De La SAlle coach Dave Thorson to Drake as assistant to Medved

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That seems surprising to me. I'm sure he has had many opportunities to be an assistant college coach again. Why is he leaving now to go to Drake? Drake is tough to get into academically. I had kids get offered scholarships there that said I don't want to study THAT hard. So, harder to recruit to. And it's in Iowa. I get he needs to likely be an assistant for a year if he's going to apply for D1 head jobs in the future but surprising.
 

I like the Strib comment, "Any truth to the rumor they will petition to play in Division 3 in stead of where they belong?"
 


How old is Thorson? He really a D1 head coach candidate at any point?
 

This doesn't pass the smell test. All these years and he's doing this now? He's either getting pressured out of De or is sick of the job. Can't imagine its because he misses the college game.
 

JimmyJamesMD said:
This doesn't pass the smell test. All these years and he's doing this now? He's either getting pressured out of De or is sick of the job. Can't imagine its because he misses the college game.
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Money most likely. Don't know what he was making at DeLasalle, but HS coaches aren't really making a killing. Probably can make around 100-120k a year as an assistant at Drake.

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JimmyJamesMD said:
This doesn't pass the smell test. All these years and he's doing this now? He's either getting pressured out of De or is sick of the job. Can't imagine its because he misses the college game.
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He's really close with Medved.
 



JimmyJamesMD said:
This doesn't pass the smell test. All these years and he's doing this now? He's either getting pressured out of De or is sick of the job. Can't imagine its because he misses the college game.
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Johnnyboy18 said:
He's really close with Medved.
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Gotta agree with Jonnyboy - I don't think this is that odd. Let's be honest, many coaches are really arrogant, or they cheat. Niko is just about as clean as they come, and couldn't be a better guy that knows how to build a program. Think about it - if the perfect boss came along, with a big pay raise, plus growing as a coach...why wouldn't you take it?
 

Could be as simple as he's finally wanting to move on from High School and a guy he knows very well offered an opportunity.
 

Because

GopherLady said:
Gotta agree with Jonnyboy - I don't think this is that odd. Let's be honest, many coaches are really arrogant, or they cheat. Niko is just about as clean as they come, and couldn't be a better guy that knows how to build a program. Think about it - if the perfect boss came along, with a big pay raise, plus growing as a coach...why wouldn't you take it?
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Exactly, most good coaches are very arrogant. So, the level of success Thorson has had as a head coach, it is very odd he'd become an assistant at Drake. Any successful head coach has their own philosophies, nuances, drills, vocabulary of terms, etc They are control freaks. Thorson is a fanatic on his ways...freaking out on proper footwork...a major pain in the ass on discipline doing it his way. Receiving the accolades to fuel and validate his ego that comes with his winning percentage and state titles. You don't go overnight from that guy to a guy listening to someone else's vision. You wanna be in charge. Not the backup singer.
I'm sure he's good friends with Medved, who I don't know, but if Thorson isn't really the guy at least co-coaching the team in reality...I can't imagine Thorson being happy. Money can't be the reason. He's a coach. He has made nothing at DeLaSalle for a long time. It's not why successful guys coach.
The only thing that makes sense to me is a stepping stone for one season to a head job but why now? why Drake? I promise he has had tons of better opportunities than Drake. He was a college coach before being a high school coach. He's had Division 1 players, he's got Division 1 recruiting head coaches around him often. He's not naive. Making Drake a power is a long, long project. His personality wouldn't be going to Drake to finish 15 and 15 and collect $125,000. Drake was 7 and 24.
Maybe his ego is so big he thinks he can turn them into a power and then jump to a head job. But even that's silly because it takes too long. That's the only basketball reason that comes to mind but I don't think he needs to do that at all. He could be a D2 head coach tomorrow and from there jump to D1. If it was money he'd be making more and be in charge. Makes no sense why he'd be an assistant at Drake of all places.
Imagine Thorson as an assistant...it's a difficult image to imagine. It's not who he is.
 




