A qualifying list of potential replacements

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formerlybis said:
I think you're optimistic on some of these - for instance, in the B10, I don't think Neb or Rut are worse jobs than MN. We can disagree, but both of them have assets that MN does not, IMO. And Northwestern has found their level - if Collins left, they'd likely be more attractive than MN, too.
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They don’t really have any assets we don’t have. Our practice facilities are top notch. Their arenas would be a morgue too if they were as bad as we are now.
 


howeda7 said:
"Ben Johnson is doing an amazing job. That will be a top 25 team next year"-Tom Izzo

"Tim Brewster is doing a great job" (and totally isn't going to be fired days after I say this)-Pat Fitzerald

FWIW I'm sure he's a great teacher of basketball. So is Dave Thorsen. But that's not even close to the full job today. He might be good at the rest of it, but how can we know? He's coached 12 games as a Division 1 head coach. So far he's 5-7.
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He took over a 6-26 team.
 

howeda7 said:
"Ben Johnson is doing an amazing job. That will be a top 25 team next year"-Tom Izzo

"Tim Brewster is doing a great job" (and totally isn't going to be fired days after I say this)-Pat Fitzerald

FWIW I'm sure he's a great teacher of basketball. So is Dave Thorsen. But that's not even close to the full job today. He might be good at the rest of it, but how can we know? He's coached 12 games as a Division 1 head coach. So far he's 5-7.
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Also, those coaches benefit from saying that.

Jay Wright doesn’t benefit from pumping up Smart.
 

Strongazzoffer said:
He also nominated known sexual predators Matt Gaetz and Pete Hagseth for Secretary of Defense and Attorney General. Besides their poor characters not sure why anyone would want a weekend warrior TV personality in charge of 3 million military personnel or a guy who had six months as a junior associate at a private firm as attorney general?
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You go to Gopherhole and get The View. Go to the off Topic or your Facebook account. Stay out.
 


howeda7 said:
"Ben Johnson is doing an amazing job. That will be a top 25 team next year"-Tom Izzo

"Tim Brewster is doing a great job" (and totally isn't going to be fired days after I say this)-Pat Fitzerald

FWIW I'm sure he's a great teacher of basketball. So is Dave Thorsen. But that's not even close to the full job today. He might be good at the rest of it, but how can we know? He's coached 12 games as a Division 1 head coach. So far he's 5-7.
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Jobs in places like the B1G are way more than coaching. Not sure it is even 50% of what's needed to succeed. The current staff in today's environment just does not have what you need to be successful. I still think from a strictly basketball perspective Johnson is better than Pitino and probably Smith. Lots more to the job though.
 

jovs said:
Jobs in places like the B1G are way more than coaching. Not sure it is even 50% of what's needed to succeed. The current staff in today's environment just does not have what you need to be successful. I still think from a strictly basketball perspective Johnson is better than Pitino and probably Smith. Lots more to the job though.
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Pitino? Possibly. Tubby? No chance.
 

jovs said:
Jobs in places like the B1G are way more than coaching. Not sure it is even 50% of what's needed to succeed. The current staff in today's environment just does not have what you need to be successful. I still think from a strictly basketball perspective Johnson is better than Pitino and probably Smith. Lots more to the job though.
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Coaching basketball probably 20 percent of the job nowadays. Roster management and obtaining "NIL" to get players is more important these days. Kids can just bail at the first sign of adversity now.Coukd you imagine Bobby Knight, Gene Keady, Judd and Lou trying to coach in today's era, lol
 




There are so many jobs that are worse than Minnesota and many more that are not demonstrably better. People have very short memories. When Tubby was the coach, most of us laughed at the idea of him leaving for Auburn as was rumored at the end of his 2nd or 3rd year. When Tubby was fired here, people felt genuinely sorry for him that he had to take the Texas Tech job to remain in coaching. Things change very quickly in college basketball. We are an absolute mess right now, but that could change drastically very quickly.

We've hired two guys who had no business getting a head coaching job in the B1G and their lack of success shouldn't be surprising. Pitino got this job at 31 years old! After 8 years in the B1G, he moved down to the Mountain West and has finished 10th, 6th, 6th there when he theoretically should be much more polished than he was more than a decade ago. Ben Johnson's career highlight was being an assistant for Pitino. There was no reasonable expectation for these guys to have success at our level. Blame Norwood for going from Brad Stevens and Fred Hoiberg to Richard Pitino because he wanted either A. Home run established guy or B. Someone he'd get 100% credit for if they succeeded. We can debate who to blame for Ben Johnson.

I am strongly against the idea of assistant coach. I feel like we have to go BIG this time (in name and $) because of the position we are currently in. Failing that it needs to be a mid major guy who has conference championships and/or NCAA tournament victories to his name. Assistants getting head jobs at new schools (not inheriting the job like Scheyer at Duke,etc) don't have a strong record of success anywhere. We simply cannot go the inexperienced route for a 3rd straight hire after having program worst results back to back with the last two.
 

CentralGopher said:
They don’t really have any assets we don’t have. Our practice facilities are top notch. Their arenas would be a morgue too if they were as bad as we are now.
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Opinions can differ. I think that’s wishful thinking. I’m thinking “what is the program right now?”, meaning if the coach left, how attractive would the job be?

Nebraska hasn’t really been that good even during Hoiberg’s tenure, but they’ve had a lot more energy than MN. The arena is a palace. There’s $$$.

