Who is your "Home Run" hire?

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skiumah1 said:
This guy has a ridiculously good resume. I don't know if he just doesn't want to coach in college or if it's just too easy in Canada where ADs don't trust it.
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He coaches the right way.His players would exceed expectations. If he had the right players they’d win a ton of meaningful games. Maybe he doesn’t want to come to the US, but any AD should reach out
 

Who remembers this? If you want to go down memory lane, it Teague starts at 3:50 and then RP about 30 seconds later.

His "brand" of basketball talk and how "everyone" will play freely comment (so no dog house im guessing) is funny now. Actually his entire opening speech is hilarious. He should go to a mid-major.

 

SanDiegoGopherFan said:
Who remembers this? If you want to go down memory lane, it Teague starts at 3:50 and then RP about 30 seconds later.

His "brand" of basketball talk and how "everyone" will play freely comment (so no dog house im guessing) is funny now. Actually his entire opening speech is hilarious. He should go to a mid-major.

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I wonder how many thought of him as a "home run" hire then
 


SanDiegoGopherFan said:
I wonder how many thought of him as a "home run" hire then
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He was viewed as a hopeful, an up-and-comer who may or may not work out but who would be cheap and low-risk for the time being. He was in the third tier of candidates, if I recall correctly, after Teague had struck out with everyone else.
 



builtbadgers said:
Exactly. It was a desperation hire with Teague hoping the name would win the press conference.
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In fairness, he pulled a rabbit out of a hat in his year at FIU, taking the dumpster fire left by Thomas and producing one of the more impressive turnarounds in the country. And the team's grades markedly improved, which was another selling point. He scrambled to throw a roster together late, and it turned out well. When he came here, he scrambled to throw a roster together, and again it worked out. They were in NCAA contention most of the year, and he and his staff coached the team well on their NIT run.

Naturally we were all enthused about what he might accomplish once he wasn't in scramble mode with the roster, but a funny thing happened on the way to stability: it never stabilized. It's safe to assume that maybe scramble mode is what he does well, and longer-term roster management is not. He continues to lean heavily on the scramble, relying on transfers to fill gaping holes in the lineup--obviously a high-risk proposition.

Also, his second season here should have been better than the first with what they returned, but they underperformed. It was the first second season he'd ever had coaching a team, so he was in new territory. Maybe the sugar high of trying to compete on the fly and by the seat of your pants isn't sustainable. Then the disastrous third year, one of the worst in program history. That popped the bubble for many of us as far as him being some kind of prodigy. And make no mistake, he was hired in the hope that we were catching a prodigy on the way up. Many people buy his explanation that the disastrous third season was unavoidable, but I never have. As much as I was on board with moving on from Smith, I believe the program would never have dipped that low under him. You owe it to your fans to not put them through such a debacle.
 


Bad Gopher said:
He was viewed as a hopeful, an up-and-comer who may or may not work out but who would be cheap and low-risk for the time being. He was in the third tier of candidates, if I recall correctly, after Teague had struck out with everyone else.
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Wasn't it assumed part of the reason Teague the sleazeball was even hired was that it would be automatic that he'd bring Shaka with him from VCU?
 



We need to find someone who is willing to accept a back loaded contract like $800,000 the first year than $500,000 increments for 3(?) years. Unless MC can find some alumnus willing to kick in major dollars I don’t see any change.
 

Whoever the coach is, put Harvey Mackay in charge of recruiting and train the whole staff on the meaning of "plausible deniability." With adequate funding this will work......I expect Baylor is a good example of this....unless all these players dreamed of going to a Baptist school in Waco, Texas.
 

AgedFan said:
Whoever the coach is, put Harvey Mackay in charge of recruiting and train the whole staff on the meaning of "plausible deniability." With adequate funding this will work......I expect Baylor is a good example of this....unless all these players dreamed of going to a Baptist school in Waco, Texas.
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Their football program under Art Briles too.

Squeaky clean as a virgin's honeypot.
 




LesBolstad said:
Please no, too old.
And no Dutcher either.
Someone under 50 who actually played basketball at a fairly high level would be good.
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Why would someone be too old for this job? The whole young players can only relate to other young people is silly. Young players relate to good coaching and passion. Watching Brad Underwood's guys play with intelligence, passion and skill while our guys wandered around looking for a young coach to relate too, was pretty evident yesterday.
 

AgedFan said:
Whoever the coach is, put Harvey Mackay in charge of recruiting and train the whole staff on the meaning of "plausible deniability." With adequate funding this will work......I expect Baylor is a good example of this....unless all these players dreamed of going to a Baptist school in Waco, Texas.
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You could apply this to Kansas, LSU and Arizona too. No accountability, so why keep playing by the rules?
 

Pete smith said:
We need to find someone who is willing to accept a back loaded contract like $800,000 the first year than $500,000 increments for 3(?) years. Unless MC can find some alumnus willing to kick in major dollars I don’t see any change.
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It is a good thing that Pete smith is not the U of M AD.
 


Hire the head coach from one of the MN High Schools and be done with it. The administration obviously doesn't care about MBB so just show it.
 

LesBolstad said:
Please no, too old.
And no Dutcher either.
Someone under 50 who actually played basketball at a fairly high level would be good.
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None of your criteria guarantees anything. Age is a number only. There are plenty of people without passion, intuition, perception, the ability to solve problems and teach who are young or old.
Playing any sport at a high level is often a handicap. It came easy to that person....they had God given gifts in many cases,,,while somebody who played without those same athletic talents had to compensate by competing...finding a way. They often have more patience and understanding for someone who isn't immediately successful in developing them into a better player. The star athlete turned coach often has no patience or understanding why their players aren't instantly able to do what they once could and both are easily frustrated. A lot of examples of great players who can't coach a lick.
 

