Originally Posted by
Quaoarsking
The problem is that we probably will improve some next year, but if we make the tournament at all, Lemonis is going to get 2025 and just set us up for mediocrity as a program.
I'm not saying we should expect Omaha every other year, but we should be in the mix to host at least every other year, more like 6-7 times a decade. Sometimes you just fall on the wrong side of the hosting bubble. Like in 2014 we went 18-12 in the SEC, which is almost always good enough to host, but for whatever reason our RPI just wasn't good enough and we didn't get one. Bad luck with our scheduling. I wouldn't hold that season against Cohen, and if that's what we do in 2024, I won't hold it against Lemonis. But anything short of that, and Lemonis should be done. 3 seed? Fired. 2 seed that was way out of the hosting conversation? Fired. Even with some improvement over the rock bottom he had us in 22 and 23, that's 3 straight years below a realistic standard for our program.
After all, look at how we performed after Cohen pulled us out of the muck:
2012: 16-14, won SECT, barely missed hosting (I think this is the year the "Will State host?" Twitter meme started?)
2013: 16-14, hosted
2014: 18-12, barely missed hosting
2015: 8-22, oops
2016: 21-9, hosted
2017: 17-13, I don't recall us being in the hosting mix, but we must have been close
2018: 15-15, not in the hosting mix
2019: 20-10, hosted
2020: COVID
2021: 20-10, hosted
That's a 10-year stretch (really a 9-season stretch) with 4 hostings, 2 more barely missed (maybe 3?). This standard I'm putting out there is realistic.