Chris Mack, to which I say: lol
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I think the UVa basketball program is at a stature where we are past the point where the best option is taking chances on upcoming mid-major coaches. Tony put the Virginia program into a top 10 job.
Honestly, Oats is at the top of my list. An $18 million buyout is big, but his salary is not out of line. If we struggle this year a bit, I can see the $ being raised. No matter how good he is there, Alabama football is the only sport that matters in Tuscaloosa. He can put our program at the top within two years - $18 million is chump change to have him for the next 15 years (he’s just 50). He’s from Wisconsin for gawd’s sake - only question for me is whether he and admissions can co-exist.
Second call is to Shaka. Sure he’s got a sweet gig at Marquette, but it’s a way stop job. Crean was there for 9 years, but since Al Maguire left almost 50 years ago, the average tenure as HC is 4 years (including Crean’s 9 but not counting Shaka).
Third, Drew from Baylor. He considered UK (or at least had his wife consider it). They didn’t like the nuttiness that comes with UK, but seems like they’d love Charlottesville - aren’t he and Tony somewhat close as coaches? He’s 54, with 21 years at Baylor and that is a lot to overcome, but he’s struggled a bit since the Natty and might decide a change of scenery would be nice.
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Oats is not an option at UVA. Do you not remember the way he handled the Darius Miles Brandon Miller stuff? Of any coach in the country, I would actually say he is the least likely candidate.
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I remember and was very critical. I’m sure it would have been handled differently at UVa, I suspect Oats got a lot of “support” from his admin to keep him on the team given what Alabama was shooting for in the NCAA that year. I’d ask him in the interview, why? Probably would be instructive, but I don’t think that it’s an automatic “no way” for me.
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Might not be an automatic “no way” from you or others in the fanbase, but it would almost certainly be a no way from our administration. History has shown they really don’t fuck around with any preexisting scandal in coaching searches.
Oats ain’t happening. Neither is Scott Drew. Both are in positions in college basketball that are more favorable than our current standing.
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Now way, not touching that. He’s shown his colors. Why would you go with the anti-Tony just a year on from his “retirement”.
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If Oats didn’t want UK he’s not leaving for UVA lol he would not even pick up if we called
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In today’s climate, what’s more important for a mid major candidate? Winning consistently, or consistently identifying and developing players that become productive high major players after transferring?
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Yeah this is not a do we want them discussion. There is no chance any of those coaches would want to come to UVA. We are the 4th or 5th best conference right now with 4th or 5th best money. Yall need to come way down on those dreams. Shaka is a legit phone call because of his conference but even that is a long shot
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No doubt we are at a stature that coaches like Shaka and Drew might take a look, and we should be looking too. I think as others have mentioned there would be friction in the way the school does business vs how Oats does things. More importantly the gulf between SEC school resources and ACC resources are huge. I do not think we are pulling in any good SEC or Big 10 coaches.
Edit: “any” is too big a statement. Not many I should say.
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Agree with all the realism stated above, but the title of the thread does have the word Speculation in it.
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Not saying Oats would come or Drew - just speculating why they might take the call. But as to the auto disqualification issue, Oats is a lot more Tony Bennett than one would think, but I think we equate him with the Muss-Bus or Pearl. He’s definitely not those guys.
I seem to remember HGN way back identifying Oats at Buffalo as the guy to have if we didn’t have CTB already.
But hey, there’s whole slew of mid-major coaches out there that could be the next Oats. Interesting look back in 5-7 years to see.
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I think we can get a big name if it’s someone that has a connection to UVa or central Va or Carla. But the only big names with connections seem to be Shaka or Carlisle.
A power 5 guy on the rise is a different category IMO (like Tony, ~15 years ago)
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At the opposite ends of the spectrum, two other intriguing long shots that @kendall orginally brought up
Aldrich would be stepping up a couple rungs, but has an interesting background and UVa ties (law school). He’s made the tourney 2 of his 6 years by winning the Big South tourney twice. That’s impressive! At a school that hadn’t made the tourney once in the previous 15 years (and maybe beyond, just looking at KenPom era).
It’s probably a year or two early for Schertz, but I feel like he’s going places. He had a long and impressive tenure at a D2, and a short and impressive tenure at Indiana St. He never made the tourney in 3 years, but steadily improved, and came within a bucket of winning the NIT last year (some thought they belonged in the tourney last year, but the team that got in over them erased all doubts in the first four … cough cough).
I’d look at two attributes. Winning semi-consistently and player retention. You don’t hold it against guys if they lose players, but it is notable when they retain players who could have left (which is why Dusty May became a great candidate, and not just a good candidate).
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But Michigan hasn’t been great this year
I think if Oats publicly announced he wanted to come to UVA and work for free, he’d still never get a call.
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The trick is to find he next Nate Oats/Tony Bennett. That’s the dream anyway. The headline grabbing hires usually aren’t the best in the long run. A lot of luck involved though, timing has to be right.
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We are not a top 10 job as someone above said. With Tony, maybe we are a top 10 program. But coming to UVa following Tony and trying to rebuild a program in a new style will not attract blue blood level talent.
If we end up with a new coach at the end of the season, it is likely to be someone who brings a vision of a program, not someone who is coming because UVa is going to be successful based on the success of Tony’s tenure.
Some of the posts in this thread sound like Hokies during a football coaching search.
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Whether we’re a top ten job only matters in a given year. Depends on which jobs are open. Everything is relative. We weren’t a top ten job but we snagged an up and coming former National COY from the other side of the country?
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I see what you are saying. There is a lot of red tape with our job. However, Hokies football played for a national championship but did not win. We have also seen two other final fours with Holland, plus another E8 and Jeff Jones led us to an E8. So, there is a track record of success. Hokies football was good for about 12-15 years and under one head coach. These two are not the same.
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