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I am having a hard time coming up with anyone who the board would think is "realistic" that I feel as good about as I did Fred Hoiberg and Eric Musselman. Ideally, I want someone who has a track record of success at a program long enough that it was done with his players. I also want that coach to have experience landing high major players and would prefer that he's placed some guys in the NBA. Bonus points to guys like Hoiberg or Musselman who have done it at a school that wasn't successful prior to their arrival.

It seems ridiculous (and even more unlikely considering who is reporting it) but Doogie has said in multiple interviews on different stations that Scott Drew would be interested. Baylor is considered the 9th best job out of 10 in the Big 12 per Jeff Goodman (only Texas Tech was lower in his survey and that was before the Tech Final Four run) and he just set a record for the most consecutive wins in Big 12 history. He's had 8 winning conference seasons at Baylor, two Elite Eights, two Sweet 16's....and he's got Dain Dainja committed to him for next year while Baylor has spent a ton of time in the top 5 this year. I don't see any reason why Baylor wouldn't just pay him $4-5 million a year and lock him up, but thought it was at least worth sharing. Personally, I don't want to fall in to the trap of expecting a name like this to be attainable. For the most part, coaches don't move in college basketball anymore. You have to hope for a coach that's already available (like Hoiberg last year) or hope that a coach wants to move because he's unhappy (like Buzz Williams from Marquette to Va Tech for example).

One thing we do have going for us is that John Calipari speaks very highly of Mark Coyle. When Coyle got the AD job at Syracuse, Calipari went out of his way to say how happy Boeheim would be with Coyle as his AD and how good Coyle was for/to him at UK. Having an ally like Cal (and maybe Boeheim) could do nothing but help getting a guy that may look unattainable to make the move to the Twin Cities.

For now, I've kind of been going over the resumes of various mid major guys like Craig Smith/Steve Forbes/Matt McMahon and comparing/contrasting.
 




Seeing that I'm sure Coyle is using Gopherhole to select the next coach, I'll throw my vote for Bob Richey of Furman. I like his style of coaching, including the holistic approach of improving the person, not just the player. Here's one article on his approach...
 

I understand he doesn't have the proven success of some, and I know he's been mentioned by plenty of others here, but I'm really liking the idea of Niko Medved. I'm looking to watch Colorado State play this weekend in their conference tournament. He's a younger guy (46). Born and raised in Minnesota. Did a great job turning Furman around in 4 years. Has Colorado St. on the rise in year 2 already. Also has a staff that he brings with him that is fantastic. Dave Thorson (DeLaSalle) champion for years. Then Farokmanesh and JR Blount have followed him from Drake to Colorado State as well. I assume the whole staff would come here. This seems meant to be for this Minnesota-based staff.

What is the input on Medved and making this happen?
 

skiumah1 said:
I understand he doesn't have the proven success of some, and I know he's been mentioned by plenty of others here, but I'm really liking the idea of Niko Medved. I'm looking to watch Colorado State play this weekend in their conference tournament. He's a younger guy (46). Born and raised in Minnesota. Did a great job turning Furman around in 4 years. Has Colorado St. on the rise in year 2 already. Also has a staff that he brings with him that is fantastic. Dave Thorson (DeLaSalle) champion for years. Then Farokmanesh and JR Blount have followed him from Drake to Colorado State as well. I assume the whole staff would come here. This seems meant to be for this Minnesota-based staff.

What is the input on Medved and making this happen?
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There are better candidates in the MWC
 





skiumah1 said:
I understand he doesn't have the proven success of some, and I know he's been mentioned by plenty of others here, but I'm really liking the idea of Niko Medved. I'm looking to watch Colorado State play this weekend in their conference tournament. He's a younger guy (46). Born and raised in Minnesota. Did a great job turning Furman around in 4 years. Has Colorado St. on the rise in year 2 already. Also has a staff that he brings with him that is fantastic. Dave Thorson (DeLaSalle) champion for years. Then Farokmanesh and JR Blount have followed him from Drake to Colorado State as well. I assume the whole staff would come here. This seems meant to be for this Minnesota-based staff.

What is the input on Medved and making this happen?
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Never been to an NCAA tournament. .500 in the MVC. Colorado St.is right now tied for 5th in the MVC. I don't think this is the next Fleck for Coyle.
 

bga1 said:
Never been to an NCAA tournament. .500 in the MVC. Colorado St.is right now tied for 5th in the MVC. I don't think this is the next Fleck for Coyle.
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MVC??
 




GopherWeatherGuy said:
Dutcher and Smith, but Dutcher isn’t coming here.
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I can understand Dutcher, but I'm goin Medved over Smith. Also only in year 2 at Colorado St. I'm thinking they only get better year 3 and 4 when most coaches are expected to make the jump.
 

bga1 said:
Never been to an NCAA tournament. .500 in the MVC. Colorado St.is right now tied for 5th in the MVC. I don't think this is the next Fleck for Coyle.
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Fleck was a home run. Who's that guy then?
 


Livingat45north said:
Bob Richey
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He coached and learned under Medved. Medved re-made that program. Not saying he can't coach. Colorado State's gonna be very good next year. Medved is basically playing all his guys already in year 2 with multiple transfers sitting out that will play next year. 20 wins in year 2 at CSU is nice.
 

Was listening to either KFAN or SKOR NORTH the other day and one of 'em mentioned Scott Drew with possible interest. Is there any truth to this or are we just getting ridiculous takes?
 

