bierce

Court storming in Clemson. C'mon people, you've beaten Duke before and now have 5 straight wins over top 5 teams, so what is the big deal?

A&M pulled it out against Missouri in a game that was decided by a Taylor 3pt shot with 2.1 seconds left. Those who think the portal era prevents a coach from building from within should consider 4 of the 5 Agroids who lead in minutes played have played together for at least 3 years, and two of the top 4 in bench minutes have also been around 3 years or more. That's some kind of continuity.

Yeah, that hasn't happened since WAY back in the spring of 2021.

Texas (29) @ Vandy (46) Not a must win by any means, but one that would help in many ways, not in the least by pushing Texas way ahead of Vandy in the Matrix (Texas currently a 10 and Vandy an 11) Vandy forces a ton of turnovers, but we're pretty good about avoiding them. Tennessee @ OU (38) Tennessee is playing to win a protected seed. OU is a bubble team A&M (13) @ Missouri (19) Winner has the leg up for a double bye in the conference tournament. Missouri has easy remaining schedule with Alabama and Kentucky both at home and nothing but bubble or out of tourney teasm otherwise. A&M starts a Auburn, Tennessee, Florida gauntlet in a couple of weeks. So Car @ Kentucky Kentucky has lost 4 of its last 5 including @ Vandy and home to Arky. Mississippi St (30) @ Georgia (31) Matrix still has MSU as a 7 seed. Georgia the last 10. One guess which team finds this game more important. Florida (5) @ Auburn (1) Mississippi (21) @ LSU (79) Alabama (6) @ Arky (43) Never dreamed a week ago that our loss to Arky might wind up as a q1 loss, but it could happen. Of course, that would probably require us to loss to Arky again in Fayetteville.

I'm enjoying the various articles about coaching searches these last few days because no one is wasting words on Jay Wright or Mark Few.

He came here as a long term project. He showed us some ability in November and December. But that was against the likes of Mississippi Valley State, Chicago State, Houston Christian, and Arky PB, so I have a fairly high degree of skepticism that he can do much against P5 competition at present, despite eye-popping shooting% in his 40 minutes on the floor so far. I just wonder why he doesn't get a minute or two in blowouts. I mean, why not? He has to play against that caliber of player in practice, so I can't see his confidence being ruined if he struggles during meaningless time in a game.

Compare ISU press release about Otzelberger's extension in April, 2023. Instant disclosure of details. https://cyclones.com/news/2023/4/10/mens-basketball-otzelberger-receives-contract-extension.aspx

Other sites (like SI) reported Otzelberger's extension was signed. Curiously, though, Matt Campbell also signed an extension in December. Details of that also have yet to be disclosed. Of course these days in the coaching world, an on paper contract is only worth the stone tablet it's chiseled on.

Do you have any idea how many coaches have managed to win more NCAA tournament games than we have in our entire school history?

Daiquiris. People laugh until I explain that a basic daiquiri is simply rum, lime juice, and a little sugar. But I rarely say no to a shot of straight rye, and it's much easier to get one of those, preferably a double, in a club with loud music. I was always amused by the places with weird rules requiring the bartenders to put at least one piece of ice in the drink.

Ok, I guess I can get that part of it.

Since when are we a blue blood in basketball? We have never gone beyond the Final Four, we made the Final Four only once since the NCAA tournament became more important than the NIT, we won only one NIT title before the NCAA tournament expanded to 68 teams, and our only "National Championship" is the title the Premo-Porretta archive duo retroactively awarded us in 1995 for the 1933 season.

I always thought Crean got shafted at IU. He inherited absolutely nothing after the program's implosion due to Sampson making a lot of phone calls. This is the non-portal era, so it was like Drew having to rebuild Baylor from the ground up. Crean got IU to the NCAA in his fourth year and made the tournament 4 times in five years, advancing to the Sweet Sixteen 3 times. Then future long time NBA star OG Anunoby blew out a knee in January, 2017. IU went 4-10 the rest of the way, missed the tournament, and Crean was canned, but not before the Indiana AD decided IU would not host an NIT game because it would "devalue" Assembly Hall. Well, you've had two tournament appearances and one tournament win since then, so maybe Assembly Hall's value is another historical relic.

