In two years or three years we're going to be sick Coyle didn't hire Smith

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MaxyJR1 said:
Question was asked. Started with 8-10 and got serious about a handful.
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Quess I'm used to old time reporters who asked tough questions and would accept evasive or non answers. So you heard them ask how many coaches they considered before selecting Coleman...how many did they consider? You heard that he was going to go after assistants... what was there answer as to a time table?
 

MNVCGUY said:
Can anyone say with absolute certainty that Smith was not offered the job and turned it down? I don't have the answer, but so many arm chair QBs on this board seem to think they know exactly how the process played out.
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This right here. Everyone assumes we could have had our choice of coach but nobody knows if Ben was one of our only options. Until I hear that Coach X would have come here if offered a reasonable salary, it is hard for me to get too upset at Coyle. Coaches don’t jump for P5 jobs like they used to.

Let’s see how Coach Johnson does and wish him the best.
 

Tater said:
This right here. Everyone assumes we could have had our choice of coach but nobody knows if Ben was one of our only options. Until I hear that Coach X would have come here if offered a reasonable salary, it is hard for me to get too upset at Coyle. Coaches don’t jump for P5 jobs like they used to.

Let’s see how Coach Johnson does and wish him the best.
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Sounds like Dutcher wanted a couple days to get back to them. IE negotiate a new contract at SDSU.
 

DallasGopher said:
Mark my words. Craig Smith is the next big name in coaching. He even outcoached Mussleman when Muss was at Nevada several times. The guy has won everywhere he's been, wins more and more games each year, his teams play tough defense and he a smart x's and o's coach. He'll get hired at some power 5 job soon and have them in the NCAA tournament every year. On another note, our AD is a complete moron.
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Solid coach no doubt. Will be interesting to see if he leaves Utah State or sticks around a few more years. Logan, Utah hard to beat from a lifestyle standpoint. Good luck to Coach Smith, but its Ben Johnson time in MPLS.
 


If Craig Smith stays a few more years he could fall into the Shaka Smart category. Shaka had better opportunities but waited too long and now look what he is doing. Had he jumped on a better job, he may be doing better things.
 


Block M said:
Solid coach no doubt. Will be interesting to see if he leaves Utah State or sticks around a few more years. Logan, Utah hard to beat from a lifestyle standpoint. Good luck to Coach Smith, but its Ben Johnson time in MPLS.
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Utah is going with Alex Jensen. Bad call on their part IMO.
 





Touching on expectations for a second:

If we would have hired Smith, or even Medved, my expectations would have been that we finish middle of the conference consistently and that we continued to grow up.

With Johnson I just expect us to finish 11th-14th consistently. If he finishes 10th its almost like a "Wow, Johnson did better than I thought." That's not really a place I thought I'd be after this hiring process. It's a very non-competitive and non-threatening hire.

I honestly cannot understand how you look at Johnsons resume versus Smiths resume and say I'm gonna go the Johnson route. Instead of going opposite of what we had in Pitino program structure, it feels like we stayed in the same ballpark.

I think it's great that fans are on board regardless of who the hire was, but just watching sports, specifically basketball, I don't have a lot of faith that this turns out very well at this point looking at past performance and how hires typically turn out. I'm not a big lottery ticket guy.

I wanted the administration to go a different route that was undoubtedly available, and as a fan of the program it's majorly disappointing to support a path that I just personally don't feel like has that much potential.

I hope Ben does well, I just don't expect him to.
 
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bizzle22 said:
Collins makes around $3M a year. I think it’s mostly optics for why Ben is making 1.95. He surely would have accepted much less. I’m really hoping that Coyle is giving him a big salary pool for assistants.
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Collins initial contract was for 1.43 million which is what an inexperienced coach should probably start around.
 

