OT: Minnesota Basketball Coach search not going well
March 30th, 2013 at 10:43 PM ^
Strange how bad decisions end badly. Huh...
March 30th, 2013 at 10:46 PM ^
March 30th, 2013 at 10:48 PM ^
Michigan coaching searches are always smooth
March 30th, 2013 at 10:55 PM ^
Well whoever the lucky fella is who gets the nod can sleep easy knowing that Minnesota will pull out all the PR stops to make him feel right at home......
March 30th, 2013 at 11:15 PM ^
has its charms.
March 30th, 2013 at 10:56 PM ^
That surprises me. I though the AD would take a shot at Shaka since he knows him, then go to Flip and it would be over. Too bad for the Gophers, I think Flip would have been good as a college coach.
March 30th, 2013 at 10:56 PM ^
March 30th, 2013 at 11:05 PM ^
"Hey, I used to coach in the NBA. I know what it takes to get you there, why don't you come play with me?" is a pretty decent recruiting line.
Sometimes retreads work out well--Bruce Webber at KSU being the most obvious/recent example. Lavin at St. John's may as well. It would also be true for the suddenly "rehabilitated" Tommy Amaker (don't include me, please). Tubby was himself a retread. Ben Howland has a proven record and will end up somewhere very soon.
That said, I too would look mid-major and younger if possible: Williams at Marquette (not sure Minny is an upgrade), McDermott at Creighton (contingent on Doug leaving for the NBA, and unlike Hoiberg, he wouldn't be leaving his alma mater), Steve Nagy at South Dakota State. All three are familiar with and recruit the Minny area already.
My darkhorse would be Cuonzo Martin--highly thought of, has done solid job rehabbing UTenn, and may want back in the Big Ten (and Painter ain't going anywhere).
March 30th, 2013 at 10:57 PM ^
I'm honestly shocked they haven't tried Amaker. Look what he's done with harvard. HARVARD!!
IIRC, Mrs. Amaker is a high level administrator at Harvard. I doubt he's going anywhere.
March 31st, 2013 at 11:08 AM ^
If Minnesota wants Tommy and Tommy wants Minnesota, Mrs. Amaker will become a very high level administrator in Minneapolis.
March 31st, 2013 at 12:34 PM ^
But for her, to go from Harvard to Minnesota is quite a step down.
March 31st, 2013 at 12:48 PM ^
...I'm sure he could do it there too.
What Amaker's done is convince the Harvard administration to relax academic standards for his recruits. He's getting four-stars the rest of his conference can't/won't pursue; he's got them playing at the level of Northwestern, more or less, and in the Ivy that's good enough for championships. (Pomeroy has Harvard at #105, better than Nebraska and Penn State, and NW after it was decimated, but far behind the other nine teams in the B1G.)
Turning Minnesota into Northwestern is not what they're after; their academic standards aren't the problem and relaxing them wouldn't help. There's no reason to think Amaker would be able to land the kids they're missing now.
March 30th, 2013 at 10:57 PM ^
Since the B1G is so strong every year, it's hard for the most talented teams to win the title. Tubby did a good job considering.
March 30th, 2013 at 11:16 PM ^
You are sorely mistaken if you don't think there is a talent pool for basketball in Minnesota. The easiest example to point at is the 2014 class with three top 30 players, but Minnesota has created more than enough talent for a coach to win up here.
March 31st, 2013 at 12:25 PM ^
That's the easiest example to point at because it's absolutely unique. MN has never had two top-ten recruits in the same class and probably never will again.
But I think that's precisely what's triggered all of this. If Minnesota is ever going to put its program together based on in-state talent, now's the time. Look at the offer list of these kids and it's got to have set some alarm bells off: Minnesota, Ohio State, Duke, Kansas, Kentucky, North Carolina...and he's apparently a Baylor lean.
Losing a top in-state recruit to Duke or Kansas or Kentucky, OK. Losing it to Baylor? Something had to change, and quickly, before that class is lost.
