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NAU's Basketball Struggles

I think they've got no hope until Murphy's gone (especially with their two leading scorers leaving), but they obviously won't get rid of him with 2 years on his contract. NAU is paying a big price for giving him such a long extension in the first place.

NAU WBB isn't a prize, either, but at least they have some hope with Loree Payne in charge there.
 
sounds like N.A. U. has bad management problems a lot like I.S.U.`s mens basketball 59 wins 122 loses over 6 years. GO BENGALS
 
Murphy took over a program which had gone through a lot of turmoil with the previous coach, Adras. I believe they won 1 conference game prior to Murphy arriving. Murphy's first season, the team improved to 11-21, 8-12 conference. The next year they went 15-17, 12-8 conference. It was after that second season that he received an extension taking him through the 2019 year. The next year they went 23-15, 13-5 conference. They reached the finals of the CIT, and drew 5,500 to their semi-final home game in that tournament. They extended the contract one additional year, through 2020, prior to the 2016-17 season. That extension didn't make a lot of sense, considering they had just finished 5-25, 3-15 conference. Hindsight is 20/20, but it makes sense why they signed him to the initial extension.
 
50 yr fan said:
Your right PBP probably decades, but do we try to wright the ship or let sink. GO BENGALS
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I'm not that familiar with the men's side of things. Brad is much more in tune with that side but from my perspective I don't know if it can be fixed without some radical solutions which don't appear to be possible at this point in time regarding facilities, budgets, recruiting philosophy etc.

PBP
 
I'll never understand how NAU has had these issues with the resources they have--a student body that with graduate and undergraduate combined comes up to a little over 31,000 and about $100 million more in endowments than we have, along with a sweet network deal with Fox Sports Arizona. They should be among the very tops in the league in every sport, year in and year out with the resources they own and with how well they're marketed in Arizona and the Southwest, and yet comparing championship tallies over the past 25 years, ISU has them beat in a number of sports.
 
isusuperfan said:
I'll never understand how NAU has had these issues with the resources they have--a student body that with graduate and undergraduate combined comes up to a little over 31,000 and about $100 million more in endowments than we have, along with a sweet network deal with Fox Sports Arizona. They should be among the very tops in the league in every sport, year in and year out with the resources they own and with how well they're marketed in Arizona and the Southwest, and yet comparing championship tallies over the past 25 years, ISU has them beat in a number of sports.
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NAU actually has two seperate TV deals now. Fox Sports Arizona is only allowed to show non-conference games for basketball with channel 6 out of Phoenix showing conference games via Pluto-TV / Big Sky feed.

PBP
 
Having TV coverage means a lot less these days than it did when, say, DePaul had their own nationwide cable deal with WGN out of Chicago. Now, everybody's games are available via streaming, and there is SO much basketball available on traditional TV, it's hard to get anybody's attention.

NAU and Flagstaff are interesting bedfellows. Flag is probably one of the least traditional college towns in the Big Sky (as is Pocatello, but for much different reasons). The population is very transitory, and there isn't a great "culture" of fan support there. Neither basketball team draws well, and the football crowd is very fickle -- they show up when the team is good. The student body doesn't seem overly committed, either.

I broadcast a lot of NAU-ISU games when Ben Howland was coach there and he was always very gracious in his pre-game interviews. He said we follow one blueprint -- "We recruit to shoot." He found kids from small towns all over the West who could fill it up, and then he filled in the blanks with complementary players. It sure worked for him.

Trying to recruit Phoenix kids to go "up the mountain" to Flagstaff is probably as tough as luring Idaho kids to Pocatello. They are thinking bigger time, or bigger city. But the kids from rural areas are probably an easier sell -- and to me, Flag is on par with Bozeman as one of two most beautiful towns in the conference.
 
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