ChiefGritty
- Chicago, IL
Shades of Gary Williams and Debbie Yow.
Rather than risk derailing the conversation I'll just leave it there.
Coaching Carousel (Basketball)
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Rather than risk derailing the conversation I'll just leave it there.
He’s a great coach, I have no doubts he’d win games wherever he goes.
At a UNC, where your donors want to see high end talent/lottery picks on the roster with a high flying offense…Would that be the best fit for a guy who likes to do it with “his type of players” and has deployed a changeup style pace for most of his career. My hesitancy is not McCollum, it’s the boosters/fanbase trying to force his hand into making 5 star talents into a slower pace of play team. If a top program will fund him and him do it his way?
I just see an Lloyd/Oats/Donovan/Byington pivot making more sense, personally.
You're not wrong. But I just can't see Lloyd leaving Arizona right now, similar to Golden and Florida. The UNC rumors are a little crazy. Someone on the radio yesterday (can't recall if it was The Score or ESPN) said their sources think it's Nate Oats, and it's a done deal that won't be announced until after the Final Four. LOL.
My guess, Tyran Stokes to Kansas confirmed.
Pretty savvy move…float retirement..get the boosters to pony up for a game changer.
sacraig
- The desert
Apparently he's already doing this to some degree. He apparently went over DRF's head, straight to the university CFO for his most recent raise.
How far UNC basketball has fallen. I completely agree that McCollum has quickly proven himself to be a very good coach with success at multiple stops, but who could possibly have predicted that UNC would hire a head coach who as recently as 2024 was coaching at Division II Northwest Missouri State and/or a coach with just 2 years of high-major head coaching experience at Drake and Iowa? So much for UNC being the type of dream job that could lure Roy Williams from Kansas.
ChiefGritty
- Chicago, IL
Ben McCollum is a way better hire than Matt Doherty was, in fairness. I still don't see that happening.
I am increasingly hearing that Billy Donovan is trying to stage a coup against the Bulls front office and gain player personnel power for himself?
RabidDawgClassic
- Los Angeles, CA
The Cignetti factor has changed the way a lot of people think.
Agreed, but Doherty had the connection to UNC that at the time mattered most: his UNC roots as a former UNC basketball blueblood (1980–1984) who played under Dean Smith and started on the 1982 NCAA Championship team alongside Michael Jordan. A four-year letterman, he was the second player in ACC history to record 1,000 points, 400 rebounds, and 400 assists in their career. When Roy Williams turned down the head coaching job at UNC in 2000, UNC had to pivot to a name that was well known at UNC, despite an admittedly thin resume with just one year as the head coach at Notre Dame. It was a PR move scrambling to hire a UNC legend to save face when Williams unexpectedly turned down the position. Doherty quickly flamed out after his first year at UNC when he actually was the AP National Coach of the Year before his college coaching career completely tanked, never to recover.
IlliniwekKDR
- Colorado Springs, CO
Are you the CFO?
sacraig
- The desert
I've more or less doxxed myself at this point. You could figure out who I am. I just happen to have a friend in the U of A athletic department who occasionally passes me fun rumors. I have no way to confirm them, but it's fun this time squaring what he has said with what @Indy Illini Fan has said.
ChiefGritty
- Chicago, IL
Very, very stupidly.
There are going to be a lot more Kim Anderson's and precisely zero (0) more Curt Cignetti's.
(Curt Cignetti wasn't even that dominant in D2, the ultimate irony here)
Bo Ryan was basically Curt Cignetti before Curt Cignetti.
He didn't win the title but he made two straight final fours, including one title game.
sacraig
- The desert
Zero is a pretty absolute number. Simply probability would suggest that someone else will eventually strike gold, but it's going to result in a lot more flops in the process.
ChiefGritty
- Chicago, IL
If the probability is 1000-1 (which seems ballpark reasonable) then neither Cignetti nor any of us will live to see the next time that happens.
lstewart53x3
- Scottsdale, Arizona
Same with Wagler.
A sub 100 recruit to get drafted top 10 and lead his team to a final 4 as a freshman.
Doherty was a 7 year assistant for Roy Williams at Kansas. Roy never seriously considered the UNC job in 2000 but recommended Doherty (at Notre Dame at the time). But Williams was at the top of list at UNC for 10 years. Even if Doherty had been more successful at UNC, the moment Williams became available UNC would have hired him.
I don't know your criteria but Schertz from SLU could do what Cignetti did.
blackdog
- Champaign
I've more or less doxxed myself at this point. You could figure out who I am. I just happen to have a friend in the U of A athletic department who occasionally passes me fun rumors. I have no way to confirm them, but it's fun this time squaring what he has said with what @Indy Illini Fan has said.
Wait Craig? Is that you?
sacraig
- The desert
Bo Ryan literally did it already.
The probability is nowhere near 0. It's likely easier in basketball than it is in football but someone who dominated lower levels will come up and win a D1 title.
ChiefGritty
- Chicago, IL
I mean that's not "doing a Cignetti".
When people analogize Ben McCollum to Curt Cignetti, it's the idea that McCollum's instant success at a higher level means that he's just somehow decoded the game of basketball. Which sounds ridiculous when you say it, because that's not a real thing and is impossible, but what else can you say to describe what Cignetti has done?
And you're right that it's easier in basketball. Not as many individual things have to go right in order to get good in basketball, and it's fundamentally not as coach-driven.
But hey, if Northwestern fires Chris Collins, hires a mid-major flavor of the week, and using a lot of his own mid-major players and fringey NIL investment goes 3 seed Elite Eight year 1, 1 seed national title year 2, THAT would be "doing a Cignetti".
Perish the thought!
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