If those are real, I don’t get it. Neither of those jobs are worth sacrificing the progress they’ve made at their current locations.
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That’s a heck of a jump from D2 to the MAC. Wouldn’t be shocked if there was some interest there though.
Agreed 100%. This isn’t 90s Arkansas nor will it be like that anymore. That job just isn’t very good now. And A&M? Football-obsessed Texas A&M? Doesn’t make sense to me.
EDIT: Had the two coaches/destinations confused.
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Not Canisius?!?!
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Hey that’s a nice first step into D1!
Progress and money talk differently. The hardest part for many of these mid-major coaches that make the jump is the life changing money they are getting from the high major. Imagine making four times what you currently make and it’s guaranteed for five years.
Would Buffalo or any of these mid majors come at their coaches with $2-$3 million per year? That’s doubtful. So these coaches will take the money and run, knowing that if things don’t work at the high major level, they can always come back to the mid major level and do alright financially.
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I think Reegs was referring to the rumors of Sampson leaving Houston for Arkansas and Buzz leaving VT for A&M.
The cream of this year’s crop resides in the West region. No. 1 Gonzaga, No. 2 Michigan, No. 3 Texas Tech and No. 4 Florida State all rank in the top 14 of Pomeroy’s 2019 ratings, giving this region an average net efficiency mark of plus-28.3, the highest of any region in any semifinals since 2002.
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Got it. Houston has the backing of the Houston Rockets owner. Arkansas really wants their basketball team to be good. They paid Bret Bielema a boat load of money to come from Wisconsin for football, I’d assume they’d do the same with Sampson, plus Arkansas’ AD is the AD that hired Sampson at Houston. Buzz actually took a paycut to come to Va Tech. He’d probably be one of the highest paid coaches in the country if he went to A&M, they’ve got oil money and a ton of it.
For the most part, it comes down to money. How can they set up their kids and their grandchildren, that’s what these contracts do.
Sampson has been coaching for years and years. I just don’t know if he’d be that motivated by a few extra dollars at this stage of his career unless the move really made sense from a basketball standpoint. OTOH, he’s going to lose his best player to graduation so maybe?
RE: Buzz, I guess I could see him leaving for A&M. VT will likely never be better than UVA so long as Tony Bennett is around and he’d be the only SEC guy in Texas. And he’s only 46.
Buzz is from Texas and was an assistant at A&M at one point, which would be the primary reason for the interest there.
For Arkansas, I know they haven’t been good in a long time, but Houston hadn’t been good in an even longer time and he’s probably gotten them to be about as good as they can be. Arkansas thinks it can get back to the program it was in the Eddie Sutton/Nolan Richardson days. They already spend on the same level as Florida and Auburn.
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Only mention of Michigan in here is by Armando Bacot. UNC signee at IMG Academy. He had some very high praise for Beilein as well. He put Beilein in the same category of coaches as Coach K and his future coach Roy Williams. Lots of love for Purdue and a little for MSU as well from the other players.
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Sampson lost a number of years as a HC because of the show cause order. I’d think he’d be motivated to get back to the level he was at before that happened. The SEC is a much bigger stage than he’s on in Houston.
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Got to think we get Niagara on the non con schedule sometime soon. That would be a fun one.
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Not well versed on Niagara basketball but Calvin Murphy has to be the best b-ball player to come out of Niagara.
Second round pick in NBA 1970 draft but 18th overall. That would about put him in Lottery these days.
Murphy attended Niagara University, where he was a three-time All-American. He scored 2,548 points in 77 games (33.1 points per game).[2]
One of his best games was a 68-point outing against Syracuse University at Niagara’s Gallagher Center.[4]In 1970, he led Niagara to the NCAA tournament and advanced to the second round, where they lost to Villanova. During his career he was famous for being one of “The Three M’s”, along with Pete Maravichand Rick Mount, both of whom were NCAA Men’s Division I Basketball All-Americans at the same time as Murphy.
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Anyone have any thoughts on Buzz Williams to A&M? Rothstein reporting that Kevin Willard from Seton Hall is the top target for VaTech.
Texas A&M is willing to keep up with spending to compete nationally in sports. Also think TAMU is more likely to become a power than Virginia Tech. SEC has Kentucky and then a bunch of schools that have varying levels of success over the years. Tech has to compete with Duke, UNC, Louisville as historic programs and Virginia and Syracuse as other good to great programs. Ceiling is higher at TAMU IMO
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An ummm… interesting team here for the Big Ten(reigning champions).