I think another guy who should get a strong look is Travis Ford out at UMass. What he's done in Amherst is fairly remarkable. The program had gone to complete crap under Steve Lappas; the team sucked, attendance was disgraceful after the Mullins Center had been one of the best home court advantage in college hoops, and the recruiting pipelines to major talent that Calipari had opened up were gone.
Ford has managed to completely reverse all of that in less than 2 years. After a rough 1st season, he won a share of the A-10 regular season title and was probably 1 more win from a tourney invite. Without the benefit of not yet having had the success of this season, he still managed to turn out a top 30-ish type of recruiting class while opening NYC back up. Attendance has spiked up, and the team was getting attention again in Boston, which only happens when they're good.
He has the pedigree. The experience is there, having coached at 3 schools and building them from mediocrity into competitive teams. He's showig himself to be an able recruiter,and just as important, his teams play an exciting style that actually look like they have some semblance of a set offense.
What about Mike Montgomery?
i know that post was on mid-major coaches, but brian, what do u think about giving rudy tomjanovich a call?
gonzaga HC? are they not a mid major anymore?
plus, miller @ XU is just as qualified as theus. imo, he's a better canditade than theus. same matta coatails as Lickliter.
humble suggestion: add a "success attributable to..." heading. eg:
Tom Crean
...
"success attributable to:" 1) Dwayne Wade 2) Izzo's coatails. that is all.
Todd Lickliter, Butler
...
"success attributable to:" 1) butler being a 5 seed 2) Matta's coatails. 3) hiring HS coaches to get their player to go to Butler. (i think Carty said this on WTKA this AM).
I'm just trying to separate the true success from the BS. this would require an unprecedented level of research though.
Brian - what's your take on WV's Beilein? Both Carty and Rosenberg endorsed him -- comes from a BCS program already, has a lot of success, clean, good defense, one of the best Xs and Os coaches, etc.
Rudy T is in Ann Arbor meeting with Bill Martin, but he's not interested in the job and is only there to help with the selection committee. Besides, he's old for the job and coaching this program would be very different from that Rockets team.
Travis Ford would be an interesting pick. I lived in Kentucky (after leaving Ann Arbor) when he was playing at UK, and remember that even as a player, he just had a fantastic basketball mind.
It'd also be weird karma to have him coaching at Michigan: In the Fab Five's last big win, against UK in the Final Four, it was Jalen Rose and Jimmy King's absolutely stifling defense that stopped Ford from obliterating us from behind the three-point line, which was his specialty..
for your gregg marshall comment: UMBC is in the america east conference,not the big south.
The Fab Five? Really?
I seem to remember that M won an NC not too long before their arrival on campus.
And yeah, we're clinging to that NC. Name a Big10 school who has won an NC in the past 20 years (besides the MSU Izzos).
Miller should definitely be on that list.
And to the annonymous poster, there is nothing that screams "I'm a footbally slappy who's totally out of touch with basketball" than saying Beilein comes from a "BCS" program.
Brian, thanks for the post. Another helpful area to touch on in more detail might be availability. I think the mid-major guys might be easier to lure in.
Personally I'd rather see a driven young mid-major guy come in rather than a retread (Tubby Smith being the lone exception). We could really use a program-defining iconic coach and that probably won't come from a Majerus or Montgomery. Lowery and Hobbs seem like great choices.
To all:
After faithfully reading Brian's blog now for several months, he's inspired me to start my own. Take a look. I certainly won't be up to the level of depth as Brian Mgoblog, but will try to add some insight and entertainment along the way. Go Blue! Hire Kruger.
http://conqueringheroes.blogspot.com
Lon Kruger, while not really a mid-major coach, does coach a mid-major program. His kid will be done at the end of the year, too. I wonder if he'd be willing to return to the midwest?
Lickliter was also an assistant at Eastern Michigan, so he's certainly familiar with the southeastern Michigan area.
I suspect Lon Kruger will get a long hard look after gaining a lot of attention in the tourney. Also, I love the idea of the Butler coach,m Lickliter. Their offense runs like a swiss watch.
You should send your perspectives to Bill Martin. At least then, we know he had rational thinking offered to him.
I must admit that I am the 3rd person who did not want Amaker fired. Like Parcells, if I buy the ingredients then I should be allowed to cook. Bringing in two Top 40 guys should have bought him a year - He did develop horton into all big ten-1st team.
I know somebody will take shots at me but I could care less, as I'm an actual U-M grad and not a Drew Stanton "walmart wolvie or university of puke wannabe."
I can't tell you what I thought it said, exactly, because it was very, very fast, but a little mental exclamation point went up for a second when my eyes scanned across "Todd Lickliter, Butler."
Oh yeah, I bet you're the only M grad who reads this blog.
