Hi Wosterman, During the last football season, one of the folks who works at the Foundation verified my guess that one of the job objectives that Powers set for StevieP was to increase UT athletics' revenue to the round number of $200 million per year. But if the bus ride was StevieP's idea, then Powers may have also set a net profit objective for him (hence incenting him to cut costs as well to reach that net profit figure). Augie has historically liked to live high on the hog, travel in the finest mode, stay at the best hotels (or at least very fine ones) and eat at the finest restaurants on the road. If he opted for the bus trip instead of flying, then that is definitely a different behavior for him and could have been because HE is on a budget now, too. If he decided it was good psychologically for the team, then we'll just have to credit it once again to a litany of attitude adjustment situations he has historically created for all his teams. No matter what anybody thinks about Augie, the man is smart, he is wise, and he understands how to motivate people. That undergraduate degree in psychology, his masters in education, and his reading "Psycho-Cybernetics" an admitted 25 times (and probably countless other such books) have all helped him in that regard.
Strong's hire was strictly Powers' decision. He told me personally that he only wanted to interview one person, Charlie, and that's exactly what Bill did. He had his reasons.
This is accurate. I think had it been up to Patterson and not Powers' legacy, both Brown and Barnes would still be here for better or worse.
Bill was/is the president of the university, and he could do virtually anything he wanted regarding that hire, and he did. He gained that option by rising to his lofty and august position over a long career, gaining the respect of both his peers and those who would hire him for that job, so we have to give him his due in that regard -- whether we agree with his late term decisions or not. I personally think he did an excellent job of hiring Shaka Smart.
I think you're giving logistics of a Monday through Sunday experience too little thought. And I definitely think you're giving our entire coaching staff too little credit, as well as the athletic department. I will guarantee you that money was not the issue on whether to fly or go by bus. When an entire team is gone for such a long period of time, there's far more involved that some might think. Taking their bus seems very logical to me. And if this has never happened before (the bus trip), and all of this was left up to AG to decide, he got results.......but we all know we've done the bus-thing numerous times before.
I didn't hear a number, but rather SP had to raise the money to pay for Texas' portion of the new basketball facility without sacrificing current budgets (including planned increases and projects and the payments to the academic side of the school).