I guess the University of Hawaii Athletics program is doing better than most of us thought. University of Hawaii head basketball coach Gib Arnold has been offered a substantial raise from an already sweet deal that he was originally given.
The proposed raise would make Gib Arnold the highest-paid coach in the history of the Hawaii men’s basketball program, and is now on the negotiating table.
Arnold, who in his first season guided UH to a 19-13 record and an appearance in the Collegeinsider.com Postseason Tournament, has a current base salary offer from UH for $345,000 per year, this according to sources who have been briefed on the talks. It would be a minimum three-year contract with a maximum of six years if unspecified incentives are reached.
Some of the proposed salary would be covered by UH boosters, the rest by the University.
Should Arnold agree to those terms, or something close, it would be a considerable (44 percent) bump from the $240,000-per-year, three-year deal he was given upon his hire in March 2010.
“I’m very confident that we’re going to work something out. I want to be here and build something special. That’s the goal.” Said coach Gib Arnold in a statement.
“I will say it’s in process,” athletic director Jim Donovan said, declining further comment.
Here are my questions:
- Why is the University of Hawaii giving Gib Arnold this much money based on one year? A year in which the team still failed to even make the NIT. Lets face it, the College Insider postseason tournament is a joke, and the team couldn’t even get through one round of that.
- Where is all this money coming from? Yes, some of it will be covered by boosters, but how does Uh come up with the rest of this yearly salary based on butts in the seats? The Stan Sheriff Center is definitely big enough to host great crowds, but Hawaii basketball doesn’t bring those crowds in right now. The Hawaii men’s basketball team played to 3,500-4,000 people a game last year, and that was on a good night! The crowd is more like the crowd of a division 2 school, not a division 1 school.
Don’t get me wrong, I am a huge Hawaii fan, and I want the basketball program to succeed. My point is that UH is giving Gib Arnold the highest salary ever for a UH basketball coach, and they are basing it on a one-year sample. I say at least wait another year or two to see what Arnold does to extend an offer like that. He needs to at least guide the team to an NIT birth, and better yet, the NCAA Tournament.
I may be dead wrong on this, and we can revisit this at the end of the season, but this type of money is unjustified right now, especially when using a baseline of one-year.
2011-2012 University of Hawaii Men’s Basketball Recruiting Class
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