Who thinks Burman is any good?

[307bball]

Can someone fix the thread title? It’s bothering me ha ha

Done

 

[LawPoke]

You are what your record says you are. I don’t have the time, interest, or commitment to tally up the actual Burman record at UW - but my recollection-ing seems to conjure words like mediocre, crummy, meh, mid, terrible, and crappy.

He single handedly destroyed men’s basketball. Football is a net loser. Women’s basketball is fine to good. Volleyball, tennis, track, swimming - who cares but they are not burning up the record books. Wrestling is mid to slightly ok.

Apathy and acceptance of mediocrity have set in. We are going into a poo conference, where we will be among the shortest of the midgets.

We have poured several hundred million into the U - football especially - and have zilch to negative to show for it. No creativity. No imagination. No excitement. It’s time for a change but we are not likely to see one for a very long time I fear.

 

[laxwyo]

As someone else said, Burman is pretty good at kissing babies and getting money for facilities and such. But we need someone who knows sports to hire and fire coaches

 

[ragtimejoe1]

As someone else said, Burman is pretty good at kissing babies and getting money for facilities and such. But we need someone who knows sports to hire and fire coaches

And now manage nil/revenue share

 

[Brew_Poke]

Simple answer to the OP’s question: nobody!

In all fairness, Burman might be one helluva guy. He just sucks as an athletic director. Foundation and fund raising seem to be in his wheelhouse.

Nah man, he's a competent AD, that's evident. We're in overall good shape. He's just not excellent, and Wyoming won't be excellent with him at the helm. The University is too timid to reach for excellent as a goal, and is fine with mere competence.

 

[ragtimejoe1]

Nah man, he's a competent AD, that's evident. We're in overall good shape. He's just not excellent, and Wyoming won't be excellent with him at the helm. The University is too timid to reach for excellent as a goal, and is fine with mere competence.

His bball and AA reno resume' are hard to defend, but, like I said above, if he made a good hire instead of the nepotistic hire, his football resume' would good to very good.

Non-revenue sports? Clean programs, somewhat competitive, and excellent graduation rates are the main things, imo. As far as I can tell, there are few chips but not a lot else to complain about.

The other big issue is revenue diversification. Maybe too big of task, but relying on the state government, students, and a few wealthy donors are the main sources of income. Maybe that's all that's possible but we haven't increased budgets sufficiently.

 

[OrediggerPoke]

I’m amazed at some of the love for Burman. I’m guessing some of these folks haven’t walked into the completely dead AA in a few years or haven’t looked at the difference in conference opponents from when Burman started until next year. We are officially in a Big Sky level conference don’t let the name ‘Mountain West’ confuse you.

Oh - and wow those great seats on the lower west side of the War look so nice being continually empty.

 

[ragtimejoe1]

I’m amazed at some of the love for Burman. I’m guessing some of these folks haven’t walked into the completely dead AA in a few years or haven’t looked at the difference in conference opponents from when Burman started until next year. We are officially in a Big Sky level conference don’t let the name ‘Mountain West’ confuse you.

Oh - and wow those great seats on the lower west side of the War look so nice being continually empty.

Don't mistake fairness for love. I've advocated change for a long time.i also appreciate TB has had some strengths.

 

[307bball]

Don't mistake fairness for love. I've advocated change for a long time.i also appreciate TB has had some strengths.

People fail in jobs all the time despite strengths that either are not applicable to geting the job done or not enough to get the job done. Burman's tenure is a failure. Wyoming is less competetively relevant each passing day with him as the AD.

I started this thread to give Burman defenders a place to let me know why they think he's any good. Whoever these people are, they appear to not be active here. By the best reading of the comments here, he appears to be a good hang, loves Wyoming and, according to you, "has had some strengths".

I think a lot of frustration with Burman stems from a feeling in most fans that, if he were better, Wyoming's athletic programs would be better. Or to put it another way, he is holding us back in some way. If there is any hope for Wyoming athletics at the level we care to be at, that better be more true than not.

 

[Hotkarl]

He killed basketball, wyoming was basically a basketball school when he became AD. He fired the last headcoach to win a conference championship in a revenue sports and hired fucking Heath Shroyer. The conference has continued to get shittier and shittier but are results stay the same since hes been here.

