Coaching Carousel (Basketball)

[mattcoldagelli]

Also, I get that we're on a college sports board, but the constant state of shock that a basketball professional would eagerly pursue the chance to work at the highest level of basketball in the world is kind of silly.

 

[GatorMcKlusky]

All of the B1G coaches, including Brad, are revoltingly reverential to Izzo. As are all the reporters.

Izzo is a great coach without question, but Nick Saban accomplished twice as much and was still well understood to be a miserable curmudgeon. Why Izzo gets to the Mayor of Basketballtown is beyond me.

Nothing seems to stick to Michigan State. Scandal after scandal and it all washes away rather quickly.

 

[CrazedUIFan]

What teams are in the position to benefit from MI transfers, if there are any?

 

[BretMyBeachHouse]

tough for UM. also, man did IU miss out on their potential golden goose. love pointing that out again

I suppose. But don't you suppose that IU fans are thinking that May would have left them so he was only a short term solution? Of course, if that's their first title in 40 years, well worth it. But that's not likely.

The question is whether a top 10 finish with an elite 8 or FF finish by IU, with May at the helm, would have been enough to send May to the NBA.

 

[thefalcon5]

What teams are in the position to benefit from MI transfers, if there are any?

Kentucky would be high on the list I assume. Honestly I think the interim hire saves the big players. I would set the line for total transfers out at 1.5 and bet the under.

 

[GrayGhost77]

Well, we've got to be the odds on favorites to win the B1G for sure now, right?

 

[Grandpa]

Hopefully a team with a need and a vengeful donor takes Fichigan's most irreplaceable player, whatever it costs.

 

[ChiefGritty]

I think you've gotta be a pretty good strategist/game manager/X and Os guy, which is what helps keep the players happy.

The connection between those two things is an excellent point.

Also, I get that we're on a college sports board, but the constant state of shock that a basketball professional would eagerly pursue the chance to work at the highest level of basketball in the world is kind of silly.

True, but there's just something kind of irrelevant about NBA coaches these days. It's such a same-y, player-directed style of play now.

Mike Malone, Joe Mazzula, Mark Daigneault and Mike Brown are your last four NBA Champion coaches. None of those guys are meaningful figures in the game the way, say, Dan Hurley is.

 

[artist3]

We are lucky that - despite protests from Indiana and UCLA fans - we don't have some program within the Big Ten that just exists in a stratosphere way above the rest of us.

I’m gonna push back on this thought.. I don’t think conference affiliation has anything to do with coach poaching. It doesn’t matter that there is no Duke in the Big Ten. Duke still exists and they can come take our coach if they wanted. It happened with Self and Kansas.

 

[RollChief]

Man, I almost come close to feeling a little bit bad for Michigan fans. It must be a crazy feeling to have the Petyr Baelish of college basketball (for you Game of Thrones fans) come in, recruit a team of mercenaries, win a National Championship, and disappear into the night all in the span of 2 seasons. It's like marrying the most beautiful woman in the world, just to come home from a work trip and find out she left you for some millionaire after 6 months. At least she left the house and the dog (for now).

I'm not sure how exactly people are defending him considering this, I don't know how you would trust anyone anymore as a fan. Their entire fandom has to feel like they're living through the curse of the monkey paw, especially after the Sherrone Moore fiasco shortly after a National Championship.

All I can say is that my faith in the universe would be restored if the last B1G team to win a National Championship was Illinois and Brad Underwood after 10 seasons rebuilding the program to national prominence and returning a bunch of vets, instead of a band of fickle (but also very, very good) mercenaries.

 

[PepeSilvia]

The connection between those two things is an excellent point.


True, but there's just something kind of irrelevant about NBA coaches these days. It's such a same-y, player-directed style of play now.

Mike Malone, Joe Mazzula, Mark Daigneault and Mike Brown are your last four NBA Champion coaches. None of those guys are meaningful figures in the game the way, say, Dan Hurley is.

I think that's just the nature of the pro game.

College sports gave always had revolving rosters so the consistent top tier programs were always led by a coach that is kind of the figurehead of the program.

Phil Jackson won 11 championships and he is not nearly as revered as long time successful college coaches. When you think of those teams it's Michael and Scottie, or Kobe and Shaq/Pau. Honestly I feel like you hear more about guys like Rodman, Grant, Kukoc, Fisher, and Horry than Phil.

Kind of the same thing with Popovic. Duncan, Robinson, Manu, and Parker are the first thing that comes up.

Mike malone won a title and was out of a job 2 years later. The NBA is just a much more player/star driven game.

 

[EmeraldCityIllini]

Lol.

On a more serious and off-topic note, I think it definitely helps us that historically there really hasn't been this "can't-say-no" job in the Big Ten like a Duke / North Carolina in the ACC or how OSU / Michigan function on the football side of things for us. I know that will bruise the ego of Indiana historically and even UCLA now, but there are a lot of good basketball jobs in the Big Ten, and I feel like the gap between them is small enough that schools will always stand a good chance of keeping their coach.

For example, Indiana routinely ranks above Illinois and Michigan State on job rankings that I see, but ... whatever perceived gap there is seems pretty small to me. If Illinois and MSU enjoy "worse resources" in some way, it is to a small enough degree that Indiana would likely have a difficult time pulling off that poach. Compare that to some younger, Dusty-May-esque coach who goes to Virginia and has them rolling ... if Duke comes calling with a blank check, I think it'd be hard for many in that situation to say no.

TL;DR

We are lucky that - despite protests from Indiana and UCLA fans - we don't have some program within the Big Ten that just exists in a stratosphere way above the rest of us.

I’d also say in this climate the amount of can’t say no jobs is shrinking across the board.

I know I’ve beat a dead horse on this point mostly in relation to prior instances of fans wanting to move on from Brad for greener pastures. But…

Lville getting Pat Kelsey
Unc getting Mike malone
Indiana getting Darren Devries
Ohio State getting Diebler
Kentucky getting mark pope.

I think we’re past the days of even all blue bloods picking whoever they want.

 

[ChiefGritty]

Phil Jackson won 11 championships and he is not nearly as revered as long time successful college coaches. When you think of those teams it's Michael and Scottie, or Kobe and Shaq/Pau. Honestly I feel like you hear more about guys like Rodman, Grant, Kukoc, Fisher, and Horry than Phil.

Kind of the same thing with Popovic. Duncan, Robinson, Manu, and Parker are the first thing that comes up.

Phil and Pop are giants of the game.

The NBA hasn't created a new figure like that since Steve Kerr.

 

[88_ILLINI]

Probably talent wise, but they would ruin team chemistry. They are all horse's

Agree it could impact team chemistry, also depends on NIL$ to throw around.

 

[Fighter of the Nightman]

I’m gonna push back on this thought.. I don’t think conference affiliation has anything to do with coach poaching. It doesn’t matter that there is no Duke in the Big Ten. Duke still exists and they can come take our coach if they wanted. It happened with Self and Kansas.

I mean putting aside the fact that I don’t agree that Duke could just poach a coach from us NO MATTER WHAT (UNC just failed to poach Lloyd from a similar status program in Arizona), I wasn’t trying to say conference affiliation was a factor by itself. What I meant is that it would probably sting more to lose a coach to a conference rival than it would somewhere like Duke, so it’s good for us no such jobs exist in our conference.