What kind of legacy will Coach Neal leave behind?

[Bullchuter]

Just wondering what kind of legacy Coach Neal is building to leave behind for the Lobo future. I don't forsee a "Noodles Blvd". or a "Noodles Parking Lot" nor a "Neal Pit Entry gate"....nah...not even a "Neal Urinal" being named after him. Of course he can always claim much like former FB coach Locksley that "I got all the money that was owed to me". Every coach is hired to win games, it's plain and simple...WIN. If you win enough you may have your name enshrined somewhere in reverance to your achievements. Anyone care to comment on what kind of legacy our coach will leave us with.

[Lobo#1]

Champion!

[colt45]

Champion!

Ofwhat???

[TheGrey]

More damage to the basketball program than McKay and Ellenberger combined.

[BobOso]

Things I will remember about Noodles

• Motorcycle Entry
• The Show Death Wish - Cullen
• Unfinished Business
• SDSU 1-3-1 zone debacle
• Stanford jumping out to a 20-4 lead on the best team in Lobo History
• Jordan Goodman, Pancake
• Rice debacle
• Cullen Drama - Playing Time
• Cullen Drama - Death Threat
• Postgame Drama - Blaming Kids, Fans, Social Media *New
• SDSU Call
• SDSU embarassment at home
• 0-Feb
• Finally beating SDSU
• Losing next 3 games
• Nevada debacle
• Losing every Christmas
• "We are New Mexico" changed to"Can't Coach Effort"
• Booking 4 nights in Vegas and Lobos being eliminated before we get to Kingman.

All Doghouse Team could beat his actual team:
Pancake, Arthur Edwards, Goodman, Banyard, Scekic

[mikexom]

Shooter Neal bleary eyed droning on about how he's been there and done that and how wild mustangs must be set free after explaining the latest wedgie he got was his players fault. He should get a park bench at Tingley Beach named after him.

[Oregon Lobo]

A promising coach who's time had not yet come. After leaving NM, he takes a D2 job, leads his team to a national championship, gets hired at some newly-established D1 Florida school (University of the Magical Experience in Orlando or some crap like that), takes that team to an Elite 8, then gets hired by a mid-tier Power 5 school, has 10 good but not great years. Retires with a few bucks in his pocket in some Southern coastal town.

[jbarr]

Things I will remember about Noodles

• Motorcycle Entry
• The Show Death Wish - Cullen
• Unfinished Business
• SDSU 1-3-1 zone debacle
• Stanford jumping out to a 20-4 lead on the best team in Lobo History
• Jordan Goodman, Pancake
• Rice debacle
• Cullen Drama - Playing Time
• Cullen Drama - Death Threat
• Postgame Drama - Blaming Kids, Fans, Social Media *New
• SDSU Call
• SDSU embarassment at home
• 0-Feb
• Finally beating SDSU
• Losing next 3
• Losing every Christmas
• Booking 4 nights in Vegas and Lobos being eliminated before we get to Kingman.

All Doghouse Team could beat his actual team:
Pancake, Arthur Edwards, Goodman, Banyard, Scekic

Harsh, but hard to argue with.

[pitwolf83]

Things I will remember about Noodles

• Motorcycle Entry
• The Show Death Wish - Cullen
• Unfinished Business
• SDSU 1-3-1 zone debacle
• Stanford jumping out to a 20-4 lead on the best team in Lobo History
• Jordan Goodman, Pancake
• Rice debacle
• Cullen Drama - Playing Time
• Cullen Drama - Death Threat
• Postgame Drama - Blaming Kids, Fans, Social Media *New
• SDSU Call
• SDSU embarassment at home
• 0-Feb
• Finally beating SDSU
• Losing next 3
• Losing every Christmas
• Booking 4 nights in Vegas and Lobos being eliminated before we get to Kingman.

All Doghouse Team could beat his actual team:
Pancake, Arthur Edwards, Goodman, Banyard, Scekic

#TRUTH

[LoboDude!]

Great Assistant
Good Kids
Kids who graduate
Emotional Press conferences

[NMFANINOKC]

We are New Mexico!

And giving poor press conferences

[pablo]

Oy...................

[SoCalLobo]

UNM's example of the Peter Principle

[Romero11]

Inconsistency

[Lobojumpman]

Teams who showed the occasional flashes of brilliance, and a lack of team chemistry/consistency/effort on defense most other times.

