Coaching Candidates

[slufan13]

Drew or bust

[slufan13]

Stallings officially to Pitt. UNLV looking at Chris Beard. Stansbury to WKU. Man I hope Drew has indicated extremely strong interest

[slufan13]

Vandy will make a run at Will Wade and of course Bryce Drew

[joe_davola]

Stallings officially to Pitt. UNLV looking at Chris Beard. Stansbury to WKU. Man I hope Drew has indicated extremely strong interest

Time for some Jameson.

[majerus mojo]

No dots connecting to Drew at this point..

[johnbj14]

I highly doubt Wade is bolting VCU one year in. Vandy will be good next year but feel like they will go another direction. Could see a promotion of a guy like Richardson who succeeded Stallings at ISU, or a run at another mid-major coach such as Jacobson. This isn't to say Wade won't be contacted, just that I doubt he would bolt for a job that has some drawbacks. While a Power 5 job, the academic challenges of Vandy make it less ideal than the standing of being in the SEC would indicate.

Edit: Forgot the name who I actually would bet is the next Vandy coach, King Rice. Was an assistant there and has become a more popular name after this season.

[JMM28]

Box did our desks come in yet?

Also Pitt is getting crushed on the hiring of Stallings from all angles of pundits.

[Clock_Tower]

Kevin Stallings:

1). It took him five years to make the NCAA's at Vandy. He was told prior to the fifth year that he would be fired if he did not make the NCAA's that year. While he would likely had had success more quickly at SLU, he would not likely have been a quick turnaround program coach.

2). In the past he has tried to put his name in for three different Big Ten large state school coaching positions. None of those were his alma mater. They were Ohio State, Illinois, and Indiana. He has always been drawn to the large public state school type of places in the past in top level leagues. It took him a while, but he eventually embraced Vanderbilt and all that it contains, it was a low pressure position. He was friends with the next Chancellor, AD, other coaches. He developed a system and recruited much to that system over the years. He is not a great recruiter and has had to rely upon assistants that have had some turnover. He always seemed to find the next recruiter to be good enough. Pittsburgh is a larger public school in a top level league with less challenges than Vandy. Stallings has always wanted that in the past. He was content at Vandy but with recent underachieving and this year' s team receiving Final Four discussion pre-season, rumblings were getting a little louder. Some of his best recruiters there were King Rice, Yanni Hufnagel, and David Cason.

3). While at Vandy after getting it going, his program became an every other year NCAA team with just miss NCAA's in the in the other years. If he had a few more deeper tourney runs, or turned a few of those just miss teams in to NCAA teams, or had a better league record over time there, he would be thought of more highly than mixed opinions there. He had a few strong teams that were upset early in the NCAA's by smaller, quicker, hot shooting teams. He also had some NCAA success too. It has been four straight underachieving seasons at Vandy. Some were getting restless there. Many realistic Vandy fans appreciate his success there and what he built, but they would like a little more consistency, and a little better results moving forward. Nothing out of the realm of reason.

4). In the past Stallings has repeatedly said he does not want to coach in his 60's. He is I believe 55.

5). Stallings taking another job helps Vandy with his buy out money. Mutual benefit.

6) He's from St. Louis and is in fact a big Cardinal baseball fan. He routinely sat in the booth Vandy baseball games and has been close friends with Vandy baseball coach Tim Corbin for many years. Stallings' son Jacob is a AA catcher in the Pittsburgh Pirates organization.

7). The challenge for Stallings at SLU would have been need for resources, and could he hire strong recruiters.

8) At Vandy he always recruited length for position, not enough ball handlers. His teams were often great shooting, but lacking lateral quickness at both ends. Players had trouble creating their own shot when the offense broke down and they had trouble staying in front of their man at that the other end. Stallings has been an excellent offensive X's and O's coach to compensate, and starting implementing a 2-3 zone several years back on the defensive end to compensate. He has always recruited high character intelligent team players. Festus Ezeli of the Golden State Warriors for example once switched his major from pre-med to a fall back of Economics to make life easier for himself.

SLU has an opportunity to get a younger low/mid major successful head coach or a high major assistant that can try to develop something successful and consistent long term. There are several good choices out there. SLU needs to decide if they want to be more than a top 100 basketball budget as it has been in recent years. If not, they will need someone that can do many things well.

