2024 SLU Men's Basketball Head Coaching Search

[TheA_Bomb]

The video aired 2 months ago. Anything to the timing of this interview and the contents? Like is this part of a PR campaign?

[TheChosenOne]

28 minutes ago, TheA_Bomb said:

The video aired 2 months ago. Anything to the timing of this interview and the contents? Like is this part of a PR campaign?

And who is the stacked reporter? A few questions that need to be answered.

[VeniceMenace]

21 minutes ago, TheChosenOne said:

And who is the stacked reporter? A few questions that need to be answered.

Reporter Tamar Sher

[wgstl]

I’m down for absolutely anyone. Mack, isu coach, oli marmol, doesn’t matter can’t be worse than it currently is. 

[JMM28]

Utah State is a great coaching hire example. I’ll add Sundance Wicks at Green Bay. That program was one of the worst in the country the last 2 years under Bo Ryan’s dumb kid. They finished last year at 361 in Kenpom. They’re currently sitting 10 spots behind SLU at 217. 

[cheeseman]

If left up to May it will more than likely be a retread.  The man is risk adverse.

[DOC]

Am I correct to think that if the guys with the money decide to pony up $5-10 million to buy Ford out of a contractual nightmare it will be with the stipulation that they pick the next coach? Would you pay that kinda jack and let May pick the next coach?  No frickin way. That’s not how rich people operate. 

[Old guy]

5 hours ago, TheA_Bomb said:

The video aired 2 months ago. Anything to the timing of this interview and the contents? Like is this part of a PR campaign?

I saw the video of Ahearn and liked it a LOT. I think it would be a very good selection for HC at SLU. Videos like this one do not happen by chance, they are made for a purpose, and absolutely no move this man makes is done without the knowledge and approval of his agent. 

I find it is possible that he is looking for a HC position here.

Look, it is like buying a ticket to the power ball when the prize is huge, why not give it a try? And unless you try whatever message is contained in this video will be left untested, which I would consider a very bad idea. 

[BrettJollyComedyHour]

9 hours ago, cheeseman said:

If left up to May it will more than likely be a retread.  The man is risk adverse.

It seems to be a running theme of St. Louis GMs (since the AD is technically the GM of a college).

[3star_recruit]

Hiring NBA assistants sounds good in theory.  They know how to get to where the players want to go.  And they've had some success as coaches already.  So let's look at the real life examples over the past decade:  Rex Walters, Dan Majerle, Mike Dunlap, Jerry Stackhouse, Juwan Howard. Why isn't the theory holding up in reality?

[cheeseman]

1 hour ago, BrettJollyComedyHour said:

It seems to be a running theme of St. Louis GMs (since the AD is technically the GM of a college).

GMs are told what to do by ownership.  I am not sure if the Presidents of Universities get that involved always but I get what you are saying

[JMM28]

43 minutes ago, 3star_recruit said:

Hiring NBA assistants sounds good in theory.  They know how to get to where the players want to go.  And they've had some success as coaches already.  So let's look at the real life examples over the past decade:  Rex Walters, Dan Majerle, Mike Dunlap, Jerry Stackhouse, Juwan Howard. Why isn't the theory holding up in reality?

Because they have close to zero relationships in the recruiting world. They don't know the talent level required to compete in their respective conferences because they have zero barometer on that. The low/mid major guys aren't used to having to bootstrap things in the program. 

[MusicCityBilliken]

49 minutes ago, 3star_recruit said:

Hiring NBA assistants sounds good in theory.  They know how to get to where the players want to go.  And they've had some success as coaches already.  So let's look at the real life examples over the past decade:  Rex Walters, Dan Majerle, Mike Dunlap, Jerry Stackhouse, Juwan Howard. Why isn't the theory holding up in reality?

Likewise successful college coaches have a poor history coaching in the NBA: Pitino, Kruger, Calpari, etc..

[BrettJollyComedyHour]

51 minutes ago, cheeseman said:

GMs are told what to do by ownership.  I am not sure if the Presidents of Universities get that involved always but I get what you are saying

I was think BoT are more like ownership in this case, but yeah that's true.

[slu72]

1 hour ago, 3star_recruit said:

Hiring NBA assistants sounds good in theory.  They know how to get to where the players want to go.  And they've had some success as coaches already.  So let's look at the real life examples over the past decade:  Rex Walters, Dan Majerle, Mike Dunlap, Jerry Stackhouse, Juwan Howard. Why isn't the theory holding up in reality?

Grant at Dayton? 

[slu72]

12 minutes ago, BrettJollyComedyHour said:

I was think BoT are more like ownership in this case, but yeah that's true.

The HC is the GM of his sport in college sports. He’s the guy who makes staff and player decisions. So, I agree, AD is like the President of a pro team as he can fire and hire the GM, ie HC. 

[DeSmetBilliken]

2 minutes ago, slu72 said:

Grant at Dayton? 

Grant was hired by UD when he was an NBA assistant, but most of his experience was in college. Assistant to Billy Donovan at Florida, head coach at VCU, and head coach at Alabama. He was more of a retread hire than NBA assistant trying out coaching in college.

[3star_recruit]

4 minutes ago, slu72 said:

Grant at Dayton? 

Grant was an assistant coach at Florida for 10 years before taking his first head coaching job at VCU.

[slu72]

Forget Cronin. He’s whining about UCLA’s lack of NIL $$’s for the Bruins dismal season. I can’t imagine SLU’s NIL funds would top even an anemic UCLA fund. 

[NextYearBill]

How the F did SLU not get Blake as a player??

