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I don't buy the Kennedy-vs.-Ladner dichotomy. Seems like they set up someone they knew wasn't coming so that when they hired Ladner people could say "oh, well that other guy wasn't a realistic possibility anyway."

When this coaching search started, I sat down with an NCAA tournament bracket and identified the guy at Prairie View as a good candidate. I do not think this philosophy was employed in the search as it actually happened. It was all a show.

Each time we have one of these meetings, it resembles the town hall meeting from Blazing Saddles more and more. This is no longer a serious athletic department, it's a "good old boys' club."

There was apparently a groundswell of support for Ladner from a bunch of USM insiders who know him personally. We've seen that in the past, and it doesn't always turn out well.

The 1987 team considered the prospect of Weatherspoon getting the job, and the prospect of Ladner getting the job, and they spoke up en masse for Ladner. Not sure what to make of that. They like him, but plenty of likeable guys end up as busts.

That said, I really hope Jay succeeds.

Yeah, I've got a small deposit I'd like to leave for them.

Why, Aunt Bea's going play the Wicked Witch of the West, Sheriff Taylor's going the be the Wizard, and Juanita Beasley's all set to portray Dorothy! Gomer's putting together the sets, and Otis has even volunteered to do the lighting... I reckon it'll be one of the year's top 2 or 3 community theater productions in the whole darned county!

Usually if I do it it's someone who got busted for some hilarious crime.

After many years of this shit, I think I get it. There are a large number of fans and employees of USM athletics whose goal isn't so much for this endeavor to succeed, it's for it to remain a comfortable and familiar place for them personally. These are the people who jump for joy when some hick gets the team into the NIT, but can't be bothered to support a guy like Larry Eustachy. They get downright angry at the first sign of any real ambition.

Take the AAC for example. These folks never wanted in because then someone might photograph one of them next to a UConn or Temple fan / employee, and we'd look like the bumpkins in the room. Better to keep getting photographed next to the other hayseeds from Ruston and Birmingham than to get all uppity. Then they lie to themselves and say that the mean old P5 is keeping USM down.

Some of these people even long for the inclusion of yokels from backwaters that are more distant still than Ruston. Get some Lafayette and Monroe folks in the picture and they'll really be BMOC.

Frickin' nauseates me. It's a philosophy of unacknowledged self-disdain.

Why not? Conservative strategy is for people who have something to conserve.

Is Lucas pretty much out of the picture?

I don't have a strong opinion on that, personally, just wondering. I haven't seen all of the Star Wars movies, but I've enjoyed the ones I've watched, with the exception of Phanton Menace.

Billy Kennedy would be a great hire.