Indiana basketball is like Nebraska football. Decades removed from a legendary coach. Decades removed from any big success. Fanbase still thinks it is royalty in the sport. Grabbing a new coach every 4 years or so.

I wonder if Rutgers will have much patience with Pikiell if Rutgers finishes sub .500 overall and Harper and Bailey wind up in the top 5 in the NBA draft? That'll be tough on a coach with two NCAA appearances and 1 tournament win and two winning seasons in conference in 9 seasons.

https://www.nba.com/bulls/news/billy-donovan-on-bulls-future-plans-i-want-to-be-part-of-building-something https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/02/05/chicago-bulls-billy-donovan-rebuild/ https://www.chicitysports.com/billy-donavan-rebuild-chicago-bulls-nba-news It could all be pr-ish coach-speak.

Hurley has never won an NCAA tournament game and never had a team finish higher than 49th in Pomeroy while at Arizona State. This is his 10th season there. ASU missed the tournament in 3 of the last 4 seasons. ASU has lost its last 5 home games. "Fire Bobby Hurley" chants broke out during the last game. And there was all the crap that happened at the end of ASU's recent home loss to Arizona. ASU player head-butted Caleb Love, and it was in a dead ball situation. Just walk up and smash foreheads. Love stepped back, raised his hands, and was restrained by a teammate before he could even touch Freeman. Refs t'd Love for something he said. Refs reviewed it and ejected both players. Hurley later told his bench to go the locker room with 0.5 seconds left on the clock and a dead ball. He then waved his team off the court to skip the handshake line. He then blamed it all on UA players for winning with no class and promised he would not vote for Caleb Love for all Big 12 team. Complete dickishness. Lloyd says he understands ASU skipping the handshake line, but still . . .

I wasn't suggesting McCaffery as a target to hire. I was suggesting Iowa might be getting ready to move on. Nor was I suggesting McCollum as a target for us. This thread is about schools maybe looking at making changes. I dared to introduce the topic of coaches that might prove of interest to someone. Doesn't mean I'm putting square peg A into star shaped hole 1. Except when it comes to McCollum and Iowa. That kind of makes sense to me.

I'm guessing if McCollum does make a jump to a P5 school, it will be in the Midwest where he can claim to have at least some kind of recruiting network in place. His entire roster hails from Missouri or Illinois, save the 10th man who plays only a smattering of minutes. He's from Wisconsin. So McCollum is probably an easier sell for someone like Iowa. I always liked McCaffery. He has a lot of fun, high-powered offenses. I loved his bit in the commercial with Hoiberg and Dixon. Iowa has a lot of patience with coaches having middling success. (Ferentz, anyone?) But McCaffery has 4 NCAA tournament wins going into this 15th season in Iowa City, is about to miss the tournament for the second straight year, and he turns 66 in May 65. I won't be surprised if Iowa moves on soon, even if not this year, and if McCollum repeats this year's success at Drake next year, then maybe there's their guy.

Is why I said "gamble."

Donovan also stated in the last couple of days that he is interested in being part of a rebuilding program, something he ran away from in OKC. Of course, it might remain an open question about whether that rebuilding program needs to be in the NBA. But there aren't many guys who had successful NBA coaching careers that went back to college coaching. Pitino, Calipari, Kruger, et al., pretty much crapped out in the NBA.

McCollum is only 43, btw. If he gets hired and makes it, then the school hiring him could be set for nearly 30 years.

My only concern there is whether UVa might want to get away from slow it down style and might fear him being another slow it down coach. Some of his DII teams lit up the scoreboard, but his last title team never scored more than 70 in the entire tournament, and Drake is playing slower than any other team in the country this year. Small sample size and credit to a coach for fitting playing style to the players, but I suspect UVa wants a lot of wins but also wants to avoid another decade of games in the 50s. I'd accept the latter if it will gain me the former, and maybe McCollum won't play that way with P5 talent, but it's something to consider.

I get that part of it. But for Vinson to not get a single minute after we took a 30 point lead over LSU with 3 minutes to go? When he has already played a smattering of minutes early in the year? Odd.

I'm wondering if a P5 school will take a gamble on Ben McCollum. Might be a bit too early, because bringing your entire DII championship roster with you and using them to win the MVC (and beat Vandy and Kansas State along the way) might prove coaching chops, but it doesn't say anything about ability to recruit at a high level.