Rutgers’ bad history has changed since joining the league. Right now - and that’s the key - it’s a better job. There’s the opposite of apathy and they just attracted major high school talent.
 

Guess I feel good about Coyle choosing the next coach.
Coaches who he has placed in other U sports are doing well. (I believe Johnson would not have been Coyle's choice under normal circumstances.).
 
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Mike DeGeorge of Cal-Poly. Midwest guy, has coached and rebuilt at all levels and now is trying to do it at C-Poly. CO was. 4 win team last year. He already upset Stanford this year. Seriously.
 



EG#9 said:
There are so many jobs that are worse than Minnesota and many more that are not demonstrably better. People have very short memories. When Tubby was the coach, most of us laughed at the idea of him leaving for Auburn as was rumored at the end of his 2nd or 3rd year. When Tubby was fired here, people felt genuinely sorry for him that he had to take the Texas Tech job to remain in coaching. Things change very quickly in college basketball. We are an absolute mess right now, but that could change drastically very quickly.

We've hired two guys who had no business getting a head coaching job in the B1G and their lack of success shouldn't be surprising. Pitino got this job at 31 years old! After 8 years in the B1G, he moved down to the Mountain West and has finished 10th, 6th, 6th there when he theoretically should be much more polished than he was more than a decade ago. Ben Johnson's career highlight was being an assistant for Pitino. There was no reasonable expectation for these guys to have success at our level. Blame Norwood for going from Brad Stevens and Fred Hoiberg to Richard Pitino because he wanted either A. Home run established guy or B. Someone he'd get 100% credit for if they succeeded. We can debate who to blame for Ben Johnson.

I am strongly against the idea of assistant coach. I feel like we have to go BIG this time (in name and $) because of the position we are currently in. Failing that it needs to be a mid major guy who has conference championships and/or NCAA tournament victories to his name. Assistants getting head jobs at new schools (not inheriting the job like Scheyer at Duke,etc) don't have a strong record of success anywhere. We simply cannot go the inexperienced route for a 3rd straight hire after having program worst results back to back with the last two.
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Will Wade is the way
 

formerlybis said:
Opinions can differ. I think that’s wishful thinking. I’m thinking “what is the program right now?”, meaning if the coach left, how attractive would the job be?

Nebraska hasn’t really been that good even during Hoiberg’s tenure, but they’ve had a lot more energy than MN. The arena is a palace. There’s $$$.

Rutgers’ bad history has changed since joining the league. Right now - and that’s the key - it’s a better job. There’s the opposite of apathy and they just attracted major high school talent.
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In the case of Rutgers one of those kids is Ron Harper Jr little brother and the other his best friend, they were a package deal. Kudos to Pickel for getting it done and giving Ron jr a great experience to make his program attractive, but I think that's a once in a lifetime situation. Pickel been doing his best Dick Bennett impression most of his tenure and it's worked for them.
 

This may not be realistic, but if we really wanted to turn the program around, do what North Carolina did with their football team. Treat it like a professional sports team and hire a former NBA coach. However, I doubt the communists on the board of regents would support that.
 

Vegwards said:
This may not be realistic, but if we really wanted to turn the program around, do what North Carolina did with their football team. Treat it like a professional sports team and hire a former NBA coach. However, I doubt the communists on the board of regents would support that.
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Welcome Vegwards!
 


Spaulding!No! said:
The rumor was that the aau coaches disliked Pitino and were actively recruiting kids away from the U. Coyle’s next move was to hire someone who was well liked within the state. The rest is history.
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I do recall the AAU angle being a big checkmark in the plus column.

I would also say that hasn't panned out for squat. AAU is a money making scheme. They aren't going to back a losing hand, either.
 


Strongazzoffer said:
Will Wade is the way
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Not sure he'd come here. I think Eric Henderson (SD State) would, and probably Bucky McMillan (Samford) as well. Whoever we get, I think we need to move early (e.g., February) vs waiting until after the season.
 


WoodburyTim said:
I don’t know, I’m not in Facebook, but my point still stands. There are plenty of places to voice political opinions,
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Wish the mods would delete that crap. Especially from a guy who joined GH a whopping 8 days ago. Don't be a Richard new guy!
 

Vegwards said:
This may not be realistic, but if we really wanted to turn the program around, do what North Carolina did with their football team. Treat it like a professional sports team and hire a former NBA coach. However, I doubt the communists on the board of regents would support that.
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Won't work unless there are actual donors to support it.
 



USAF said:
The lengths some holdouts will go to defend Johnson are truly breathtaking.
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Truthfully, I didn’t mind the Ben hire at first, I was hoping a Hometown kid would make it work, but in reality it’s never gonna happen. The university needs to figure something out in a hurry. It’s been 26 years and 4 coaches and we’re in the same situation as we were in when Clem left, or if not worse.
 

Unlikely, but I'd jump at the chance to bring in Tony Bennett.

Hire someone to do all of the NIL stuff and treat him as a professional coach. GM gives him the team, he coaches them up and we are at least regularly competitive and occasionally really good.
 

Rocksoldier said:
Truthfully, I didn’t mind the Ben hire at first, I was hoping a Hometown kid would make it work, but in reality it’s never gonna happen. The university needs to figure something out in a hurry. It’s been 26 years and 4 coaches and we’re in the same situation as we were in when Clem left, or if not worse.
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Way worse not even close unfortunately.
 

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