[SLU_Nick]

13 minutes ago, NextYearBill said:

How the F did SLU not get Blake as a player??

I was there.  We wanted darren Clarke.  The basketball player, not the golfer. 

[courtside]

2 hours ago, 3star_recruit said:

Hiring NBA assistants sounds good in theory.  They know how to get to where the players want to go.  And they've had some success as coaches already.  So let's look at the real life examples over the past decade:  Rex Walters, Dan Majerle, Mike Dunlap, Jerry Stackhouse, Juwan Howard. Why isn't the theory holding up in reality?

Each situation is unique and different. This is a lot of apples to oranges. It’s like counting NCAA invites between P6 coaches and low/mid major coaches. That is also apples to oranges because it’s much easier to make the NCAA’s in a P6 league. That makes regular season dominance more important in non P6 leagues.

I see some coach of the year awards in your list. Walters in the WCC, Stack in the SEC just last year, Howard in the Big 10 and he was AP national coach of the year too. (Elite 8 and Sweet 16 in his first 3 seasons)

That’s why you examine each situation closely, thoroughly. 

Let’s take Stack. He was hired because the then school chancellor (not a sports person) decided to go outside of the box and hire an NBA/G League marketing exec as AD after their AD retired and unexpectedly passed away a week later. So that AD had zero input. The new AD lasted one year before being let go for a variety of reasons. They now have a VU lifer as AD and more stability there.

The new AD new Stack from the NBA/G League. Stack wanted to be am NBA Head Coach. He wasn’t getting that opportunity. 

So he took the Vandy position. If I had to draw up a play to win a game, Stack would be on my short list of x’s and o’s coaches to do so. If I needed to develop a player, Stack would get a call. It’s partly why they have slow starts and strong finishes.

What Stack didn’t have was a college ready staff when he started. His revolving door of assistants were pieced and patches together like his teams. Some of the inherited players left before he began as happens with coaching changes. (Disu to Texas etc.) It’s not as though he forgot how to evaluate talent. Getting that talent on staff and via recruiting is another thing altogether.

But the learning curve of running a P6 program was big and time consuming. 

He’s very well liked there, very supportive of all of the other programs, and he even leads tailgates and voluntarily cooks day for those events. But he hasn’t won enough games. And of course NIL happened too and other challenges. 

I’m not going to stir the pot by saying Chris Mack’s daughter is a Vandy Volleyball commit. Relax, it’s just a coincidence. 

Vandy will likely go back to its search firm, and after consulting with a few others, CSL will make the hire. Some schools have influential boosters that make hires. Some schools have influential boosters that let the school make the hire they want. They are the latter. 

Each example is unique and different and has its own story.

Some have success some don’t. Some have both. Some coach at P6 and some don’t. etc…

[cheeseman]

1 hour ago, NextYearBill said:

How the F did SLU not get Blake as a player??

Nick is right.  Ahern and his family wanted to come to SLU and Romar had supposedly offered him a schollie but when Romar left for Washington and Brad was hired he rescinded it.  It caused quite the storm.

[kshoe]

18 hours ago, cheeseman said:

He did not pass on Harrelson.  He wanted him but Josh picked KY.  Brad thought he had him but Josh wanted to go on a trip for fun to KY and surprise surprise something happened that changed his mind - wonder the pix we saw of him drinking with pretty KY coeds hanging on him had anything to do with it.  Brad did tell him not to sign early but he did with Western IL.  Brad probably screwed that up but he wanted to look around a bit and get him the spring but it was not to be.

Cheeseman, I think you are mis-remembering the timeline on Harrelson. Brad didn't show enough interest in him when he was in high school, or told him we'd like to see how senior year went. Either way, Harrelson was under recruited by SLU. He went on a visit to Western Illinois and committed to Derek Thomas. He then had a huge senior year and decided he didn't want to go to Western Illinois. Ended up doing one year at SWIC because Western Illinois wouldn't release him from his LOI.

By that time Majerus was the head coach at SLU. When he was eventually released by Western Illinois his recruitment blew up and it was indeed between SLU and Kentucky. The glitz and glamor of UK won out.  

[courtside]

On 1/11/2024 at 11:59 PM, SLU_Nick said:

Mick Cronin on the hot seat is something.  Lost to Utah by a billion.
 If he becomes available he immediately becomes far and away my number 1 preference. 

However, apparently his buyout is um…20M dollars.  

His agent is even better than Fords! 
 

 

That $20 million is down from $24 million. 

Cronin was far down the list of choices at UCLA during their 100 day search. They wouldn’t pay the $8 million buyout for Barnes. And they wouldn’t pay the $5 million buyout for Dixon. They also weren’t flying exclusively charter at the time. (Times changed since their new AD)

Cronin’s success was dominating the AAC regular season. That’s part of what stands out most for him. That was his difference maker. It was a league slightly better than the A10 at the time. But his teams dominated the league.

When Cronin coached in the peak Big East, his teams had 2 winning league records in 7 seasons. And his teams finished 9th or worse in the league 5 out of 7 seasons. But because the league was so good that was good enough to make the NCAA Tourney some years.

Cronin made the 2nd weekend of the NCAA Tourney 1 out of his first 16 seasons as a head coach.

Then his teams dominated the AAC.

He’s done well initially at UCLA. The Final Four team needed an OT win in their First Four game to get into the NCAA Tourney. (Margins are sometimes small). But it counts. 

He’ll likely get more seasons due to his contract unless his off court behavior changes things. He isn’t going anywhere else on his own and few other teams are paying that buyout.