Asking because I legitimately have 0 idea. If we got Niko and Thoreson came with how would that effect local recruiting? He obviously came from DeLaSalle which would lead you to believe we have an in there but going up against the AV's, Hopkins, CDH's,etc of the world all those years I was not sure how other coaches saw him, good or bad. Or how local AAU programs got along with him. Part of me thinks it would be a huge boost, but I could also understand if years of competition had him not on a friendly basis with other local coaches/schools/AAU programs.
 

skiumah1 said:
I can understand Dutcher, but I'm goin Medved over Smith. Also only in year 2 at Colorado St. I'm thinking they only get better year 3 and 4 when most coaches are expected to make the jump.
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Why? Craig Smith took over a .500 program at Utah St and won a conference title his first year. Every team he's taken over has seen an immediate improvement from the previous year. Smith has 4 conference titles in 9 years as a head coach and a career 202-99 record.

Medved has won one conference title in 7 years as a head coach, and has a sub .500, 111-118 career coaching record. So how is Medved better?
 

leib0039 said:
Asking because I legitimately have 0 idea. If we got Niko and Thoreson came with how would that effect local recruiting? He obviously came from DeLaSalle which would lead you to believe we have an in there but going up against the AV's, Hopkins, CDH's,etc of the world all those years I was not sure how other coaches saw him, good or bad. Or how local AAU programs got along with him. Part of me thinks it would be a huge boost, but I could also understand if years of competition had him not on a friendly basis with other local coaches/schools/AAU programs.
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Dave is a incredible coach and person. the level of respect he has from other coaches is real. Old school. Harps on locking people down defensively.
 

GopherWeatherGuy said:
Why? Craig Smith took over a .500 program at Utah St and won a conference title his first year. Every team he's taken over has seen an immediate improvement from the previous year. Smith has 4 titles in 9 years as a head coach and a career 202-99 record.

Medved has won one conference title in 7 years as a head coach, and has a sub .500, 111-118 career coaching record. So how is Medved better?
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Medved rebuilt a brutal Furman program. Has Colorado State at 20 wins in year 2 with the majority of production coming from his guys already. More transfers waiting to come in next year.
Smith has been successful and I'm not saying it wouldn't work out, but he's getting it done with the majority of guys that he inherited at Utah State. 1 or 2 guys giving minor minutes that he has brought into the program. I don't know if he can sustain success with recruiting at a high level program.
 

leib0039 said:
Asking because I legitimately have 0 idea. If we got Niko and Thoreson came with how would that effect local recruiting? He obviously came from DeLaSalle which would lead you to believe we have an in there but going up against the AV's, Hopkins, CDH's,etc of the world all those years I was not sure how other coaches saw him, good or bad. Or how local AAU programs got along with him. Part of me thinks it would be a huge boost, but I could also understand if years of competition had him not on a friendly basis with other local coaches/schools/AAU programs.
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I've also heard nothing but good things that people have to say about Thorson.
 

skiumah1 said:
Medved rebuilt a brutal Furman program. Has Colorado State at 20 wins in year 2 with the majority of production coming from his guys already. More transfers waiting to come in next year.
Smith has been successful and I'm not saying it wouldn't work out, but he's getting it done with the majority of guys that he inherited at Utah State. 1 or 2 guys giving minor minutes that he has brought into the program. I don't know if he can sustain success with recruiting at a high level program.
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There is no debate about whether or not he can coach.
 

skiumah1 said:
Medved rebuilt a brutal Furman program. Has Colorado State at 20 wins in year 2 with the majority of production coming from his guys already. More transfers waiting to come in next year.
Smith has been successful and I'm not saying it wouldn't work out, but he's getting it done with the majority of guys that he inherited at Utah State. 1 or 2 guys giving minor minutes that he has brought into the program. I don't know if he can sustain success with recruiting at a high level program.
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Every program Smith has taken over was bad before he got there. 3 of Utah St's top 4 scorers are sophomore's, and players have improved significantly after he's taken over. He also recruited Matt Mooney to South Dakota, who ended up transferring to Texas Tech and starting on their team that went to the national championship game last year after Smith left.

His resume is significantly better than Medved and it's not close.

And the cherry on top for those who insist a new coach should have Minnesota connections, both Smith and his wife are from NW MN.
 


GopherWeatherGuy said:
Every program Smith has taken over was bad before he got there. 3 of Utah St's top 4 scorers are sophomore's, and players have improved significantly after he's taken over. He also recruited Matt Mooney to South Dakota, who ended up transferring to Texas Tech and starting on their team that went to the national championship game last year after Smith left.

His resume is significantly better than Medved and it's not close.

And the cherry on top for those who insist a new coach should have Minnesota connections, both Smith and his wife are from NW MN.
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Smith has a nice resume for sure. I'm taking Medved. If Smith is hired, I'll be on the train.
 

GopherWeatherGuy said:
Every program Smith has taken over was bad before he got there. 3 of Utah St's top 4 scorers are sophomore's, and players have improved significantly after he's taken over. He also recruited Matt Mooney to South Dakota, who ended up transferring to Texas Tech and starting on their team that went to the national championship game last year after Smith left.

His resume is significantly better than Medved and it's not close.

And the cherry on top for those who insist a new coach should have Minnesota connections, both Smith and his wife are from NW MN.
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I know you were not making this point directly to support Smith. So I'm not attacking your point directly here.....But if a guy has had a meal in Minnesota, could that check the "Minnesota Connection" box so then we can move on to the more important "Can he build a program" box?
 

skiumah1 said:
Was listening to either KFAN or SKOR NORTH the other day and one of 'em mentioned Scott Drew with possible interest. Is there any truth to this or are we just getting ridiculous takes?
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I don't care if there is. He's dirty IMO and we will regret it.
 

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