Excellent summary. I admit that I still would have wanted him at SLU bc he would be good for us. The number of 138 wins and 142 losses in the SEC though is a huge warning sign, and frankly, gave me big concern. I also believe he is burned out and ould use the year off. And it is not like his losses were disproportionately early in his career at Vandy either.

[Bizziken]

https://twitter.com/goodmanespn/status/714103514352521216

Box did our desks come in yet?

Also Pitt is getting crushed on the hiring of Stallings from all angles of pundits.

It's actually a much, much bigger fee than $50-75K...the search firm's fee is generally based on a % of the overall contract...and that fee can be up to 25% of the coach's salary over the first few years. Of course, the search firm does more than just a call and background check.

[STLfan]

Excellent summary. I admit that I still would have wanted him at SLU bc he would be good for us. The number of 138 wins and 142 losses in the SEC though is a huge warning sign, and frankly, gave me big concern. I also believe he is burned out and ould use the year off. And it is not like his losses were disproportionately early in his career at Vandy either.

The conference record improves if you take out the first four years when he was rebuilding the program. His SEC record without the first four years would be 117-99.

I think he would have been a good hire for us. It's a shame he is going to Pitt. I really hope we can get Drew, I could live with Ford if we can't, but Dooley would be very disappointing.

[Schasz]

I never thought Stallings was a good hire for SLU. I agree that if it isn't Drew then look at either Kelsey or Keatt's they are both worthy young HC's ready for a move up.

[billiken_roy]

Excellent summary. I admit that I still would have wanted him at SLU bc he would be good for us. The number of 138 wins and 142 losses in the SEC though is a huge warning sign, and frankly, gave me big concern. I also believe he is burned out and ould use the year off. And it is not like his losses were disproportionately early in his career at Vandy either.

The SEC is the cheatingest lowest academic environment that can be presented in bigtime D1 leagues. Vanderbilt is more or less an IVY league school and to expect to compete in the SEC athletically is actually a pretty amazing accomplishment. So all the positive that Stallings has accomplished in his SEC career is pretty nice imo. I say we can do a lot worse than Stallings at SLU and the one thing i really like about Stallings is the thought this next job is likely his last job so we probably wouldnt have to worry about having the big season and then running off to supposed bigger and better pastures.

I have no problem with Drew being first choice, but if we are ignoring Stallings for the backup plan that is a huge huge mistake imo. we would either have to really open up the checkbook for something as good or settle for a much less alternative in the likes of dooley or ford. a direction i am not enthused about at all. actually i would just as soon roll the dice with a high achieving assistant coach than go dooley or ford. i still cant grasp why the anthony grant route has went stone cold. i really liked the idea of his coming back to the college ranks. that was my first choice without knowing if there is a big time surprise out there.

I sure hope we know what we are doing. all this waiting around is making me very uncomfortable and fearing for the worst.

[eastsidejoe]

The SEC is the cheatingest lowest academic environment that can be presented in bigtime D1 leagues. Vanderbilt is more or less an IVY league school and to expect to compete in the SEC athletically is actually a pretty amazing accomplishment. So all the positive that Stallings has accomplished in his SEC career is pretty nice imo. I say we can do a lot worse than Stallings at SLU and the one thing i really like about Stallings is the thought this next job is likely his last job so we probably wouldnt have to worry about having the big season and then running off to supposed bigger and better pastures.

I have no problem with Drew being first choice, but if we are ignoring Stallings for the backup plan that is a huge huge mistake imo. we would either have to really open up the checkbook for something as good or settle for a much less alternative in the likes of dooley or ford. a direction i am not enthused about at all. actually i would just as soon roll the dice with a high achieving assistant coach than go dooley or ford. i still cant grasp why the anthony grant route has went stone cold. i really liked the idea of his coming back to the college ranks. that was my first choice without knowing if there is a big time surprise out there.

I sure hope we know what we are doing. all this waiting around is making me very uncomfortable and fearing for the worst.

Relax Roy. Have some confidence in the good Doctor.

[SLU_Billikens08]

How about Leon Rice ? Apparently his name is starting to float around our job opening.

