Coaching Carousel

[rome8180]

The only coach left that is a real possibility that would make them a juggernaut is Chris Beard.

I think Donovan is a possibility. And I think he could certainly make them a juggernaut. His teams in Chicago have consistently outperformed their talent level, especially defensively. And if you imagine him importing even a fraction of the NBA strategy he's gleaned to the college level, he'd be miles ahead of everyone.

 

[SeanMayTriedToEatMe]

Donovan is the best coach possible for a college team, IMO.

 

[Devilsforlife]

https://www.nj.com/sports/2024/04/r...d-be-an-unbelievable-choice-for-kentucky.html

Donovan not interested per this source.

 

[aiw]

I can't imagine being gone for 10 years and want to go back to solicit 15 year olds and their parents. Would only make sense if you got fired.

 

[aiw]

https://www.nj.com/sports/2024/04/r...d-be-an-unbelievable-choice-for-kentucky.html

Donovan not interested per this source.

That's not a real no. In fact, it's closer to a yes. 'Focusing on the play in game'.

 

[Devilsforlife]

 

[rome8180]

I can't imagine being gone for 10 years and want to go back to solicit 15 year olds and their parents. Would only make sense if you got fired.

Donovan has to be on the hot seat no matter what the Bulls front office says. And I'm not sure there's another NBA head coaching job for him immediately available.

Also, UK can certainly pay him more. NBA coaches don't get paid as much as you'd think.

 

[CK86]

I'm sure Kentucky fans are going to be totally cool about hiring Mark Pope.

 

[TS9]

After all the good coaches said there was no way they’d come coach for asshole BBN, I kinda think Barnhart said to hell with it and is using this hire as a way to tell the fans to go fuck themselves.

 

[Devilsforlife]

It’s been a long time since a big name program has made a true “splash hire”. Looking at some of the recent ones:

Duke, UNC, Villanova, and Syracuse - promoted from within when their HOF coaches retired. It’s worked fairly well for Duke and UNC, and terribly for Nova so far. Too early to judge the Syracuse coach yet.

Arizona - hired a Gonzaga assistant. Great regular season records every year, but has underperformed in the tournament so far.

Kentucky - hired the BYU coach who doesn’t even have a single tournament win on his resume.

Louisville - actually did make a decent splash pulling Chris Mack from Xavier, but he wound up crashing and burning. Kenny Payne was an uninspired hire and proved to be an abject disaster, and the new guy is a former mid major coach.

 

[DurhamSon]

Pope might end up doing just fine or better for all we know, but it does feel like a break-glass-in-case-of-emergency hire. Maybe the sport becoming so niche and a shell of itself has resulted in a flattening of prestige between the top level programs and everyone else? And certainly no one talented with any ambition and choice would choose the sport over the NBA, which is operating several tiers higher and with much less bullshit to deal with

 

[deeyoukayeee]

I think you are totally right w/r/t top level programs vs. the field. It used to be (probably still is to a large extent) a huge recruiting advantage to be a blue blood, but now that HS recruiting has dropped precipitously in importance, the prestige factor is concomitantly less advantageous. Players want to get paid, played and drafted - no one GAF about 'being forever' anymore.

From a coaches standpoint - since they also increasingly just want to get paid - top level programs carry the added burden of out of proportion legacy expectations. Who the fuck wants to deal with that? ESPECIALLY at UK, where even when being a top-3 all-time program mattered 10-15 years ago, they still had totally out of whack expectations.

Few, Oats, Drew, Hurley, etc. have virtual tenure, and would have to shit the bed beyond reason to lose their perpetual $5mm gigs. Roll the dice on 'returning UK to glory'? LMFAO. Their deranged fan base should consider themselves super lucky to have had the opportunity to massively overpay Mark Pope.

 

[LastHearth]

I actually think Pope will do great at UK. I'm not saying he's the next Jay Wright or Danny Hurley, but of all the available candidates he's the best choice. After the Calipari experience what Kentucky needed was someone who bleeds Kentucky blue to get the jaded fans invested again, and they'll get that. They're a blue blood so they will always get players, they won't be as heavy on freshmen as Calipari was but that model is becoming obsolete anyway.

 

[bfactor]

Few, Oats, Drew, Hurley, etc. have virtual tenure, and would have to shit the bed beyond reason to lose their perpetual $5mm gigs. Roll the dice on 'returning UK to glory'? LMFAO. Their deranged fan base should consider themselves super lucky to have had the opportunity to massively overpay Mark Pope.

Did a brief scan of Rupp Rafters last night, so many unironic posts and threads on how/when they could get rid of Pope, from seasoned posters with thousands of posts. Just absolutely insane shit.

 

[Slap the Floor]

I think you are totally right w/r/t top level programs vs. the field. It used to be (probably still is to a large extent) a huge recruiting advantage to be a blue blood, but now that HS recruiting has dropped precipitously in importance, the prestige factor is concomitantly less advantageous. Players want to get paid, played and drafted - no one GAF about 'being forever' anymore.

From a coaches standpoint - since they also increasingly just want to get paid - top level programs carry the added burden of out of proportion legacy expectations. Who the fuck wants to deal with that? ESPECIALLY at UK, where even when being a top-3 all-time program mattered 10-15 years ago, they still had totally out of whack expectations.

Few, Oats, Drew, Hurley, etc. have virtual tenure, and would have to shit the bed beyond reason to lose their perpetual $5mm gigs. Roll the dice on 'returning UK to glory'? LMFAO. Their deranged fan base should consider themselves super lucky to have had the opportunity to massively overpay Mark Pope.

I think that the collective IQ of fanbases goes a long way in determining how much pressure gets put on a head coach. Kentucky is a low IQ fanbase, therefore, they behave like children and post signs on yards and make endless calls into radio shows when things aren't going well. Many of those people will wait on queue for hours to yell on a radio show for 30 seconds about how much Calipari sucks. UNC is not as low IQ as UK, but it's also fairly low, which is why they were ready to run Hubert out of town after last season. Lots of weird pressure at places like Kentucky, Louisville, Indiana, UNC. Similar places to that. Duke has a large fanbase, but it's a national fanbase. The low IQ fans, like myself, are primarily out of state and limited to social media and message boards-essentially no real impact. Most of the fanbase has good perspective and won't be irrational in assessing Scheyer. The other part of this equation is football first schools like Alabama and Florida keep most of the low IQ fans hidden from basketball.

 

[Slap the Floor]

 

[Devilsforlife]

We went through this whole song and dance when Indiana was open in 2021 too. I’ll believe Stevens is the hire when I see it.

 

[DurhamSon]

What a fucking rube he still is. President of Basketball Operations of the Boston Celtics is probably a top five job right now in all of basketball, maybe top 3, including all ranks of coaches and executives at any level of the sport. I don't think any college job cracks the top 10, maybe not the top 25

 

[LastHearth]

Hey, when the Monteverde Academy coaching job opens up, don't rule out Dan Hurley, it's more possible than you think...

 

[deepdarkblue]

Kenny Payne going to Arkansas to once again hide his coaching inadequacies behind Cal.