Is Tubby out of the running. I figured he'd still get a phone call, even though UK seems to want him back. I don't see where he is a good choice though, when he couldn't even bring in top recuits to UK.
Dicky V mentioned Tubby on the Mike and Mike show this a.m. as a possiblity for the job. Maybe they'll make a call to him, but it would seem there are better candidates more likley to take the position, a/k/a Lon Kruger!
Tubby Smith a much better candidate than Lon Krueger.
"I must admit that I am the 3rd person who did not want Amaker fired. Like Parcells, if I buy the ingredients then I should be allowed to cook. Bringing in two Top 40 guys should have bought him a year - He did develop horton into all big ten-1st team.
I know somebody will take shots at me but I could care less, as I'm an actual U-M grad and not a Drew Stanton 'walmart wolvie or university of puke wannabe.'"
-------------------------------------
Where do you draw the line? If you were to abide strictly by the "buy the ingredients" rationale, you could never fire any coach - they all have recruits coming in. As for Horton, he was a McDonald's All-American and consensus top 25 recruit. He went undrafted and is playing in Turkey. I don't know how much "development" really went on there.
If you are unhappy about Amaker's dismissal, that's unfortunate, but what's done is done (and yes, I am a also U-M grad - two times).
For my money, I think the school should focus on how well these guys coach up mediocre players, for two reasons. First of all, I cannot handle observing another Courtney Sims/Bernard Robinson progression pattern, where a player's level of play as a freshman is a ceiling never to be surpassed. Second, if the facilities problems are as important as people claim they are, we can't assume decent recruiting classes for years, and we certainly can't expect to exceed MSU's classes.
Parcell's quote referred to the other end of that transaction; he wasn't concerned about staying to cook, he wanted to buy the groceries (i.e. have control over personnel on the Patriots). I am opposed to hiring Amaker to run the Athletic Department...
First of all, thanks for linking my quote about Reggie Theus. While the player profiles are meant to be a sendup of media guides, the analysis of the team that surrounds them is genuine (most of the time).
I also happen to have written a similar profile about UNLV. I noted that Lon's son was the equivalent of a graduate assistant on the team and cracked that the assistant coaches better start polishing their resumes. If Lon is doing what Eddie Sutton did at Oklahoma State (grooming his son to succeed him), then he probably won't go anywhere. I'll be VERY interested to see if Jr. doesn't get a job on staff after this year is up.
...howbout Ernie K from Oregon. Has midwest ties being from Ill. Contract talks at the end of the season. Phil Knight wants someone else coaching his school[Zag's Few]when they move into their new arena. Has his hooks in the state of Michigan i.e. Malik & Porter. Someone who should get a look also,imo.
I second the suggestion of Travis Ford at UMass. He put people back into the seats with an up tempo game. They were one win in the Atlantic Tourney from getting a bid and had beaten George Washington earlier. By the GW coach Karl Hobbs played with Patrick Ewing at Cambridge Rindge and Latin. Remember Rumeal Robinson anyone?
That is great work. Hope you can make a living off of this blogging.
"Dicky V mentioned Tubby on the Mike and Mike show this a.m. as a possiblity for the job."
That ought to disqualify Tubby from further consideration, since Vitale was a key figure in pitching Tommy Amaker to Bill Martin in the first place. Vitale may be a great cheerleader for college basketball, but I would never go to him for dispassionate analyses of different coaches. The guy's mouth runs way ahead of his brain.
Carty flapped his gums this morning on WTKA asserting that Bill Martin should not look at coaches of mid-major schools, because they're coaches at mid-major schools. That didn't make any more sense to me than it would have made to Don Canham in 1968.
"That is great work. Hope you can make a living off of this blogging."
I second that; this kind of analysis should be cited next time somebody in the MSM gets the vapors and suggests some sort of "blogger ethics panel," or something. Great job!
As an aside, compare the statistical progression of Jamal Tatum and Randal Falker to the progression of Dion Harris and Courtney Sims. I posit that you can see the indirect results of coaching by looking at player progression.
the comparisons to the Bo hiring in 68 are invalid, imo. 1st, which guys have a bullet proof resume that Bo did at Miami/OSU? NONE. second, that was freaking lighting in a bottle. for every BO, there's several guys you've never heard of.
JLS had a preety bullet proof resume at Wy, WSU, ville before he went to the EL.
the fact is, the Midmajor guys are more UNknown commodities than the others. Lowery might be the only exception.
Bo's record at Miami(Oh) actually wasn't all that remarkable. Check it out:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Bo_...Coaching_record
ok, not as bullet proof as i remembered. still, Canhams 1st choice was that guy at PSU...the guy who discovered Europe...Paterno i think is his name. he said no, so Canham went to the best mid major. i still think mid majors are more high risk, high reward. sure, we might get a HoF guy. but the known commodities have a higher floor.
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