If Martelli goes, would John Beilein consider stepping in to that sort of role here?
I think I read somewhere that he’s never been an assistant coach so I don’t know if that’s his cup of tea.
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Martelli feels kind of unhireable to me except for a low-level Philly school. He’s just too old to build a program around. How do you recruit with Martelli as your head coach and trust that he’ll be around in 2-3 years?
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Yeah, it seems much more likely that we’d loose him if a buddy of his got hired at PSU and he went there as a retirement job.
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I’d imagine PSU calling Beilein before Martelli, but also that Martelli’s near-legend status/connections/etc. make him a good fit. Maybe not at another B10 school, but at PSU, yes.
Gotta think Beilein says no. I would imagine he only takes a win-now job and he cannot run his offense with PSU players
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I would think Dane Fife would probably be a candidate. Can’t imagine Beilein being a candidate at PSU. It is not a good job.
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If you’re going to pick someone off of the MSU staff, wouldn’t a more logical choice be Dwayne Stephens, whose brother played at PSU (1300+ points, 700+ rebounds for his career), and was a consultant to the staff a few years ago?
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There’s some reason that he doesn’t get HC offers despite having one of the most connected coaches in hoops stumping for him. I presume it’s a reflection of his perceived ability.
I have it on good authority that’s he’s been very picky and turned down opportunities at “low-majors”
I guess I’m just less confident that Stephens would leave for Penn State. Is that the job he’s been holding out for this long?
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I’m not sure he is ever going to get whatever hypothetical job he’s holding out for. Eventually he will just need to decide if he ever wants to be a head coach or not. Being an assistant at MSU isn’t a bad gig if he decides he doesn’t want to be a head coach anywhere besides at a hypothetical HM that will never offer him a job.
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Feels like in basketball, it is very rare that a HM hires an assistant at another high major. Maybe I’m wrong, as I’m sure that data is out there. Honestly the only ones I can think of are Duke assistants. But it’s much different than football where a top assistant position at a top 5 school is an easy entry way to a P5 job. Basketball just has so many more head coaching opportunities in D1 which I imagine has a lot to do with that. So teams prefer to hire someone with head coaching experience in a lower conference over hiring the Stephens’ and Fife’s of the world (although Fife does have head coaching experience).
FWIW I hope Stephens can get a good job. He needs an opportunity as there need to be more minorities given these opportunities
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From his own words, he’s only turned down one offer: https://www.si.com/college/2019/04/04/dwayne-stephens-michigan-state-assistant-coach-awaits-opportunity
I know of one more that he turned down after this article came out, Cleveland State
During down a B1G job not named Northwestern is pretty ballsy for a career assistant.
Ed DeChellis left Penn State for Navy…
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I think Roy Williams made the leap from UNC assistant to Kansas but that’s going back 30 years.
That feels like a crazy job to turn down. Mid-level conference with a lot of flexibility to succeed in. Cleveland State doesn’t have any particular limitations that other MAC programs don’t also have. Not sure what more you can expect as a career assistant.
Cleveland St is in the Horizon League. They’ve lost most of their better teams and I’d peg them a step or three below the MAC.
Cleveland State is a pretty awful job.