So what are everyone's lists for our next basketball coach? Mine starts with Danny Manning, and then after him I want Pearl or Frank Martin. Realistic people, I don't wanna see Shaka Smart (it's not happening).
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Call up Duke & UNC, see how much they want for their guys! Also, we could resurrect John Wooden under an assumed alias!
smohn smooden
Juan Gooden..
Whoever it is they HAVE to have prior head coaching experience or expect a re-run of the past two years. GO HOKIES!
Wooden Casket?
Danny Manning is my favorite at well.
I like the names mentioned how about Cliff Ellis down at Coastal Carolina?
Cliff Ellis won't be going anywhere. At 68 years old, I think he's content with the program he's building at Coastal. In the Big South, though, a name to keep an eye on is Pat Kelsey at Winthrop. He's a former Wake Forest assistant under Skip Prosser and also was an assistant at Xavier.
At only 38 years old, he's a young guy who is extremely passionate and has won wherever he's gone.
Bio: http://www.winthropeagles.com/coaches.aspx?rc=438
Don't forget about Michael Young. He the HC at Wofford (going to the dance after beating Davidson). Grew up in Radford (local ties).
Something I learned about Cliff Ellis today in doing his profile. His first round game in the NCAA Tournament will be his 1000th game as a head coach. His team pulling the upset of LOLUVA would be a great way to celebrate that milestone.
But that would ruin my perfect billion dollar bracket.
Take one for the team.
Make a second bracket
Why do you have UVA winning in your bracket? I'm disappointed in you.
In my Billion dollar bracket I had to bite the bullet and try to be realistic, I even have Dook winning a game too. As for my other seven or eight brackets I have UVA out in the first or second round in most just because I couldn't support that monster growing legs.
Couldn't do it. I still took them out in the first round.
I'm willing to bet a billion dollars against UVA, knowing full well that it's a terrible idea.
Frank Martin? He wouldn't make my top 20 list. He won at KSU mostly with Huggy Bears' (shady) recruits and then left because a potential mass exodus of his players. In two years at USCe, he's beaten #17 Kentucky and that's about it and IMO, there's no room in the game anymore to treat your players like dog poo. Just my opinion but I would not be happy if we hired Frank Martin.
Yea it won't happen, exact same personality type as Seth.
Give a lot of credit to ltrepeter2000 for writing up a great article on this very subject earlier:
Right here.
Hear, Hear!
Pearl is supposedly the top candidate to be Auburn's new HC over the weekend.
I would give my left nut for Gregg Marshall. Unfortunately, that's a pipe dream.
On a more realistic note, maybe look down at LeVelle Moton at NCCU. He's taken a pretty bad team and put them in the tournament and has been doing things the absolute right way since he took over.
Is Marshall running solo? Does he need your nut to complete the pair?
Pearl and Martin. Not feeling it.
Pearl is a sleaze:
http://blogs.wsj.com/dailyfix/2011/03/22/what-finally-got-bruce-pearl-fi...
and Martin is Greenberg on steroids:
http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/10564036/south-car...
I don't want our program to sniff around anywhere near Bruce Pearl. I don't care how good of a coach he is. It's one thing to commit a violation, it's a whole other thing to lie about it and try to cover it up (and encourage a kid and his family to lie, as well). No, thank you.
Agreed, let the SEC have him.
Some good stuff from SI re: potential assistants:
http://college-basketball.si.com/2014/03/11/coaching-carousel-top-assist...
There are some solid prospects on that list. I hope that's not the route that Whit is taking though.
Agreed, Whit won't go the AC path. No way.
Don't forget Whit already shocked the world by snaring Tubs from Lubbock a few years ago for the football program. Though word on the street indicated Tubs wasn't loving life in Texas, it was a coup nonetheless.
Have to wonder how much fundraising Whit has been doing for this new coach. Is he prioritizing a major basketball hire over potential raises for Bud, Gray, etc?
Dell Curry. Deron Washington. Malcolm Delaney. AD Vasaillo. Jeff Allen. Just a few names that come to mind.
Jeff Allen? We're trying to win basketball games, not hot dog eating contests.
