Iām sorry but gonna be honest I just canāt get behind this at all. I like Young, agree heās been dealt a really bad hand at VT with how they undercut his program this past offseason and he does run some great offense. But running a program takes more than having a good offense, and there would be so many downsides to hiring him between his shitty personnel decisions or lack of a quality defense throughout his tenure or again the fact that heās 61 and supposedly one foot out the door already. I just donāt see how it would work out here.
Take his resume in a vacuum, leave out the part where heās coaching for VT and say heās the coach of Depaul or Seton Hall, another school with NIL issues. Youāre looking at someone who is currently leading an 8-9 team and has yet to win a tournament game in his 6 years at the P4 level. Thatās just not good enough even when factoring in the NIL situation and our fanbase would riot in the streets if we made a hire like that after Bennett.
Iām really interested to see who if anyone separates from the mid major pack by doing this. It was Dusty May two years ago and Mark Byington last year.
Had an epiphany this morning that Byington should be our next head coach.
-Virginia native so gets the importance of Virginia on the Jersey
-Can work the portal well on a momentās notice
-Has experience and connections with the DMV and North Carolina recruiting regions
-Willing to play the NIL game
-Offense is aggressive but still disciplined and scheme related
Virginia Basketball is a sleeping giant. Tony himself won the national title but thatās because he himself was a sleeping giant. Byington is someone who can tap into what makes Virginia special.
The fact that Vanderbilt was projected like last or close to last in SEC and are currently 3-2 is huge. And when he eventually goes get hammered by the top SEC teams, it will make him long for Virginia even more.
Tony should have probably retired last spring and we are probably going to have to pay more for the Byington hire anyways, but itās not my money so I donāt care and it gave Byington a trial run at the Power 5 level
I understand the Tony part, but can you say more on what makes Virginia a sleeping giant in your mind? I donāt disagree, just havenāt really been able to spell it out myself in a way that makes sense.
Flagship school in with two of the top 5 talent richest areas in top of recruits (North Carolina and the DMV) with a ton of alumni money and resources.
Iām intrigued by how many people are behind the idea of Calhoun. I like him and know that the main appeal would be his offense but figured that people would have similar complaints about his defense as they do the packline. He is a pretty rigid matchup zone guy and principle-wise what he runs isnāt super far away from the packline, it gives up a good amount of lightly contested 3ās and is able to be broken down by teams with decisive ball movement.
More just curious what people think as I know thereās been a lot of talk about wanting to be more flexible with what we run defensively.
Itās not really his defense. He poached the guy from Northern Kentucky to be his defensive coordinator because he loved that zone (from the announcers during one of his games). No idea what he runs otherwise.
I think the interest is less Xs and Os and more about his potential ceiling with resources given where heās improved before. More like heās a certain archetype of an up and coming coach, at least thatās the perception.
Until they actually go 12-6 in conference and he realizes he can try to do there what Tony wanted to see if he could do against the best in the sport in 2010.
Actually think his ceiling maybe a little higher than Shakaās after what HGN said about shakaās aversion to NIL. Floor is obviously lower, but I do want someone comfortable with NIL.
Agree on Carlisle. Donāt see his motivation to leave the Pacers before their season concludes. And with the way roster construction works, could we really afford to wait him out if he was an actual option?
Feels like the under the radar list is too narrow given that inclusion seems pretty arbitrary unless we think former east coast guys now out west is a distinguishing factor. Otherwise plenty of similar profiles on this coast (Bucky, Huss, Richey, etc).
Yeah I agree I just donāt think we actually end up hiring from under the radar so I didnāt give much thought to it. When we hired Tony he came from another P5 (I get it, theyāre WSU haha) but still. Tony did nothing but elevate the job from both a prestige and a resources point of view.
I donāt honestly think the job gets to the point of serious attainability for an under the radar guy, unless someone really jumps off the page as season progresses or really stands out throughout the entire process. But at that point they wouldnāt really be under the radar anymore haha.
