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Fire Shaka Smart


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On 1/25/2020 at 7:22 PM, Goo Punch said:

we're just not having enough better tomorrows, and i can't explain it. shaka made it very clear at the beginning of the year that we needed to have better tomorrows, and yet despite giving the team ample time to do all the soul searching they can do, we just can't seem to have enough better tomorrows. ugh, so frustrating. when are we going to start recruiting the right guys for what Shaka needs?! we need guys who can have better tomorrows!

yeah, it's like you guys don't understand-- Shaka Smart is really in favor of winning basketball games. He really likes it when that happens to him and his team! It's among his fifteen or twenty most favorite things in the entire world. It's nice when that happens. I mean really, really nice and good. When it doesn't happen, well, it's time to furrow your brow and outwardly express the mild concern you feel internally, while keeping a tight lid on the complete and abject lack of any fucking idea you have of how to improve let alone fix it. 

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On 1/25/2020 at 3:41 PM, SwanderedTalent said:

and yet every national college basketball journalist continues to insist he's a brilliant young coach and "other than that 11-22 season", he's actually had some success here

I wanted to reach through my phone and strangle the last motherfucker (CBS Sports) I read saying that. Jesus Christ. 

It is beyond clear that Shaka Smart is a shitty basketball coach at the P5 level.  You'd think in 5 years he could luck into a sweet 16 but the fraud can't even make the tournament. 

If we were serious about basketball we'd have fired him 2 seasons ago(Kentucky, Kansas, Duke, Louisville, etc would have as well).  The commentators know we aren't serious about basketball and are not a basketball school so they can get away with saying completely stupid shit like the above.

the guy needs to go back to mid major land run havoc and call it a day.  we've already been hornswoggled enough to pay for his extremely comfortable retirement.

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Del Conte is hosting some sort of "Town Hall" for athletics at the Lady Bird Auditorium in the LBJ library on 2/4 at 6:30. I'm not in Austin that day, but if someone could go and ask him during the Q&A if, when he talks about having a top 10 team in every sport, he means top 10 team within the Big 12? Because mission accomplished if that's where his head is. Otherwise, how does he justify keeping Shaka Smart on the payroll for another day at this point? Anyone who goes there and shows film of them asking that question in the open forum in front of a large audience, I'll Venmo them $100 immediately. Some poor student should campaign on here for support. Probably raise $1000 easy from this board. 

Well, it's basketball at Texas. Could probably raise at least $200 if not $1000. Something like that. A man can dream. The AD needs to feel shame and pain with this debacle. 

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reminder that Shaka's lone bright spot of his entire coaching career involved his 2011 VCU team going to the Final Four, a team which was unanimously decried as the all time worst team to ever be allowed into the tournament, and for good reason. The 2011 VCU Rams:

•Lost by 10 to a Georgia State team that finished 12-19, ranked 217 in KenPom, and 296 in AdjO. Georgia State had only one other win against a team ranked in the top 196

•Finished the season 3-6 in their last 9 games

•Went 1-4 in their last 5 games, including losses to Northeastern, Drexel, and James Madison

•Finished 4th in the Colonial Athletic Association

•Did not win the CAA tournament

and then somehow got an at-large bid and went to the Final Four. which really says everything about Shaka Smart- he could have a Final Four caliber team and still coach them to a season like that. 

Edited by Goo Punch
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On 1/24/2020 at 5:08 PM, orangecat92 said:

If we're going to guess, I would say more like 10 days after the season ends would be the very earliest. 

 

 

Yes optics and such will prevail as a strategy  for Bellmont unless Shaka Strong commits a felony besides stealing cash.

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On 1/25/2020 at 3:19 PM, Lobo said:

Our Athletic Dept. needs a serious mental examination.  

Nope. Wouldn’t help. It’s the new normal.

We need a neutron bomb to keep the buildings but remove the millionaire losers, and those that enable this styrofoam strategy .

Clean slate.I would rather take our chances with a bunch of randomly selected homeless people that the established cleptocracy that is Bellmont today.

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On 1/24/2020 at 5:08 PM, orangecat92 said:

If we're going to guess, I would say more like 10 days after the season ends would be the very earliest. 

