WindyCityGopher
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Not a fan of hiring assistants. But to each their own!
They wouldn’t announce a hire of a coach who hasn’t ended his season with the team he’s currently coaching. I guess in football, some coaches will leave their team before the bowl game, but there’s usually at least a 2-3 week gap between regular season and bowl game, if not about a month in some cases. I could be wrong, but I don’t think it’s common for a head basketball coach to leave his current job before their postseason games have ended.I'm not seeing why it would matter that the coach he wants is still in the tourney. Please explain like I'm five.
Also does PSU pay enough to really pull a better coach with HC experience?
Fan support is awful. No local recruiting base. Villanova and Pitt are better programs in-state (though Pitt is marginal at this point.)Why is it so tough to win in men's bball at Penn St? It can't be for lack of resources?
And it can't be because the football program is so dominate (see Ohio St and Michigan).
Seems like they should be similar to Iowa? Where football rules and they don't have a major urban area, and most people who live around there and most students are white. But they still do win a good amount?
Well, as to the "better" qualification, I can't say but PSU definitely would pay enough to attract a head coach with some decent experience at a lower level. Penn State's compensation for a BB coach might be the lowest in the conference but it would still have to be at least a million. For comparison purposes, the Mountain West conference salaries are only about 50%-60% of that and I would expect that the MW conference is one of the better paying mid-major conferences.
Now, whether that is enough to find a coach who will make a significant difference in their success, I have significant doubts (at least as long as they stay in this conference). Here are the overall winning percentages (not in-conference winning percentages) of their coaches (not including the acting coach this season) since joining the Big Ten:
Pat Chambers (.497, 9 years)
Ed DeChellis (.452, 8 years)
Jerry Dunn (.492, 8 years)
Bruce Parkhill (.477, 3 years in the Big Ten).
Now we know why they held on to Pat Chambers as long as they did.
For comparison purposes, Pitino's 8 year overall winning percentage at Minnesota is .534 and most of us consider that terrible. Tubby's was .605. Monson's was .527.
Obviously, Penn State has been a very, very tough place to win with any consistency in the sport for at least as long as they've been in the Big Ten. They would be better off going back to the Atlantic 10 but the basketball program is a sacrifice for the football program's ambitions.
To make a significant difference, I think they would have to pony up enough to get a John Calipari level recruiter.
I also think their closest good recruiting pool is more inclined to stay in the larger east coast cities. In addition to your list and in no particular order: Rutgers, Maryland, Temple, St. John's, Georgetown, Syracuse, UConn, etc.Fan support is awful. No local recruiting base. Villanova and Pitt are better programs in-state (though Pitt is marginal at this point.)
Fan support is awful. No local recruiting base. Villanova and Pitt are better programs in-state (though Pitt is marginal at this point.)
Sort of unrelated, but 3 of my favorite B1G players in the last 10 years or so have been PSU guys. DJ Newbill, Lamar Stephens, and Tim Frazier. Newbill and Stephens are actually Philly kids. All were so much fun to watch.Yes, that pretty much covers it. I think that maybe the biggest reason they kept the faith in Pat Chambers as long as they did is that he was the first coach (at least that I recall) who was able to recruit significantly from the greater Philadelphia area. Historically, the best ones tended to go to ACC schools with some occasional really good ones and secondary talents going to the local colleges (Temple, Villanova, LaSalle, St. Joes, and occasionally Penn when it was still a player).
Sort of unrelated, but 3 of my favorite B1G players in the last 10 years or so have been PSU guys. DJ Newbill, Lamar Stephens, and Tim Frazier. Newbill and Stephens are actually Philly kids. All were so much fun to watch.