Curry likes his job in television so I don't see that happening. The others are still playing basketball professionally, Allen in Israel, Delaney and Washington in Europe and Vasaillo in Puerto Rico I believe. Another list of folks with no HC experience to boot.
For the record, I was not at all serious.
Another egregious non-use of the sarcastica font.
What is the unofficial sarcastica policy?
we're still waiting for an official way to convey sarcasm..in the mean time I propose surrounding sarcastic statements with *'s
*UVa could surprise some folks in the ACC this year. I could see them getting into the post season*
maybe we could call it starcastica until something better comes along
That made me laugh for some reason.
this works better than my idea...I've used the semi-html-ish tags sarcastica and /sarcastica. Your "*" takes less typing.
Thanks!
Lets make it happen!!!!
Who else is with us?
Larry Brown, guys has done a phenomenal job turning around SMU, plus he is a huge name.
Yea, but he's 73. They already have a coach in waiting over there I think.
bring seth greenberg back. at least we would make it to the NIT regularly.
I liked the results we got with Seth. But I HATED with a passion when we got left out of the tournament and he got on the soapbox.
Just keep your trap shut and schedule better OOC.
It will never happen, but TIM MILES. He took Nebraska from mediocrity to the tournament (in the B1G no less) in just a few years. He's gonna have a lot of guys wanting him to lead their programs.
Whoever the person is i'd like a younger coach, similar in age to JJ if not younger. I'd like a coach who will grow into the position and possibly coach for decades to come
You say shaka is never gonna happen but $$$$ and coaching in the acc without a huge change to his life is a draw
It's not gonna happen. VCU is a better program than us and now they're getting the money to go with it. He's waiting for Coach K to retire.
Didn't he turn down much higher profile gigs to stay at VCU? At this point, VT is a sidestep. Even coaching in the ACC is not enough. Also, what budget do we have to try to make a godfather deal to a top tier coach. Better to promote some relative unknown and hope he pans out. People will cheer the basketball team on, but does anyone care that they won 1 more game than the football team?
yes, lots of us care
How about jay wright? Villanova hc
Why would he leave the first place Big East team for the last place ACC team
Because the Big East is done?
In all fairness, though, I think it's easier to recruit the NE for basketball than it is to recruit Blacksburg. I wouldn't see him leaving, but who does he get to play anymore? St. Johns? Providence? Georgetown, sure.
Technically, the Big East just started. 8 private, basketball-centric schools left what is now the AAC (American Athletic Conference, formerly the Big East), to create their own conference, and called the Big East.
The conference is an absolute shell of its former self. Its nowhere near the prestige levels of the BigEast as we knew it even 2 seasons ago.
No way in the world he would leave Nova for VT. Nova is such a better job and its not even close. Like at all.
...and these are the reasons Whit gets paid the big bucks. He has to be able to make a case to someone like this if they are his top target and be successful in bringing that person in. I agree that right now the state of the two programs is not really comparable but we don't know what Whit is going to lay out to a coach about his future plans for the program.
Wright has been at Nova since 2001 and grew up in a Philly suburb, he recruits kids from Philly/NJ/NY mostly. If Whit could get wright to leave a team contending for a #1 seed that he's been at for 13 years (and his wife is a nova grad) for this dumpster fire of a team than he's Houdini. Look there are realistic guys and then there are guys like Wright who have had high levels of success at bigger basketball school who will pay him more $ than us and they have local ties to that school.
I think some people overestimate the draw of the program. It would be like say (may not be the best example) Dabo leaving for Rutgers.
2 years ago, Wright was very interested but at that time, Nova was a bit tired of him and he may have been looking for a place to bail. Word on the street is that we were close and that we offered him $2M.
Now he's got them again as a 2 seed, so the relationship may be a little healthier and, thus, his interest in us a little less.
Leave a #2 seed school for a team that won 9 games and plays UNC, Duke, and Syracuse every year.
We have to think realistically here. I'm betting we won't be hiring a name many of us have heard of before, due to the fact that we are not and have not been a top-tier basketball school. I do trust Whit to make a good hire though, but it will take some serious evaluation of under-the-radar talent.
