OT: UCLA coaching search is...not going well
For all the people complaining about Beilein again, let the UCLA basketball coaching search be a reminder that the grass is not always greener. One of the true bluebloods of college basketball and in the top 5 of schools that are easiest to recruit at.
Apparently they've already been rebuffed by their top guys (don't know who exactly they approached but some names thrown out there are Tony Bennett, John Calipari, Chris Beard, Matt Painter, Buzz Williams, and Billy Donovan).
They're now down to a top 2 of Mick Cronin and Jamie Dixon, neither of which are elite coaching talents. I think Dixon made it to the Elite 8 once and his Pitt teams (IIRC) tended to flame out early in the NCAAs. Funny enough, he was also an assistant under Ben Howland at Pitt, who was fired from UCLA before Alford took over the job. Dixon has an $8m buyout at basketball powerhouse TCU.
Cronin seems to make the tourney every year, get a win, and then go home. He's been to one sweet 16.
There's also talk of Shaka Smart being a candidate, which would have me laughing (only to stop me from crying) if I were a UCLA fan. Probably the most overrated coach of the last 20 years. Smart has been nipping at Alford's heels as the champ of "Doing Less with More" for the last 4 years.
My understanding from an alum is that Texas Tech is in the absolute middle of nowhere and there isn't much to do there. I know Beard was an assistant under Bobby Knight for a number of years there, so maybe he has some loyalty and will stick, but he's a Texas alum and Shaka Smart's record is .511, even with Mo Bamba and some good recruits. I picture Beard going to Texas once Smart is fired.
Weird that Smart would be considered for UCLA with his record at Texas.
I lived in LA for a few years. UCLA is a gorgeous campus and LA has a lot of cool stuff despite the traffic. You'd think elite recruits would want to go there and hob knob with celebrities. Maybe UCLA isn't paying as much as it did during the Wooden days....
Yes, Lubbock is awful, BUT Beard lived there for ten years as an assistant and is a native Texan. He's going to be a hard pull, but not impossible the way Bennett would be.
As far as pay rates go: I think it's more that every program has a Sam Gilbert now, although in my opinion his impact is over-rated.
Recruiting has never been the problem at UCLA except in years where the program is completely cratering, but you need to have a coach who can wrangle the players he brings in. UCLA is ready for a renaissance, no question, but you have to find a coach who can pull a Coach K and bring in high level recruits while mixing them into a group of 3-4 year players who you can get with UCLA's combo of basketball tradition(tarnished as it may have been recently) and academic excellence.
I think Beard has potential for this and Billy Donovan would be awesome there, but I doubt Donovan leaves the NBA.
They might want to think about the coach that is at Montana. He looks like he might be worth a risk.
People are complaining about Beilein?
/pulls out whoopin’ stick
Where are they now?
Imagine how much of a miserable twat waffle you'd have to be to not like the greatest basketball coach in school history...
UCLA has won one national title since Wooden retired in '75 and Sam Gilbert was forcibly dissociated from the program in 1981. And that title in '95 was at the hands of the very skeezy Jim Harrick. Another title game appearance in '80 was later vacated because of ineligible players used by the somewhat skeezy Larry Brown.
They also made three straight Final Fours recently and are normally at or near the top of the PAC-12 standings and usually have a lot of good talent, they just haven't quite put it all together. Are they currently UNC/Duke/KU/UK? No. But they have potential to get back up there more quickly than just about any other program in the country.
Howland's final five seasons at UCLA were OK, but post-seasons were disappointing. Do you think it was smart of UCLA to fire him? He's second in all-time wins in Westwood, and I was somewhat surprised he got canned, but it might be the curse of coaching in Wooden's shadow.
There was a big difference between his first five years and his last four years and the last four years felt like watching a car crash in slow motion, things just kept getting incrementally worse so by the time he got fired, He clearly had lost his fastball, players on the team were tuning him out, he couldn't recruit Southern California as he had burned bridges all over the place, and the team didn't have an identity the way it did with Farmar, Afflalo, Westbrook, et al. It would have taken a MASSIVE leap of faith to believe he could turn it around and frankly, his post-UCLA career doesn't exactly make UCLA firing him look like a mistake. UCLA's problem is hiring Alford to take over for Howland, not firing Howland.
Howland was a bit like UCLA's Lloyd Carr. Had a run of success, fell back a bit, and the fanbase felt entitled to be at the top all the time.
I do think it was a mistake to fire him. They're probably regretting it now.
Problem is, like Michigan after RichRod, they're finding out the job isn't as attractive as they think/hoped and are getting turned down by their top choices.
Wait, what? People are actually complaining about Beilein? Fuck UCLA. This is pay back for all those years of cheating.
They should hire the cheapest "legitimate" coach available and use the rest of the money to buy recruits.
and a tractor. need to buy you a tractor.
I know that movie.
Dare to dream. Doesn't have to be sexy (jk, they're all sexy)
deal?
