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Realistic coaching candidates

Pitino is not a long term solution due to his age. However, he can right the ship and offers a short term fix. Still not sure if he’d be my #1 choice but if he shows interest in the job again it’d be hard to turn him down a second time.
 
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Pitino
Dennis Gates (was at FSU as an assistant for nearly a decade)
Kevin Willard (Seton Hall)
Niko Medved (Colorado State)
Mark Schmidt (St. Bonny)
 
JZCane0825 said:
Pitino
Dennis Gates (was at FSU as an assistant for nearly a decade)
Kevin Willard (Seton Hall)
Niko Medved (Colorado State)
Mark Schmidt (St. Bonny)
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I’ve mentioned Gates a few times in this thread. I really like him. Idk if Willard would leave to come here, that feels like a lateral move. Medved and Schmidt are interesting names.
 
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I love Jim and will be forever grateful for what he's done for the program. We won an ACC title and that first 7 year stretch was as good or better as any coach at Miami has ever had. For me, he's the best coach in program history. Unfortunately, his entire talent acquisition strategy caught up to him and he's refused to adapt, whether it's been scholarship management, attrition or going to the well far too much as far as the portal goes.

Outside of McGusty, who's an above average ACC starter at best, he hasn't hit on a single player from portal since Sheldon and Angel. His high school recruiting has been even worse. 2016 and 2017 were major recruiting bump years and I think it's fair to say that guys like Bruce, Dewan and Lonnie were underwhelming relative to expectations. Chris Lykes was a very good ACC guard but could never stay healthy and finally transferred. Earl Timberlake is the worst 5 star signing in program history and it's not like Dequan Jones never existed. Matt Cross showed promise but Larranaga ****ed him off and he dipped out. It's really just Wong and possibly Poplar (too early to tell) and he's completely missed on every other prospect the last 5-6 years that I haven't mentioned.

What's worse is that he is still blaming his shortcomings on the FBI investigation from 3 years ago, which likely would have fallen on deaf ears under a real AD. Sadly, Blake is a giant ***** and enabled the narrative. At best, he would have forced Larranaga into retirement and promoted Caputo or brought back Konkol or Huger. Thankfully, a new AD is on the way and this team is about to have their worst season in decades, so it should all take care of itself.
 
Gables Canes said:
I’ve mentioned Gates a few times in this thread. I really like him. Idk if Willard would leave to come here, that feels like a lateral move. Medved and Schmidt are interesting names.
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Gates to me is a program builder and I think this is a 2-3 year rebuild at a minimum. The FSU experience and working under Leonard makes this job a logical destination. He's only making $550k per year at Cleveland State so it's not like it'll take a huge payday to lure him.

Willard turned down VT two years ago and is making about $2 million per at Seton Hall. He's got a great thing going up there and basketball is the big ticket program on that campus. Unlike with CFB, it's not like he can't make a big tournament run out of the Big East Conference so it would have to be big money coupled with his own aspirations changing.

Schmidt is interesting. He's 55 and has been at St. Bonaventure for 15+ years. Like Gates, money won't be an issue so again, it's a question around whether he wants to give up on what seems to be a cushy gig. Interesting note is that he's a BC grad so I'm surprised that they didn't go after him harder when their job was open.

I don't know as much about Medved aside from him being a hot name at the moment but Colorado State has been a sneaky good program over the years and has them rolling again this year. He's never been the tourney before at any stop, so that for me would give me a bit of pause.

If I were the new AD, my first call would be to Pitino and then to Gates if he turns me down. He's going to be a hot commodity after this year given what Iona is doing right now, which is why making a hire like Jurich would be so big.
 
Liberty City El said:
Anthony Grant is my pick as well, I think he’d do very well here, he’s built Dayton into a legit tournament team & even had a kid like Obi Toppin being drafted in the top 10. Had the tournament not been cancelled last year Dayton was looking at easily being a Sweet 16/ possibly Elite 8 team.

I don’t really hold the Bama years against him either, he had 3 good seasons early in his tenure from 2010-2013 & Bama really just recently started paying attention to Basketball recruiting. For the longest the only thing that mattered to them as a program was Football obviously. I think he did about as good job as he could at Bama given the circumstances. The best season they’ve ever had in their program history was in 04 when they went to the Elite 8 after having a 20-13 season & the most wins they’ve ever had in a season was 27. Coach Grant got them their 2nd highest win total in a season in school history with 25 W’s.

