Dana O'Neil: Oregon search suffering from "an exaggerated sense of self"

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What exactly was Oregon supposed to do? Kent was floundering badly. The Northwest has become prime recruiting ground recently with names like Brandon Roy, Peyton Siva, the aforementioned Jones and Ross combo, Kyle Singler, Kevin Love, etc. Oregon landed none of those. Factor that in with the brand new arena (and the Pac-10 isn't exactly that great these days) that needed to be filled and a change needed to be made.

Oregon is not a bad job. I think it could be a great job but I do agree with O'Neill that some of the decision making process in regards to this entire mess has ranged from flawed to comical. They have Nike at their damn disposal and some of the top minds in basketball and they hire a search firm? If I want an opinion on why my car isn't running well I don't go out and hire a lawyer to tell me I need to hire a mechanic. I go out and find someone who knows fixing cars and let that person fix my problem. This is the same problem Kentucky had. Instead of listening to the basketball people, the ones that are connected in the game, they listened to headhunters and business people. And what Kentucky ended up with was an utter disaster on every level.
 

The Truth said:
What exactly was Oregon supposed to do? Kent was floundering badly. The Northwest has become prime recruiting ground recently with names like Brandon Roy, Peyton Siva, the aforementioned Jones and Ross combo, Kyle Singler, Kevin Love, etc. Oregon landed none of those. Factor that in with the brand new arena (and the Pac-10 isn't exactly that great these days) that needed to be filled and a change needed to be made.

Oregon is not a bad job. I think it could be a great job but I do agree with O'Neill that some of the decision making process in regards to this entire mess has ranged from flawed to comical. They have Nike at their damn disposal and some of the top minds in basketball and they hire a search firm? If I want an opinion on why my car isn't running well I don't go out and hire a lawyer to tell me I need to hire a mechanic. I go out and find someone who knows fixing cars and let that person fix my problem. This is the same problem Kentucky had. Instead of listening to the basketball people, the ones that are connected in the game, they listened to headhunters and business people. And what Kentucky ended up with was an utter disaster on every level.
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Actually UK (Barnhart) listened to a small group of loudmouth alumni (aligned to Professor Richard Cheeks and the Dynasty Defenders website) in 2007. That bunch (of idiots) wanted Gillispie.

Headhunters and business people were not involved. Loudmouth alumni were.
 

I think its time for the Ducks to call Dino.
 

I know people who were in the room after Donovan bailed at the 11th hour. It was heated and divided. Mitch wouldn't listen and sided with the business people instead of the basketball people. People were literally begging him to call Calipari then because he had made it known through his Nike connections that he wanted the job. Mitch is a great A.D. but he's stubborn at times and that instance it bit him in the ass hard. He got burned badly by Donovan and his people. This caused him to panic and circle the wagons.

The second time around he let go and listened to what people like Martin Newton and Mike Pratt were trying to tell him. Richard Cheeks and a website had ZERO to do with any of this.
 


The Truth said:
I know people who were in the room after Donovan bailed at the 11th hour. It was heated and divided. Mitch wouldn't listen and sided with the business people instead of the basketball people. People were literally begging him to call Calipari then because he had made it known through his Nike connections that he wanted the job. Mitch is a great A.D. but he's stubborn at times and that instance it bit him in the ass hard. He got burned badly by Donovan and his people. This caused him to panic and circle the wagons.

The second time around he let go and listened to what people like Martin Newton and Mike Pratt were trying to tell him. Richard Cheeks and a website had ZERO to do with any of this.
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He listened to Pratt in 2009.

Cheeks and DD were prominently "pushing" Gillispie in 2007.

Donovan was expected to accept by UK but he didn't. Rick Barnes was willing but asked for a day to accomodate a player who was announcing for NBA. UK said No.

ANY amount of research would have shown Gillispie to be a terrible fit at UK, although he is a talented coach.
 

If you two are going to have your little spat about who knows more about what happened at UK in 2007 I can think of better places to do it than on a Minnesota message board.

Just sayin'.
 

"If you two are going to have your little spat about who knows more about what happened at UK in 2007 I can think of better places to do it than on a Minnesota message board."

I second that motion. Most of the name-dropping threads involving these two would be better served on the Kentucky board.
 

The Truth said:
I'll kind of talk about what I wish. If you don't like it, ignore it.
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Oh please. I think the bolded is a fine argument when people complain about the OP's choice of thread (i.e. Facebook status threads). Those are easy to ignore b/c you can tell the primary content from the title. But anyone trying to read responses to Bleed's OP have to wade through a pissing contest about which of you two is better tied in to the UK program. Get over yourselves. If you want us to ignore this drivel then A) put it on a UK board or B) start your own thread (preferably on the OT board). Otherwise there's no reason to hijack a thread to prove how great your UK connections are.
 



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