🏀 Next Head Coach Speculation Thread

What’s everyone’s thoughts on Eric Henderson as a HC candidate?

Dawn Staley would be an excellent choice, however I have to wonder why she would leave the successful program she has built to return to Virginia. She might, but I doubt it. You sound a bit like all those Badger fans, of a few years ago, who expected Coach Bennett to drop Virginia and return to Wisconsin.

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The South Dakota St coach? Don’t know much about him, but from a glance, nothing really pops out about his resume. He’s kinda kept the same rough level for that program as they had under Otz and Scott Nagy, which is good, but not really standout.

First, I don’t believe the schemes are an issue. The problem has been roster stability. It has been non-existent. Continuity and development have been drastically reduced. And, as I see matters, this is the reason that Coach Bennett retired. Changing the offense won’t address this issue. Furthermore, the profile of the recruit Virginia is likely to get is one that will require multiple years in the program to reach his potential. A change of schemes is not going to change that. To believe otherwise is a bit delusional. Lastly, if Virginia does change coaches in the spring, I imagine that the roster will be immediately depleted. As soon as Coach Sanchez isn’t the HC, there will be a rush to the portal (although that may happen anyway). It will be years before the program is competitive again.

Can you start an entirely different thread for “new coach speculation - dawn staley edition” so we don’t have to see that debate 10k times in this one?

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Dawn Staley

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We need a Dawn pic similar to the Dixon one to post

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Jazz is just gonna sweep the Dawn posts away into their own thread and lock it haha.

Anyway, coaches. Is too early for Tony Skinn if he has a good 2nd year? Probably? But he already had the best year Mason has had since Jim L (at least going by T-Rank) and he’s DMV, even was with Team Takeover for a little at the start of his coaching career.

This is Dawn Staley erasure!

No, it’s annoying dead horse abuse topic erasure

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I’ve been trying A) unsuccessfully and B) not that hard to find data about coaching changes for jobs comparable to UVA’s (ie what kind of track record pre hire and what kind of success rate post hire). May have to get AI to do it. Who wants to help me (ie actually do all the work while I take all the credit)?

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Here’s a starting point, Torvik has a coaching changes page by year.

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In terms of a mid Major coach, I would be hoping for a resume similar to Bill Self before he jumped to power 5 schools.

Ryan Odom would maybe be the closest, depending on how he does at VCU this year (projected tournament team). No elite 8 of course but 20 win season at 3 different schools is pretty impressive

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However would reaching for a mid Major be “settling”? Dan Hurley and TJ Otlz were both mid Major coaches before their current rise.

But at the same time, back in 2008 UVA was able to pull Tony Bennett from Washington St, a national coach of the year winner at a power 5 schools. And the UVA program is in a much better state with facilities and what Tony has built with brand recognition and NBA player presence.

Closest coach I think to where Tony was at Washington St is Shaka Smart, who has finally refound his groove at Marquette.

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Gonna say though, as someone who lives in Candy Land, I am actually excited about Sanchez’s decision to go with Dai Dai over Warley.

It’s been the thing we have been craving over the last 4 years; going with the higher ceiling young guy and going through the preseason hurdles as opposed with going with the limited veteran thinking they will raise the floor but facing road bumps anyways. It might lead to a rough out of conference but Im curious to see if it pays off come February

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There’s no women’s high major head coach option

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Why are you convinced of this when there have been one and dones at Vanderbilt and Stanford among other places? Tony Bennett’s basketball schemes and player preferences were the reason we didn’t have short timers, not anything intrinsic about the school itself.

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I mean, technically at the time, but about as low-budget as P5 got at the time, and there’s a reason they’re not anymore.

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