[LoboKnight]

Things I will remember about Noodles

• Motorcycle Entry
• The Show Death Wish - Cullen
• Unfinished Business
• SDSU 1-3-1 zone debacle
• Stanford jumping out to a 20-4 lead on the best team in Lobo History
• Jordan Goodman, Pancake
• Rice debacle
• Cullen Drama - Playing Time
• Cullen Drama - Death Threat
• Postgame Drama - Blaming Kids, Fans, Social Media *New
• SDSU Call
• SDSU embarassment at home
• 0-Feb x2
• Finally beating SDSU
• Losing next 3 games
• Nevada debacle
• Losing every Christmas
• "We are New Mexico" changed to"Can't Coach Effort"
• Booking 4 nights in Vegas and Lobos being eliminated before we get to Kingman.

All Doghouse Team could beat his actual team:
Pancake, Arthur Edwards, Goodman, Banyard, Scekic

Added to it.

[jbarr]

The coach that ended UNM's 50 year run of top 25 in attendance. Grammer recently tweeted that we are about to end that streak. He said "The Pit streak of 50 years in T25 in jeopardy. Per NCAA, UNM's average home attendance of 11,499 is 28th in the country (25 Utah is at 11,780)."

[808LOBO]

* Hawaii debacle
* Terrible record against P5 schools
* Lagging attendance...soon no longer in top 25 attendance

[808LOBO]

double post

[Lobo#1]

Ofwhat???

Of the world!!! Ha

[Lobo#1]

Ofwhat???

Of the world!!! Ha

[Doublealum]

More damage to the basketball program than McKay and Ellenberger combined.

Were you you here for the aftermath of Lobogate? Again, if/when there is a new coach, it only takes a couple of studs in basketball to potentially get you back to pretty decent. It's not like football that takes around 60 real players & about 5 years.

[3rdGenLobo]

This was a pretty good read until you threw Banyard's name in there.

[jbarr]

* Hawaii debacle
* Terrible record against P5 schools
* Lagging attendance...soon no longer in top 25 attendance

You had to bring up Hawaii. That is one memory I will never be able to get out of my mind. Sitting right behind the Lobo bench for those 3 games was one of the worst experiences I have had as a Lobo fan.

[xraytube]

More damage to the basketball program than McKay and Ellenberger combined.

If Gonz groaned you for this post, it pretty much puts you in the category of forum troll and clueless............

[mikemc81]

Not sure that we'll ever see a coach as open and honest as Neal- he wears his heart and emotions on his sleeve was a huge understatement. Wish he would've thought through some of the things he said in his press conferences over the years before he said them!

[DBush]

"Puhlay"

[LaVidaLobo]

Neal's legacy will be that he was given the keys to the castle after his mentor and friend, Steve Alford, decided to bolt for UCLA, but instead of creating a kingdom from the castle, he instead became the court jester.

Neal was handed a program that was skyrocketing on the way up. The program was becoming nationally recognized and relevant as it was a consistent winner and top 25 program. The fans were buying up season tickets, traveling to away games, purchasing Lobo gear to wear to games, and attending games with fervor and boisterous enthusiasm. Lobo basketball was riding a wave of consistent success and support to heights it had never seen before. Fans mistakenly believed that the program was bulletproof and any ole coach could step right in and fill Alford's shoes, especially the guy who had been sitting on the sidelines with Alford that whole time.

Unfortunately, all of the things that made Craig Neal such a well-liked and popular assistant head coach, became his kryptonite as a head coach. He struggled to get players to listen to him, follow him, or improve under him. Being everyone's best buddy under the good cop, bad cop strategy he and Alford used to employ was now something he could not seem to reverse. As a result, he gradually lost control of the team. What was once a promising career for an understudy that seemingly just needed a chance to prove himself as a head coach, is now one that teetering on the edge of apathy and anger from fans.

Neal will always be remembered for teams that lacked discipline, which includes terrible defense on the perimeter, too many turnovers, bad shot selection, lack of good free throw shooting to close out games, and no real improvement or development in player's abilities from one year to the next.

[attydude]

Inconsistency

Beg to differ, he's been pretty consistently bad.

[UNM Class of 1972]

You had to bring up Hawaii. That is one memory I will never be able to get out of my mind. Sitting right behind the Lobo bench for those 3 games was one of the worst experiences I have had as a Lobo fan.

Oh, that Hawaii debacle. I am off subject a bit, but does anyone remember when we were playing in the WAC tourney against Hawaii and Rob Robbins called a time out in the last few seconds of the game? He was called for a technical because we had no times left. Hawaii went to the line and went made the free throws and won 68-67 and we were eliminated in the first game. Fortunately we still went to the NCAA Tourney but lost to Oklahoma State 54-67 and ended up with a 20-10 record. Now that was a debacle.