Pete smith said:
We need to find someone who is willing to accept a back loaded contract like $800,000 the first year than $500,000 increments for 3(?) years. Unless MC can find some alumnus willing to kick in major dollars I don’t see any change.
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Pitino's salary is $2.5 million. The idea they can only pay $800k is silly. They really have two choices:

Fire Pitino, pay $1.75 m buyout. Pay new coach buyout, let say $750k, pay new coach $2.5 m. Total outlay $5m.

Keep Pitino. Sign him to paper extension that leaves buyout the same. Pay him $2.5 million. Lose $2.5 million in lost ticket sales. Fire Pitino one year from now, paying the same $2.5 m in buyouts they would today. Total outlay $7.5 million.

It shouldn't be a hard choice.
 

^^ you hope like hell that Coyle and the CFO for the athletic dept (yes, they have one) can do this simple calculation.
 



Thad Matta would be the one guy I'd consider a homerun hire, in fact I'd consider him an out of the park grand slam of a hire. God, that guy, all he does is win. 17 years as a head coach, and he *averages* 26 wins per season. His one year at Butler, a first place conference finish while leading them to the round of 32 in the NCAA tournament. He then gets hired away by Xavier, and in his first two seasons there he again wins his conference while taking the Bulldogs to the round of 32 and then in the third season to the Elite Eight. He then takes over at Ohio State with his initial team there being ineligible for postseason play, but he wins the conference the next season (round of 32), wins the conference his third season (in which they go 15-1 in conferece, 35-4 overall and lose the NCAA championship game to Florida), and then it's just more of the same, that being lots and lots of winning. Man, just the thought of a coach who in 13 seasons won the Big Ten conference five times is remarkable.

It's just the terrible problems he has with his back, and whether those will allow him to coach and recruit at full speed ever again. He was so wracked with constant pain by the end of his tenure at OSU that I couldn't help but feel badly for the guy. But RE: coaching, it's not like he's completely closed the door on returning to it, as he was in deep negotiations with Georgia and fairly deep ones with Ole Miss over taking over their vacant positions in the past few years, and is rumored to be at least somewhat in the mix for the open Wichita State job right now.

I don't know, but he would be the best coach we've ever had here, and if he were to come here, I'd flip right the hell out. That chili would be cooking hot, hot, HOT.
 

Seany said:
Thad Matta would be the one guy I'd consider a homerun hire, in fact I'd consider him an out of the park grand slam of a hire. God, that guy, all he does is win. 17 years as a head coach, and he *averages* 26 wins per season. His one year at Butler, a first place conference finish while leading them to the round of 32 in the NCAA tournament. He then gets hired away by Xavier, and in his first two seasons there he again wins his conference while taking the Bulldogs to the round of 32 and then in the third season to the Elite Eight. He then takes over at Ohio State with his initial team there being ineligible for postseason play, but he wins the conference the next season (round of 32), wins the conference his third season (in which they go 15-1 in conferece, 35-4 overall and lose the NCAA championship game to Florida), and then it's just more of the same, that being lots and lots of winning. Man, just the thought of a coach who in 13 seasons won the Big Ten conference five times is remarkable.

It's just the terrible problems he has with his back, and whether those will allow him to coach and recruit at full speed ever again. He was so wracked with constant pain by the end of his tenure at OSU that I couldn't help but feel badly for the guy. But RE: coaching, it's not like he's completely closed the door on returning to it, as he was in deep negotiations with Georgia and fairly deep ones with Ole Miss over taking over their vacant positions in the past few years, and is rumored to be at least somewhat in the mix for the open Wichita State job right now.

I don't know, but he would be the best coach we've ever had here, and if he were to come here, I'd flip right the hell out. That chili would be cooking hot, hot, HOT.
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Would love but the timing would have to be right. I think if he wants back in this would be a job he would take. But his health was so bad at the end...not sure if he wants back in.

I could see him being the next indiana coach in 2-3 years
 

Some guy said:
Would love but the timing would have to be right. I think if he wants back in this would be a job he would take. But his health was so bad at the end...not sure if he wants back in.

I could see him being the next indiana coach in 2-3 years
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He'd give us just massive and instant credibility straight off the bat, and I just keep thinking/hoping that maybe having so much in-state basketball talent to potentially work with might be a determining or swaying factor in someone like Matta coming here.

He has proven he can win and win really, really big in this conference, and to me that puts him head and shoulders above everybody else.
 


Seany said:
He'd give us just massive and instant credibility straight off the bat, and I just keep thinking/hoping that maybe having so much in-state basketball talent to potentially work with might be a determining or swaying factor in someone like Matta coming here.

He has proven he can win and win really, really big in this conference, and to me that puts him head and shoulders above everybody else.
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I agree
 

MennoSota said:
...Ryan Saunders...
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He might be looking for a job after this year. However he may want to stay with the big boys somewhere. Not really sure how good of a coach he is though. MennoSota probably stuck Saunders name out there for reactions in my opinion.
 

I'm not seeing solid home run hires that would be available here this year. Probably puts us in a bad position as to recruiting, players will wonder how long Pitino will be around.
 

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