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The Next Texas Longhorns Basketball Head Coach


GreenspointTexas

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who people want and who people think we can get are two different things. we all want Billy Donovan or Chris Beard, but we also know that's not happening, or what's more, actually expecting us to land someone like that. i've seen a lot more people positing that Shaka will still be here next season than I've seen suggesting that we'll land a top flight coach. 

Edited by Goo Punch
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On 2/9/2020 at 10:54 PM, Goo Punch said:

nah, Marshall is a real prick who wouldn't fit in well in Austin. Good coach; really good coach even- just not a fit in Austin. as soon as he didn't produce the entire fan base would turn on him. 

Personally I think this is a great reason to hire him. If he wins while not cheating and the players go to class enough to not get us any graduation penalty lists, all good.

If he loses we wont have to go thru the "unbelievable/nice guy" crap we have had to go through with charlie and shaka. We can just fire him and no one will care.

I'd like to hire an actual basketball coach.

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4 hours ago, CheesePie said:

 

 

I would be shocked if we landed any of the big names you mentioned. Texas has never poached a big name coach from a prestigious basketball school and there is very little chance that trend changes this go around. When basketball is a fair weather sport like it is here we exclude ourselves from the cream of the crop. I think the best shot we have at landing a bonafide hoops coach is to ride SS Shaka for one more year and hope the timeline matches up with Beilein's departure from the Cavs. A Beilein Yaklich reunion in the new arena is one of the few outcomes being floated around here that is both realistic and actually good. We shall see how the cards fall. I would also be in favor of hiring Rick Pitino at seasons end and asking the lord for forgiveness later.

we can join in on the shit on the PAC 12 party

Dana Altman  <- seems like the next Rick Barnes....but well that is a million times better than the current shaka....Oregon would probably really hate us if we take another coach

Bobby Hurley <- who knows not great, but not terrible

Sean Miller  <- this could be the best choice if Texas went all out on the PAC 12 assault

Tad Boyle <- it would be fun to shit on Colorado especially right now, but I think this is the lesser of the 4 listed

from the west Brian Dutcher or Craig Smith have potential......Dutcher was at Michigan as an assistant (has been a while though) so he has mid west recruiting connections as well not just west coast

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Why aren't we talking about Thad fucking Matta?

•439-154 career record as HC

•24-13 tourney record (NCAA tourney + conference tourney I guess?) (edit: this might actually be his NCAA Tourney record???)

•5x Big 10 regular season champs / 4x conference tourney champs in 13 seasons

•2 Final Fours

A quick Google glance shows rumors of him being interested in making a return to coaching. Am I missing something? Why shouldn't I be on my knees praying that Thad Matta is the next Texas Longhorns basketball coach?

 

Edited by CurlyDumps
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3 minutes ago, CurlyDumps said:

Why aren't we talking about Thad fucking Matta?

•439-154 career record as HC

•24-13 tourney record (NCAA tourney + conference tourney I guess?)

•5x Big 10 regular season champs / 4x conference tourney champs in 13 seasons

•2 Final Fours

A quick Google glance shows rumors of him being interested in making a return to coaching. Am I missing something? Why shouldn't I be on my knees praying that Thad Matta is the next Texas Longhorns basketball coach?

 

He kind of burned out at Ohio State, partly due to what were assumed to be permanent health problems. The degree to which the health problems turned him from a huge winner to more of a scuffling middle-of-the-pack coach, and the true permanence of the health issue, are debatable. 

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Yeah nobody knows except him what the problem was. I’m thinking it was more urban meter-esque. Then again he is young but looks real fucking old so maybe he has real shit health. He can coach but is he healthy enough to recruit and compete each day is the question. 

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49 minutes ago, Jhawk said:

Yeah nobody knows except him what the problem was. I’m thinking it was more urban meter-esque. Then again he is young but looks real fucking old so maybe he has real shit health. He can coach but is he healthy enough to recruit and compete each day is the question. 

Much of this is wrong.

His health issue was a botched back surgery. He had tremendous pain management problems before the surgery; those were only slightly alleviated by the surgery but the surgery itself also went wrong and left him with nerve damage aka drop foot. He had problems walking. None of that is a mystery; Matta was totally upfront about all of it from the day it happened. It was nothing like Urban Meyer's situation(s). 

