Jeff Linder Statement

[Brew_Poke]

There's something almost paradoxical in all of this. Burman seems to walk on eggshells with his coaches, afraid of losing them and afraid he can't replace them. The fact is, when you stop holding people accountable, you lose ANY semblance of control.

Then, the transfer portal rolls around and the coaches lose players wholesale, seemingly because they're overly aggressive "hard asses" when it comes to accountability. The fact is, as a leader, you also have to recognize when someone has leverage and learn to work with that.

Seems to me, from the top down, there's been no great example of the art of management and leadership. ALL good managers begin with core values and develop an aspirational vision, then , through the practices of communication, control, planning, organization, staffing, and leadership they DIRECT whatever enterprise they're charged with. As times change (along with leverage) one must adapt and re-balance their approach. "Control" is often more of a result than a practice, especially in this day and age of very shallow workforces and the transfer portal.

Like you said, the fish usually rots from the head down.

Your not wrong but how does that translate to the two high profile sports at UW...men's basketball and football? Linder was still a slam dunk hire .... I know people rag on Bohl but he's very respected and has kept us out of the conference basement. Should Burman be threatening their contracts? What is Burman...or forget Burman...what is the best AD supposed to do? and, more importantly, how much of it should be visible to us fans?

It doesn't matter, because the fans/supporters/big boosters don't really care about the success....It's all just some big rancher flex thing social club they have going on, and they're content. Don't expect the state of the Athletics Department to change if the core people they are focused on keeping happy remain docile, imbecilic, and ignorant of the state of major college athletics.

 

[Itsux2beaewe]

This is a pretty damned good question. But it doesn't really matter. The reality is that the porthole and transfer rule change marked a seismic shift in college athletics. Like it or not, student athletes gained the upper hand in the deal. Coaches either adapt or lose their team.

And I think there is more to this than we know. Clearly something is rotten in the state of Denmark - and a fish usually rots from the head down.

There's something almost paradoxical in all of this. Burman seems to walk on eggshells with his coaches, afraid of losing them and afraid he can't replace them. The fact is, when you stop holding people accountable, you lose ANY semblance of control.

Then, the transfer portal rolls around and the coaches lose players wholesale, seemingly because they're overly aggressive "hard asses" when it comes to accountability. The fact is, as a leader, you also have to recognize when someone has leverage and learn to work with that.

Seems to me, from the top down, there's been no great example of the art of management and leadership. ALL good managers begin with core values and develop an aspirational vision, then , through the practices of communication, control, planning, organization, staffing, and leadership they DIRECT whatever enterprise they're charged with. As times change (along with leverage) one must adapt and re-balance their approach. "Control" is often more of a result than a practice, especially in this day and age of very shallow workforces and the transfer portal.

Like you said, the fish usually rots from the head down.

This is laughable. Everyone is chiding Burman for not holding coaches accountable but we’re blaming Linder when he does, with his players. Which is it. I for one want a disciplined player, who is accountable. I officiated football for many years. I can say in all the years I worked games, it wasn’t always the most talented teams that were successful programs, it was almost always the most disciplined.

 

[Wyovanian]

There's something almost paradoxical in all of this. Burman seems to walk on eggshells with his coaches, afraid of losing them and afraid he can't replace them. The fact is, when you stop holding people accountable, you lose ANY semblance of control.

Then, the transfer portal rolls around and the coaches lose players wholesale, seemingly because they're overly aggressive "hard asses" when it comes to accountability. The fact is, as a leader, you also have to recognize when someone has leverage and learn to work with that.

Seems to me, from the top down, there's been no great example of the art of management and leadership. ALL good managers begin with core values and develop an aspirational vision, then , through the practices of communication, control, planning, organization, staffing, and leadership they DIRECT whatever enterprise they're charged with. As times change (along with leverage) one must adapt and re-balance their approach. "Control" is often more of a result than a practice, especially in this day and age of very shallow workforces and the transfer portal.

Like you said, the fish usually rots from the head down.

This is laughable. Everyone is chiding Burman for not holding coaches accountable but we’re blaming Linder when he does, with his players. Which is it. I for one want a disciplined player, who is accountable. I officiated football for many years. I can say in all the years I worked games, it wasn’t always the most talented teams that were successful programs, it was almost always the most disciplined.

