if this story is true, also makes me think we aren’t willing to spend top dollar
1 Like
Our basketball program has done more in the last 3 years than our football team in like 14 years.
11 Likes
I think somebody already mentioned this but the fact that we went from: having some nice returning players, a nice 2-man class with Wilson the headliner, and looking at grad transfers plus Franz to help us make another run… all the way to us looking for a new coach and basically having to forget about personnel in key weeks… is disappointing. (hate to bring this up but man it stinks).
6 Likes
We are a Football School and let it rot for 8 years before we made a real hire.
2 Likes
RE: Shaka Smart. VCU was good before he was there, and has been good since. Shaka has done poorly at Texas. Other coaches that have left (Capel, Grant, Mack McCarthy) have found their greatest successes as a head coach at VCU. This leads me to believe that the culture surrounding VCU is stronger than the coaches themselves.
1 Like
Yeah it is insane how the most ridiculous possible scenario played out.
1 Like
It sickens me to think that if Iggy sees his terrible preliminary feedback and announces he is back, then maybe all we worry about is Franz or a grad transfer.
1 Like
The Quinn article was a pretty awful look for Beilein too. You just don’t ghost a staff like that, especially when the guys are all on the last year of their deals.
1 Like
should at least sit down with Beilein before taking off to South Africa. Given the structure of Beilein contract, it has to be an understanding between the two during the contract extension negotiation that Beilein is interested in NBA jobs. If he senses a remote possibility he should cancel his trip and works on a contingency plan and starts vetting the names.
4 Likes
someone said during last night’s lottery, that Beilein should at least wait for the draft position being known. but hell let’s move on. Beilein has done a lot of the University and does not owe us a penny, and I can tell that he is really excited about his new gig. I am happy for him and am ready for the next chapter of M basketball.
1 Like
Good point that Manuel should have come home to get to work prepping for the possibility. He knew Beilein was interested, and Cleveland is 3 hours drive from A2 and from Patrick in Buffalo. Location was clearly more important to him than clarity on the lottery pick. At least have a plan for the assistants, who are still under contract at the moment, to take the wheel for now.
I can’t blame him for doing what he did. I wish it went down differently, in so many ways. It hurts extra to know that at least the Pistons could have had him. But there’ll be time for Beilein appreciation for me personally in the future. For now I care about the coaching search. That’s the information I’m hungry for – not retrospectives or guesses about why he left. I know BQ said on the podcast he doesn’t want to put out his own guesses about the coaching search, but there’s still plenty of reporting to do without hottaking.
Yeah, we can thank Warde inexplicably not having a buyout for that…
1 Like
And then the NCAA made rule changes that stifled Smart’s gimmick defense and Smart failed to adjust at his new school. His stock has dropped considerably.
1 Like
He’s only 42 years old. He’s been around seemingly forever as it is. He’s much more accomplished at 42 than most coaches are in their lifetimes. People say he had 1 good year at VCU but he made 6 tourneys in a row I believe at a program that isn’t a high major. That’s not easy at all. I’m not saying he’s my choice, but he’s not a bad option all things considered imo. There are plenty of worse options out there.
2 Likes
If, in two years as a Purdue assistant, the team went to the title game and then went 30-7, and went from a poor defensive team to a great one, yeah, he would be strongly considered.
1 Like
Again, you are citing accomplishments from before the NCAA rule changes. It’s moot to me because Smart hasn’t shown the ability to be successful without a defense that isn’t allowed anymore.
Smart’s defenses have been solid at Texas. Offense is his problem. Don’t think that is really due to rule changes.
2 Likes
Smart’s offense at Texas has been incredibly pedestrian and difficult to watch.
It’s almost as if he hopes something happens instead of having a defined conceptual attack.
He definitely would need to evolve on that end of the court going forward to improve his status.
It’s not impossible, but the resume to this point is really meh.
I never get the feeling that his teams can win by his abilities to “outcoach” the opponent. His in game adjustments are virtually non existent.
1 Like
I think in general you don’t want to hire a coach who is unpopular at his current school. Amaker’s last year at Seton Hall was a huge disappointment as well.
I’m not sure about rule changes being a factor but there’s a reason you don’t see a lot of high-level teams base their defense around full court pressure. We had only a couple of days to prepare for it and cut it to pieces.
1 Like