Spaulding!No! said:
Nah, Coyle hired who he wanted and if you think he was forced then you don’t know Coyle. He’d resign before being told who to hire.
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So, Coyle has never used a search committee before but this time he said he would for diversity and you think he made the decision?
Why didn’t they hire Gates? Or other black coaches who have been a head coach?
Because this was a decision made by committee hiring someone to check boxes like local recruiting connections versus recruiting ability or coaching ability.
I see nothing to suggest Coyle made this hire. It is 180 degrees from all his hires other than Whalen...which he could have just gambled on riding the wave. Whalen was at least a legend.
Motzko, PJ, softball he went after people who had head coaching success.
This has no Mark Coyle footprints.
 
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GopherGod said:
Collins initial contract was for 1.43 million which is what an inexperienced coach should probably start around.
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But, it’s 2021 and you just hired a black coach. You cannot defend paying him less. You gotta overpay if you’re going to hire him.
Hire Joe White anybody and you can pay him $500k and he’s smiling from ear to ear and nobody is advocating he should have been given a higher entry salary.
 


DallasGopher said:
Mark my words. Craig Smith is the next big name in coaching. He even outcoached Mussleman when Muss was at Nevada several times. The guy has won everywhere he's been, wins more and more games each year, his teams play tough defense and he a smart x's and o's coach. He'll get hired at some power 5 job soon and have them in the NCAA tournament every year. On another note, our AD is a complete moron.
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False
 

GopherGod said:
Collins initial contract was for 1.43 million which is what an inexperienced coach should probably start around.
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That was almost ten years ago. The lowest paid coaches in the B1G other than Ben are Juwan Howard ($2.1M per year, but about to get a very sizable raise. He’ll be well north of $3M before the beginning of next season.) and Steve Pikell ($2.5M per year). The optics of paying our new coach nearly half that would be terrible, for a multitude of reasons.
 




mnhoopboy said:
Good to see the frustration that perhaps the hire was made because Johnson was black. And if that's the case, even better. Now you realize what most black coaches have felt for years, when they see their unqualified, mediocre, retreaded white counterparts get similar opportunities. Glad it makes people uncomfortable. Perhaps if lack of diversity wasn't an issue within the athletic department in the past, then you all would've gotten your golden boy Smith.
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I probably wouldn't play the lack of diversity card when men's basketball has had 4 black coaches since '86. Keep beating that drum tho.
 

howeda7 said:
He may have turned them down waiting on MN. He might be an option at Marquette, though I suspect they will get Gates.
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Unless it's purely a money thing (assuming Marquette can pay substantially more), and/or unless Moser is dead set on staying in Chicago and wants to move up to the Big East from Loyola, I would think DePaul makes more sense for Gates.
 

Block M said:
Very serious. Outdoor paradise; affordable; zero unemployment. Very cool place.
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For sure on the outdoors part ... but that can be a lot of places in Utah. Affordable, OK with you on that. Not sure why the unemployment part matters? Obviously you don't want a ton, but I doubt it's 0.0%.

To me, the small, isolated (you have to go through a mountain pass to get there from the Wasatch Front), and culturally/ethnically homogeneity, of that community would be big turn offs. But that is very much a "to each their own" thing. No judgement from me on those who aren't bothered by that or prefer it.
 

MplsGopher said:
Until disproven (which likely is impossible), I'm going with Coyle's hand was forced from above.

IE, Gable and/or regents demanded a black coach.

Only thing that makes sense.
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Self-bumping for this: https://247sports.com/college/minne...he-Minnesota-basketball-head-coach-162954150/

Can you share with us the vision that you told AD Mark Coyle and President Joan Gable about?​

Johnson: I think obviously the first foremost is to be able to do a good job within state. I think you've seen over time that we have a lot of talented players that understand how to play. We have great high school coaches, great AAU coaches, and kids that just have a good feel and know how to play basketball, so we got to do our job within the state to keep those guys home.
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So he interviewed with both Coyle and Gable.

That right there tells me all I need to know, that either they both (Coyle and Gable) agreed, or Gable dictated, that in the spirit of the moment right now, and with the current racial makeup of head coaches in Dinkytown, that this hire had to be Black.

I'm convinced.
 


I hate this guaranteed to succeed narrative with Craig Smith. If Archie Miller can fail at Indiana, Craig Smith can fail here. No coach is guaranteed especially a coach that has never coached at a P5 level.
 

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