Izzo: Dwayne Stephens has been involved in a coaching search

[tjgopher]

The main cause for concern with Stephens is that outside of Crean and to a lesser degree Gregory, most of the the Izzo coaching tree hasn't done all that well:

IZZO TREE:
Tom Crean - Marq./IU with success
Brian Gregory - moderate success at Dayton, not much so far at GA Tech
Stan Heath - 1 yr at Toledo, then fired at Arkansas, struggling at S. Fla
Jim Boylen - fired at Utah
Stan Joplin - fired at Toledo
Doug Wojick - fired at Tulsa, now at Charleston
Mike Garland - fired at Cleveland State (23-60 record)
Mark Montgomery - struggling at N Ill (10-51 record in 2 seasons so far)

 

[bigticket1]

Dane Fife , another MSU assistant , has withdrawn as a finalist for the Ball State job. Could be a sign that Stephens is leaving and Eye-zoh told Fife that he will be moving up the ladder on his staff.

 

[SelectionSunday]

The main cause for concern with Stephens is that outside of Crean and to a lesser degree Gregory, most of the the Izzo coaching tree hasn't done all that well:

IZZO TREE:
Tom Crean - Marq./IU with success
Brian Gregory - moderate success at Dayton, not much so far at GA Tech
Stan Heath - 1 yr at Toledo, then fired at Arkansas, struggling at S. Fla
Jim Boylen - fired at Utah
Stan Joplin - fired at Toledo
Doug Wojick - fired at Tulsa, now at Charleston
Mike Garland - fired at Cleveland State (23-60 record)
Mark Montgomery - struggling at N Ill (10-51 record in 2 seasons so far)

I agree that Izzo's "tree" doesn't have a great track record. It's the same concern I would have about hiring anyone from Coach K's tree (Mike Brey is the only consistent winner, but his teams always underperform in the NCAA). That's a valid reason for concern.

In fariness to Heath -- not that I think he's a great coach -- he's led 3 different programs to the NCAA Tournament, including Kent State to the Elite 8 and South Florida to a multiple-win (First Four + 2nd round) NCAA tourney in 2012. Doing that at South Florida certainly was an accomplishment.

Definitely, Mark Montgomery's first two years at NIU gives me pause about hiring an Izzo assistant. I would expect the heat will turn up on Montgomery (as much as the heat can be turned up in DeKalb, Ill.) if there's not significant progress in 2013-14.

 

[bga1]

Isn't it possible that he's been offered head coaching jobs at smaller schools, but turned them down? Stephens is a MSU alumni. It's his old school and he is learning under a hall of fame coach. Maybe given the circumstances he doesn't want to leave unless it's the right offer? It's possible that he wants to take over for Izzo once he retires. Who knows. Also, he's not only known for recruiting. Draymond Green was a 3* coming out of high school (#122 overall on Rivals) and developed into arguably the best college basketball player in the country his senior year. Draymond himself credited Stephens for that development.

Anything is possible and almost nothing is known. How much of his recruiting ability is based on the fact that he is selling Izzo? It seems we see Izzo up here himself working on Jones and Vaughn. Can he run a big time program? The guy hasn't been a head coach. Hiring a 10 year assistant is not the hire you make after paying a 2.5 million buyout. Huge risk.

 

[minny01]

Anything is possible and almost nothing is known. How much of his recruiting ability is based on the fact that he is selling Izzo? It seems we see Izzo up here himself working on Jones and Vaughn. Can he run a big time program? The guy hasn't been a head coach. Hiring a 10 year assistant is not the hire you make after paying a 2.5 million buyout. Huge risk.

bga1 - I don't know about you, but I would feel much more comfortable hiring an assistant coach who had never recruited at the collegiate level, than hiring a head coach who had never been a head coach at any level. That is taking a huge risk.

 

[bga1]

bga1 - I don't know about you, but I would feel much more comfortable hiring an assistant coach who had never recruited at the collegiate level, than hiring a head coach who had never been a head coach at any level. That is taking a huge risk.

mmmhmm. I guess at this point we will have to wait and see what the price of pride and ego is.

 

[MadtownGopher]

The main cause for concern with Stephens is that outside of Crean and to a lesser degree Gregory, most of the the Izzo coaching tree hasn't done all that well:

IZZO TREE:
Tom Crean - Marq./IU with success
Brian Gregory - moderate success at Dayton, not much so far at GA Tech
Stan Heath - 1 yr at Toledo, then fired at Arkansas, struggling at S. Fla
Jim Boylen - fired at Utah
Stan Joplin - fired at Toledo
Doug Wojick - fired at Tulsa, now at Charleston
Mike Garland - fired at Cleveland State (23-60 record)
Mark Montgomery - struggling at N Ill (10-51 record in 2 seasons so far)

I don't put much stock into other people's success/failure when looking at a candidate. It's kind of like the Jeff Tedford QB situation. Tedford is a great QB coach and developer, but his QBs had a bad stretch in the NFL, with most being absolute busts. Based on that evidence, one might believe that none of his QBs would ever pan out in the NFL. Of course, if you fell in line with that belief, you would have missed out on Aaron Rodgers, which 20+ teams did when they passed on him in the first round.