I said it was debatable how much that impacted his coaching, because there's no way of knowing. He never made excuses but there's no mistaking the correlation between his performance and the health issues. Recruiting got tougher for him and the bluechips he still signed didn't pan out. I also said it was debatable how permanent the resulting injuries are, because I'm not a doctor and don't know, but the conventional wisdom is that he'll never be fully healthy again, and if we accept his degraded coaching performance is health-related, that means you can't get circa-2007 or 2012 Thad Matta. You can only get the scratched-and-dented version and that version was bad enough that Ohio State pushed him out. I didn't say any of that was debatable meaning "mysterious" or "bullshit", I said it meaning it can't be quantified or predicted. 

Lastly he's not fucking old, for a coach or a human being in general. He's like 52 or 53. If his health permitted, he'd be able to coach another ten years, easily. 

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5 hours ago, Goo Punch said:

who people want and who people think we can get are two different things. we all want Billy Donovan or Chris Beard, but we also know that's not happening, or what's more, actually expecting us to land someone like that. i've seen a lot more people positing that Shaka will still be here next season than I've seen suggesting that we'll land a top flight coach. 

part of the problem, IMO, is we have to have some reasonable gap between what we pay the basketball coach and the football coach.

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On 2/12/2020 at 4:32 PM, CurlyDumps said:

Why aren't we talking about Thad fucking Matta?

•439-154 career record as HC

•24-13 tourney record (NCAA tourney + conference tourney I guess?) (edit: this might actually be his NCAA Tourney record???)

•5x Big 10 regular season champs / 4x conference tourney champs in 13 seasons

•2 Final Fours

A quick Google glance shows rumors of him being interested in making a return to coaching. Am I missing something? Why shouldn't I be on my knees praying that Thad Matta is the next Texas Longhorns basketball coach?

 

That's a legitimate question.  Maybe your powers that be already are.  Matta doesn't have any contract keeping him from talking to whoever he wants, whenever he wants

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On 2/12/2020 at 12:11 PM, CheesePie said:

Page 1 of this young thread reveals suggestions of Beard, Donovan and Jay Wright. Could be I'm being duped by disingenuous posters or could be there are people who think we have a shot at landing those guys. I'm sure I can find more of that in the fire Shaka thread.

Beard is not in the same untouchable class as Donovan or Wright.  I've posted thoughts on why Wright MIGHT consider a move.  Donovan, I don't know.  I have heard nothing regarding his preference (NBA or college).  I would think a guy who has made the jump to the NBA would be loathe to head back to college ball, simply because he would have to deal with recruiting, etc. all over again, but some guys relish that stuff, and some guys don't like the fact that an NBA coach is basically there to serve at the whim of whatever superstars are on his team.

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On 2/12/2020 at 5:55 PM, SwanderedTalent said:

Much of this is wrong.

His health issue was a botched back surgery. He had tremendous pain management problems before the surgery; those were only slightly alleviated by the surgery but the surgery itself also went wrong and left him with nerve damage aka drop foot. He had problems walking. None of that is a mystery; Matta was totally upfront about all of it from the day it happened. It was nothing like Urban Meyer's situation(s). 

I said it was debatable how much that impacted his coaching, because there's no way of knowing. He never made excuses but there's no mistaking the correlation between his performance and the health issues. Recruiting got tougher for him and the bluechips he still signed didn't pan out. I also said it was debatable how permanent the resulting injuries are, because I'm not a doctor and don't know, but the conventional wisdom is that he'll never be fully healthy again, and if we accept his degraded coaching performance is health-related, that means you can't get circa-2007 or 2012 Thad Matta. You can only get the scratched-and-dented version and that version was bad enough that Ohio State pushed him out. I didn't say any of that was debatable meaning "mysterious" or "bullshit", I said it meaning it can't be quantified or predicted. 

Lastly he's not fucking old, for a coach or a human being in general. He's like 52 or 53. If his health permitted, he'd be able to coach another ten years, easily. 

I stand corrected. Thanks for the info. 

I didn’t say he was old I said he looked old as shit. Like his health has taken a major toll on him. He looked 60 when he was in his 40s. 

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22 hours ago, jimmyjazz said:

Beard is not in the same untouchable class as Donovan or Wright.

I’ll concede that Beard is uniquely in the who the fuck knows category. Like you said, we can only speculate on what motivates him. Unfortunately for us, he seems to be of the ilk that enjoys living in west Texas. Is the presumed increased salary in Austin better than being a deity in Lubbock? 