"Reading comprehension are hard!"

 

[Itsux2beaewe]

This is laughable. Everyone is chiding Burman for not holding coaches accountable but we’re blaming Linder when he does, with his players. Which is it. I for one want a disciplined player, who is accountable. I officiated football for many years. I can say in all the years I worked games, it wasn’t always the most talented teams that were successful programs, it was almost always the most disciplined.

"Reading comprehension are hard!"

Read through the threads and see all people criticizing Linder and report back.

 

[Itsux2beaewe]

For all you Linder naysayers, go read the thread about Maldos statement and report back.

I think he’s qualified to share what Linder was like to play for.

 

[LawPoke]

For all you Linder naysayers, go read the thread about Maldos statement and report back.

I think he’s qualified to share what Linder was like to play for.

It doesn't really matter what Maldo said or what his qualifications are. It doesn't matter what I think or you think. What matters is whether Linder can find 10 recruits that can compete at a mid- to high D1 level, convince them and their parents that Wyoming is the place for them, land them in Laramie to play for him, keep them here at least through the entire season, coach them up and win a lot of basketball games.

Fact is that Linder is the head basketball coach at UW. He has been for several years now. He currently has a roster of 3 scholarship players and 2 walk-ons - for whatever reason. He is responsible to steward the program, win, and get his kids an education. That is his job. The beauty of the whole system is that it is VERY easy to quantify wins and graduation rates. If Maldo and you are correct and Linder is the best coach ever, he can stay as long as he wants. He can change out his squad every year for all I care. But if he continues to lose players and we can't get more than a dozen wins a year - or if we continue to hear players leave and allege abuse that goes on to impact the reputation of the program and University - then what you, Maldo, and Linder think won't matter. He will and should be fired. After a 9-22 season, a mass exodus, and garbage circling the program and University, his leash is much much shorter. He alone is responsible to fix it. He alone has all the power to fix it. Can he? We shall see.

 

[johnywyo]

“ Fact is that Linder is the head basketball coach at UW. He has been for several years now. He currently has a roster of 3 scholarship players and 2 walk-ons - for whatever reason. He is responsible to steward the program, win, and get his kids an education. That is his job”

Facts are what they are. This is the appropriate realization of Linder, the program and the University’s expectation for the student athlete participants. Linder has a big hole to dig out of, no question.

Well said LawPoke!

 

[Itsux2beaewe]

For all you Linder naysayers, go read the thread about Maldos statement and report back.

I think he’s qualified to share what Linder was like to play for.

It doesn't really matter what Maldo said or what his qualifications are. It doesn't matter what I think or you think. What matters is whether Linder can find 10 recruits that can compete at a mid- to high D1 level, convince them and their parents that Wyoming is the place for them, land them in Laramie to play for him, keep them here at least through the entire season, coach them up and win a lot of basketball games.

Fact is that Linder is the head basketball coach at UW. He has been for several years now. He currently has a roster of 3 scholarship players and 2 walk-ons - for whatever reason. He is responsible to steward the program, win, and get his kids an education. That is his job. The beauty of the whole system is that it is VERY easy to quantify wins and graduation rates. If Maldo and you are correct and Linder is the best coach ever, he can stay as long as he wants. He can change out his squad every year for all I care. But if he continues to lose players and we can't get more than a dozen wins a year - or if we continue to hear players leave and allege abuse that goes on to impact the reputation of the program and University - then what you, Maldo, and Linder think won't matter. He will and should be fired. After a 9-22 season, a mass exodus, and garbage circling the program and University, his leash is much much shorter. He alone is responsible to fix it. He alone has all the power to fix it. Can he? We shall see.

Actually in the context that Linder is monster being perpetuated by the Cali 3, or others, even on this board. Yes it does matter. My opinion - maybe not. Maldos, yes he can speak to it. He was there. He lived it. So, I disagree.

 

[LawPoke]

It doesn't really matter what Maldo said or what his qualifications are. It doesn't matter what I think or you think. What matters is whether Linder can find 10 recruits that can compete at a mid- to high D1 level, convince them and their parents that Wyoming is the place for them, land them in Laramie to play for him, keep them here at least through the entire season, coach them up and win a lot of basketball games.

