Who is your "Home Run" hire?

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#2Gopher said:
I'm not seeing solid home run hires that would be available here this year. Probably puts us in a bad position as to recruiting, players will wonder how long Pitino will be around.
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Who's not available this year that would be next year?
 

I am not sure who my home run hire is right now, I need to do more research and at the same time try not be a prisoner of the moment and be swayed by one game or one tournament run.

I feel like Coyle needs to have a home run hire in his back pocket to justify how long he's kept Pitino around. We're now in a very tough spot with 10th (or worse) finishes two years in a row and very likely having no star (Oturu/Carr) on the roster next year.

The fans who've stuck around post Clem, deserve a home run hire. It's way beyond time to start competing in basketball again. I hope Coyle has a guy that most importantly performs like a home run hire and secondarily is a guy the fan base can rally around immediately.
 

#2Gopher said:
I'm not seeing solid home run hires that would be available here this year. Probably puts us in a bad position as to recruiting, players will wonder how long Pitino will be around.
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Huh? Any coach is available. Not many guys just out of work that you’d want to hire. Beilein one of the rare ones.
 

Saul Smith - can't imagine he would cost much and we could keep the nepotism going...
 

#2Gopher said:
He might be looking for a job after this year. However he may want to stay with the big boys somewhere. Not really sure how good of a coach he is though. MennoSota probably stuck Saunders name out there for reactions in my opinion.
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Saunders is a terrible coach and would be an awful hire at the U. I agree, MennoSota was likely trolling.
 


Home Run = Thad Matta, Musselman, Beilein

There are other good ones. Those ones are homeruns though.
 


Bob_Loblaw said:
Home Run = Thad Matta, Musselman, Beilein

There are other good ones. Those ones are homeruns though.
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I’m trying to think.

Was PJ Fleck a home run football hire? I’d argue yes. Who is the basketball equivalent of that?

The U of M wouldn’t do it (due to his NCAA issues) but I wouldn’t mine going after Kelvin Sampson
 

Some guy said:
I’m trying to think.

Was PJ Fleck a home run football hire? I’d argue yes. Who is the basketball equivalent of that?

The U of M wouldn’t do it (due to his NCAA issues) but I wouldn’t mine going after Kelvin Sampson
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Sampson's son Kellen has been designated "head coach in waiting" at Houston so I doubt that Kelvin would leave the Houston job. I kind of wonder if Beilein will look to make a similar move to put his son in a good spot if he decides to get back in to coaching.
 



Some guy said:
I’m trying to think.

Was PJ Fleck a home run football hire? I’d argue yes. Who is the basketball equivalent of that?

The U of M wouldn’t do it (due to his NCAA issues) but I wouldn’t mine going after Kelvin Sampson
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Yeah, PJ was close to a homerun hire. I think the only thing that separated PJ from being a home run compared to the folks I listed (Beilein, Matta, Musselman) is the total resume. Matta, Musselman and Beilein have all had sustained success even at the highest level (Musselman less so).

PJ would be similar to us landing a mid-major coach who reached the Elite 8 - - but also had a few years of good teams. I say that because turning around a football program requires so much depth that it's harder than basketball.

PJ would have been similar to landing a Shaka Smart when he left VCU. Thad Matta would be close (not quite) to landing Bob Stoops.
 

EG#9 said:
Sampson's son Kellen has been designated "head coach in waiting" at Houston so I doubt that Kelvin would leave the Houston job. I kind of wonder if Beilein will look to make a similar move to put his son in a good spot if he decides to get back in to coaching.
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I would hire a guy if setting up nepotism was part of the deal. That rarely, if ever, works out
 

Some guy said:
I’m trying to think.

Was PJ Fleck a home run football hire? I’d argue yes. Who is the basketball equivalent of that?

The U of M wouldn’t do it (due to his NCAA issues) but I wouldn’t mine going after Kelvin Sampson
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If we hired Sampson, I'd buy season tickets.
 




Scott Petersen he knows how to execute!
 




salzie said:
very few, he was deep down the list

going on memory, I think top names were:
Buzz Williams
Shaka Smart
Flip Saunders
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I knew we were in trouble when Williams made it clear he was not interested. He and Teague were buddies, and I was like, Norwood ought to be able to lure him here. Shaka was a pipe dream, but Buzz ought to have been attainable.
 

