Also.
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I donāt know if I agree on the exact contours, but I do think thereās a lot of uncertainty in the path forward of college hoops. Eg, confenrence uncertainty? Pay model uncertainty? Etc
I think different types of coaches would be better or worse depending on what structure we wind up with.
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@XHoo seems to think we may/are/will target a riser. Who are the risers on our list?
Iād list the following as risers: McCollum, Huss, Aldrich, Turner, Bucky. Who else? Any wild cards?
I probably wouldnāt include A10 or MWC coaches as risers, but some might. (Maybe Calhoun fits even though heās MWCā¦)
(Tbh, his comment mostly makes me think I need to seriously rather than just jokingly worry about McCollum)
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We arenāt hiring a Pitino or a coach named Bucky.
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Tony Skinn?
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Good one
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Who set the mandate at making the tourney?
That was never a realistic expectation.
Too much experience lost from last yearās UVA team. (which was only a bubble team) WAY too much youth on this yearās team. They also lost two guards that figured prominently in their plans.
This thing was never going to come together fully the it should this year. Thatās why Bennett was selling a 2 year plan. When the lights go on for Cofie & Robinson, and Blake takes it up a notch offensively, this group will be scary good. Itās not happening this year though, but we are seeing things start to turn the corner. And no, itās not going to be all sunshine and rainbows the rest of this season. But itās night & day better than the squad we rolled out there in December.
GO HOOS!
Carlaās track record on coaching hires has not been great so far. She really needs to nail this one.
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Vandy has talent. But they have a hell of a lot more experience.
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Folks making a reasonable guess on what a guy whoās never proven himself to be a good head coach in 5 years of coaching had to in his 6th year to finally prove that
100%. Which is why itās never been realistic to think Ron had that high of a chance of getting the job.
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Eric Olen is a āriserā
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And no, itās not going to be all sunshine and rainbows the rest of this season. But itās night & day better than the squad we rolled out there in December
Yup it is February, and taking 2/3 of the season to figure out a winning play from the cards dealt is nasty business as the kids say.
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Just throwing in names that could be considered risers and havenāt had much play here.
UCSD coach, Eric Olen. Would be a stretch. Spent his entire coaching career at UCSD but has transitioned them well to D1.
Arkansas State, Bryan Hodgson. Longtime assistant under Nate Oats at Buffalo and Alabama. Strong recruiter. Has been fairly successful so far in 1.5 seasons as a HC.
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Josh Schertz, in his first year at SLU, who was at Indiana State prior.
Career winning percentage north of 0.700.
Heās a Brooklyn guy and spent five years as an assistant at High Point (so familiar with the East Coast).
Edit: at D2 Lincoln Memorial had three Final Four appearances, including one trip to the championship game. His teams put up gaudy W-L records there.
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Actually, I think Ron has proven he can coach. Anyone that thinks otherwise simply doesnāt have much of a basketball acumen, imo.
More importantly, he knows the culture and niche that made UVA successful under Bennett. He knows how to build on what was successful & prune some things that has held the program back recently.
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āMaking the tourneyā was a metric used in judging whether Ron earned the job outright going into the offseason. As in, āthis roster is so hastily and improperly built that if Ron can somehow turn them into a Tourney team, heās almost definitely the guy.ā
As it stands, heās looking like he couldnāt even coach them to the NIT. Which may or may not be his fault, maybe John Wooden couldnāt coach this roster to the NIT. But the point is as such Ron hasnāt shown enough to be given the job. Maybe he does enough to earn a spot among the candidates of a full and open search, but his tenure at Charlotte similarly didnāt do enough, so the question is what compelling case do we have to pick him over another candidate whoās maybe won some hardware at a mid-major (conference titles, NCAAT appearances, maybe even a Big Dance upset win)?
And yes, the continuity aspect is a point in Ronās favor in that full and open search. But is that the only argument? Howās that working out for UNC, for Syracuse?
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Ron has proven he can coach. I think he found his level at Charlotte and was improving. But he decided not to continue ā¦
I said that he hasnāt proven heās a good coach and I might even retreat to āveryā good coach. But in any event, I think @StLouHoo stated the case better than me.
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Iām sure Mike Young and Earl Grant would kill to have such a limited roster, being able to start four guys who were top 100 recruits (Ames 64, McKneely 63, Buchanan 76, Cofie 87).
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Hmmm!
Anyone who thinks a sub-500 coaching record is good is bad at math in my opinion.
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Dude, it isnāt āfiguring out a winning playā. Itās called player development and it doesnāt happen overnight.
You know how Tony Bennett has talked at length about finding that niche that allows UVA to compete with the ACC Blue Bloods? This so-called 2 year plan he promoted was essentially created with that goal in mind. Itās recruiting guys that are talented, but not quite one & dones, and not yet with the proven experience to be plug & play portal guys. Develop and keep them in the program as long as possible, and attempt to get back to what made UVA so successful. TB lost a little focus on what made UVA great when the landscape shifted.
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