Edited by CheesePie
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we can't afford Beard. 0% chance he's our next coach, unless we let Shaka run out his contract. our AD is not going to pay Shaka and his staff more than $10 million to leave, then pay for Beard's buyout, then sign him and all of his assistants to brand new deals. Phil Jackson is more likely to replace Shaka than Chris Beard. 

Edited by Goo Punch
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2 hours ago, CheesePie said:

I’ll concede that Beard is uniquely in the who the fuck knows category. Like you said, we can only speculate on what motivates him. Unfortunately for us, he seems to be of the ilk that enjoys living in west Texas. Is the presumed increased salary in Austin better than being a deity in Lubbock? 

I'm honestly not trying to be a jerk.  I am probably going to come across as one, but I'm just trying to be honest. If you believe like most that actions speak louder than words, I'm not sure how there is any speculation or ambiguity involved with the possibility of Beard going to UT.  I'm not naive enough to think that it is impossible, but it's a pretty low likelihood   

He's 46 and has lived in Lubbock for almost 15 years.  That's a majority of his adult life.  He's lived in West Texas in general for another five.  He lived in Austin for two.  He also agreed to the third largest salary and the highest buyout in CBB.  Is UT going to pay him 6M or 7M a year and still cover all of the buyouts?  Because it's going to take at least that, and probably way more and for at least seven years.  And can you imagine the separation clauses that Bret Just would demand?  20 M to buy him out?  25 M?  And he's never done anything or acted in any way or stated that he wants to coach in or return to Austin, so I don't even know if that would make him listen.  

He has a new practice facility opening in a few months that was built to his specifications.  His teams play in an arena that is still one of the nicest in the nation and he is not beholden to an outside investment group that can limit availability.  If Chris Beard doesn't want Elton John to play there on a specific date, he won't.  It's Beard's call.  In Austin, he would have limited days when the arena is available, and a lot of those will be for actual games.  His overall facilities situation is among the best in the country.  And that's pretty important to a basketball coach.  And he loves working for Kirby Hocutt.  

Tech is selling out games against Bethune-Cookman.  The closest Texas has come to a sellout this season was against Tech, when Red Raiders damn near took over the arena.  He's recruiting extremely well because of the support and facilities and recent success.  I'm not sure that the rest of the state realizes how much West Texas loves basketball.  It's colder up there, so the indoor sports get more play.  It's not quite rural Indiana, but people from other parts of the state are usually stunned at the popularity of high school basketball in the Panhandle and Eastern New Mexico

If Beard truly wanted to be the Texas HC, he would have had Just contact Del Conte and put the wheels in motion instead of signing the huge deal with Tech.  If he wanted to return to Austin in the first few years he was in Lubbock, under the Knights, I'm sure that Rick Barnes would have found a place for him.  Barnes and Bob Knight were close and they could have worked something out.  But none of that happened.  The thing you have to take away from it all is that if Chris Beard truly wanted to coach at Texas, he would already be there. Does anyone really believe that if he or his representation approached Del Conte asking about the job and Shaka's situation that they would keep Shaka and blow off Beard?  

Sometimes the Homecoming Queen dates a backup wide receiver instead of the starting quarterback.  That just means she likes him more.  There's nothing wrong with that

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This is starting to get interesting. I’d be happy with either Beilen or Thad Matta. Both have a great resumes, but both have red flags, age for Beilen and serious health issues for Matta. CDC will need to do some serious vetting on both. 67 is really old for a college coach who has to recruit while still coaching his team. There’s a few active coaches who are older than that right now: Coach K, Leonard Hamilton at FSU, Boeheim (clearly struggling at this point), Roy Williams, Kruger, Huggins. But the list of guys who’ve coached at high level at 67+ isn’t long. Since he’s close with Yaclich, maybe he could give him a lot of associate HC duties to make it more manageable for him. 
 

I get the sense Beilen doesn’t feel anywhere near done with his career yet, and I’d be ecstatic to get him, but UT needs to be extremely confident that he’s still fully invested. If he is, he could be the HC here for 5+ years and really turn this program around. Same for Matta, depending on his health. Barring either of those red flags being major issues, I’d definitely prefer those guys over a young, unproven higher with a high variance outcome. 

Edited by Burt Macklin
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