Landry's owner (Fertitta)/Sampson's common dream

[utep2step]

Landry's owner bankrolled UH basketball which included an arena with all the bells & whistles to attract recruits when Sampson got to Houston. Sampson spoke his language and a booster/head coach love affair was born and now UH is in the Final 4.

“Some People Didn’t See This as a Championship Program”

Inside the University of Houston's basketball rebuild, as coach Kelvin Sampson and the Cougars prepare to face Syracuse in the Sweet 16.

www.texasmonthly.com

 

[MineroFanatico]

Herman had a similar vision for UH and Fertitta funded that dream as well. He was willing to match UT’s 5+ mil when they came calling for Herman.

TF loves him some UH. We need a guy like that. One could say that guy is Foster, but while he puts up his money, seemingly lacking from him is the strong desire to win. Fertitta gets into the nitty gritty of it all. He wants to be part of the envisioning.

 

[utep2step]

Herman had a similar vision for UH and Fertitta funded that dream as well. He was willing to match UT’s 5+ mil when they came calling for Herman.

TF loves him some UH. We need a guy like that. One could say that guy is Foster, but while he puts up his money, seemingly lacking from him is the strong desire to win. Fertitta gets into the nitty gritty of it all. He wants to be part of the envisioning.

We do/did and it was an oil man. That nice practice facility wasn't built by church bake sales. UTEP has the support it is just the coaching hires have been self hair pulling: Floyd, Kugler, Terry.

Terry will book it, Austin was target #1.

I will give Senter one more chance on a good hire for basketball. He just has to know not to fall into the candidates shouting out of bullet points, boiler plate answers, and pearly white smiles like he did with a current head coach.

 

[MineroFanatico]

We do/did and it was an oil man. That nice practice facility wasn't built by church bake sales. UTEP has the support it is just the coaching hires have been self hair pulling: Floyd, Kugler, Terry.

Terry will book it, Austin was target #1.

I will give Senter one more chance on a good hire for basketball. He just has to know not to fall into the candidates shouting out of bullet points, boiler plate answers, and pearly white smiles like he did with a current head coach.

You kinda missed the main gist of my point. While the donations are nice and needed, we need someone more than just who’s just gonna hand over money and say go build what you want/need. The money is the power. The difference with Fertitta is that he is as much the architect of success as the AD is. He’s the money. He’s the power. He’s involved. UTEP doesn’t have that. That was my point.

To the bolded statement...not sure why you would do that. He has demonstrated complete incompetence from the moment he stepped on UTEP soil.

 

[centex-miner]

You kinda missed the main gist of my point. While the donations are nice and needed, we need someone more than just who’s just gonna hand over money and say go build what you want/need. The money is the power. The difference with Fertitta is that he is as much the architect of success as the AD is. He’s the money. He’s the power. He’s involved. UTEP doesn’t have that. That was my point.

To the bolded statement...not sure why you would do that. He has demonstrated complete incompetence from the moment he stepped on UTEP soil.

I tend to agree with your thought process. It seems that passionate multi-millionaire/uber rich donors to the athletics programs are the alums that help the school get over the $$$ hump. I don't know how many UTEP uber rich alums fit this category (doesn't seem like UTEP has many, if any), however, that does appear to be a difference maker.

Foster is not a UTEP alumnus (nor born/grew up in El Paso), so the passion for the school's athletics may not be there.

Fertitta is a Tech and Houston alumnus, and seems to have the passion for the school and the athletic program. Of course, UT has many of those and they seem to get in each others way.

Tilman Fertitta