Next Gopher Head Coach

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Mikie S said:
There's only one "Elite" level coach that has been mentioned on this thread, that would almost assuredly turn the Gophers into every year contenders... Eric Musselman. BUT there's less that a 1% chance he could be had.

Smith, Medved & Dutcher are all very good coaches that would fit the bill for your average, middle-of-the-pack Big-10 type coach. I think they'd get the Gophers a winning conference record every 2-4 years.

If I'm swinging for the fences I need to accept a higher chance of striking out, and I go with Dennis Gates (Cleveland St). Gotta like that he spend 8 years being mentored by Leonard Hamilton.
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Yeah, I think I would prefer Gates over anyone not named Matta, Musselman or Beilein. He has years as an assistant behind one of the best coaches in the country, he has been a phenomenal at Cleveland State and he just is impressive and likable. I think he is a hire that would be blasted until the press conference.
 

Bad Gopher said:
Was it a method or a talent (an eye)?
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Proper methodology cultivates a better eye for talent.

WI does things the right way and they hire the right way. Even their misses made sense at the time of the hiring.
 

Bob_Loblaw said:
Yeah, I think I would prefer Gates over anyone not named Matta, Musselman or Beilein. He has years as an assistant behind one of the best coaches in the country, he has been a phenomenal at Cleveland State and he just is impressive and likable. I think he is a hire that would be blasted until the press conference.
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Does anyone have info on if Gates ran the recruiting at FSU? I ask because not that FSU isn't a good school and all, but man does Hamilton really know how to recruit above their level! They always have studs up and down the lineup 8-10 deep. If Gates was a big part of that, it would certainly make him an even more attractive option.
 

Bad Gopher said:
Was it a method or a talent (an eye)?
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Both. They had talked to the right coaches, no fathers or fathers friends. They talked to coaches who had gone against them, been to their clinics, saw the things they had built in the most difficult of places in highly competitive conferences.For those interested I can go into great detail when the time is right. As a side note there is some chinks in the armor at UW brewing that will come to light after the season but is bleeding onto the court right now.
 


MplsGopher said:
For Johnson, Robbins, and Gach, keep in mind that these guys already just used a transfer from a four-year school.

The talk has always been about giving players one "free" transfer from a four-year school to another. Not unlimited ....
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🤔. Good point. But I'm not sure they've been very clear on this.
 

howeda7 said:
🤔. Good point. But I'm not sure they've been very clear on this.
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I mean, they could always apply for a waiver. Or just sit the year out, if they have that year to give.
 

jamiche said:
The criticism will be that the all of major men's and women's sports coaches and the AD are white, especially w/ the TC probably being the whitest major metro area in the country. My guess is that there aren't very many Power Five schools who fall in that category.
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OK, fair enough.

I mean, tough to get whiter than Madison ... but your point still stands.
 

Dennis Gates is interesting, but he's only in his second season as a HC. He's done a great job this season, but he'd be as big of a gamble as Pitino was.

I'd much rather hire someone who has proven they can win as a HC for more than one season.
 



howeda7 said:
The U would never hire Sampson for the reasons you mention. He's also 65 years old.
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2nd chances!!! He left Oklahoma in recruiting hell and was somehow hired by Indiana. And he went right back to cheating which I think is a big part of the reason they are not the program they were. Why don’t we check if Clem wants to come back? No way
 

GopherWeatherGuy said:
Dennis Gates is interesting, but he's only in his second season as a HC. He's done a great job this season, but he'd be as big of a gamble as Pitino was.

I'd much rather hire someone who has proven they can win as a HC for more than one season.
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I don't agree at all. He's nothing like Ritchie

1. He's from Chicago and he played at Cal - Looks like he took academics seriously as well.
2. He has been an assistant for 15 years CAL, Northern Illinois, Nevada and FSU
3. Hes worked under one of the most under rated coaches and recruiters in college basketball (Leonard Hamilton)
4. His first words will not be an arrogant claim that hes going to change how B1G basketball is played
5. He will not alienate the MN state high school coaches association claiming that he knows everything
6. He has had to work and will continue to work as he has not been handed everything in life
 


leib0039 said:
Does anyone have info on if Gates ran the recruiting at FSU? I ask because not that FSU isn't a good school and all, but man does Hamilton really know how to recruit above their level! They always have studs up and down the lineup 8-10 deep. If Gates was a big part of that, it would certainly make him an even more attractive option.
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I think it interesting our own BADGER has not mentioned Gates name over the past couple years discussions regarding up and coming coaches. Unless I missed it.
 







Craig Smith seems like your classic antithesis hire. He's very culture based and energetic. Has his teams focused on being connected.

Pitino always felt like he had this idea of letting the kids free flow and figure it out on their own. Led to nice talent in Oturu and Coffey, Mason and Carr, just not a lot of team basketball.
 
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I wonder what the buyout is?

 

Craig Smith's new contract

The new contract begins with a base salary of $775,000 for this season. Each year it increases by $25,000. In the final year (2025-26), Smith will make $900,000. Over the six years, it is worth $5.025 million.

Should some other school come after Smith, the buyout is 25 percent of whatever is remaining of his base salary.

