Next Gopher Head Coach

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WriterGoph said:
As far as Dutcher, I think there might be interest, but I think Coyle has some legit concerns about his age and the fact that Dutcher hasn't had to recruit Minnesota or even the Midwest really for a long time.
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This is a great point. Dutcher is a MN guy in the sense that he has fond feelings for MN...but he has no connections here anymore in the basketball world. Medved particularly has more local recruiting ties, and Craig Smith to a lesser extent. Dennis Gates has strong Chicago connections, which would be nice.

I care a lot more about connections to HS coaches in football, though, when you are regularly signing classes of 25+ guys. In basketball, I want a guy who can forge a connection with a kid and his family and possibly AAU coach. We typically sign 2-5 guys every year so it is much more about those individual relationships. It's why I'm interested in Dennis Gates, and don't particularly care that he does not have MN connections. He seems like a guy that builds a bond and kids respect and want to play for. I want that.
 


A couple more pieces of info regarding my convo with my friend with the Gates' connection:

-- Just found out that he still works for Florida State; just now in the athletic department. So take that FWIW, but could be a little local bias going on from his side as far as Gates having his eyes on returning.

-- Despite the possibility of being Hamilton's successor he says "I think he would be a great hire! Energy through the roof and will hire the right staff around him."
 

WriterGoph said:
So I asked my buddy "How instrumental was Gates in recruiting at FSU?"

"He was huge in recruiting. Found Mfiondu Kabengele, who was a 6'2 skinny ass kid. Ends up being 6'9 ACC Sixth Man of the Year and a 1st round pick. He closed the deal on (lottery pick) Jonathan Isaacs as well. He can recruit his ass off. Connections everywhere. Chicago guy. Godparent of his kids is Quentin Richardson (former longtime NBA player). Worked for Crean at Marquette."
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He worked for Tom Crean? Okay. He's off my list.
 

Some guy said:
Grant would be an awful hire. I don’t want to replace a guy who was mediocre at a p6 with another guy who’s as mediocre at a p6

would rather hire someone I’ve never heard of than grant
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For the record, in 2020 Grant won:

Naismith College Coach of the Year
AP National Coach of the Year
Henry Iba Award
NABC Coach of the Year
Sporting News National Coach of the Year
 



I don't know what it is about Crean. He might be a great guy, for all I know, but he bugged me. Kind of like Fran does now.
 

WriterGoph said:
I think if you think Gates has the right mix of energy, knowledge and recruiting prowess (which we know Coyle values), you have to try and capture lightning in a bottle. You take the chance he does well and you can keep him and roll the dice that he may decide to go somewhere else. I don't think Coyle seems like the guy who would want to play it safe and hire a guy who he thinks might be content here longer. That is more of a Maturi-style hire.
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I wouldn't call Brewster a "play it safe" hire. Maturi was more of a "pay low for the HC and even lower for the assistants" type of AD.
 





WriterGoph said:
Buddy, I will personally guarantee you we are not getting Musselman or Dutcher. Other than local radio guys in their 60s who are no more tied into the current AD than you or I are, nobody has been saying anything about either of these guys actually being interested. Trust me, there are people on this board who are more dialed in than Reusse or Barreiro. These fools both lost any special access privileges they had a decade ago. Why would the AD want to feed leaks or info to columnists or radio guys who constantly try and breed negativity about their university and programs? Just take a second to think on that one...

Do yourself and your mental health a favor and let go of the pipe (dreams) and focus on this list:

Gates
Smith
Medved
Moser
Grant
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Wow - keep yelling at people. And, like it or not, both of those guys are still plugged in.
 


McPeePants said:
For the record, in 2020 Grant won:

Naismith College Coach of the Year
AP National Coach of the Year
Henry Iba Award
NABC Coach of the Year
Sporting News National Coach of the Year
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True.
credit him for developing Toppin

In his last 10 years as a head coach he has 2 NCAA appearances

only 1 if you don’t give him credit for last year (I assume they get in last year even with a conf tourney loss).


Pitino was big ten coach of the year. Maybe we should hire him.
 



Ozzy&Ray said:
Wow - keep yelling at people. And, like it or not, both of those guys are still plugged in.
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Turn your hearing aids down. Nobody is doing any yelling. I'm sharing the info I have, which is more than a lot of people are doing. I'm actually reaching out to people I know who - in real life - have connections and experience with some of these candidates. My bad for trying to contribute to the info available on this message board. I should have just known it was solely for reckless speculation and pissing matches.

It's just frustrating to see how obsessed some people are getting with something that isn't realistic. I think it's setting some up for a letdown, when in reality, Coyle will very likely get his #1 target.
 

WriterGoph said:
Turn your hearing aids down. Nobody is doing any yelling. I'm sharing the info I have, which is more than a lot of people are doing. I'm actually reaching out to people I know who - in real life - have connections and experience with some of these candidates. My bad for trying to contribute to the info available on this message board. I should have just known it was solely for reckless speculation and pissing matches.