Fact is that Linder is the head basketball coach at UW. He has been for several years now. He currently has a roster of 3 scholarship players and 2 walk-ons - for whatever reason. He is responsible to steward the program, win, and get his kids an education. That is his job. The beauty of the whole system is that it is VERY easy to quantify wins and graduation rates. If Maldo and you are correct and Linder is the best coach ever, he can stay as long as he wants. He can change out his squad every year for all I care. But if he continues to lose players and we can't get more than a dozen wins a year - or if we continue to hear players leave and allege abuse that goes on to impact the reputation of the program and University - then what you, Maldo, and Linder think won't matter. He will and should be fired. After a 9-22 season, a mass exodus, and garbage circling the program and University, his leash is much much shorter. He alone is responsible to fix it. He alone has all the power to fix it. Can he? We shall see.

Actually in the context that Linder is monster being perpetuated by the Cali 3, or others, even on this board. Yes it does matter. My opinion - maybe not. Maldos, yes he can speak to it. He was there. He lived it. So, I disagree.

Fine.

So that means what for next year? Recruits and their parents won’t care. Fans won’t either. They want good basketball and wins. Disagree or not, his fault or not, Linder has a huge hole to dig out of. Like it/them/their reasons for leaving or not, all but 3 of his players fired him as their coach. I hope he figures it out.

 

[Itsux2beaewe]

Actually in the context that Linder is monster being perpetuated by the Cali 3, or others, even on this board. Yes it does matter. My opinion - maybe not. Maldos, yes he can speak to it. He was there. He lived it. So, I disagree.

Fine.

So that means what for next year? Recruits and their parents won’t care. Fans won’t either. They want good basketball and wins. Disagree or not, his fault or not, Linder has a huge hole to dig out of. Like it/them/their reasons for leaving or not, all but 3 of his players fired him as their coach. I hope he figures it out.

It means that UW is in the same boat as many many schools. 750 players in the portal. Goat U is dealing with a very similar situation. Tonje announced he’s leaving Ft Colon. We’ll see, but it doesn’t help when fans are perpetuating that Linder is the problem. The transfer rules are the problem. We can’t expect loyalty from players. Very few will have any.

 

[307bball]

Fine.

So that means what for next year? Recruits and their parents won’t care. Fans won’t either. They want good basketball and wins. Disagree or not, his fault or not, Linder has a huge hole to dig out of. Like it/them/their reasons for leaving or not, all but 3 of his players fired him as their coach. I hope he figures it out.

It means that UW is in the same boat as many many schools. 750 players in the portal. Goat U is dealing with a very similar situation. Tonje announced he’s leaving Ft Colon. We’ll see, but it doesn’t help when fans are perpetuating that Linder is the problem. The transfer rules are the problem. We can’t expect loyalty from players. Very few will have any.

The transfer rules reveal a problem. You are absolutely right that we can't expect loyalty from players. It was patently absurd that coaches could run towards the next program that offered them more money or a better situation while players were stuck...now the lid is off and the players are doing it. The coaches largely competed on raw economic terms but the players will be sensitive to all sorts of incentives. It all boils down to the whole lot of them being mostly guns for hire. It will be a singular program that is able to have a more "be true to your school" ethos and have any kind of success.

From what I have observed, players, both professional and amateur, are very loyal to one another first, to their coaches second...and wwaaaaaay down that list is the school or organization that is paying them or giving them a scholarship.

 

[LawPoke]

Fine.

So that means what for next year? Recruits and their parents won’t care. Fans won’t either. They want good basketball and wins. Disagree or not, his fault or not, Linder has a huge hole to dig out of. Like it/them/their reasons for leaving or not, all but 3 of his players fired him as their coach. I hope he figures it out.

It means that UW is in the same boat as many many schools. 750 players in the portal. Goat U is dealing with a very similar situation. Tonje announced he’s leaving Ft Colon. We’ll see, but it doesn’t help when fans are perpetuating that Linder is the problem. The transfer rules are the problem. We can’t expect loyalty from players. Very few will have any.

