Theyâre also in Blacksburg. It makes a big difference
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I donât think weâre a top ten job for basketball, but I do think weâre a top 20 job depending on what the general criteria is.
Am not having delusions of grandeur and thinking weâll be able to pick whoever we want, or even close to whoever we want for the job. But we should be able to attract some really good candidates, for example I think UVA is a better destination than Marquette or Iowa State hence why I generally include Shaka and Otz as viable options. Do I think theyâre likely choices for us? Not really, but I also wouldnât be shocked if they were interested. Whereas with someone like Oats or Scott Drew or Dan Hurley who I have no bullshit also seen thrown out as someone we should reach out to, I would be absolutely shocked if they returned our phone call.
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I think there are tiers to job quality. UVA isnât in the top tier with the traditional four blue bloods plus like Indiana and a few others, where they have an enormous passionate following and being mediocre even for a short while is unacceptable. But theyâre in the next group of schools that have great resources, facilities, etc, admin and boosters that are committed to success. Everything in place for the right coach to compete at the top.
In the end, youâre only as successful as your head coach. That goes for anybody.
20 Likes
I think weâre a top 20-25 job. Off the top of my head I would rank these programs clearly above us (not necessarily this order)
- Kentucky
- UNC
- Duke
- Kansas
- UCLA
- Indiana
- Arizona
- Louisville
And these not clearly above us but probably above us:
- Michigan
- Michigan State
- UConn
- Texas
- Tennessee
- Notre Dame
- Ohio State
- Arkansas
- Florida
Iâm sure Iâm forgetting some (and you could probably argue for a couple like Maryland and a few other Big East programs), but 17-25 range feels about right for us. The good thing is that we only really need to compete with probably one of these (Indiana and thatâs not a guarantee) and we have a head start.
3 Likes
I would put UConn in the clearly above us category, but other than that I agree.
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I struggled with them. I probably agree with you but think it can be argued so knocked them down to not âclearly.â
Meh fanbase, tough location, conference money is weak, but none of that seems to matter too much, they keeping striking gold.
Also struggled putting Louisville in the top tier⌠theyâre a dumpster fire in most ways, but they have a ton of people committed to making sure it works and pretty good facilities, so I think the job is very appealing to psychotic coaching types.
2 Likes
Have a hard time believing Notre Dame is a better job than ours but otherwise agree with the list
6 Likes
This would have been a quality list five years ago.
But ranking college basketball jobs today with no mention of what those schools have in terms of NIL is a fairly useless exercise.
Sure, you still have your Blue Bloods that will have money for that reason, but now you have your Green Bloods as well, like Arkansas, Alabama, Kansas State, Baylor, and BYU, programs that have NIL money to burn.
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One of our strengths, I would think, is that weâve had two long, elite arcs (Holland and Bennett eras). 2.5, maybe, when you consider Jeff Jones. I think that helps. Not just a one time fluke stretch.
6 Likes
Would agree.
I would put Alabama and Villanova ahead of us as well though which I donât see on this list. Probably USC as well.
Texas Tech, Baylor, Miami, and Florida State all schools within our general tange that offer a bigger war chest and may be better fits for some coaches that would prefer not to deal with our academics or standards.
Top 25 job for sure though.
Wouldnât include FSU in that list, pretty sure their NIL situation is worse than VTâs.
1 Like
Ah youâre right. Was thinking Football NIL and forgot there was that recent news for bball.
Yeah FSU not good.
Hamilton really had that train rolling pre COVID and NIL, kinda sad to see their current state of affairs especially with him likely close to retirement. He did a ton of heavy lifting to help FSU establish its own basketball brand separate from their football program, but it turned out to be short lived.
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Their decline was so fast. That 9-23 year though they actually had a decent roster on paper - Caleb Mills, Baba Miller, Matthew Cleveland, McLeod, WarleyâŚobviously didnât pan out.
Itâll be interesting how each school approaches the $20M or whatever in-house salary cap coming up. They can divert it however they like. Football schools are gonna football, some anyway, and everything else be damned. Basketball âNILâ benefits at certain schools because the fundraising is all from one pot. Now, at least with the rev sharing portion, they need to make decisions.
Comes down to what happens with collectives, the new extras. If youâre LSU basketball, youâll be a lot more dependent on finding outside sugar daddies than before when you could just mooch off the general collective fund mostly being raised in the name of football.
Itâs interesting because I actually think right now NIL isnât much of a factorâŚmost schools have so much money now to spend now that it makes very little difference. The changes might actually increase the imbalance, at least between high major programs.
6 Likes
Be not burdened by the past; Calhoun has permanently made them a blue blood. They have championships under 3 different coaches.
All of this âtiersâ talk is really irrelevant. It comes down to what other jobs are going to be open. UVA could well be the most desirable job out there next spring, thus increases the potential value of the job to guys looking to jump/upgrade. If you are going to tier, UVA is a top 25 job today. No question.
9 Likes
I like that term Greenblood.
1 Like
Thatâs just a list of coaches salaries. Haha. Top 15 or so is probably about right, although thereâs a pretty good argument for every school just outside the blue bloods tier to be ahead or behind of the others in that same grouping.
Itâll be interesting to see what jobs are actually available by spring. Would hope the ânational searchâ atleast gets them a head start on the competition. As always disclaimer hope itâs wasted money and InteRon head coach hits the ground running.