Next Gopher Head Coach

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manderson1984 said:
Also if Ryan Saunders wants to come here and be an assistant? I’ll take him any day. The guy is a worker and relates to kids really well.
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My only concern with coaches like Saunders, Mitchell etc. is that they're from the NBA realm... and I'm just not sure that they're going to jump at the first opportunity to get back to the pro level.
 

JoshuaT81 said:
I agree. I will give you white, holtman, and coach K. Ryan is not in that category he dominated NCAA III for many years. Beilein was about the same when WV hired him 2 appearances in 9 years. But definitely not the same when Michigan hired him. 2 NCAA tournaments in 5 years, with 1 being sweet 16 and the other elite 8. I agree you definitely shouldn't hire based on how many tournaments you made but it is a plus when you compare to smith and dutcher.

All this being said 100% agree with every situation is unique. Medved is still not in my top 5 though but my top 5 might not even want the job.
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Ryan IS an interesting situation. His two years in Milwaukee they finished 4th and 5th. He was obviously hired in Madison mostly on the strength of his Platteville successes, although his Milwaukee teams must have passed the eye test. Not saying that Smith and Medved are heading toward the hall of fame, but it does help put things in perspective: no matter the level and the league, what they've done in their first three and two years respectively in the Mountain West is very impressive and certainly noting to sneeze at.
 





Gophs24 said:
My list....
1. Musselman (by far my 1st choice)
2. Dutcher (by far my 2nd choice)
3a- Gates.
3b. Smith.
5-Medved

-im tired just thinking about having Fleck and Musselman
-Gates. He gets an interview but i think he goes elsewhere and it wont be BC
-Smith and Medved have a real chance to gain some momentum if either of them can make a run in the tourney. Not just for this job.
-Dutcher-if hes going anywhere other then San Diago its MN

And maybe its too much homer in me....but can whomever the coach is....please get Trent Tucker on the staff. Hes the type of guy we need. Wasnt raised here. Played here. Played in the NBA. And came back here! He would do wonders selling the school and the twin cities in general to both recruits and parents. He has a vision of what this Bball program can be! Special Assistant and Director of Player Development or whatever position you want to give him.
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Yes, yes, yes to Tucker as assistant! That guy has a smile and personality to fill a room, and I can only imagine how well he would do in a recruit’s living room. Totally unrelated, but man, could that guy shoot. Memo to next coach: Could we please recruit a few shooters? It’s been a while since I’ve seen one of those wearing maroon and gold.
 


WoodburyTim said:
If I were Coyle I would just publicly announce that the next head coach of the Gophers is the coach of whatever team wins the Mountain West. Let's settle it on the court.
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Just watch all teams tank and agree to opt out for the rest of the season.
 






If we are talking about sons of past Gopher coaches, is Brent Haskins in the hunt for the job,too?
 



I was at the Barn when USD beat the Gophers a few years ago. I grew up in Vermillion, the home of USD. Smith is the real deal. Scott Nagy at Wright State and SDSU is a proven coach as well.
 

I can't decide between Dutcher and Smith if Musselman is not an option. Gates in there too. Niko lagging behind in my mind.

Like watching Dutchers team here. Looking forward to Utah St and Colorado St coming up. I expect Utah State to win that one.
 


MplsGopher said:
Believe it or not, Utah State was/is a pretty decent basketball program. Sure, they did a lot of their winning in the old Big West and WAC, I get that. And Smith has done a great job there, nothing can be taken away from him. He didn't take over directly from the longtime, winning coach. He took over for the first guy who did that, and had a fairly poor three year run.

And of course San Diego St is a very strong program, which Dutcher simply took over directly when it was already going pretty well.


Compare that to Niko: first three years building up Furman, a low-major program with I believe little historical success, then that fourth years I mentioned where they had a chance but choked in the SoCon tourny (no idea why, disappointing no doubt), then the next year he took over at Drake which was really bad the years before that and got them back to respectable, then took over for Colorado St, which had been meh since Tim Miles left for Nebraska. Spent two years rebuilding them, which brings us to this year.

I don't think it's quite fair to compare them as apples to apples. But you also can't take anything away from Smith. He had success right away at Utah St, and has continued to do so. He's due for a P5 job after this year, I think, no matter what.

Only question I think is: will it be Minnesota, or will it be somewhere else, like say U of Utah?
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I agree with this and that is what concerns me about both Dutcher and Smith. Right now, they are big fish in a fairly small pond. They have the better talent in the league. Medved has been the small fish in the pond and has found ways to have success. If any of them came to the U, they would all be the small fish in the BIG. They would have to up the quality of player to compete at the top of the conference. Medved has found a way to do it previously and if Thorson comes with him again, he may be able to find a way to do it again here.
 

kiedro said:
The winner of the Moutain West Conference Tournament should be our next coach.
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Not a huge fan of choosing a coach because they won the conf tourney. Thats great but mistakes happen that way also. I doubt Coyle will use that as his determining factor but who knows.
 