With Smith at the helm, USU has captured back-to-back Mountain West Tournament titles — one of just four teams in league history to accomplish that feat — and a share of the 2018-19 MW regular season championship. Overall, USU is 68-22 under Smith, including a 38-13 mark in league play. Smith’s .771 winning percentage against MW competition over the last three years is second in league history behind Dave Rose at BYU (.781) and ahead of Eric Musselman at Nevada (.741), Brian Dutcher at San Diego State (.726) and Rick Majerus at Utah (.698).

www.hjnews.com

Craig Smith’s new contract officially announced

It’s been more than a week since Utah State Vice President and Director of Athletics John Hartwell told a local radio show that the contract of men’s head basketball coach
www.hjnews.com www.hjnews.com
 



GopherWeatherGuy said:
Craig Smith's new contract

The new contract begins with a base salary of $775,000 for this season. Each year it increases by $25,000. In the final year (2025-26), Smith will make $900,000. Over the six years, it is worth $5.025 million.

Should some other school come after Smith, the buyout is 25 percent of whatever is remaining of his base salary.

With Smith at the helm, USU has captured back-to-back Mountain West Tournament titles — one of just four teams in league history to accomplish that feat — and a share of the 2018-19 MW regular season championship. Overall, USU is 68-22 under Smith, including a 38-13 mark in league play. Smith’s .771 winning percentage against MW competition over the last three years is second in league history behind Dave Rose at BYU (.781) and ahead of Eric Musselman at Nevada (.741), Brian Dutcher at San Diego State (.726) and Rick Majerus at Utah (.698).

www.hjnews.com

Craig Smith’s new contract officially announced

It’s been more than a week since Utah State Vice President and Director of Athletics John Hartwell told a local radio show that the contract of men’s head basketball coach
www.hjnews.com www.hjnews.com
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So: 800 + 825+ 850 + 875 + 900 = 4.25 Mil *.25 = $1, 062,500

For comparison Dutcher's buyout (for Minnesota only) is $1,000,000...a savings of $62,500...that's a lot of rental car fillups!
 

Bad Gopher said:
Worth noting that, when the Gophers hired Dan Monson, he'd just signed a 10-year extension at Gonzaga.
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Yeah Smith signing an extention doesn’t mean much. If MN is his dream job he will come. This extention has been in the works since December. At that time and currently the MN job isn’t open. He has no reason to not pursue this extension.
 

GopherWeatherGuy said:
Craig Smith's new contract

The new contract begins with a base salary of $775,000 for this season. Each year it increases by $25,000. In the final year (2025-26), Smith will make $900,000. Over the six years, it is worth $5.025 million.

Should some other school come after Smith, the buyout is 25 percent of whatever is remaining of his base salary.

With Smith at the helm, USU has captured back-to-back Mountain West Tournament titles — one of just four teams in league history to accomplish that feat — and a share of the 2018-19 MW regular season championship. Overall, USU is 68-22 under Smith, including a 38-13 mark in league play. Smith’s .771 winning percentage against MW competition over the last three years is second in league history behind Dave Rose at BYU (.781) and ahead of Eric Musselman at Nevada (.741), Brian Dutcher at San Diego State (.726) and Rick Majerus at Utah (.698).

www.hjnews.com

Craig Smith’s new contract officially announced

It’s been more than a week since Utah State Vice President and Director of Athletics John Hartwell told a local radio show that the contract of men’s head basketball coach
www.hjnews.com www.hjnews.com
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I'm surprised that he only is making 775K per season. I get that its the MW but it seems low..
 

Cleveland State’s HC Dennis Gates Horizon Coach of the year for second straight season.
Forgot the former SDSU coach, Scott Nagy is at Wright State and successful.
 

MaxyJR1 said:
Cleveland State’s HC Dennis Gates Horizon Coach of the year for second straight season.
Forgot the former SDSU coach, Scott Nagy is at Wright State and successful.
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If you're talking Horizon League, then why not Loyola Chicago's coach? Final Four run a few years ago, then this year they're currently tied for the top of the Missouri Valley with Drake.
 

forever a gopher said:
The MN tie is a bonus to me, not the main reason. It MAY help in local recruiting. For me, it's his track record. Career conference record of 109-49 at three stops. Hasn't stayed at a place long enough to see if he can sustain it with "his own" players, but the only demerit I can think of. Agree with BTP above that he's "gettable". Sitting here and saying let's go after guys like Mussleman are silly. He's making $2.5MM in his second year at an SEC school, where they are currently ranked. He's not coming here.

Remember how we ended up with Pitino? Shot for the stars and whiffed.
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Remember who the AD was then? That’s like comparing a Tim Brewster to PJ Fleck.
 

Bad Gopher said:
This is the baseball analogy of letting the ball play you instead of playing the ball. It's Coyle's job to evaluate his staff, which needs to go deeper than looking at the standings.
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He’s also managing the entire athletic department, including finances. He hired a football coach and a hockey coach and now it’s the basketball coach.
 

MplsGopher said:
If you're talking Horizon League, then why not Loyola Chicago's coach? Final Four run a few years ago, then this year they're currently tied for the top of the Missouri Valley with Drake.
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Maybe he is on the list and Coyle will have his options. There just seems to be a little bit of a hunch with the Cleveland State guy. Greg Flugaur is a guy on Twitter that is pretty tied in and gets information. His list of candidates is:

Medved
Smith
Gates
Anderson

That makes be believe that Coyle already knows where he will be looking and who is realistic.
 

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