Charlie Strong was fired the day after we lost to TCU.  CDC wasn't the AD at the time, but Fenves was President.

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16 hours ago, Goo Punch said:

which really says everything about Shaka Smart- he could have a Final Four caliber team and still coach them to a season like that.

It also provides a pretty strong argument against making coaching decisions based on a team getting hot/lucky for a week. Either, or.

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11 hours ago, El Squared said:

I would rather take our chances with a bunch of randomly selected homeless people that the established cleptocracy that is Bellmont today.

No CR, but I think it was William F. Buckley that said he'd rather be governed by the first 1,000 names in the Boston phone book than the faculty at Harvard. I think something similar applies to how our athletics are led, from the top down. A handful of the random idiots would if nothing else restore "winning the fucking games" to its proper priority. 

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11 minutes ago, aggie08 said:

It also provides a pretty strong argument against making coaching decisions based on a team getting hot/lucky for a week. Either, or.

He averaged about 27 wins/season and had VCU in the top 25 in Kenpom his last two seasons - #18 in 2013 and #25  and 2014.

There are certainly red flags we can see now in hindsight, but he had a very successful 6-year run. It wasn't an Andy Enfield type hire.

 

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1 hour ago, CurlyDumps said:

had VCU in the top 25 in Kenpom his last two seasons

but not among the last 25 teams standing in the NCAA Tournament, and didn't win his conference (none of his teams did)... sounds like he underachieved with those teams

I wasn't against the hire at the time because I wasn't paying enough attention to what he was really doing at VCU. I honestly thought he'd win big here. Then I kind of realized, over the past few years and looking back at the VCU years I didn't pay enough attention to, that winning big isn't really what Shaka Smart does. He took over a healthy, strong VCU program and mostly treaded water for six years with the exception of the Final Four run. He took over a lazy, sloppy, underachieving Texas program and has mostly treaded water here too with the exception of the monumentally bad 22-loss season.

He seems like basically a status quo guy. 

Edited by SwanderedTalent
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Quote

251.png&w=110&h=110

Underachieving: Texas. The Longhorns were projected to finish fourth in the preseason poll after Matt Coleman III, Jericho Sims and a healthy Andrew Jones all returned for Shaka Smart's squad. But they're just 3-6 since Dec. 14. The challenge? The team's offensive woes continue. Per Synergy Sports data, Texas is ranked 206th overall in half-court offense, connecting on just 42.4% of its shots in those situations. In Saturday's 69-67 home loss to LSU, their third consecutive loss, the Longhorns committed turnovers once every five possessions. That's why they're 2-4 in the Big 12 with the NCAA tournament looking like a pipe dream.

No shocker but at least some national media get it.

https://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/28578397/who-biggest-overachievers-underachievers-top-leagues#Big12

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When a coach is on a seat as hot as Shaka's right now, there's two paths, much like flight or fight.  You either scramble, mix things up, and try the kitchen sink against the wall to fight for anything that might work so you can at least say you tried it all and it wasn't meant to be... or, you turtle and stubbornly stick to the dysfunction and pump the fans-vs-team script. 

It's evident that Shaka is going to stick to his guns and keep banging his head against the wall.

The season is shot.  Might as well let him go and let the assistants experiment with game plans, line-ups, drills in practice, etc... so that the incoming coach can see what he has to work with.  There are some players that have phoned it in and exhibited some pretty strong "I give up" during the recent games who need a game or two on the bench to remind them that it's a privilege to be playing college ball with a full ride scholarship.

At this point, I wouldn't be crushed to see the whole thing gutted.  It would be kinda nice to keep Kai Jones and Hepa and some other tools for the next coach to build with.  It would be nice to see more of Williams and see if Baker and Cunningham have anything to offer.  It would be great if Sims and Coleman stick around another year.  The other guys all have something to offer if used the right way and given consequences for poor ball protection, poor defensive effort, and very poor shot selection.  

 

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3 hours ago, CurlyDumps said:

He averaged about 27 wins/season and had VCU in the top 25 in Kenpom his last two seasons - #18 in 2013 and #25  and 2014.