March 31st, 2013 at 12:38 AM ^
March 30th, 2013 at 10:59 PM ^
I was hoping Saunders would take the job. I thought he was a pretty innovative offensive coach. The Big Ten is a good conference in basketball, but it needs more offensive creativity and less clutching and grabbing.
March 30th, 2013 at 11:03 PM ^
The Daily Gopher had a piece on their own wish list, which they broke into tiers. (LINK)
It is a couple days old, so Shaka Smart, Brad Stevens, and now Flip Saunders are off the list, but in any case, it includes John Pastner, (Memphis) Chris Mooney (Richmond) , Ben Jacobson (Northern Iowa) and one Gregg Marshall, who is likely too busy celebrating a trip to the Final Four to field a call from Norwood Teague just this moment.
March 30th, 2013 at 11:17 PM ^
A lot of those guys don't seem very realistic. Jacobson, Mooney and Musselman are probably the only ones who would consider it. I would focus on Jacobson - he's from that part of the country and has a pretty solid track record. He took UNI to the Sweet 16 a couple years ago.
March 30th, 2013 at 11:14 PM ^
when they hire some leftover guy and they're a lower level Big Ten team in 3 years
March 30th, 2013 at 11:15 PM ^
March 30th, 2013 at 11:20 PM ^
You're incorrect regarding Tubby.
His best players just graduated.
Players don't get better from year 1 to year 4 under Tubby, they never have even when he was at Kentucky.
Also, Tubby was never around during the offseason, and that was one of many reasons the Gophers have been unable to do the requisite fundraising to build a new basketball practice facility.
So naturally, people nationally have no idea of the facts on the ground up here in the Twin Cities. Tubby had no energy for this program, his recruiting has been poor, his player development and retention has been terrible, he has been phoning it in.
March 30th, 2013 at 11:40 PM ^
March 30th, 2013 at 11:17 PM ^
March 30th, 2013 at 11:51 PM ^
March 31st, 2013 at 12:15 AM ^
Iowa hired Todd Lickliter that same year. There were some who wanted us to hire him. He turned out to be such a disaster that his replacement (McCaffery) is already finishing up his third season.
Bill Martin didn't do the best job in the football coaching search, but he came up aces in the basketball one.
is at NAIA Marian University in Indiana, mostly because his kids went there and he pleaded for the job.
TWSS
March 31st, 2013 at 10:15 AM ^
I guess we should say his second set of basketball hirings (Beilein/Borseth) worked well. The first set? Not so much.
March 30th, 2013 at 11:19 PM ^
March 30th, 2013 at 11:22 PM ^
March 30th, 2013 at 11:28 PM ^
March 31st, 2013 at 12:11 AM ^
I think it's hilarous how the most entertaining comments in this thread have the most downvotes.
Poor Minnesota can't play hard to get forever with her coaches!
March 31st, 2013 at 12:14 AM ^
March 31st, 2013 at 12:43 AM ^
Brings to mind the old Dallas, where Pam Ewing woke up and found Bobby in the shower; his death (and the previous season) was all just a bad dream.
March 31st, 2013 at 10:07 AM ^
Jacobson and Howland would be the 2 guys to go after
March 31st, 2013 at 11:37 AM ^
He and Howland seem like good fits.
Although I'm sure Howland wants the Gonzaga job if Few were to leave somewhere (and if Few didn't go to Stanford or UCLA, not sure he goes anywhere else).
Why would Marshall want to go to Minnesota? They've got to be realistic.
You can make a strong case that Marshall is the best mid-major coach in the country. Smart and Stevens get more hype, but they inherited good programs from their predecessors. Marshall was very successful at Winthrop and then turned a terrible Wichita State program into a power. He's a guy that will probably only leave for an elite job.
As for Howland, I think he's damaged goods. The SI article really made him look bad. It makes for easy recruiting ammunition against him.