Bama Basketball is not Bama Football, just making the tournament is high level success for that program.

Plus given his history from being a long time assistant on Billy Donovan’s staffs at UF helping build their National championship teams, I think he’d be able to show his recruiting acumen very well at a program with more resources like Miami.

Kelvin Sampson would be my 2nd pick if he were interested in leaving Houston, regardless of some of the controversial off the court violations with him, it can’t be denied the man knows how to build a winning program, what he’s done at Houston has been very impressive considering how he was looked at as “finished” after the way things ended in Oklahoma.

Chris Mooney at Richmond is another name I’d consider.

Travis Ford at Saint Louis is another one as well.
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Anthony Grant >>> Jimmy L.
 
Don't think it's realistic to think it will happen anytime soon or ever for him here at Miami, but a young up and coming coaching name to keep an eye on is TJ Johnson who is currently the HC at Texas State. Met him on the travel circuit years ago when he had an 8th grader by the name of Thon Maker schools were gushing over. He's still relatively young in the HCing profession, but has been impressive his first 2 seasons. He was named Sun Belt Coach of the Year in his 1st season and has led Texas St to back to back conference championships and 20+ game winning seasons. Well connected and well versed in the recruiting world. Do think he'll need to move up to a mid-major before making the climb to a P5 program.
 
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NC_Canes_11 said:
Word is Maryland is going after Pitino. If we don’t make a move this year, we’ll miss out on him.
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Pitino lives on a golf course in Westchester County, just a short commute to Iona, and is really enjoying his life now (at age 69). Only real negatives at Iona are (1) won't be able to compete for a NC, and (2) in a "one-bid" league so gotta win the league Tourney every year.

Don't think he needs/wants the stress or more money. And, if he does, he can probably coach the Knicks, Nets or some other NBA team for a lot more.
 
hotshot said:
Pitino lives on a golf course in Westchester County, just a short commute to Iona, and is really enjoying his life now (at age 69). Only real negatives at Iona are (1) won't be able to compete for a NC, and (2) in a "one-bid" league so gotta win the league Tourney every year.

Don't think he needs/wants the stress or more money. And, if he does, he can probably coach the Knicks, Nets or some other NBA team for a lot more.
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Doesn’t matter. You gotta make him tell you no.
 
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hotshot said:
Pitino lives on a golf course in Westchester County, just a short commute to Iona, and is really enjoying his life now (at age 69). Only real negatives at Iona are (1) won't be able to compete for a NC, and (2) in a "one-bid" league so gotta win the league Tourney every year.

Don't think he needs/wants the stress or more money. And, if he does, he can probably coach the Knicks, Nets or some other NBA team for a lot more.
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You are correct. I don't see Pitino is interested in leaving Iona.
 
NC_Canes_11 said:
Doesn’t matter. You gotta make him tell you no.
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I agree. Be interesting to see if Maryland does in fact offer him (as reported they are considering doing). They have the vacancy, we don't. Who'd you rather have if you were the Maryland AD, Pitino or Ed Cooley? One is 69, the other is 52.
 
hotshot said:
I agree. Be interesting to see if Maryland does in fact offer him (as reported they are considering doing). They have the vacancy, we don't. Who'd you rather have if you were the Maryland AD, Pitino or Ed Cooley? One is 69, the other is 52.
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I’d take Pitino. If you recruit at a high level you can win immediately in basketball. He’s got plenty of good years left. Cooley isn’t going anywhere anytime soon IMO. He will be available if he’s willing to leave, 10 years from now.
 
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FYI - Coach L w a 2 year extension, unless I missed a new thread somewhere. Questionable business decision IMO; hope the buyout is small.
 
Based on how long Brownell has been at Dan's last stop, Clemson, I wouldn't expect our new AD to be looking to take on a lot of change in hoops or baseball. In L's case, this season and a good recruiting class have earned him this extension. I expect him to use the Portal a lot to make up for some clear difficulties in recruiting from the HS ranks (which can't be that easy for a 72 year old).
 
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