classroom but I think that might have been partially a Tanney thing as all the programs have seemed to have shown major improvements. We can’t seem to keep coaches in any other sports and Billy has been willing to stick around. Maybe you get lucky and find a JD on the men’s side a young coach who was solid at the D2 level.

[meganeck]

With basketball starting up, I was curious what everyone's thoughts on this now are.
Wright has been the HC for 5 years, with a record of 48-93 (.340), the 4th worst record of any WIU HC (3 that coached at least 1 full season).

What do you think it would take for Wright to keep his job after this season?
Does one big "statement" win over a big-time program (like Wisconsin a few years ago) do it?
Does he need to have a winning record this year?
Does he have to win the conference or conference tournament?

Or do you think we just keep on keepin' on with him until the wheels completely fall off?

Well, looks like it is going to be another shitty year...I say you have to go in a different direction, I'm hoping they can turn things around this year, but they just lost 2 winnable games at home, so we'll see.

[wiu bb 31]

Getting beat by 40 at home by EIU isn't going to help his case. This team is awful.

[meganeck]

Getting beat by 40 at home by EIU isn't going to help his case. This team is awful.

Everytime, I start to give up on them they play better and then I start feeling optimistic about them, then they have a clunker like Monday night.

[meganeck]

With basketball starting up, I was curious what everyone's thoughts on this now are.
Wright has been the HC for 5 years, with a record of 48-93 (.340), the 4th worst record of any WIU HC (3 that coached at least 1 full season).

What do you think it would take for Wright to keep his job after this season?
Does one big "statement" win over a big-time program (like Wisconsin a few years ago) do it?
Does he need to have a winning record this year?
Does he have to win the conference or conference tournament?

Or do you think we just keep on keepin' on with him until the wheels completely fall off?

I think someone brought this up before, but out of the 48 wins (going into the season), how many of the wins have been against non-D1 schools. Probably at least 10 I would say. So against D1 schools his record is really bad. Like I said before I really want Billy to be successful because he does seem to bring in good kids who graduate, have good GPA's and don't get in trouble, but you still have to win.

[ST_Lawson]

I think someone brought this up before, but out of the 48 wins (going into the season), how many of the wins have been against non-D1 schools. Probably at least 10 I would say. So against D1 schools his record is really bad. Like I said before I really want Billy to be successful because he does seem to bring in good kids who graduate, have good GPA's and don't get in trouble, but you still have to win.

Here's the data for you...

2014/15 - 8-20 overall, 6-20 vs DI, 3-13 in conference, 0-1 in tournament
2015/16 - 10-17 overall, 7-17 vs DI, 3-13 in conference (the year we beat Wisconsin), didn't make tournament
2016/17 - 8-20 overall, 6-20 vs DI, 5-11 in conference, 0-1 in tournament
2017/18 - 12-16 overall, 8-16 vs DI, 3-11 in conference, 0-1 in tournament
2018/19 - 10-21 overall, 6-21 vs DI, 4-12 in conference, 1-1 in tournament (upset #1 SDSU)
2019/18 so far - 2-7 overall, 1-7 vs DI

Total since he started as HC (including this season so far): 50-101 overall, 34-101 vs DI teams, 18-60 in the Summit League, 1-4 in conference tournament games.
.331 against everyone
.258 against DI teams
.231 against Summit League teams
With no significant improvement year-to-year outside of an occasional "big win".

I'll also offer this: https://www.sports-reference.com/cbb/se ... aches.html
Sort by W-L% under Career at Current School
Wright isn't at the absolute bottom, but he's not too far from it. Of coaches who have been in their current positions as long or longer and have worse records: Central Arkansas had a 18-17 season two years ago which probably gave him another year or two, and there's Binghamton, which I didn't realize was a DI school.

[meganeck]

I think someone brought this up before, but out of the 48 wins (going into the season), how many of the wins have been against non-D1 schools. Probably at least 10 I would say. So against D1 schools his record is really bad. Like I said before I really want Billy to be successful because he does seem to bring in good kids who graduate, have good GPA's and don't get in trouble, but you still have to win.

Here's the data for you...

2014/15 - 8-20 overall, 6-20 vs DI, 3-13 in conference, 0-1 in tournament
2015/16 - 10-17 overall, 7-17 vs DI, 3-13 in conference (the year we beat Wisconsin), didn't make tournament
2016/17 - 8-20 overall, 6-20 vs DI, 5-11 in conference, 0-1 in tournament
2017/18 - 12-16 overall, 8-16 vs DI, 3-11 in conference, 0-1 in tournament
2018/19 - 10-21 overall, 6-21 vs DI, 4-12 in conference, 1-1 in tournament (upset #1 SDSU)
2019/18 so far - 2-7 overall, 1-7 vs DI

Total since he started as HC (including this season so far): 50-101 overall, 34-101 vs DI teams, 18-60 in the Summit League, 1-4 in conference tournament games.
.331 against everyone
.258 against DI teams
.231 against Summit League teams
With no significant improvement year-to-year outside of an occasional "big win".

I'll also offer this: https://www.sports-reference.com/cbb/se ... aches.html
Sort by W-L% under Career at Current School
Wright isn't at the absolute bottom, but he's not too far from it. Of coaches who have been in their current positions as long or longer and have worse records: Central Arkansas had a 18-17 season two years ago which probably gave him another year or two, and there's Binghamton, which I didn't realize was a DI school.

Scott, thanks for putting that together.

[wiu712]

Western only used one of their Time Outs in the Eastern Illinois game. And that time out came in the first half.

Western did not call a time out in the second half. And that was when Eastern Illinois went on their big run.