Kansas AD who fired Porter Moser at Illinois State ‘excited’ for former coach

[Phantom]

Zenger was/is a good guy, and was always cool to talk to. I think he had things going in the right direction here, he just left for what was essentially his dream job in his home state at KU. Hard to blame him.

I'll never forget the following conversation between he and I one day outside of the arena about midway through the '06-'07 hoops season. I was leaving a Red Alert meeting and he was walking out at the same time. We shot the general shit for a bit, then he asked if I'd ever been to any hoops games before enrolling there. I told him of course, I was at the first ever game at RA, and even saw games at Horton. I'd followed every season closely for over 20 years at that point. He asked what it takes to fill the place up other than the BU/SIU or Creighton games? That he'd seen photos & films of any old opponent back in the day and RA was packed and what's different now?

I basically said, consistent winning. We've been up & down for a while now, but the 5K we are currently averaging will easily shoot up once we get consistently good and are playing for NCAA tourney appearances. I told him our fans are out there, and they will be back once that buzz returns. Moser was fired a couple months later.

Now I am in NO WAY saying my chat with Zenger influenced anything, but I've always had a pang of guilt over that conversation. I got the impression that he'd had the same conversation with countless fans/alums and was just tired of it and ready to expedite the change. Sure enough, Jankovich comes in, we start winning a lot, and attendance rockets up his first couple years.

 

[Hamdonger]

HOLY SPIT!! PHANTOM fired Moser!! Put into motion Majerus and now this electric FF run!! Dang brother, I've underestimated you!!!


Great story, man!!

 

[Phantom]

HOLY SPIT!! PHANTOM fired Moser!! Put into motion Majerus and now this electric FF run!! Dang brother, I've underestimated you!!!


Great story, man!!

:lol:

I can honestly say that no individual names came up during that conversation, Moser's or otherwise.

 

[Metamoron]

I like Zenger too. However my most memorable discussion with him was about what a mess the Wichita basketball program was. This was Marshall’s year 2 and we were doing pretty well with jank at the time and WSU was a hot mess.

 

[JHBird]

You guys do realize Hancock 2.0 is a joke still...right? Until they relocate the activities inside the fieldhouse and tear it down and build a west side and horseshoe Hancock will always be a joke. The eastside is lipstick on a pig.

I disagree the Hortonside needs to be torn down. Too expensive to do so and what is gained? ISU finishes the horseshoe tastefully and entire Hancock stadium will be solid both visually and functionally (if ISU football every becomes significant in terms of fan interest and revenues incease too then do something with the Horton side) . They can add more concessions (and more options including alcohol) on the Hancock side but otherwise that is more than enough for a visiting side. ISU needs to think out of the box and get some type of beer garden for games as the reality is that lots of fans are leaving to go hang out in ISU's own parking lot and eat/drink anyway. Additionally ISU is already serving alcohol in portions of the stadium. Might as well grab the additional revenue.

The Horton side is an eyesore for sure. What's horrifying to me is that it wasn't that many years ago when it was the 'good' side. Is tearing down Horton tied into the 'Red Bird Rising' campaign with the new practice facility? Like will they build the new visitor side stands right back onto the new facility? Not sure if that would be a good idea or not. I'm assuming the new practice facility will be right where Horton is now.

 

[Jsnhbe1Birds]

You guys do realize Hancock 2.0 is a joke still...right? Until they relocate the activities inside the fieldhouse and tear it down and build a west side and horseshoe Hancock will always be a joke. The eastside is lipstick on a pig.

I disagree the Hortonside needs to be torn down. Too expensive to do so and what is gained? ISU finishes the horseshoe tastefully and entire Hancock stadium will be solid both visually and functionally (if ISU football every becomes significant in terms of fan interest and revenues incease too then do something with the Horton side) . They can add more concessions (and more options including alcohol) on the Hancock side but otherwise that is more than enough for a visiting side. ISU needs to think out of the box and get some type of beer garden for games as the reality is that lots of fans are leaving to go hang out in ISU's own parking lot and eat/drink anyway. Additionally ISU is already serving alcohol in portions of the stadium. Might as well grab the additional revenue.

Agree to disagree but that place is trash.

 

[sportenwood]

Phanton - I can't believe you got Moser fired after he bought us beers at Brother Jimmy's. He even offered to buy TPGuy a beer. How's that possible?

Liked Greenspan, Loved Moser, Liked Zenger. Loved Moser's recruiting ability. Not a big fan of his in game coaching at the time. Understood why he was fired but wanted to give him one more year since he had red shirted Dinma. We've really had no coach with his recruiting abilities since. Although, obviously the stint with Majerus was huge for his in game coaching.

Happy for him. Sad for our program. Understand why those who love Muller do but wish we were better having gone to school in the Donnewald era and expected to go to NCAA every year and having grown up in the Will Robinson and Gene Smithson eras. Anyway, this isn't a fire Muller rant. Not sure we can do better at this point but sad we can't find someone who can make us good.

 

[jwa123]

Zenger was/is a good guy, and was always cool to talk to. I think he had things going in the right direction here, he just left for what was essentially his dream job in his home state at KU. Hard to blame him.

I'll never forget the following conversation between he and I one day outside of the arena about midway through the '06-'07 hoops season. I was leaving a Red Alert meeting and he was walking out at the same time. We shot the general shit for a bit, then he asked if I'd ever been to any hoops games before enrolling there. I told him of course, I was at the first ever game at RA, and even saw games at Horton. I'd followed every season closely for over 20 years at that point. He asked what it takes to fill the place up other than the BU/SIU or Creighton games? That he'd seen photos & films of any old opponent back in the day and RA was packed and what's different now?

I basically said, consistent winning. We've been up & down for a while now, but the 5K we are currently averaging will easily shoot up once we get consistently good and are playing for NCAA tourney appearances. I told him our fans are out there, and they will be back once that buzz returns. Moser was fired a couple months later.

Now I am in NO WAY saying my chat with Zenger influenced anything, but I've always had a pang of guilt over that conversation. I got the impression that he'd had the same conversation with countless fans/alums and was just tired of it and ready to expedite the change. Sure enough, Jankovich comes in, we start winning a lot, and attendance rockets up his first couple years.

:text-+1:

Want to fill up RBA? Give folks a reason and you hit the nail on the head.

 

[Phantom]

The "problem" with where we are at right now is that it has this puragorious feel to it. We are far from bad, but just can't get over that final hurdle to be great.

Without looking up exact numbers here, let's consider what we've done since 2007...

- ONE sub .500 season in 11 years
- 10 of 11 years with 18+ wins
- 6 of 11 years with 20+ wins
- 10 of 11 years with top-5 conference finishes
- 6 of 11 years in the championship game in STL
- 7 of 11 years with a postseason appearance (6 NIT, 1 CBI)

Most mid-majors would love to have that amount of consistency. All things considered, we've been pretty good for a long time. And yet, it still feels shitty to be so close so many times, and just never be able to take that one final step.