Jeff Capel
List of possible candidates, favorites are IMO likely to get new job somewhere and have gotten lots of mentions on TKP message boards:
Mick Cronin (Cincinatti) Worked for Whit
Lonergan (GW) favorite
Kellogg (UMass) favorite
Danny Manning (Tulsa) favorite
Jeff Capel (Duke assistant) favorite
Marvin Menzies (New Mexico State) made 3 straight NCAA tourney's and 4 in past 5 years
Dave Smart (Carleton University in Canada) 10 national championships in past 12 years
Anthony Grant (Alabama) don't underestimate pull of ACC and coming back to Virginia
Bobby (Buffalo) or Dan Hurley (Rhode Island) coaching family
PJ Carlesimo (ESPN) Led Seton Hall to '89 championship game, could be Whit's surprise hire
Chris Mack (Xavier) previous Xavier coach was Sean Miller
Fran Dunphy (Temple)
Michael White (Louisiana Tech) back-to-back conference championships
Matt Brady (JMU) doubtful
Andy Kennedy (Ole Miss) doubtful
Buzz Williams (Marquette) long-shot
Ben Howland (formerly UCLA and Pitt) after SI article and Shabazz Muhammed debacle he's doubtful
Dino Guadio (ESPN) HA!
Seth Greenberg (ESPN) HA! HA!--Nelson laugh
There are others out there but I feel that outside of the last 6 I listed they're all pretty realistic. I couldn't make a top three list but I really like Dave Smart. I would put my money on Capel, Lonergan, or Menzies.
PJ would be a huge stretch, but I'd love to see us go after some former NBA Coaches. Look at what Larry Brown is doing at SMU.
But doesn't he strike you as a great possibility for Whit's shocking signature hire a la Tuberville at Cincy. It's definitely a stretch but it's so perfect.
Very nice list. I would strike the following names, though:
PJ Carlesimo - Too old and once choked Latrell Spreewell. Sure Spree was a terrible human being, but some parents will remember that. Plus he is getting up there in age.
Anthony Grant just went 13-19 in the SEC and is making $1.9 mil a year. Too much coin for too little return IMO.
Fran Dunphy is most likely never leaving Philly.
Ben Howland - Too much baggage and the rumors on the street are pretty horrible.
Dino - Child please.
I thought it was Latrell who choked Carlesimo?
You may be right...my fault. Senior Moment.
Either way, PJ is too old for my taste.
PJ too old?! Larry brown is older than 70.
I understand, but PJ hasn't been nearly as successful as a HC as Larry Brown. Just because Larry Brown can succeed at an advanced age doesn't mean PJ could, especially because PJ hasn't proven to be a top flight coach at any age. Sure he found some success last year as the interim coach of the Nets, but that team was in need of a babysitter, not a true coach.
Dunphy went to LaSalle, coached at Penn for years and took over for his good friend John Chaney at Temple. No way he leaves Philly.
You gotta take Matt Brady off, JMU wanted to fire him 54 weeks ago and then he got hot and won their tournament and they had to keep him. He's always on our local news and he's a bore. JMU's women's coach, Kenny Brooks (former Dukes star) is much more inspiring.
I'd love to see Buzz Williams get a $2M offer and see what he says.
I agree with your favorites. Lonergan will get the first call.
I would LOVE to land Buzz Williams but do you think he would say anything favorable if we offered him a $800K pay cut?
Anthony Grant would be a big get. Laid the building blocks at VCU.
Not really impressed with Grant, he has had a few good OOC years (but really bad strength of schedule) at Alabama, but in an SEC conference not really known for basketball outside of Florida and Kentucky, he has had trouble finishing in the top half of that conference. He at least hasn't made a spectacle of himself when possibly getting snubbed by the NCAA though like another coach we know.
He did good work helping build the foundation for VCU, but in five years at Alabama has had one NCAA Appearance. Not sure how he managed to get $2 mil a season but he should probably stick with a good thing while he has it.
Any interest in Wofford's Mike Young?
I'd like to throw Stony Brook's Steve Pikiell into the mix. Yes, his overall record is a little underwhelming, but his past few seasons have been fantastic. This year, they made it to the America East championship game again, and almost made the tournament. I really like what he's doing up there, and I think he could be great for VT.
