3star_recruit

I agree with that. Here's the other side of that. Because of the portal there's no reason for a big kid that's borderline high major to go mid major out of high school. He can always redshirt, maintain his four years of eligibility, jump into the portal and transfer down.

Vice wanted to take a shot at making the rotation for a top 15 team. He wasn't quite good enough so he took a redshirt year. Now he enters the portal with all four years of eligibility. I don't see the downside here.

Wiz, we were having a discussion about what Schertz would have done with this year's team. We know how good his current core is. They're in the NIT final four right now. If Schertz brings his top three guys with him, all he would need from the portal is a couple of role players.

System coaches need the right personnel to run their system. That's why Majerus couldn't win here until he had his guys in place. Schertz runs his offense through the 5. Not only did we not have a 5 that is a high level shooter and passer, the rest of the team was the worst collection of passers in decades.

Coaches who yell and win get a pass. Coaches who yell and lose get trashed for yelling as if the yelling is why they're losing.

Kelsey's like their seventh choice and is being paid accordingly. I think this is a good fit. The program has cratered and Kelsey is a good enough X's and O's coach to make them NIT-worthy in two years and back to the NCAA in three.

Outstanding job by the agent to dominate the Louisville sports news cycle with two of his clients.

Somebody has to come off the bench and play defense. Schertz's squad has everything else. https://posteagles.com/news/2024/3/15/deng-deang-named-d2cca-all-east-region-second-team-third-player-in-program-history-to-achieve-honor.aspx "Defensively, Deang has contributed a team-leading 30 blocks with 33 steals as well."

"Put on notice" and "as early as" is essentially the same thing.

That's pretty much the profile of every coach being brought up for an open coaching position. The proverbial home run hire doesn't exist for Louisville in this hiring cycle. Sure there's Chris Mack but Louisville already fired him.

Louisville is in a tough spot. A young media darling who has made a tournament run isn't available. It's either hire a so-called retread or hire a relative unknown who has been one and done in the tournament.

The price of acquiring talent has skyrocketed but the flood of upsets keeps coming. Hilarious.

Is Reed Sheppard still a lottery pick after this game?

Indiana St. is already ranked 102. Just for context, the 97th and 98th ranked teams are St. Joseph's and Fordham. Dayton is 105. It's probably where we were during the Claggett and Highmark days. So you don't need to be a top tier defensive team to get to the NCAA tournament. But if you can't get stops against good teams, your stay will be short. https://www.teamrankings.com/ncaa-basketball/stat/defensive-efficiency

If Avila, Kent, Conwell and Swope come, those guys are all starting. The defense is what it is. The team formerly known as Indiana State will have to outscore teams to win in the A10 just like they did in the MVC. Improving the defense will have to be a long-time project that starts after these guys graduate.

But this isn't how we operated when we were kids. We didn't know enough about how the world worked to care about the fine details. (Well ABomb did but maybe he was precocious). I'm not saying it's all bad, but it's certainly more stressful being an adult sports fan. And often more mean-spirited.

That's basically how we all operated when we were 10 years old and fandom was a lot more fun and carefree back then. I certainly didn't worry about how Rich Grawer produced whatever results he produced. I'm not even sure I knew who the coach was back then. I certainly wasn't making mental progress reports of the athletic director, who I didn't even know existed. Being an adult has turned most of us into concern trolls. We stress out endlessly over things we have no control over. We demonize men that we barely know. It's unfortunate. But it happens on every sports message board. That's the price of testosterone.

Ahearn was a high school coach for two years, starting in 2015. He was 7-17 Clayton and 12-16 at Desmet. Then the San Antonio Spurs G league team offered him the head coaching job. And he did well in that position. I agree, coaching a team composed of NCAA all-stars and NBA veterans doesn't require the same skill set as coaching at lower levels.

I suggested a framework for evaluating any prospective hire that levels the playing field. You can ask these questions about a D2 coach or a D1 coach with 15 years experience and still get actionable information. What kind of offense does he run? What kind of defense does he run? What level of player does he need to run those schemes? Will his teams be able to defend well enough to win in the A10? The problem with a coach like Ahearn is I don't think we have an answer to any of these questions. NBA guys dropping down to college basketball have a horrible track record. I think part of the issues is players at the NBA level are either very talented, very experienced or both. They don't require the degree of structure that college players do.

In assessing whather a coach would be a good fit for SLU I think you need to answer four questions: What kind of offense does he run? What kind of defense does he run? What level of player does he need to run those schemes? Will his teams be able to defend well enough to win in the A10? Other than when talking about Schertz and McCollum, I've seen very little discussion about the first two questions and nothing at all about the last two.

Medley just came in at a bad time. If we were coming off an NCAA bid, his gradual progression into serviceable starting point guard would have been more appreciated. He's the second best passing freshman point guard in our program's history. Add some offense and he's another top flight Billiken point guard by his junior year.

I don't think 10 year old boys today hate the players or the coach of their favorite team. They root for their team. If the team isn't winning enough, they go play video games or something. They don't hyperfocus on all the flaws of an organization the way we do. This is an adult problem. It's why the worst behaving people at youth sporting events are adults, not children.

It's why we have such fond memories of childhood fandom. We rooted for the players on the team. This preoccupation with pocket watching, return on investment, the political leanings of the coach, etc. comes with the hangups of adulthood. It makes fandom a more miserable experience than it has to be.

I'd be interested in seeing when other programs actually hire their coaches this season. Firing a guy and then taking two months to fill the position isn't a good look either.

I hear what you're saying. But based on your criteria, then the likes of Matt Painter and T. J. Otzelberger would not have been hired by P5 programs. Because they didn't beat anybody at the mid-major level either. What they did do is have dominant seasons in their conference. The next school's job is to evaluate whether a coach's approach translates to a different level of competition. A coach's inability to beat good P5 teams with 2 star rosters doesn't prove anything.