He is a curse. A plague. A hex

Its been 20 yrs of futility. How this dork has kept this job for that long is unbelievable

 

[jwy_poke]

He killed basketball, wyoming was basically a basketball school when he became AD. He fired the last headcoach to win a conference championship in a revenue sports and hired fucking Heath Shroyer. The conference has continued to get shittier and shittier but are results stay the same since hes been here.

He is a curse. A plague. A hex

Its been 20 yrs of futility. How this dork has kept this job for that long is unbelievable

Nm

 

[stymeman]

He's done ok, but he's run his course and we need some new blood, it's time to let a new way of thinking help take us here forward!@

 

[ragtimejoe1]

I started this thread to give Burman defenders a place to let me know why they think he's any good. Whoever these people are, they appear to not be active here.

It appears that the PBJ failure has forced many of them into retirement, lol. Even some of the wannabe sports writers/media have bailed. Tunes certainly have changed.

 

[307bball]

It appears that the PBJ failure has forced many of them into retirement, lol. Even some of the wannabe sports writers/media have bailed. Tunes certainly have changed.

The well of regard for Burman's ability as an AD probably peaked during the Bohl years but even during that time I am unaware of wide spread endorsements of him.

This all gets back to what I was talking about earlier. It is both necessary and sufficient that the AD have competetive success in football and MBB. Just the small rise in football competetiveness during the Bohl years was enough to stave off the worst criticisms of Burman. If college athletics at Wyoming is ever going to be something that it once was...something that ond-heads around here remember, competetive success is the only path. No matter how good the AD is at fan engagement and fundraising, the ceiling will be forever low without wins.

Basketball is an obvious failure....and whatever we have in football might be nuanced, but nobody is confusing what was achieved under Burman's watch with actual success.

 

[ragtimejoe1]

The well of regard for Burman's ability as an AD probably peaked during the Bohl years but even during that time I am unaware of wide spread endorsements of him.

This all gets back to what I was talking about earlier. It is both necessary and sufficient that the AD have competetive success in football and MBB. Just the small rise in football competetiveness during the Bohl years was enough to stave off the worst criticisms of Burman. If college athletics at Wyoming is ever going to be something that it once was...something that ond-heads around here remember, competetive success is the only path. No matter how good the AD is at fan engagement and fundraising, the ceiling will be forever low without wins.

Basketball is an obvious failure....and whatever we have in football might be nuanced, but nobody is confusing what was achieved under Burman's watch with actual success.

He had his defenders even on this board. They've largely bailed on him. Their hypocrisy now is amusing.

No. Not you and nothing to do with you. They know.

 

[LanderPoke]

How can anyone with a brain say he’s done a good job? WTF? We suck at every sport. We are horrible at the one thing he’s in charge of

 

[307bball]

He had his defenders even on this board. They've largely bailed on him. Their hypocrisy now is amusing.

No. Not you and nothing to do with you. They know.

My impression is that if there is a line of appropriate evaluation of Tom Burman, this board has camped out on the negative side of that line. You have obviously had experience with a sliver of support that I havn't had. Given that the Bohl era was just over the line into "acceptability".... that positive impression may have even been supportable. How much of it is hyporisy and how much of it is people just changing thier minds?

 

[flyfishwyo]

It appears that the PBJ failure has forced many of them into retirement, lol. Even some of the wannabe sports writers/media have bailed. Tunes certainly have changed.

To my way of thinking, there's sooooo much that goes into running an athletics department. We've put a ton of effort and dollars into facilities. That's great. We'll reap the rewards of that spending for a long time. But, it's come at the expense of some other things.


I'm not impressed with his hiring. I understand why some of the coaching hires happened, but I'd like to think I'd have made a different choice (Heath Schroyer). There are a couple that could have turned out but didn't for various reasons (Linder). I don't understand his approach to picking candidates or signing contracts. Sawvell is a great example. Why to we overpay a first time head coach and give him a 4 year guarantee in the NIL era? Makes no sense to me. It seems like he overvalues consistency/longevity and undervalues winning.