There are certainly red flags we can see now in hindsight, but he had a very successful 6-year run. It wasn't an Andy Enfield type hire.

 

yep he had some success and I agree nothing in his public record said he would be the complete disaster he is.  I was meh, here we go with mid major/G5 again. Hope it works out.

That said, he isn't running havoc anymore. Either he sold us snake oil, told us he was going to change and we believed it would work, or if you believe some he changed because the rules changed to restrict havoc type play.

If it was the first - we should have fired him after year 2

If it was the second - we never should have hired him

If it was the third - we should have fired him after year 3

EDIT: I suppose there is a 4th option in which we never even asked specific questions about basketball.

Any of these 3 should have been a red flag to NOT GIVE THE DAMN EXTENSION - but then again our AD is full of complete bumblefuck idiots who don't actually evaluate what is going on in a sport in any real sense.  This is a non-football sport at a football school.  Recruiting is good-check, no scandals-check, kids are passing classes-check, "here is your extension good job Coach Smart"

We'll never know if havoc would have worked in the Big 12 but it is obvious he doesn't know how to coach what he is running now. He also is either bad at identifying good perimeter shooters or makes them worse by his coaching.  The defense has been reasonably good due to some elite athletes.

We took a chance and by year 2 it was obvious the guy was out of his depth in really tough P5 conf.  Unfortunately we had already doubled down (see bumblefuck idiots).

Edited by dcar00
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Shaka was the beneficiary of two changes in AD.  He was hired by Steve Patterson, who was fired before Shaka ever coached a game, and then spent two years under Mike Perrin.  Then comes Chris Del Conte, somewhat into Shaka's third season.  Is anyone surprised those guys were loathe to fire him so early in their tenures?

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Shaka Smart = Dan Hawkins

Both had success before getting their big chance and both proved to be terrible at their new job. If one takes a deeper look they both had an assistant that was probably the secret of their success. Dan Hawkins had Chris Peterson and Shaka had Will Wade. Last two years at VCU Shaka had a down turn in tournament performance once Will Wade was gone. Both assistants went on to prove they can have success on their own. Who knows if it is true but how else does one explain such as huge drop in performance by these guys?

 

 

 

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6 hours ago, CurlyDumps said:

He averaged about 27 wins/season and had VCU in the top 25 in Kenpom his last two seasons - #18 in 2013 and #25  and 2014.

There are certainly red flags we can see now in hindsight, but he had a very successful 6-year run. It wasn't an Andy Enfield type hire.

 

VCU 2015 - top A10 team in KenPom, finished T-4th in A10, did win A10 tourney, lost in first round NCAA as higher seed

VCU 2014 - top A10 team in KenPom, finished 2nd in A10, lost A10 tourney final, lost in first round NCAA as higher seed

VCU 2013 - top A10 team in KenPom, finished 2nd in A10, lost A10 tourney final, lost in 2nd round NCAA by 25 points in 4-5 matchup

VCU 2012 - 2nd CAA team in KenPom (1 spot behind Drexel), finished 2nd in CAA, won CAA tourney, lost in 2nd round NCAA

VCU 2011 - 3rd CAA team in KenPom, finished 4th in CAA, lost CAA title game, then ran to Final Four after the least-deserved at large in history. 

VCU 2010 - 2nd CAA team in KenPom, finished 5th in CAA, lost CAA semifinals, won CBI.

 

So in Shaka's six seasons at VCU, he never won a regular season title, despite having one of the best 2 teams in the league 5 times and the best 3 times. 2 of his 6 seasons he finished 3 spots below expectation. His last 4 NCAA games there were a win over a 12 seed, a 25 point loss, and two losses as the favored seed. 

Seriously, where is Shaka's career without the gift of that 2011 at-large bid??

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10 hours ago, jimmyjazz said:

Charlie Strong was fired the day after we lost to TCU.  CDC wasn't the AD at the time, but Fenves was President.

Fire day after season ends and new hire announced 9 days later, for a total of 10 days.  Not happening any earlier, book it.  Damn near a guarantee. 