NSFW
tramp!
stay the hell away from tractors. they'll give you gonorrhea.
You're thinking of backhoes
I saw a picture of Shaka Smart on the wall at Oregon High School near Madison, WI, true story. The picture was overrated, though.
What were you doing at Oregon HS near Madison WI?
I ask because I've been there myself several times (though have yet to spot the Shaka shot in question).
I read yesterday that part of the problem is they rely significantly on commercial flights. Several coaches are not interested in that considering many of the big schools use private. If this is true, I can't figure out how UCLA does NOT have a jet for the bball team to use. It's kinda ridiculous this day and age.
Probably the same way the football team only has an 80 yard practice field, the school doesn't prioritize athletics and splurge on having top line stuff and more just uses LA and being UCLA to recruit.
... the football team only has an 80 yard practice field ...
I could not believe this to be true so I looked it up...and amazingly, despite defying all logic and reason it is real. They even re-did their football facilities a few years back yet kept the practice field at 80 yards. Just...why?!
The campus is completely packed. Imagine putting all of the buildings of north and central campus, plus much of the athletic facilities and hospital all crammed into a space roughly the size of central campus and you have UCLA. The campus is surrounded by Bel Air, Brentwood, and Beverly Hills, so land is not cheap. My university-owned housing was 5 miles away (an hour drive time due to LA traffic). The only other spot they could put the football field is over an underground parking lot, which I bet they can't do for liability reasons. Heck, their home stadium is the Rose Bowl, which isn't anywhere near campus.
Yep, there is NO space in Westwood. An 80-yard practice field is fine anyway. You don't need to practice plays longer than 80 yards. The end of any 80+ yard play is exactly the same as any 70 or 60 yard play: guys just running toward the endzone.
Tim Miles is looking for a job
Kareem would be an interesting choice, but I think he’s too old by now. Still, he could add Z to his staff and have the first offense that relies primarily on the hook shot.
Kareem's gonna be 72 in two weeks. He's a non-starter.
I have long said that UCLA is not a blue blood anymore.
What Blueblood has a difficult time hiring a good coach? UCLA and Indiana have been relegated to the "upper second tier".
Think of all the talent in LA, and think of all the terrible coaches they've hired.
Teams like Kansas, Kentucky, and UNC have had success forever and continually make good coaching hires to remain relevant. Duke has been one coach, so we don't know what will happen once K leaves, but they've been relevant for 35 years.
UCLA isn't a blue blood. They've been relegated because of their own ineptitude, just like Indiana (remember, Indiana hired Sampson instead of Beilein)
i'm sorry, and i love beilein as much as anyone here, but that's just revisionist history.
his hiring wasn't even greeted by universal acclaim HERE, let alone how it would've been received in bloomington. and kelvin sampson was 22-4 in year 2 when he got canned - i'm guessing that indiana fans thought they got the right guy, at least until the notice of allegations showed up, and many of them probably continued to think it (if the michigan fans that were still talking about rick freaking pitino three years into beilein's tenure are any indication).
Interesting. Honestly, I wasn't a heavy forum/board user in 2007 so I can't remember the reaction. I do remember watching WVU a lot under Beilein, specifically the Pittsnogle years, and enjoying the product, so I was happy.
It is a little revisionist, so that's a fair criticism.
Is Michigan a football blue blood? Because Michigan was turned down by a bunch of guys, including such greats as Greg Schiano, before hiring Brady Hoke.
I am very selective on "blue blood" status. And honestly, Michigan isn't to me. They're at the top of the 2nd tier. Blue bloods don't go 14 years without even a conference title. I'm 25 and have been alive for 1 truly great year of Michigan football. That's not very many in a quarter century, and blue bloods usually have more than that in a 25 year period. And no, a national title isn't the litmus test for "great" to me.
Now, that status (to me) can change. Just like with UCLA. These are programs that have a deep enough history to be able to succeed again more easily than other programs, but there have been just so many mediocre years in recent history that relegation is necessary.
Stevens will not be fired. No way. Although, I have been on the "Brad stevens is overrated" train because he has never shown to do well with elite talent, which is necessary in the NBA. We'll see how playoffs go.
But Billy Donovan would be a homerun hire. One of the most underrated college coaches, in my opinion. Multiple titles, and can recruit. He has a pedigree that would do excellently at UCLA
UCLA in football and basketball has bottomed out. The SEC and B1G media deals have turned the coaching market on its head. Why leave for UCLA for the same pay and higher expectations?
It’s going to be Luke Walton.
It feels like with basketball you either need to be a top-notch recruiter and just try to win the arms' race each year for elite 1-and-done players OR you go the player development route and try to get guys who will stick around a bit and you beat more talented teams with experience and skill/system. UCLA really can't do the latter (because of expectations) and the former is hard with so few top-level recruits and a number of other blue bloods following that model (Duke, UK, Kansas, etc.). So if you can't get a Calipari or a Coach K you're sort of in no-man's land, even in a place like LA.