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Post by Big D on Jan 20, 2010 11:34:55 GMT -6
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Post by I'm In The Front Row on Jan 20, 2010 12:18:27 GMT -6
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Post by FuryJP on Jan 20, 2010 13:26:22 GMT -6
WHAT THE f@#!! I blame UIC for this. Was there a fight to keep him? Not enough money to support the advancement of soccer because another sport is sucking our University dry?
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Post by Big D on Jan 20, 2010 13:34:47 GMT -6
Story's up on the UIC site as well. www.uicflames.com/sports/m-soccer/spec-rel/012010aaa.htmlSad day for UIC soccer. Thanks to Coach Trask for 5 great years of hard work. Wish him the best at UW....although, I bet he'll have that program at the top of the Big 10 within 2-3 years. Now the question is who's next for UIC? You have to look hard at UIC's top assistant, Sean Phillips, who doesn't appear to be going to UW with Trask. He was responsible for a lot of what happened here the past few years, and he brought in Bubonja, I believe. He definitely should be considered since he may be able to pick up where Trask left off. I guess we'll never know why Trask left UIC for UW, considering he turned that job down in the past. Maybe he knew he'd have some success here and that he might be able to use it as leverage for the Indiana job....who knows. Or maybe the rumors from the bigsoccer board are true that UIC didn't follow through on promises and Trask felt that was holding the program back. If the latter is the case (and we'll never know for sure), UIC should be ashamed of themselves. We need to have a winning attitude...that's how reputable programs are built....and we need to do that before other big-name universities get in the game. Do we really think that UW offered Trask a huge raise? If not, he should never have gotten away from us! Trask did great here and he will be missed. But, at the same time, there is room for improvement. We had a great record against ranked opponents, but we need to do better in the HL, which we hardly dominated, and get ourselves back to the tournament. Let's hope Schmidt can do that. And let's hope we don't lose too many players as a result of the coaching change. |
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Post by Big D on Jan 20, 2010 13:41:36 GMT -6
WHAT THE f@#!! I blame UIC for this. Was there a fight to keep him? Not enough money to support the advancement of soccer because another sport is sucking our University dry? exactly jp...you said what took me 4 paragraphs to say... I doubt we put up any fight to keep him. Classic UIC and its mid-major attitude. Look at what Akron did to keep their coach! Caleb Porter said no to Indiana...to coach at Akron for big money. Akron has committed to winning in men's soccer. UIC just cares about it's bottom line...not winning. This is evidenced also by the continued employment of one of the most underachieving college basketball coaches in the country. Sad... |
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Post by postagepaid on Jan 20, 2010 15:37:57 GMT -6
Oh come on guys. I'm gonna have to say UIC's hands are pretty tied on this one. Furloughs have been implemented for all staff, and it would look pretty bad to enter into a salary arms race with Wisconsin in the current budget crisis. Trask (or Wisconsin) looked for an opportunity and left.
Now, it's obviously a HUGE loss, but salary is an issue that is WAY beyond the Athletics department at this point. And honestly, it would be disrespectful to the employees and students of UIC to give one of the highest paid people on campus a salary increase at this time.
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Post by Big D on Jan 20, 2010 20:45:26 GMT -6
postagepaid, welcome to the board.
I don't necessarily disagree with you. If Wisc made him an offer he couldn't refuse and it was an offer way higher than anything UIC could offer, then that's all there is to it. I do understand there's a business aspect as well....for both UIC and Trask. But, I just can't imagine UW spent a fortune on Trask. UIC isn't the only school in the country hurting right now. Without knowing the salary numbers, we'll just never know. We should be able to find them though, right?....public info? I can't find Trask's UIC salary right now...I thought he was somewhere between $50,000-$75,000 before his extension. Anyone know?
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Post by spike1057 on Jan 20, 2010 21:44:21 GMT -6
it would be disrespectful to the employees and students of UIC to give one of the highest paid people on campus a salary increase at this time. Jimmy Collins is getting another raise   |
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Post by VivatUIC on Jan 21, 2010 21:23:31 GMT -6
Any rumors or discussion of who will replace him? If Phillips isn't following him to UW then he has to be the front-runner, right?
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Post by EzE on Jan 25, 2010 14:10:00 GMT -6
Mid major schools can focus on some niche sports. Soccer, hockey, baseball don't get the same attention as football & basketball. We don't have football, basketball has its issues. Soccer and baseball are sports where UIC put some good teams together. Why not focus on those sports where you excel? You could always cut basketball...why not? They cut hockey.
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Post by Big D on Jan 25, 2010 14:18:56 GMT -6
Major financial problems? Our hands are tied, postagepaid? Maybe we should rethink our priorities. Things like this appear to be contributing to the reason we can't compete with major conference salary offers. What a joke. Take half of this money and offer it to Trask. Who are they contracting out that charges this much for their services, anyway....I assume it's one of Daley's friends' companies? Link |
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Post by VivatUIC on Jan 25, 2010 19:01:17 GMT -6
Mid major schools can focus on some niche sports. Soccer, hockey, baseball don't get the same attention as football & basketball. We don't have football, basketball has its issues. Soccer and baseball are sports where UIC put some good teams together. Why not focus on those sports where you excel? You could always cut basketball...why not? They cut hockey. Definitely this. A refocus out of basketball and into soccer and baseball would be so nice. It's not like it's going to make our basketball team any worse and a boost to those two programs could mean soccer continuing its good run of the last four years and baseball finally getting over the hump of winning conference but not getting far in tourney play. |
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Post by EzE on Jan 26, 2010 10:45:51 GMT -6
UIC needs to be like a Cal-State Fullerton. Great baseball team...that's their focus. It is another "hyphen school" that is not the flag ship. However, they are among the elite schools when it comes to baseball.
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Post by Big D on Jan 26, 2010 11:16:15 GMT -6
The problem is that basketball and football are the only two sports that really get your school attention. Football we don't have. That's why UIC basketball needs to be our main focus. Nobody brags about who made it to the postseason in baseball...unless you go deep. We can and should be much better in basketball. We should be competing for the HL crown every year and making the postseason (NCAA or NIT) at least 60% of the time.
UIC is limited in baseball because we're in the cold midwest at the beginning of the season....so we'll always be playing on the road for the first month+ of the year. We only have a handful of non-conference home games all season. Kind of a disadvantage. But we do have an outstanding program and field.
Soccer we should be able to keep competitive while having a solid basketball program. Soccer can't cost a ton of money. I think it's 10 scholarships or something like that....coaches don't get too much. We should be able to offer a little more than what we do and stay competitive.
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Post by VivatUIC on Jan 26, 2010 14:49:36 GMT -6
Basketball is one of the two traditional glamour sports for a college, but that doesn't mean that there aren't exceptions. EzE's example of Cal-State Fullerton and their baseball program is a great one.
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