Eight players have entered the portal. Eight. I’ve seen where other schools have lost two, three or even five players. We’ve lost eight. Eight players have fired Jeff Linder as their head coach. Other schools are struggling with the portal but to nowhere near the degree we are. Fans can chalk it up to players being divas, NIL, whatever, but I think it would be foolish to not ask questions and be a little bit concerned about what’s going on in Laramie with the Wyoming Cowboy basketball team. I respect Maldo. He saw what he saw. But to say “Maldo thinks they are babies and we should just all simmer down” seems a bit naive under the circumstances. He’s a young man that clearly likes and is loyal to his head coach. But being close, really loyal and defensive after a brutal year can be a bit blinding.

 

[McPeachy]

Read that the total number, when it is all said & done, will be around 1500 in the portal. Whoa. The NCAA has really fucked up.

 

[Wyovanian]

Your not wrong but how does that translate to the two high profile sports at UW...men's basketball and football? Linder was still a slam dunk hire .... I know people rag on Bohl but he's very respected and has kept us out of the conference basement. Should Burman be threatening their contracts? What is Burman...or forget Burman...what is the best AD supposed to do? and, more importantly, how much of it should be visible to us fans?

It doesn't matter, because the fans/supporters/big boosters don't really care about the success....It's all just some big rancher flex thing social club they have going on, and they're content. Don't expect the state of the Athletics Department to change if the core people they are focused on keeping happy remain docile, imbecilic, and ignorant of the state of major college athletics.

Unfortunately, you're not wrong. The big corporate donors are mostly out-of-state-owned entities that are just checking "good corporate neighbor" PR and marketing boxes. For the most part they could care less about the programs' successes or failures. Couple that apathy with the generational "good 'nuff" shrugging shoulders attitude of a LOT of the big individual donors and alumni, and you've got a booster club with little appetite for accountability from the Athletic Department...

 

[seattlecowboy]

NIL will continue to destroy Wyoming athletics. If any of you think this is Linder’s problem then you obviously don’t understand how things work.

Wyoming as far as most kids think is one of the worst places to have to go to school if they have a choice between other DI schools and get a chance to play. Stack that on top of the fact Wyoming doesn’t have any type of money to give any decent NIL payouts and you are seeing basically what it will look like every year at Wyoming from now on whenever Wyoming gets any player that is halfway decent. They will not stay. Doesn’t matter if Linder is the coach or Rick Pitino or Bill Self or any other top 5 coach. Majority of kids that are any good, do not want to stay and play at Wyoming for 4 years when they can play someplace that will pay them decent money. The ones that do stay at Wyoming will be the kids other schools don’t want anyways and leaves Wyoming with scraps.

Those are the facts. Might as well get used to it.

 

[307bball]

NIL will continue to destroy Wyoming athletics. If any of you think this is Linder’s problem then you obviously don’t understand how things work.

Wyoming as far as most kids think is one of the worst places to have to go to school if they have a choice between other DI schools and get a chance to play. Stack that on top of the fact Wyoming doesn’t have any type of money to give any decent NIL payouts and you are seeing basically what it will look like every year at Wyoming from now on whenever Wyoming gets any player that is halfway decent. They will not stay. Doesn’t matter if Linder is the coach or Rick Pitino or Bill Self or any other top 5 coach. Majority of kids that are any good, do not want to stay and play at Wyoming for 4 years when they can play someplace that will pay them decent money. The ones that do stay at Wyoming will be the kids other schools don’t want anyways and leaves Wyoming with scraps.

Those are the facts. Might as well get used to it.

I sooooo don't want this to be true......but deep down....it probably is. People wil reply to this with examples of players that speak highly of Wyoming but all of them pre-date the NILWW (NIL Wild West). If you are a Wyoming kid...you might stay...but the top Wyoming kids that are good enough to get offers at P5 go P5 already....

And while I agree that the NILWW is not Linder's fault...it is his problem. It's part of the competitive landscape that he is trying to navigate.

 

[Poke in New England]

NIL will continue to destroy Wyoming athletics. If any of you think this is Linder’s problem then you obviously don’t understand how things work.