60's Guy said:
Exactly, most good coaches are very arrogant. So, the level of success Thorson has had as a head coach, it is very odd he'd become an assistant at Drake. Any successful head coach has their own philosophies, nuances, drills, vocabulary of terms, etc They are control freaks. Thorson is a fanatic on his ways...freaking out on proper footwork...a major pain in the ass on discipline doing it his way. Receiving the accolades to fuel and validate his ego that comes with his winning percentage and state titles. You don't go overnight from that guy to a guy listening to someone else's vision. You wanna be in charge. Not the backup singer.
I'm sure he's good friends with Medved, who I don't know, but if Thorson isn't really the guy at least co-coaching the team in reality...I can't imagine Thorson being happy. Money can't be the reason. He's a coach. He has made nothing at DeLaSalle for a long time. It's not why successful guys coach.
The only thing that makes sense to me is a stepping stone for one season to a head job but why now? why Drake? I promise he has had tons of better opportunities than Drake. He was a college coach before being a high school coach. He's had Division 1 players, he's got Division 1 recruiting head coaches around him often. He's not naive. Making Drake a power is a long, long project. His personality wouldn't be going to Drake to finish 15 and 15 and collect $125,000. Drake was 7 and 24.
Maybe his ego is so big he thinks he can turn them into a power and then jump to a head job. But even that's silly because it takes too long. That's the only basketball reason that comes to mind but I don't think he needs to do that at all. He could be a D2 head coach tomorrow and from there jump to D1. If it was money he'd be making more and be in charge. Makes no sense why he'd be an assistant at Drake of all places.
Imagine Thorson as an assistant...it's a difficult image to imagine. It's not who he is.
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Dave Thorson has never shown an out sized ego in the years I've known him. Matter of fact he has always seemed rather humble given his successes. Perhaps I missed something, but don't think so.

Dave Thorson had opportunities before De La Salle. He quit the Gopher's job because he always said the program was not on the up and up. He was saying Clem's program was dirty back in 94, no one listened. He chose De La Salle. Stating back then (and I' paraphrasing) he was looking to build a school and program on the basis of integrity.

Notice Clem was never able to recruit De La Salle players.

Thorson very well might be passing the torch to someone. Or he feels the call to assist Niko. Dave has always been big on integrity.
 

As was pointed out, Thorson is not that old at 50 and he is in good shape. I work downtown and see him running over the Stone Arch Bridge in the AM and he looks pretty healthy and motivated. 50 year olds are more like the 35 year olds I remember when I was in a snot nosed High School Student.

Thorson gets to change his mind and decide CBB is his future. I am sure he has had chances to be a low level CBB head coach and be an assistant as well, but decided to back away. Now maybe the Drake situation is right, with his connections to the HC and connections to local talent that can get routed to Drake.

If Drake does well, he might get a good offer. At my age if I were in his shoes and could ride it out a De LaSalle, or take a shot, I'd do what he is doing.
 

De wasn't winning a 7th title in a row. He got out at a good time :)
 


oak_street1981 said:
As was pointed out, Thorson is not that old at 50 and he is in good shape. I work downtown and see him running over the Stone Arch Bridge in the AM and he looks pretty healthy and motivated.
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Did you watch the state tournament? Either the camera adds 35 lbs, or Thorson could stand to log a few more of those miles you've mentioned.
 


I promise Thorson has had far better opportunities than an assistant coach at Drake. I'm not sure who you are watching run but the guy we are talking about absolutely needs to drop 50 plus pounds. I don't doubt Thorson has integrity and I'm not sure what you think I said to suggest he doesn't - ATSGopher If you don't think he has a strong ego then you don't think Nick Saban, John Calapari, Coach K, or Jim Boeheim do either I guess. Ego and integrity are not a mutually exclusive occurrence. And we can disagree, I have no problem with that either. I just know the guy I know.
 

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