Have to imagine he’d take it. Odds of enjoying long term success at Vandy? Get out while getting is good
I’d put it a different way as I’ve been thinking about the options:
Highest floor: Shaka
Highest ceiling: Pitino
Best combo: Byington
Pitino has the lowest floor to me, Shaka the lowest ceiling (although it’s not that different from Byington’s).
Odom would be great for WF, above average for UVa.
2 Likes
Think he would be trying to recruit DMV hard or are there other areas he would be emphasizing?
1 Like
DMV hard. Xavier Joyner has been an assistant with him at JMU and Vanderbilt. Joyner has DEEP roots with Team Takeover.
12 Likes
1 Like
2 posts were merged into an existing topic: 
Outside the ACC - 2024 Season
Very Positive: Byington, Bucky, Olen, Pitino
Positive: Carlisle, Drew,
Neutral: Odom, Smart
What Just Happened: Ron, Pearl, Oats, Sampson, Painter
3 Likes
Happy cake day @DavetheWave
9 Likes
Dave you seem very pro Pitino? What’s your reasoning? (Genuinely curious as I’m intrigued by him but you seem higher than most)
1 Like
“High” being the operative word there
4 Likes
Lol
1 Like
@XHoo did you do one of these? Would love to hear your thoughts. I’d go:
Very Positive: Byington, Otz, Drew
Positive: Odom, Smart, Pitino
Neutral: Olen, McCollum
This is probably roughly how id rank the options as well with a few extras thrown in for fun.
Dave is a pacist.
2 Likes
Close to this, but move Smart up to Very Positive, and Pitino down to neutral.
Very Positive: Byington, Otz, Drew, Smart
Positive: Odom
Neutral: Olen, McCollum, Pitino
The neutrals really just have more question marks for me. The very positives have the highest floors.
1 Like
I’ll give it a whirl:
Very Positive: Byington, Odom
Positive: Smart, McCollum, Olen
Neutral: Pitino
Keeping it to the most talked about. I think we’re in a great spot overall and would have a legitimate shot at both hiring and being successful with all of the VP and Positives. Pitino could work but I just have trouble seeing a great fit.
6 Likes
Very Positive: Smart, Byington
Positive: Odom, Pitino
Only a little less positive: Olen, McCollum
First group is “whoa, didn’t even know we could get them” guys (just based off of historical coach moves). Second group is the standard “best mid major coach available.” Third group are guys with potential but more uncertainty around how they’d translate here for various reasons.
7 Likes
Whats all the hate for McCollum? He’s won 4 national championships and will have Drake in tournament in his first season this year…geEz guys. ridiculous. Come on down Coach McCollum…Im also a big Mark Byington fan…
4 Likes
I can dig it. I almost had Odom as very positive but tried to split him to differentiate the non power conference experience. Olen and McCollum as neutral just for the unknown of it. I do think they’re good coaches, it’s just going from LM or MM to P5 can be tough.
Obviously I’ve been grilled on this before but I’m personally not a Shaka guy. I think he’s good but the Texas experience scares me a little. I’d grade him as home run but he’s the clear last guy making the cut for that IMO. Forsure wins press conference, hopefully wins well beyond that too…
1 Like
I watched Drake today. Holy cow their talent is awful. But they run some great stuff.
To me taking him as the next coach is betting on our nil to boost his talent and betting that he is elite X’s and O’s
Watching all these coaches this season (except Olen), McCollum and Byington run the best stuff. McCollum is probably the better defensive coach of the 2.
Pitino and Byington (maybe Odom too?) appear to be able to attract talent. Pitino is probably the worst offensive X’s and O’s Coach of the group but he can coach up aggressive defenses.
I bias to X’s and O’s Coaches in the new era as nil and rev share take a bigger role on recruiting. Eventually GMs will take over a lot of the recruitment anyway.
But byington seems to be the best of both sides of the equation.
9 Likes
its got to be Byington 1 and McCollum 2…if so we are BACK
3 Likes