Those practice shorts were amazing
4 Likes
If it were my hire to make, the most important factor to me would be hearing the coachās philosophy for building a roster in the modern age at Virginia.
More important than scheme, tournament wins, winning record at HM or MM.
Given the past year at UVA (Footballās muddling season, Bennettās retiring, anonymous Multi-Million Dollar Donors), I think the Athletic Department and Administration have moved to the acceptance point of its stages of grief over the changing landscape. They know they need to be pro-active, but are still working out what that means for a school whose motto had been Uncompromised Excellence.
Tony Bennett was the perfect coach for the one-and-done era. While Cal and K were chasing the next lottery pick, he developed low 4 and high 3 star players into champions. Obviously the game changed, and by his own admittance, it was (understandably) hard for him to navigate roster construction today when youāre not fully comfortable.
Ideally, the next coach will be able to come in and articulate a vision of how to develop players with college ball being one step in an overall progression of PROFESSIONAL development. Todayās coach is not only a mentor, but needs to have good professional managerial skills:
-
building trust and loyalty [if I say this is what you will receive financially, this is what you will receive, HS & AAU coaches will remember the oneās who reneged],
-
prioritize personal relationships [yes this is a business relationship but it has to be based on more than dollars & cents],
-
professional growth [we will teach you how to manage your basketball growth, personal development, business sense in a professional manner. (Snake oil or not, these last two used to be a big part of Calās pitch at Kentucky before the rest of the sport acknowledged that it had become professional sports.
Basically you are hiring someone who will be building out a business unit and not simply a hoops team.
So from that perspective, my list would be:
-
Shaka (basically whatever the cost, because it would be worth the investment) still young at 47 but has A LOT of experience with the business side of the sport going from VCU to big boosters with big expectations at UT and now embracing fit at Marquette. He sees the long game (loyalty) when it comes to roster construction but has a proven track record of getting guys to where they want to be professionally. And he gets us back in the door with the DMV and Richmond (WAAAAAY to much talent for us to simply forfeit it away).
-
DeVreis / Byington - donāt know the ins and out of either too much, but I think HM experience is crtical because of the money involved.
Pass on:
Richey - unless you have a Kung Fu personality like Pat Kelsey, I donāt see how stacking wins at Furman helps you build a program in the ACC.
Calhoun - I find to be interesting but again I think this is about more than simply being able to coach a basketball team.
Bucky - Iām sorry, passing out the per diems when the bus stops at McDonalds on the way back to Birmingham is not the same as dealing in high stakes NIL.
Capel - if you canāt beat 'em, join 'em, I guess.
Odom - its a good fallback, successful coach who was won at multiple levels. The UVA ties help you win the announcement/press conference, but Iām not sure I see anything that indicates that he will outperform the parade of Brian Gregoryās, Jim Christianās and Jeff Bzdelikās that have marched in and out of the ACC over the past 15 years. Best case maybe he is a Brad Brownell or Kevin Keatts, but thats rough if our goal is to stay in the conference vanguard and not fall back to the pack.
28 Likes
sorry didnāt mean to be so long-winded.
4 Likes
Never apologize for that.
On the substance, I agree that a roster building strategy for current rules and potential future rules is the most important piece. Iād look for adaptability as a key factor. Itās more important than it was 10-15 years ago, when frankly stubbornness (within reason) was a more important factor.
2 Likes
TLDR. Whatever that means
2 Likes
Bob Richey has been getting mentioned a lot for the South Florida job. Last several weeks people have been mentioning him to South Florida. Sorry @DoctorHoo
Miami seems to be down to Will Wade and Penny Hardaway who (just rumors) has met with the Miami AD
1 Like
I think you did a good job spelling out my Odom fears. Good coach and likable guy that never gets us back to our newly high standards but a little too good and a little too likable for our notoriously gun-shy administration to ever fire. At a certain point, you might as well just hire Brad Brownell.
3 Likes
Carla has officially signed her extension. 29% raise.
She will be making the hire.
7 Likes
All the money flowing in saved her. But also Kudos for getting the money flowing in I guess.
7 Likes
All is forgiven if she lands Shaka which I expect will take a lot more flowing in.
7 Likes
2 Likes
Much needed stability at a crucial time imo
5 Likes
This is one thing that had to happen for there to be any slim chance of getting Shaka. The AD that hired Shaka retired last year and while they were looking for a replacement, the President died. They put their permanent AD search on pause until recently. Our relative stability could be somewhat attractive.
14 Likes
My sources at Samford say Bucky would be a home run here ā¦ if he would do itā¦ they also think there is virtually no likelihood he would move to Charlottesville this year.
Prolly 0.5% chance
He wouldnāt have that choice anyway.
1 Like
Shakaās wife is a professor at Marquette as well. They have a middle-school aged daughter.
Iām sure we would get her a job at UVA (and she previously taught at UT while he was there). But these things also have to be factored in.
Finally, he was extended in 2023 through 2030. He was making $2.2M in 2021 (based on partial federal tax returns) prior to that extension but donāt have the pay following the extension. Going to assume he received a raise but Hurley ($5M) was the only Bug East coach in the Top 50.
1 Like
In the NIL era, do you really need a name to be your head coach? Find a smart, young coach and fully fund the NIL.
1 Like
High school kids still want to make it to the NBA. And want proven development or path to get there. NIL more important for portal kids that (no offense) have lower ceilings.
Just one example, but Kon took half the money at Duke that he would have gotten at Wisconsin
4 Likes
All good points and points to why it can be hard to poach someone who knows they have a good situation.
The point about Hurley also raised an additional consideration, UConn proved (2x!) you can win a national championship from the Big East.
So if you have a good home life, back in your home state, have gotten burned after taking the ābiggerā job, and think youāre in a spot where you can compete at the highest level, it can be really tough to get a coach to leave that.
By no means do i think it would be easy, and would require a good pitch by Carla, but I also think you have to make him your best offer.
2 Likes