If we do end up having a Spring coaching search, Iād take a swing at Carlisle before anyone else.
I know heās not young, and heās a career NBA guy, but there are plenty of positives. Heās an alum and knows the culture. He obviously respects what TB built here. I know college coaching is a year round job, but an 82 game NBA grind + playoffs is no joke. Plus CBB is officially a business nowā¦Rick has lived in the NBA culture for almost 4 decades now, which is basketball business at its biggest stage.
I doubt we could match his NBA salary, but Iād give it a shot before contacting anyone elseā¦I donāt think it would be a tough sell to the big $ donors.
I think if you want a guy like Carlisle, you probably have to chunk out the job. Like maybe heād be interested in putting together schemes and game day coaching. Or maybe heād be more interested in the scouting or talent acquisition stuff. Or maybe heād like to do player development. But I donāt know if heād want to do all of them. Which is why so many college coaches are getting burned out.
Iām going to say something that may not be popular.
Iād didnāt love how Tony structured the assistant positions after the NCAA expanded the number you can have. Rather than bringing in young former players, and assistants youāve had a long standing relationship with, I would have added guys who could focus on specific areas you mention. Itās too much on one head coach now.
I hear that. But then going back to Dick Bennettās maxim āhire guys you can lose with,ā I would imagine part of the appeal of coaching is building a staff that you can trust and you want to be around. And you can still task those guys (or maybe even they were already doing this) with those different responsibilities. Luke Murray is a board darling here, but he still has a fairly typical assistant path of having worked with Hurley early on in multiple places before coming back to him at UConn. I donāt really see what TB was doing with his assistants as particularly unusual.
Tbh, Hurley has the same issue. Think of Hurley and his silly performative complaining on IG and twitter about the portal. These guys are micromanagers who have trouble giving up control over the operation. Then they complain theyāre burned out and donāt get down time.
So if they canāt help themselves, then their bosses should help them.
The paying players part I can get over it to some degree. But the issue is typically when coaches were willing to go down that road before it was legal they also were willing to bend other rules, or lacked oversight of their team in other areas.
I know first hand that when Sean Miller took X to 2 Elite 8s he was not paying players and for the most part all his players gradated and attended class. I also know first hand that he had players who were involved in some extracurriculars they should not have been, and he and his staff knew.
These things donāt typically happen in a silo. Itās very easy for all of it to become a slippery slope.
Tony was the ideal coach for UVA, but there are still quality good-character coaches who would fit well at UVA and who we could get. Itād be crazy to not do a search because we think Tony and his tree are the only people who could ever succeed here.
As said above, we will be one of the most attractive openings in the sport. We have a fantastic arena, a great college town, are located in prime recruiting territory, have donors who love basketball, and a recent history of success. The only āconsā are we wonāt tolerate pushing the rules and we care about our academic standards. That rules out some guys for sure, but across the entire sport there are absolutely coaches who would love to be here and love to embrace that.
I think youāre focusing on continuity of results rather than continuity of process.
I guess the question of continuity fundamentally comes down to how much was the success of the last 15 years due to Tony Bennett and how much was due to his system? Obviously, Bennett is going to get a big chunk of the credit no matter how you answer that question. If it was all Tony, then continuity wonāt matter because we arenāt going to find another Tony Bennett. But if a big portion of the success was due to the Five Pillars and player development and roster continuity and the packline and insistence on being defensively sound, then we kind of have to see if a different guy versed in the system can put his own tweaks on it and have success.
I think our best hope for the programās future is that Coach Sanchez should succeed. If we have a great year and donāt suffer horribly from premature attrition in the spring, all this talk of coaching searches becomes moot. For the moment, I want the team and staff we have to be successful, and that would solve a myriad of concerns.
That way worked in the old world. The new world required adaptation and we didnāt see it or he wasnāt willing - which we can agree the morality made bot TB great but hindered his ability to compete. I respect that.
Itās a slap in the face to call him a āsystem coachā. He was so much more than that and he had some GREAT players. But Virginia teams won consistently because of that system. And in later years suffered because of that system - whether it was the increase in three point shooting or the ābookā being out on how to defend us.
Now if youāre choosing Sanchez because heās Tony light then Iād expect lesser results. If you think Sanchez has that special TB sauce with willing to build on it, Iām listening - he will have his chance to show it.
Either way, I think weāve seen Sanchez at Charlotte. There will be a lot of great options out there - I hope we are willing to back up a truck to make sure the momentum Tony built for this program can continue - even if itās not in the image of Tonyās way.
I am a bit skeptical of this. Especially, in the evolving world of NCAA athletics. Virginia will impose standards which many college coaches will be unwilling to endure. Hopefully, Coach Sanchez and company will have a very successful year, and we wonāt have to learn just how attractive the UVa job truly is.
Hell no to the nth degree. I donāt want his stench anywhere near Cāville much less coaching for UVA. That would be such a slap in the face to TB as WW epitomizes all that TB dislikes. Noā¦no effing way.
I just disagree, but thatās ok. Virginia wonāt be attractive for certain types of coaches, but our pay, arena, location, history, etc makes it a very very attractive job. This isnāt football.
Also, even if Sanchez has a good year, we should do a national search. Maybe we select him after that search because his year was great, but it would probably be malpractice to not put all of our options on the table and see what we have.