Bob_Loblaw said:
PJ would have been similar to landing a Shaka Smart when he left VCU. Thad Matta would be close (not quite) to landing Bob Stoops.
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So, would these both be home runs then?

The guys you listed are all Matta/Tubby type hires. Is there no one who is currently a head coach outside the P6 that would be like hiring Shaka Smart when he left VCU??

Doesn't matter if they aren't leaving this year, either for Minnesota or no matter what, just wondering if there's anyone like that?

(and obviously you're not allowed to say Few)
 

My "home run" hire last cycle was Gregg Marshall, looks that would have ended poorly too! That said, I have zero idea why Isaac Brown has not had his interim tag removed on Wich St. They are 13-4 (9-2) in first in the American after a DISASTOROUS offseason. He would be another interesting name to add to the list. This is his first year of head coaching exp but he appears to have something figured out!
 


John Calipari. That would instantly upgrade recruiting.

Absent that unlikely event, I don't care who they hire as long as that person has ---

1) some significant points of success on his resume;

2) has been around long enough to learn some things especially through mistakes;

3) is capable of adjusting his teams according to their talents;

4) has demonstrated a productive offense and preferably has an eye for shooters;

5) believes in defense and understands that this is a tough half-court defensive league (nobody is going to let you run up and down the court and, if you do that, the teams with more talent likely will beat you at it anyway).
 

salzie said:
very few, he was deep down the list

going on memory, I think top names were:
Buzz Williams
Shaka Smart
Flip Saunders
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It feels like we went for tier A: (Shaka, Buzz) to tier B (Hoiberg, Flip) to tier E (Help Billy what do you have?) and skipped a couple tiers in between.
 




So far I see a hole lot of "could be" or "might be". I really don't think there is a young coach that is a home run hire.

Over the last 20 years or so, it has been the same programs year after year that are on the top. Very few nudge there way in. not even after a bunch of coaching changes.
Wisonson
Mich. state
Michigan
Ohio State
the rest just don't have it. Maryland and Illinois are occasionally good teams and very well coached.


Coaching changes are very unlikely to change anything, but there's always a chance
 

Gopherbbdude said:
So far I see a hole lot of "could be" or "might be". I really don't think there is a young coach that is a home run hire.

Over the last 20 years or so, it has been the same programs year after year that are on the top. Very few nudge there way in. not even after a bunch of coaching changes.
Wisonson
Mich. state
Michigan
Ohio State
the rest just don't have it. Maryland and Illinois are occasionally good teams and very well coached.


Coaching changes are very unlikely to change anything, but there's always a chance
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Agree, I don't think I will react with a "wow we actually got HIM?" like i was with PJ. PJ was all over the place in the months leading up to us hiring him. Anyone connected to college football knew he was going somewhere bigger and better right away. I couldn't believe we had a shot.

I just don't have the same feeling basketball wise. I'm sure a lot of the names mentioned will be fine but they don't scream home run at all.
 

Gopherbbdude said:
Wisonson
Mich. state
Michigan
Ohio State
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Throw Purdue in the mix.

Gopherbbdude said:
Over the last 20 years or so, it has been the same programs year after year that are on the top. Very few nudge there way in. not even after a bunch of coaching changes.
Wisonson
Mich. state
Michigan
Ohio State
the rest just don't have it. Maryland and Illinois are occasionally good teams and very well coached.


Coaching changes are very unlikely to change anything, but there's always a chance
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But coaching changes made the difference at many of those places.

Wisconsin was no good for decades until they got a coach that started building things (Dick Bennett) and then lucked into a second coach (Bo Ryan) who took it to the next level.

Michigan was terrible throughout the 2000s, firing a couple of coaches (Tommy Amaker, Brian Ellerbe) until they got it right with Beilein and he turned it around.

Purdue was fading fast under the legendary, but aging Gene Keady. They hired Matt Painter and they've been a contender nearly every year since.

Indiana was a national power under Knight, then faded under Davis and sanctions imposed under Sampson. Crean got em a couple of Big Ten titles.

Illinois went through Jon Groce, but found Brad Underwood.

Coaching matters.
 

howeda7 said:
67 actually. A and C make it irrelevant. Sleazy Bob Huggins is the last thing we need.
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Huggins takes in some tough kids, but he's clean and doesn't cheat. He had one assistant that got put on admin leave. There also was some evidence that the man hired to do the internal investigation was shadier and made the allegations worse. That being said, "A" is the part that matters. He ain't leaving.
 

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