I like that now that we have the Whit everyone's just kind of assuming crazy is a forgone conclusion. This means that if what happens next isn't crazy it will be crazy. No matter what happens we're in for the crazy. I love love love it.
love, love, love (wh) it
I'd love for them to make a run at Lutz or Bobby Hurley.
You wouldn't have to make a run at Lutz, just offer him a contract and he'd say yes. We could have had him last time for next to nothing.
Not sure how I feel about this rumor.
I think the hire has to be big. Needs to have started to or already established a name because the fan base and alumni wants results sooner after the last 2 years with JJ. This is the ACC which was hard enough before adding Pitt, Syracuse, and Louisville. The new coach has to have proven results against big teams to bring in the recruits we need to compete.
Buzz Williams rumors heating up as well.
I like Buzz, but apparently he's making $2.8 mil at Marquette. Don't think Tech is gonna be able to swing that. Here's an interesting article that downplays the idea of Buzz leaving Marquette:
Woooo.....$2.8M.....that's not going to happen. Moving on....
Don't be fooled by the money, a lot of people are saying that Buzz is interested. It seems he wants out of Marquette and will be willing to take a pay cut if needed.
Has it been reported that he wants out or is it just forum fodder? I'd be ecstatic if we got him, but forgive me if I'm skeptical about the idea.
Yeah, he's been looking around for a while and many thought he has been waiting for the Tennessee job to open up but with them making the tournament this year it seems unlikely that it will anytime soon. One guy (forgot his name) who is respected in coach predictions said today that he thought that Buzz would end up at VT.
Edit: Feinstein is the guy who said that Buzz may end up here.
Cool, thanks for the info! I certainly hope that Feinstein is right!
And I will forever want Buzz to be my coach because he trolled the shit out of wvu
I am trying not to get my hopes up. We can't even come close to matching what Marquette is paying him. Also, and this purely speculation, but if there was mutual interest there, I can't imagine Whit would wait till the Final Four to pull the trigger. Maybe Buzz is on the short list and Whit is just exercising due diligence, but it just seems like a long shot.
Having said that, I would love to be wrong. In addition to being a proven coaching commodity, he also does tremendous work for children with medical needs and their parents. I'd be thrilled to see him come to Blacksburg.
http://www.cbssports.com/general/writer/gregg-doyel/24487387/reach-of-bu...
Thanks for the link.
I am officially a fan.
You called it!
Alright guys, I've got the perfect candidate. He's been named by nearly every coaching search over the last 2 years but has yet to make the jump. I think this is the perfect opportunity for him too. So here it is...
John Gruden
/sarcastica
If not him, then Bill Cowher.
I'll have one Tony Amaker Please! Please! Please! Top of my wish list!
You mean Tommy Amaker at Harvard? Could be an interesting choice, Harvard has now made the dance the past 2 years under his watch, plus he has some power conference experience from his time as HC at Michigan. Plus he's from the NOVA area which could help the I-95 corridor recruiting.
Though who knows how much Harvard pays him, whole private school thing and all.
If I recall correctly, he did very poorly at Michigan.
He is profiled here:
http://www.thekeyplay.com/content/2014/january/30/mens-basketball-potent...
and no he wasn't very stellar at Michigan. 108-84 in six seasons. 1 NCAA, 2 NIT, sub .500 record in Big10
Has done wonders at Harvard though. In seven seasons he has made postseason in five. Three straight NCAA appearances. 95-26 in the last four years, 48-8 in conference in that same time.
And being a Duke player/assistant coach he may want to get back into the ACC, maybe eventually hope another ACC HC gig could eventually lead to Duke when K retires. Though for that there's probably a bazillion assistants going to battle for that.
They should play baskeball for it. Start with a tournament of 64 12 man teams. Single elimination. The champion team then faces eachother in 5 on 5 with one sub each. The winning team of that then faces eachother of in 3 on 3. Finally, the ultimate winner is determined with a game of knockout. All televised. Losers of the game of knockout are forced to coach the worst teams that anyone can find.
