2019 Coaching Carosuel

[mvpreed2]

I think he lands better talent than he did in Ames.

ISU never pulled in top tier kids, yet the "Mayor" always won. Now that he established a name for himself, I think Nebraska will have a nice mix of transfers and Top-100 kids.

He landed some good, arguably very good grad-transfers while at ISU.
His way of retooling was unique because of disadvantages of ISU, but he still managed to win enough games to be a mainstay in the top half of the Big 12.

The Big 10 is a different animal to me.
It's much deeper with more options to choose from.
Michigan/Michigan State/Indiana/Wisconsin/Purdue and Ohio State?
I haven't even mentioned Minnesota/Illinois/Iowa or Penn State!
I believe it is going to be harder to get the right prospects AND translate them into climbing up the Big 10 ladder.

[mvpreed2]

UPDATE!
The biggest domino has now fallen!
Arguably, the two biggest job openings of the summer have now been filled.

First, Texas A&M hired Virginia Tech's Buzz Williams, who also was the head coach at Marquette where he coached NBA mainstays Jimmie Butler (Philadelphia 76ers) and Jae Crowder (Utah Jazz).
UCLA has hired TCU's Jamie Dixon, who also made his climb while he was at Pitt.
Dixon has ties to the Southern California area, and was heavily rumored to be one of the favorites for the USC job opening before they chose Andy Enfield.

Now I believe Virginia Tech/Vanderbilt/BYU are the top job openings now.
It will be interesting to see how these openings shake out with several "good" coaches at respective schools/franchises.
Until the next update..

[|ᴘ|ʀ|ʏ|ᴍ|ᴇ|]

I really didn't follow the whole UCLA head coach search while it was going on, and I don't have that great of an understanding of coaches' contracts and which guys can leave their contracts and which can't.

That being said, I also have no clue if these guys were even considered for the UCLA job or not:
- Mike Brey (Notre Dame)
- Eric Musselman (Nevada)
- Shaka Smart (Texas)
- Chris Beard (Texas Tech)
- Ed Cooley (Providence)

If they weren't, why?
If they were, what happened?

Not saying Dixon is a bad coach, but that hire is unlikely to change anything at UCLA, in my opinion.

[Bob A]

I have never understood why Dana Altman at Oregon never gets mentioned in consideration for some bigger jobs.  As much as they are a big rival he still seems to be a very good coach.  Must have some enormous buyout paid for by Nike.

[KansasCityCats]

UCLA really wants to stay in the basement, huh?  Dixon is a terrible choice...and they have to pay a hefty buyout to get him away from his alma mater.

Chris Beard would have been a home-run.  Glad he's away from the Pac-12 (for now).  The guy is likely the best in-game coach in college basketball.

Altman is a good coach, but he isn't the most friendly guy to work-with.  At UCLA (and most big jobs), you have to "schmooze" the alumni, past players, sponsors and media.  He's a tough coach that just loves basketball (and relies on transfers to run his program...despite being at the school that has the heaviest Nike backing).

[mvpreed2]

I really didn't follow the whole UCLA head coach search while it was going on, and I don't have that great of an understanding of coaches' contracts and which guys can leave their contracts and which can't.

That being said, I also have no clue if these guys were even considered for the UCLA job or not:
- Mike Brey (Notre Dame)
- Eric Musselman (Nevada)
- Shaka Smart (Texas)
- Chris Beard (Texas Tech)
- Ed Cooley (Providence)

If they weren't, why?
If they were, what happened?

Not saying Dixon is a bad coach, but that hire is unlikely to change anything at UCLA, in my opinion.

To me, UCLA believed they were an elite destination.
I read on ESPN they offered Calipari like 6yrs/$48M to come to UCLA.
Bennett was another name that was mentioned in the article.
Neither one of them would leave their respective programs right now for UCLA.

I am on board with the Musselman hire, and I'm shocked his name wasn't thrown around for neither UCLA or Cal.
Nowadays it's hard to gauge what an AD is looking for in a coach.
Every coach you named is a good option, and it would make sense to at least kick the tires to see what their interest is.
Who knows..

[eggdog]

Sounds like Dixon's buyout might be too much for UCLA.
https://www.latimes.com/sports/ucla/la-sp-jamie-dixon-ucla-mens-basketball-coach-tcu-contract-20190404-story.html

[mvpreed2]

I think the blurb that describes why their search has taken so long is the reason why some of the ones that we believe they should have contacted; they weren't interested or didn't qualify.

[eggdog]

I can't believe how bad they've screwed this up. I'm hoping they can do better than Cronin - it's better for us and the PAC-12 if UCLA can get back to being a good team, they're probably the most recognizable program in the conference nationally.

[mvpreed2]

I can't believe how bad they've screwed this up. I'm hoping they can do better than Cronin - it's better for us and the PAC-12 if UCLA can get back to being a good team, they're probably the most recognizable program in the conference nationally.

Agreed!

Soon as I seen Cronin I was confused, what makes Cronin so desirable?
His teams are elite defensively, but their offensive tempo is one of the slowest in the country.
They are efficient but at some point, especially at UCLA, you need to do more than win to put buns in the seats.

It is almost like you have to give them more than the average programs because there are too many options in Los Angeles to choose from.