USA Today: 5 coaches who should consider following Beilein to the NBA (Pitino, MN)

BleedGopher

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per USA Today:

John Beilein shook up the college basketball world Monday by accepting a five-year deal to become the Cleveland Cavaliers' new coach following 12 seasons at Michigan.

While Beilein will have an adjustment period to the NBA similar to fellow college-turned-pro coaches Brad Stevens and Billy Donovan, the move to hire an influential college coach for a rebuilding NBA franchise is intriguing.

But there's a reason successful coaches like Kentucky's John Calipari, Nebraska's Fred Hoiberg and Florida State's Leonard Hamilton have returned to the college game after unsuccessful NBA stints: It's not easy managing egos of multi-million dollar paid players.

Here's a look at five college basketball coaches who should also consider the leap to the NBA. Note: College coaches who have already coached in the NBA like Calipari or Nevada's Eric Musselman were excluded.

Villanova's Jay Wright. The 57-year-old coach has been coveted by NBA teams in the past, and his name will be atop the leaderboard should the 76ers fire Brett Brown. But Wright seems content at 'Nova, where he's steered the Wildcats to two national titles in the past four years.

Tom Izzo, Michigan State. Izzo, coming off his eighth career Final Four appearance, has grown weary of some of the baggage that is attached to the college game, including offseasons on the recruiting trail that often seem more important than the actual season. Keep in mind Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert, a Spartans die-hard, tried to lure Izzo to Cleveland back when LeBron James left for the first time in 2010.

Mike Krzyzewski, Duke. At 72, it's unlikely that Coach K will give the NBA a try before he retires, but a fiery competitor like Krzyzewski could be enticed by the challenge. . If Krzyzewski was going to go to the NBA, it would've been in 2004 when he considered the role to coach a Kobe Bryant-led Lakers. Instead, he's garnered the respect of LeBron James and numerous superstars through his gold medal-winning Team USA coaching tours.

Bill Self, Kansas. The Jayhawks lost out on a Big 12 regular season title for the first time in 14 seasons in 2018-19. That was considered an off season for the Hall of Fame coach, who's mentored a list of NBA superstars, including Joel Embiid. During last season Self was so highly appealing for the Bulls coaching vacancy that he had to address his allegiance to the Jayhawks.

Richard Pitino, Minnesota. What's most intriguing about Pitino, perhaps more than being the son of Rick Pitino, is his age. At 36, Richard Pitino's early success as a head coach at Minnesota — he was 2017's Big Ten coach of the year — seems like the first of many accomplishments. It's the same reason coach Shaka Smart (now 42) was on NBA teams' radars half a decade ago after a then-36-year-old Stevens went to the Celtics.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/spor...in-cavaliers-michigan-nba-coaches/1187231001/

Go Gophers!!
 

He would be a lower tier assistant at the NBA level. He is nowhere near proven enough a commodity for this to make even the remotest of sense.
 

He would be a lower tier assistant at the NBA level. He is nowhere near proven enough a commodity for this to make even the remotest of sense.

I mean maybe he would get something like this on connections, but it’s not like he has championships on his resume like his dad, who in spite of those was a sub-.500 NBA coach.
 

Beilien is a proven basketball coach. But he is older which does not follow current trends. However, the asst GM with the Cavs is a former player...connections.

Richard Pitino is younger. That follows the trend of potential...Kingsbury, Mc Veigh NFL...Luke Walton NBA...Rocco Twins etc etc

Pitino needs a flashy season this coming year and I could see somebody in the NBA intrigued...in large part simply because he is young and supposedly able to relate better to the players than someone older.
Dave Joerger, JB Bickerstaff, Ryan Saunders have been or are NBA head coaches with less qualifications I'd say....arguable for sure, but...I don't think it is beyond remote......only takes one guy to like Pitino...big part of the job are the press conferences. :eek:
 

Seems to me Pitino has a much better reputation nationally than he has on this board and/or he has an extremely active agent working on his behalf and/or the Pitino name still has some clout.

Even as a pro-Pitino guy for the most part, I would say his name doesn't belong anywhere near the others cited on that list.
 



Seems to me Pitino has a much better reputation nationally than he has on this board and/or he has an extremely active agent working on his behalf and/or the Pitino name still has some clout.

Even as a pro-Pitino guy for the most part, I would say his name doesn't belong anywhere near the others cited on that list.

It is one hack writer suggesting who should consider jumping to the NBA, not who the NBA teams are seeking out.
 

At best I think Richard about four or five years away from any serious consideration, I took the writer throwing his name in there as one to look for in the future, just not the near future, if that happens I am guessing it will mean he won something of significance here, which would make the job much more desirable for the next hire.

Sent from my XT1650 using Tapatalk
 

LOL at this article.

So, it should be four hall of fame, national championship winning coaches and the guy that can't manage to win more than 40 percent of his conference games over six years? Is this supposed to be a serious effort at journalism? Great job of cherry picking Richard because of the Pitino last name by this writer.
 



Beilien is a proven basketball coach. But he is older which does not follow current trends. However, the asst GM with the Cavs is a former player...connections.

Richard Pitino is younger. That follows the trend of potential...Kingsbury, Mc Veigh NFL...Luke Walton NBA...Rocco Twins etc etc

Pitino needs a flashy season this coming year and I could see somebody in the NBA intrigued...in large part simply because he is young and supposedly able to relate better to the players than someone older.
Dave Joerger, JB Bickerstaff, Ryan Saunders have been or are NBA head coaches with less qualifications I'd say....arguable for sure, but...I don't think it is beyond remote......only takes one guy to like Pitino...big part of the job are the press conferences. :eek:

Umm, what? I'm sorry, but this is just a ridiculous statement that needs to be addressed. Let's start with Saunders-while four years younger than Pitino, he was an assistant coach in the NBA for 10 years before getting hired as an interim coach this off-season. Some may claim nepotism was at play with him, but uh, well, if we're comparing to Pitino, isn't it the same argument?

Bickerstaff and Pitino both began coaching as assistants in 2004-JB with the Charlotte Bobcats, Richard at the College of Charleston. Bickerstaff was an assistant for 11 years before getting a shot as interim coach with Houston.

If you look at Joerger's pathway, it's beyond laughable to say his qualifications were less than Pitino. Joerger grinded through the minor leagues of IBA and CBA basketball as a successful head coach from 2000-07 (during which most of that time Pitino was a student at Providence), got hired by Memphis as an assistant for six seasons before being promoted to head coach in 2013.

While I'm a fan of Pitino's and have high hopes of success, there is no decent argument to be made that he's ready for a leap to the NBA anytime soon with the resume he has.
 




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