[billikenfan05]

Stansbury off the board

[joe_davola]

The SEC is the cheatingest lowest academic environment that can be presented in bigtime D1 leagues. Vanderbilt is more or less an IVY league school and to expect to compete in the SEC athletically is actually a pretty amazing accomplishment. So all the positive that Stallings has accomplished in his SEC career is pretty nice imo. I say we can do a lot worse than Stallings at SLU and the one thing i really like about Stallings is the thought this next job is likely his last job so we probably wouldnt have to worry about having the big season and then running off to supposed bigger and better pastures.

I have no problem with Drew being first choice, but if we are ignoring Stallings for the backup plan that is a huge huge mistake imo. we would either have to really open up the checkbook for something as good or settle for a much less alternative in the likes of dooley or ford. a direction i am not enthused about at all. actually i would just as soon roll the dice with a high achieving assistant coach than go dooley or ford. i still cant grasp why the anthony grant route has went stone cold. i really liked the idea of his coming back to the college ranks. that was my first choice without knowing if there is a big time surprise out there.

I sure hope we know what we are doing. all this waiting around is making me very uncomfortable and fearing for the worst.

From what has been said and what I've read, SLU did reach out to Stallings. Do we even know he was interested in the job? 1 of 3 things happened in my opinion:

1) Stallings was not interested in SLU and said thanks but no thanks

2) Stallings was interested in SLU, but SLU told him he was their second choice and they were waiting on Drew...at which point Stallings told SLU to take a hike

3) Stallings was interested in the job, and SLU asked Drew to give them as much of a guarantee as possible. SLU got the handshake guarantee and told Stallings they are no longer interested (which would be pretty stupid IMO...maybe Stallings told him he needed an answer from SLU right away because of other opportunities).

[slufan13]

How about Leon Rice ? Apparently his name is starting to float around our job opening.

Eh

[eastsidejoe]

From what has been said and what I've read, SLU did reach out to Stallings. Do we even know he was interested in the job? 1 of 3 things happened in my opinion:

1) Stallings was not interested in SLU and said thanks but no thanks

2) Stallings was interested in SLU, but SLU told him he was their second choice and they were waiting on Drew...at which point Stallings told SLU to take a hike

3) Stallings was interested in the job, and SLU asked Drew to give them as much of a guarantee as possible. SLU got the handshake guarantee and told Stallings they are no longer interested (which would be pretty stupid IMO...maybe Stallings told him he needed an answer from SLU right away because of other opportunities).

4) We didn't want to pay the buyout and were waiting for him to get fired

[Schasz]

How about Leon Rice ? Apparently his name is starting to float around our job opening.

Interesting name and he has had success at Boise State. Looks like he is making upwards of $700K. If Drew isn't the guy then the Search Firm should see if he is interested.

[DeSmetBilliken]

How about Leon Rice ? Apparently his name is starting to float around our job opening.

Not going to make a big deal about it until I hear it from a strong source, but while he wouldn't be my top choice, we could do a good deal worse than Leon Rice. Long time Gonzaga assistant, has taken Boise State to the NCAAs a couple of times.

[HoosierBilliken]

I am sure they are focused on Drew. I am sure they have a few back up plans that aren't horrible...

[slufan13]

Rice would be better than Ford or Dooley for sure. But he's still an "eh" hire

[DeSmetBilliken]

Rice would be better than Ford or Dooley for sure. But he's still an "eh" hire

I get what you're saying, but outside of Drew and maybe some others that we might not be thinking of, the available existing head coaches do not make you say "wow!" So in a group of not exactly big names, he's pretty good. I'd prefer Rice to Dooley, Ford, Terry. I'd put Grant ahead of Rice probably, but not unequivocally.

[joe_davola]

Reading Pitt reactions on Twitter, they are not happy Stallings is replacing Dixon. A couple fans believe his inability to dominate the SEC at a school with constraints such as Vanderbilt is indicative of him having little skill. How odd.

Their reaction to that hire is probably similar to what we would be saying if May said we can't find anything decent, so we are bringing back Crews. They are lighting up Stallings.

[hsmith19]

Chaifetz is neither a genetic lottery winner nor does he represent the death of a great political party. Not seeing the connection here.