The same goes for his hiring on the administrative side. It seems like most of the stuff runs okay. Not great, but okay. The biggest problem with the backroom machine is that it wasn't prepared for the current NIL environment. I don't know if they'll be able to catch up, or even keep pace with upcoming change. In the past we couldn't pay for players so programs built facilities and hired staff. That's entirely changed. Staffs will have to shrink and become more efficient. From my outside perspective, that doesn't seem to be happening.

The winning hasn't happened. At the end of the day, the other stuff is easier if you win. Doing the other things well is only valuable if it leads to winning games (and occasional championships). Fans, donors, players, the athletics department, the administration, and the BOT all contribute to winning, but the biggest impacts happen at the top of the pyramid. If the BOT (and therefore the administration) doesn't prioritize and fund winning, it doesn't happen. From what I see, they're happy with Tom because he hasn't caused them any problems. They aren't interested in making changes. Look how they've handled recent presidential searches for context.

I think Burman should have been out 4-5 years ago. If the BOT prioritized winning it would have been an easy conversation. "Tom, your results haven't been up to expectations and you've had 12 years to get there. We wish you the best in your next job." Now it's time to cut and run. Fast. Right now. When it was apparent Sawvell would struggle and Linder jumped, the writing was on the wall.


The perspectives on this board are interesting enough to make me come back every week or so, but the black and white thinking drives me nuts. He’s done some good things, but overall, not enough to keep him. If that makes me a "Burman Apologist," then I’m okay with it.

 

[LanderPoke]

To my way of thinking, there's sooooo much that goes into running an athletics department. We've put a ton of effort and dollars into facilities. That's great. We'll reap the rewards of that spending for a long time. But, it's come at the expense of some other things.


I'm not impressed with his hiring. I understand why some of the coaching hires happened, but I'd like to think I'd have made a different choice (Heath Schroyer). There are a couple that could have turned out but didn't for various reasons (Linder). I don't understand his approach to picking candidates or signing contracts. Sawvell is a great example. Why to we overpay a first time head coach and give him a 4 year guarantee in the NIL era? Makes no sense to me. It seems like he overvalues consistency/longevity and undervalues winning.

The same goes for his hiring on the administrative side. It seems like most of the stuff runs okay. Not great, but okay. The biggest problem with the backroom machine is that it wasn't prepared for the current NIL environment. I don't know if they'll be able to catch up, or even keep pace with upcoming change. In the past we couldn't pay for players so programs built facilities and hired staff. That's entirely changed. Staffs will have to shrink and become more efficient. From my outside perspective, that doesn't seem to be happening.

The winning hasn't happened. At the end of the day, the other stuff is easier if you win. Doing the other things well is only valuable if it leads to winning games (and occasional championships). Fans, donors, players, the athletics department, the administration, and the BOT all contribute to winning, but the biggest impacts happen at the top of the pyramid. If the BOT (and therefore the administration) doesn't prioritize and fund winning, it doesn't happen. From what I see, they're happy with Tom because he hasn't caused them any problems. They aren't interested in making changes. Look how they've handled recent presidential searches for context.

I think Burman should have been out 4-5 years ago. If the BOT prioritized winning it would have been an easy conversation. "Tom, your results haven't been up to expectations and you've had 12 years to get there. We wish you the best in your next job." Now it's time to cut and run. Fast. Right now. When it was apparent Sawvell would struggle and Linder jumped, the writing was on the wall.


The perspectives on this board are interesting enough to make me come back every week or so, but the black and white thinking drives me nuts. He’s done some good things, but overall, not enough to keep him. If that makes me a "Burman Apologist," then I’m okay with it.

I’m sorry, but no one should give a hoot about facilities when we suck. We suck at almost everything almost every year. Give me an unremodeled AA and War with winning teams any day. The dude is just a loser that stinks at his job. We have so few conference championships to our name it’s embarrassing

 

[flyfishwyo]

I’m sorry, but no one should give a hoot about facilities when we suck. We suck at almost everything almost every year. Give me an unremodeled AA and War with winning teams any day. The dude is just a loser that stinks at his job

Wrong. Facilities help attract recruits and coaches.