Agree with Gophs 24....think the list should be Musselman, Dutcher, Gates, Smith, and Nedved...in that order. In that scenario, I think our next coach is Dutcher but if that doesn;t work out for some reason, Gates is fallback plan #1 and Smith #2.
 

minny01 said:
I agree with this and that is what concerns me about both Dutcher and Smith. Right now, they are big fish in a fairly small pond. They have the better talent in the league. Medved has been the small fish in the pond and has found ways to have success. If any of them came to the U, they would all be the small fish in the BIG. They would have to up the quality of player to compete at the top of the conference. Medved has found a way to do it previously and if Thorson comes with him again, he may be able to find a way to do it again here.
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Lol Colorado State has more resources than Utah State. Calling it a “big fish” in a pond that has SDSU, UNLV, and New Mexico is pushing it. We can say he came into good players which may be true, but how come they didn’t win before him then? Watching the game last night was a great example of how well Smith coaches his team. His second half adjustments to Medved were mostly flawless. He also won at USD which is an incredibly low resourced D1 school too that honestly plays second fiddle to SDSU and a DII school (Northern State). I think it’s fair to worry if he would recruit high level talent, but he’s proven he can win above what he brings in.
 

manderson1984 said:
We can say he came into good players which may be true, but how come they didn’t win before him then?
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It's almost amazing, how different the two records were. I don't know if I've ever seen a step change like that, in a single transition.

You almost have to give any new coaching regime a year, at minimum, and just accept the first year is not going to be good.

But yet:

Tim Duryea (took over for USU's longtime, winning coach):
2015–16Utah State16–157–11T–8th
2016–17Utah State14–177–11T–8th
2017–18Utah State17–178–10T–7th
Utah State:47–49 (.490)22–32 (.407)

Craig Smith:
2018–19Utah State28–715–3T–1stNCAA Division I First Round
2019–20Utah State26–812–6T–2ndNCAA Division I*
2020–21Utah State18–714–42nd

And still have the rest of this year to go, as well.
 


Sodaksam said:
I was at the Barn when USD beat the Gophers a few years ago. I grew up in Vermillion, the home of USD. Smith is the real deal. Scott Nagy at Wright State and SDSU is a proven coach as well.
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I attended as well and what a miserable experience that was! I remember the collective groan when Murphy, who was already establishing himself as the team's best player at that point of his freshman year, fouled out.
 

MplsGopher said:
It's almost amazing, how different the two records were. I don't know if I've ever seen a step change like that, in a single transition.

You almost have to give any new coaching regime a year, at minimum, and just accept the first year is not going to be good.

But yet:

Tim Duryea (took over for USU's longtime, winning coach):
2015–16Utah State16–157–11T–8th
2016–17Utah State14–177–11T–8th
2017–18Utah State17–178–10T–7th
Utah State:47–49 (.490)22–32 (.407)

Craig Smith:
2018–19Utah State28–715–3T–1stNCAA Division I First Round
2019–20Utah State26–812–6T–2ndNCAA Division I*
2020–21Utah State18–714–42nd

And still have the rest of this year to go, as well.
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You've also touched on the moving conferences things that matter too. MW is tougher than the WAC. Smith turned it quick at USD too. It’s impressive. I wouldn’t count on it being so quick here as B1G is a different beast, but I do think it says something about your ability to coach when you can win with guys that aren’t “yours”. Even this year he lost Merrill and his PG (Porter). They struggled out of the gate in Sioux Falls, but once he got his rotations figured out, they’ve gotten better pretty much all year. That’s another sign to me that they develop guys well and create a culture of continual improvement.
 


manderson1984 said:
You've also touched on the moving conferences things that matter too. MW is tougher than the WAC. Smith turned it quick at USD too. It’s impressive. I wouldn’t count on it being so quick here as B1G is a different beast, but I do think it says something about your ability to coach when you can win with guys that aren’t “yours”. Even this year he lost Merrill and his PG (Porter). They struggled out of the gate in Sioux Falls, but once he got his rotations figured out, they’ve gotten better pretty much all year. That’s another sign to me that they develop guys well and create a culture of continual improvement.
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Yes, some interesting (to me) history:

- MW lost BYU and Utah after the 2010-11 season, and TCU after the 2011-12 season (not that they added much on the basketball side)
- Boise was added for 2011-12, and Fresno and Nevada for 2012-13
- then Utah St and San Jose St were added for 2013-14.

Stew Morrill's last two seasons were USU's first two in this (still current) iteration of the MW, and they were middle of the pack. But so were the previous two years, USU's last two in the WAC. Which in those years definitely seemed fairly weak.

Duryea was a long time assistant to Morrill. Had been at USU since 2001. Guess it made sense at the time to hire him.


Would've been interesting to see what would've happened if they had hired Smith in 2015. He only had one year at South Dakota, at that time.
 

I feel like I know more now about Utah State men's basketball than I ever thought I would need to know in my life.

And so that all but ensures we won't be hiring Smith.

#antijinx
 

Assuming Gates to BC, I rank the rest like this:

1- Musselman
2- Smith
3- Dutcher
4- Medved

I would support any of them. I wonder if any dark horses sneak into the mix.
 

mkAz said:
Assuming Gates to BC, I rank the rest like this:

1- Musselman
2- Smith
3- Dutcher
4- Medved

I would support any of them. I wonder if any dark horses sneak into the mix.
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I just don't see Muss as even reasonable to include in a ranking. But I suppose if you can name anyone you want, then he would have to go above Smith. Agree with the rest of your list. Don't see why we couldn't get 2 or 3, so looks like Medved is out.
 

Ignore the obvious and recall this is the U and all things obvious are for others. Ladies and gentlemen I give you BG coach Anthony Stacey.
 

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