It's just frustrating to see how obsessed some people are getting with something that isn't realistic. I think it's setting some up for a letdown, when in reality, Coyle will very likely get his #1 target.
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You're sharing info you have. You're also talking in absolutes. Some of us also know some people which may differ in what they are hearing, and we aren't yelling to the world about those. It's all fluid right now.
 





Ozzy&Ray said:
You're sharing info you have. You're also talking in absolutes. Some of us also know some people which may differ in what they are hearing, and we aren't yelling to the world about those. It's all fluid right now.
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Of course it's reasonable to be loyal to your sources. We'll see how it plays out in the next 5-9 days
 

tmvander said:
The whole coaches are going to leave for greener pastures bit does not need to be a concern at MN until it happens. I'm 35 and think its happened once in my life when i was a little kid.
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Lou!
 


tmvander said:
The whole coaches are going to leave for greener pastures bit does not need to be a concern at MN until it happens. I'm 35 and think its happened once in my life when i was a little kid.
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Because our major sport coaches have largely failed (to attract attention of bigger programs), and then got fired.

When was the last time a Minnesota football or basketball coach did well enough to move up?


It will be, of course, exactly what happens to Minnesota: finally get a good one, and he's gone after year three.
 

YellingTomThibs said:
Everyone on here needs to stop talking like they know Muss. The "old fart radio personalities" Ruesse, Barreiro, and Walters all were good friends with Bill, and they all have relationships with Eric to this day. If they are pushing his name out there and saying that he can be had, we should trust they have good reason to believe so.

Muss still has a number of connections to Minneapolis. He was an assistant with the Wolves, his dad coached here, he spent part of his childhood in Minnesota, and he has many friends and professional relationships in the city. It was also reported on here a few years ago that Musselman's brother (Bill's son) was working as a student manager at the U. Eric was scheduled to interview for the gophers job 8 years ago (Barreiro reported that the interview was canceled at the last minute when the U decided to hire Pitino). It was consistently rumored that Eric had interest in the Gophers job while at Nevada.

Eric clearly is having a ton of fun at Arkansas this season. Maybe in the end the success they've had this year outweighs any ties to MN. But, he had no prior connections to Arkansas. He's never been someone to get tied down to a job. He and his wife said that they loved Nevada and weren't going anywhere days before he accepted the Arkansas job.

Long story short, it shouldn't be assumed he's out of the picture. The U wasn't just some random place his dad coached, it was the most successful high-level coaching job he ever had. Coyle should take a swing at the home run hire and if it doesn't work out, move on to the next name on the list.
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Thank you for this. There is a ridiculous amount of claims being thrown out there. Fair enough if people think Muss or Dutcher won't come here. It just doesn't mean anything to me until neither are officially hired if that does end up being the case.

So many contradictions on here and this idea the U of M and will get turned down by everybody. That's just not true. Feels like some of us on here are on uncomfortable with the idea of the U actually hiring a decent coach. Crazy.
 
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Blitzkrieg said:
I'm pretty sure Guyfawkes has inside info that were getting Shaka Smart from Texas. I swear I heard that somewhere...
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He was at The Vu enjoying the buffet. I'm not sure how Teague screwed it up.
 


Full Speed Ahead said:
I wouldn't call Brewster a "play it safe" hire. Maturi was more of a "pay low for the HC and even lower for the assistants" type of AD.
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Brewster was more of a "I fired my coach 4 weeks after everyone else did, I'm screwed" kind of hire. Coyle did the same thing, but either had it pre-arranged or got lucky.
 

skiumah1 said:
Thank you for this. There is a ridiculous amount of claims being thrown out there. Fair enough if people think Muss or Dutcher won't come here. It just doesn't mean anything to me until neither are officially hired if that does end up being the case.

So many contradictions on here and this idea the U of M and will get turned down by everybody. That's just not true. Feels like some of us on here are on uncomfortable with the idea of the U actually hiring a decent coach. Crazy.
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Minnesotans can't get their hopes up. It's unnatural and unsettling.
 

skiumah1 said:
Thank you for this. There is a ridiculous amount of claims being thrown out there. Fair enough if people think Muss or Dutcher won't come here. It just doesn't mean anything to me until neither are officially hired if that does end up being the case.

So many contradictions on here and this idea the U of M and will get turned down by everybody. That's just not true. Feels like some of us on here are on uncomfortable with the idea of the U actually hiring a decent coach. Crazy.
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Where did anyone say that "the U will get turned down by everybody"? Can you show me any of those posts? I didn't see them.

-- A number of different people have stated that they don't believe Musselman is coming here. Far and away, his name is mentioned the most as an unlikely hire.

-- Other than that, a couple of people have said they don't think Dutcher will leave SDSU at this point in his career for Minnesota, but other people said that they think Coyle has some hesitations about Dutcher.

By my count, that is one candidate who at least a solid number of people don't think is a viable candidate. Other than that, sounds like a lot of very good names who have been contacted and/or expressed some interest.
 

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