Greely Tribune Questions NoCo AD Decision Making

[TexasTerror]

The Greely Tribune is not happy at all about how NoCo is just dumping coaches left and right unceremoniously. The closing line by the Tribune's Editorial Board states, "But we hope university officials do it in a manner that honors UNC's Division II successes and with a sincere openness that includes the Greeley community as a valuable partner in UNC's success."

Dalton was the head football coach at Northern Colorado for a solid period of time and it seems the Greely community is still not thrilled with that and continues to be unimpressed with how the basketball situation is being handled, especially as they move into the Big Sky...

UNC's coaching woes not good PR
Tribune Opinion
April 21, 2006

It can't be fun to coach at the University of Northern Colorado right now. It's also got to be especially hard to play for the UNC men's basketball team these days.

Three weeks after UNC vice president of advancement Ken McConnellogue said the university hoped to have a men's basketball coach hired, the position -- opened when Craig Rasmuson left in February -- is still vacant. Add to that the fact three of UNC's four finalists for the job have turned down the Bears. The fourth finalist -- who apparently is still in the mix -- simply hadn't heard from the school for several days.

Meanwhile, it's been more than a week since the first day to sign basketball recruits to national letters of intent has passed. So it remains an open question as to who those players will be who could potentially lead the team into its first year of competition in the Big Sky Conference next season.

This bungling of the hiring process for the men's basketball job combined with the unceremonious dumping of two other high-profile coaches in recent months highlights a failure of leadership at the top of the UNC athletic department.

http://www.greeleytrib.com/article/20060421/TRIBEDIT/104210128

[NoCoDanny]

I support the AD in his decisions on the 2 coaches he let go, the third resigned so can that be pinned on the AD? Some say he was forced but all I know is he resigned so I'll take that at face value.

The transition has created some growing pains and helped to shine light on the two factions of UNC supporters. In one camp are the locals, those that think of UNC as the stepchild of the community, that want it to be seen and not heard, and if anyone comes from outside and pushes for change they are critical. In their mind UNC should continue to be DII to mirror their small town and small minded ambitions. In the other camp are alumni and supports from Denver that understand the value in gaining an increased profile for the university that a DI athletic department can offer. They understand that there are growing pains and unfortunately some of the DII level coaches needed to be shown the door and upgrades in those positions needed to occur.

The AD has a dirty job to do and I understand the criticism from the locals to a certain degree, however, they tend to ignore the long term goals and just focus on the fact that change is happening and they don't like it regardless of why it's happening.

Needless to say I'm in camp two...