Iffff we were to look for a coach who would be realistic targets?

My take is that it was run poorly

You can win without both

Providence is not Northwestern. They have a decent history. They have had good coaches and good seasons in the past. It’s a good school in a good city. I credit Cooley for consistency but he hasn’t taken them to a next level. No deep tourney runs. No conference titles. He doesn’t have a niche that I can see that would make me want to take a chance on him (like JB’s offense or Smart’s Havoc D coming out of VCU). I don’t think he’d be a disaster here, but I’m having trouble seeing anything better than 4th place.

If we are going with coaches with mediocre track records, I’d rather go with Smart. His floor is higher as well as his ceiling IMO.

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Yea, don’t let pesky stats get in the way. Okay then, how about he doesn’t pass the eye test for me. Has anyone ever, other than you, watched a Providence game and thought ā€œdamn that’s a well-coached teamā€?


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If it really is down to these three, then I am VERY strongly in the Juwan camp. I had warmed up to Shaka, but the others would be very disappointing and could have a lowish floor.

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Yeah, I think Juwan is the strongest candidate of the three. You know what you’re getting with Cooley and it’s fine enough, but the ceiling is higher with Howard. Yaklich I think is a courtesy and, for all we know, so is Cooley.

Wow I am team Juwan all the way. Shouldn’t these search firms try to remove their biases? How dumb is it that he becomes a candidate for us because the guy working at the search firm was his AD for a bit.

Shaka>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Cooley. I can’t understate this enough. I even was starting to get excited about Shaka. He was 1b for me with Juwan

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Given Warde’s statement about wanting to hire someone with head coaching experience, I think he had to at least interview one candidate that does. Cooley has that connection to the search firm and may benefit from getting the attention. He’s on solid ground at Providence, unlike a couple of others.

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I hate getting into this type of stuff but this should be a major selling point for juwan or Cooley when recruiting against b1g teams

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I’m still not writing Shaka off from this. But if it’s these three I’m going

Juwan
Yaklich
Cooley

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Going from the Shaka-Howard debate to a potential Cooley hire is very underwhelming.

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And it was already underwhelming from basically the start. The bar is being lowered by the day smh.

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Goodman didn’t say they were the only 3 candidates or even the 3 leading ones. Just serious candidates because he knows about their interviews. Jordan and Smart have been rumored to want to keep any interviews quiet.

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I’m gonna triple down on the Yak train. ā€œNot ready to be a head coachā€ is not an argument I buy into. To some extent, every coach’s first head coaching gig is bound to have some risk. While it is a big leap to Big Ten ball from say a low major–if he’s got the ability to coach, he’s got the ability to coach. I’m unsure how a few years of rebuilding a bottom feeder will somehow exponentially increase his abilities. Give me Yak!!! :wink:

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BP3 weren’t you a Providence supporter earlier in the year?

How is that a recruiting selling point

Sam said Shaka seems to be behind Cooley. Which is wild to me. Can’t think of an argument for that.

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Yeah, on a purely basketball level it makes no sense. Maybe there are rumors of Smart on the recruiting trail being up to no good? Idk. It really does make no sense. Someone on here called Cooley a poor man’s Smart. Think that’s 100% accurate. That’s why I went all in on Yaklich. All options seem unappealing to a degree given the market right now.

Selling point is not how I would put it. It might be an advantage in some recruitments.