Wyoming as far as most kids think is one of the worst places to have to go to school if they have a choice between other DI schools and get a chance to play. Stack that on top of the fact Wyoming doesn’t have any type of money to give any decent NIL payouts and you are seeing basically what it will look like every year at Wyoming from now on whenever Wyoming gets any player that is halfway decent. They will not stay. Doesn’t matter if Linder is the coach or Rick Pitino or Bill Self or any other top 5 coach. Majority of kids that are any good, do not want to stay and play at Wyoming for 4 years when they can play someplace that will pay them decent money. The ones that do stay at Wyoming will be the kids other schools don’t want anyways and leaves Wyoming with scraps.

Those are the facts. Might as well get used to it.

I sooooo don't want this to be true......but deep down....it probably is. People wil reply to this with examples of players that speak highly of Wyoming but all of them pre-date the NILWW (NIL Wild West). If you are a Wyoming kid...you might stay...but the top Wyoming kids that are good enough to get offers at P5 go P5 already....

And while I agree that the NILWW is not Linder's fault...it is his problem. It's part of the competitive landscape that he is trying to navigate.

Bingo. In life some things that are not your fault are still your problem.

 

[bladerunnr]

I sooooo don't want this to be true......but deep down....it probably is. People wil reply to this with examples of players that speak highly of Wyoming but all of them pre-date the NILWW (NIL Wild West). If you are a Wyoming kid...you might stay...but the top Wyoming kids that are good enough to get offers at P5 go P5 already....

And while I agree that the NILWW is not Linder's fault...it is his problem. It's part of the competitive landscape that he is trying to navigate.

Bingo. In life some things that are not your fault are still your problem.

It's the University of Wyoming's problem. Jeff Linder is not Alan Edwards or Heath Schroyer. He will get another D1 job. The Wyoming BB program has mostly been a dumpster fire for nearly 20 years. The only exceptions are a few years of Larry Shyatt and Jeff Linder. There isn't a coach in the country licking his chops thinking that Wyoming is a prime job.

 

[wyosports]

I really do not disagree with anything you said above, but it is concerning that there does not seem to be any coaches with college experience licking their chops to work for Linder. On a different note, I had a friend reach out to me about Texas BB and coach McClain, his comment to me was, is there a asst. coach who coaches harder than he does. I had to lol. It was interesting to read his bio on the Texas site, 9 years, 152-118, back-to-back conference champs, one of only two coaches in UW history to have three 20-win seasons in a row. I had a chance years ago to sit next to coach Mac on a plane from Phoenix to Denver and he talked about what a missed opportunity it was when he was let go. He told me that he often thought about how things could have been with a back court of Brandon, Brad and a guy named Alex Burke who was committed to him and then went to CU, at the time he was on his way to recruit a kid from the same AAU program named O.G. Anunoby. They both played in the NBA. I asked my friend if in hindsight would Burman still fire him knowing now what the last 20 years were going to be like, unfortunately we both thought he still would!

 

[laxwyo]

I really do not disagree with anything you said above, but it is concerning that there does not seem to be any coaches with college experience licking their chops to work for Linder. On a different note, I had a friend reach out to me about Texas BB and coach McClain, his comment to me was, is there a asst. coach who coaches harder than he does. I had to lol. It was interesting to read his bio on the Texas site, 9 years, 152-118, back-to-back conference champs, one of only two coaches in UW history to have three 20-win seasons in a row. I had a chance years ago to sit next to coach Mac on a plane from Phoenix to Denver and he talked about what a missed opportunity it was when he was let go. He told me that he often thought about how things could have been with a back court of Brandon, Brad and a guy named Alex Burke who was committed to him and then went to CU, at the time he was on his way to recruit a kid from the same AAU program named O.G. Anunoby. They both played in the NBA. I asked my friend if in hindsight would Burman still fire him knowing now what the last 20 years were going to be like, unfortunately we both thought he still would!

11-17
15-13
14-18
17-15

were the four season that got him fired. In hindsight its odd that he was let go after improving to 17-15 after a 14-18 season. You'd think the improvement would have gotten him another.

I feel like if we fired Bohl we'd be in the same boat, but then I'd be accused of accepting mediocrity