I think Amaker ends up at BC.
Bobby Knight?
I hear Metta World Peace is available also...
Heck, might as well throw in Larry Bird. He has coached and won at the NBA. He hasn't won the NCAA as a coach yet.
Tom Crean's at $1.8M at Indiana right now, escalating to $2.1M over the next 5 years of his contract. If they fire him, offer him $1.8M immediately.
This article has him at $3.16 M/year thru 2020. Anyone know how the contracts work when you're fired - is it like football where the team that hires a recently fired coach only has to pay them a portion of their salary (i.e. Loeffler made $150k from VT last year and a lot more from Auburn)?
Its all in how they negotiate their buyout. JJ is getting $800K over three years but could be less depending on what job he gets next and when. The new school isn't on the hook for anything necessarily, although they might try to negotiate a lower rate while the person still gets paid by their old school but that again is how they negotiate their new contract.
Yeah, I think he got a new contract since the 2008 article I was referencing. Makes sense, he had a helluva team last year. Obviously, we can't do $3M.
After sleeping on it, I realized that Jeff Capel will be the next head coach of the Virginia Tech Hokies Men's Basketball Team.
I have accepted this as fact.
Congratulations Coach Capel. I look forward to many victorious years under your basketball reign.
Capel Coliseum
Cassel Capel
Capel Cassel
He is very Capel-ble
If only Brad Stevens was fired from the Celtics in the next month of so. I wonder if he would want to come back and coach college hoops. ACC would be a great fit for him.
Why would he choose VT?
Because he wants to see what all the Buzz is about
I may have changed my mind, Ken Bone just got fired from Washington State. He has the best porn name in all of college basketball.
Ken Bone and Marshall Wood in...DOUBLE TEAM (Based on the novel "Push" by Saphire)
This post has had me laughing out loud for a solid five minutes in the office. Bravo.
What about Russell Turner from UC Irvine? 43, went to Hampden-Sydney, and is from Roanoke, Va. Was an assistant at Wake Forest, Stanford, and the Golden State Warriors.
Has some possibility. Really bad first two years at Irvine, but the last two years have been 20+ wins. They lost in the first round of the NIT this year to Southern Methodist, but that's two years in a row to the post season. Has the local ties. He graduated Magna Cum Laude and was First Team Academic All American his senior year, so will put the proper importance on academics I have to think. As a player, he averaged 21.6 ppg and was a two time All American
I cant seem to find much on his recruiting or playing style as a coach but looking at the roster/statistics it seems he relies heavily on his guards to penetrate and create their own shot or drop it onto their post player to take a low high percentage shot. Current roster has 11 of 15 from California but they do appear to be from all over the state plus a couple foreign players probably from his connections working with the NBA International Outreach Program as a coach with Golden State. It makes sense with the talent internal to California that it would be heavily focused this way but I would hope if he were to come to Tech that he would be a bit more diverse. Not sure how current his connections are to the ACC and the East Coast as 2000 was the last time he was affiliated with an ACC team. I am sure he would be able to leverage his roots after getting to know coaches at the High School and AAU circuit for this area but that would likely take a couple years. I think there are more experienced potentially available candidates for this to become a reality. His salary at least initially at UCI was $205,000 on a five year contract. This would have been the fourth year of that contract so I have to think there was a renegotiation at least sometime in the last year or so.
Great write-up. What I also found interesting is that he has 3 of the tallest players in college basketball on his roster. One player at 7'6", one at 7'2", and the last at 7'. Also has 2 other 6'10" players on his roster. Although he wouldn't be my first choice, I feel as if Turner would be a solid 2nd tier coach if Whit's other options don't work out.
Wake Forest finally fired Bzdelnik and Wake students were so happy they TP'd the quad
Wake is considered a better destination than VT which puts pressure on VT. Jeff Capel would be high on their list. That's 3 ACC schools looking to fill a head coaching position and a name to watch out for for the Wake job apparently is the one and only
Lets hope they go that route. Leave the better coaches to us to go get. I could see Capel getting the offer as well. Either of them I would be fine with going to Wake.
At least their fan base cared enough to have a visible reaction like that.