Don’t get drawn into the game by game swings, I recommend. Also remember, it’s a one game trend vs. the previous 22.
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You’re also not gonna pick a coach for the sake of keeping one or two players, even if those players are good.
I think Chance would be a significantly better fit in Odom’s system than he would in Ron’s.
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If there’s a defense it’s that he’s an excellent evaluator of talent
Let’s look at who he had on his last team at Charlotte:
Brice Williams — averaging 19.0 points, 4.0 rebounds, and 2.7 assists at Nebraska.
Aly Khalifa — redshirting at Louisville. Averaged 5.7 points, 3.7 boards, and 4.0 assists at BYU last year.
Lu’Cye Patterson — averaging 10.5 points, 3.6 rebounds, and 3.6 assists at Minnesota.
Igor Milicic — 10.4 points, 8.1 boards, and 2.1 assists at Tennessee.
Nik Graves — 16.8 points, 4.1 rebounds, 3.0 assists at Charlotte this year.
Daylen Berry — 14.0 points, 5.8 rebounds, 2.7 assists at Charleston Southern this year.
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This…… Any good player would leave Charlotte for big time hoops!
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A common trend/complaint I saw from Charlotte fans after Ron left to retake his assistant spot here is that his last two years there they had arguably the most talented roster in the CUSA, but didn’t finish higher than 4th in the conference. With that roster you just posted they went 9-11 in conference play.
I was initially confused when I saw that Charlotte fans weren’t that upset about Ron leaving when he did, because his last season there was their most successful in years. But apparently they underperformed based on fan expectations.
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Absolutely agree that he’s an excellent talent evaluator. He’s obviously a good assistant!
That’s just not enough for me.
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Not arguing that he’s a good coach — just excellent at evaluations and landing kids.
These are all guys who are still playing, today, so they were playing for him in 2022-23.
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Yeah I gotchu, just providing additional context.
I agree he’s a good talent evaluator, but as mentioned above it takes more than that to be a good HC at the high major level.
Also forgot about his 2022 team:
Jamir Young — 15.8 and 20.4 points at Maryland in 2023 and 2024.
Jared Garcia — 11.8 & 4.5 boards at Tulsa this year.
That team also had Khalifa and, ahem, Eli Bennett, who has a steal this year!
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Yes. They were 3 and whatever before he got there and then he took over after Legend hooper Mark Price failed. He developed Igor into a stud in the SEC and Top 10 presently
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That’s the defense:
- he’s better at coaching than Mark Price
- he’s a great talent evaluator and getter
But my rebuttals to that are:
- there’s no award for that
- he couldn’t keep them around and/or win at an impressive rate with them
And furthermore on 2, the guys he is likely competing with to be HC here (thinking of at least Byington and Odom) have won at a similar level and were much more successful at keeping guys around
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Who are relevant players under Byington and Odom that stayed with them? (I have no idea)
All 9 regular rotation guys are above 100 offensive rating on the season. Only Saunders is below that in Acc play.
Team is at 104.2
That places the Hoos firmly in 251st offensively .
We would have to get to 112.7 to get into the top 75 in the country … the game has changed.
By way of comparison in 2019 that same offensive rating would place you 18th in the nation (112.7)
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With Byington, his success at JMU was very much because of his keeping Terrence Edwards around for four years (he’s a starter at Louisville now). But his last two recruiting classes he stayed around to coach had a high one-year casualty rate — 4 of 7 left after their first year.
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Will have to look it up later, for a better list, but top of my head, Terence Edward’s at JMU (now on Lville) and Odom got Shulga, Bamisile, and Eb Jackson all back. Shulga had a dalliance with nova but had transcript / transfer credit issues
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Florida and Mark Byington (pretty sure that’s their team name) are in a good one on the SEC Network. Tied at 31 near the end of the first half.
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The Byington’s are gonna go down to Florida.
Defense has been an issue for Mark the past couple of games, gave up 103 to Bama 97 to OU and now 84+ to UF. SEC is a gauntlet.
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I mean your front court is 6’8 265 with zero rim protection, McGlockton who I do like, and Chris Manion from the ivy league. And your playing Tyler Nickel heavy minutes. Not really the recipe for lockdown D
I really want Byington as a top choice but there isn’t really anyone on his roster Im screaming for us to bring with him.
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To be fair to Ron, Charlotte is currently 8-15, 1-9 in the AAC after a nice year with Ron’s players last year, who have now left, so maybe it was Charlotte that was the issue and not Ron 
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Good to see a couple of you want to Ron It Back!
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