Has done amazing things at Grand Canyon University as it jumped to Division 1. Assistant coaching experience in NBA and the Colangelo connection
Love this. Wouldn't mind seeing this adjusted out a few more years to get some scope.
I dont understand the love for Cuonzo Martin. At all. He has been nothing but subpar with pretty talented teams.
I dont understand the love for Cuonzo Martin. At all. He has been nothing but subpar with pretty talented teams.
I would not say subpar, but not really good either. But he is able to recruit some highly ranked talent, without the big name school tag. If he can do that at Illinois, he will be successful.
People preach X's and O'x but in reality dream about those 5* recruits coming our way.
I think I'm more bothered by the amount of posting without any actual attention to having any supporting facts, evidence, or statistics.
On that note, I think it is worth discussing that Kevin Keatts currently has the #25 offense on KenPom, and is #43 overall at UNCW. That's pretty impressive. He continues to intrigue me more and more every day. Here's where our current top names stand on KenPom:
Coach - School | Overall | Adj O | Adj D | Tempo |
=========================================
John Groce - Illinois | 73 | 68 | 92 | 252 |
Kevin Keatts - UNCW | 43 | 25 | 112 | 79 |
Musselman - Nevada | 70 | 46 | 142 | 101 |
Cuonzo Martin - Cal | 52 | 166 | 9 | 304 |
Archie Miller - Dayton | 34 | 120 | 8 | 233 |
Greg Marshall - Wichita | 26 | 26 | 55 | 148 |
Buzz Williams - VTech | 50 | 60 | 65 | 72 |
Tony Bennett - UVA | 5 | 15 | 6 | 351 |
Ben Jacobson - UNI | 159 | 269 | 73 | 318 |
Mick Cronin - UC | 20 | 55 | 3 | 311 |
Tim Jankovich - SMU | 23 | 30 | 38 | 342 |
Matt McCall - 'Nooga | 59 | 61 | 74 | 296 |
Will Wade - VCU | 57 | 91 | 48 | 109 |
Chris Mack - Xavier | 25 | 34 | 33 | 153 |
Steve Forbes - ETSU | 65 | 152 | 36 | 61 |
Holtmann - Butler | 15 | 14 | 44 | 288 |
McDermott - Creighton | 16 | 7 | 50 | 98 |
I don't believe I'm missing anyone here? It's a little surprising how poor Cuonzo's offense has been with the talent there right now, and for a tempo that low, it's not very efficient to compensate.
Will try to update this every few weeks just as an active snapshot. I found it interesting looking at this.
Side note, apologies for any readability issues with the table
On the court success is what I'm dreaming of, whether that is delivered via 3* or 5*
If Martin delivers 3*, unfortunately you will likely keep dreaming of that on court success.
I never said I'm a Cuonzo guy (hint, I'm not, he's maybe my #4 right now) -- just that I don't care about the recruiting as long as we win games
I never said I'm a Cuonzo guy (hint, I'm not, he's maybe my #4 right now) -- just that I don't care about the recruiting as long as we win games
Let's go after Bill Self. He has the Kansas thing out of his system, and he has sort of hit a ceiling there. Looks like his legacy is going to be just another very successful coach at Kansas. He was doing something special at Illinois. I know we appreciated him, but probably not enough after Lou and Lon. He's young enough to still be the best ever at Illinois. We will give him a statue, doubt if Kansas does that. New AD with a little charm, maybe some of those burnt bridges have left enough foundation to start again. You might think its crazy, but you would have said the same about Lovie. Remember those days when we thought we were being robbed in getting a 3 or 4 seed in the NCAA?
Never said you were, just that if Martin gets the job, he would need to bring high level talent to win. I like the prospect of Martin, not my top choice but would be welcome. I do not believe he is such a sure thing for the job though as other believe.
Based on what I've read on this thread and on my google machine, I'm most intrigued by Kevin Keatts.
I agree with this. I think Cuonzo is a safe hire, but am not a believer in the upside. Many are high on his recruiting, but the underlying implication there is that his elite recruiting potential here will bump him higher than what he can achieve at other stops, and he's landed multiple 5* guys in his time at Cal and hasn't really done anything amazing with it yet. It is of course early in his tenure there, so maybe it is heading towards more, but you can also make an argument that the lack of playing with a roster entirely of his construction is somewhat of a concern.
I agree with this. I think Cuonzo is a safe hire, but am not a believer in the upside. Many are high on his recruiting, but the underlying implication there is that his elite recruiting potential here will bump him higher than what he can achieve at other stops, and he's landed multiple 5* guys in his time at Cal and hasn't really done anything amazing with it yet. It is of course early in his tenure there, so maybe it is heading towards more, but you can also make an argument that the lack of playing with a roster entirely of his construction is somewhat of a concern.
I second this.
262-17 at Hargrave Military Academy
Then brought in at Louisville as lead recruiter, where he had a ton of success. The one concern here is that he was lead recruiter during the scandal, however he was never directly linked to any wrongdoing.
Then he goes to UNCW where he takes over a team that had gone 10-20 and 9-23 the two years prior to his takeover. He shows immediate improvement going 18-14 and winning a share of the conference title. He is named CAA Coach of the Year.
In year two, the improvement continues. UNCW goes 25-8, wins the regular season and tournament championship and then loses to Duke by single digits. Keatts is once again named CAA Coach of the Year again.
This year, off to an 18-2 start. Last night, UNCW went on the road and beat their main contender in the conference, Charleston.
I'm resigning myself to the fact that we probably won't shell out $3MM-$4MM + and buyout for a basketball coach; either we won't get the chance to (people say no) or Whitman just won't have the capital with the boosters after Lovie.
So I'm pushing all my chips in on the Kevin Keatts bet.
- He can coach. Multiple HS championships and turned UNCW from a punching bag into an actual basketball team (relatively) in only 3 seasons.
- Has high level recruiting experience and success with Louisville.
- Coaches an up tempo offense that would be fun to watch and appeal to high level talent coming out of Chicago
- Elephant in the room, he's black and relatively young. Which, forgive my simple thinking, should give him a leg up getting his foot in the door with the AAA rated talent coming out of Chicago. Really, Goofy Brucie and Kevin Keatts knock on Derek Rose's door in 2006; knowing nothing about the two, who's getting the chance to talk first?
If you try to imagine what the ideal future career college coaching legend looks like, he'd look an awful lot like Kevin Keatts. It's a risk, as all mid major coaches would be, but I'd take him over the Cuonzo Martin's of the world any day.
Tim Jankovich
Dan Muller
I'm intrigued and you can't stop me!
I agree. The only issue is that if we can see that he is a rising young coach, others can too. Might there be other (more appealing) openings he could jump at?
Let's go after Bill Self. He has the Kansas thing out of his system, and he has sort of hit a ceiling there. Looks like his legacy is going to be just another very successful coach at Kansas. He was doing something special at Illinois. I know we appreciated him, but probably not enough after Lou and Lon. He's young enough to still be the best ever at Illinois. We will give him a statue, doubt if Kansas does that. New AD with a little charm, maybe some of those burnt bridges have left enough foundation to start again. You might think its crazy, but you would have said the same about Lovie. Remember those days when we thought we were being robbed in getting a 3 or 4 seed in the NCAA?