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8 hours ago, VinyVango said:

When a coach is on a seat as hot as Shaka's right now, there's two paths, much like flight or fight.  You either scramble, mix things up, and try the kitchen sink against the wall to fight for anything that might work so you can at least say you tried it all and it wasn't meant to be... or, you turtle and stubbornly stick to the dysfunction and pump the fans-vs-team script. 

It's evident that Shaka is going to stick to his guns and keep banging his head against the wall.

The season is shot.  Might as well let him go and let the assistants experiment with game plans, line-ups, drills in practice, etc... so that the incoming coach can see what he has to work with.  There are some players that have phoned it in and exhibited some pretty strong "I give up" during the recent games who need a game or two on the bench to remind them that it's a privilege to be playing college ball with a full ride scholarship.

At this point, I wouldn't be crushed to see the whole thing gutted.  It would be kinda nice to keep Kai Jones and Hepa and some other tools for the next coach to build with.  It would be nice to see more of Williams and see if Baker and Cunningham have anything to offer.  It would be great if Sims and Coleman stick around another year.  The other guys all have something to offer if used the right way and given consequences for poor ball protection, poor defensive effort, and very poor shot selection.  

 

Shaka is just sitting at home counting his money

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here's what's so crazy to me all these years later: Shaka said from the beginning that he didn't plan on running Havoc at Texas, that he was going to be recruiting a different type of player, and that the Big XII demanded a different style. And he was not lying. Which means one of two things:

Either we hired Shaka Smart, a young coach whose career success was based on a certain style of play, knowing that he was going to completely abandon that 

or

We didn't even bother to dig deep enough to find that out.

While I'm hoping it's the former, either way it's indicative of how lazy our search for a new HC was. Now every time I think about it it just reminds me of Conan during the infamous Norm/CTS interview: "That's a bad time to take away everything you know about comedy", or in this case, basketball. 

https://youtu.be/5F6dXcW-_Fc

 

"this link could not be embedded because youtube does not allow embedding of that video." GAY. 

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Shaka has squandered an immense amount of talent in his tenure, it's pathetic that with the kind of talent he has on the roster the team could end up winning a measly 6 conference games this season. I'm aware of Sampson's past brushes with the NCAA, but after witnessing him keep his nose clean and build UH into a respectable program that reached the Sweet 16 for the first time in 25 years I'd hire him to replace Shaka. Attendance and interest in the basketball program is going to hit rock bottom if Shaka is still the coach next season.

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If we're open to cheaters I'd rather go after Bruce Pearl. In addition to being a good coach he plays the exact sort of sugary style that would attract our empty calorie starved fanbase. Basketball, especially the college variety, thrives in a rabid home environment. A style of play that would get the fans out foaming at the mouth is the sort of thing that we'll need if we ever hope to push beyond our past threshold and see our program enter into the elite realm. 

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5 hours ago, Chad said:

Shaka has squandered an immense amount of talent in his tenure, it's pathetic that with the kind of talent he has on the roster the team could end up winning a measly 6 conference games this season. I'm aware of Sampson's past brushes with the NCAA, but after witnessing him keep his nose clean and build UH into a respectable program that reached the Sweet 16 for the first time in 25 years I'd hire him to replace Shaka. Attendance and interest in the basketball program is going to hit rock bottom if Shaka is still the coach next season.

If Shaka somehow miraculously returns as Head Coach, the only marketing tool they'll have to sell tickets is, "Sure the team sucks and Smart is only back coaching because we can't afford his buyout...but hey for $6, you can sit in the Erwin Center one last time.  If you buy season tickets, we'll even let you press the button to demolish it."  

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20 hours ago, Catdaddyhorn said:

The extension was given after year 1. 

yes I am aware. giving an extension after one year of anything is moronic on all levels. I guess I should have prefaced that. my post was more about what an actual functioning Ath Dept would do if they evaluated the play on the court and what the hell happened to Havoc.

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10 hours ago, Goo Punch said:

here's what's so crazy to me all these years later: Shaka said from the beginning that he didn't plan on running Havoc at Texas, that he was going to be recruiting a different type of player, and that the Big XII demanded a different style. And he was not lying. Which means one of two things:

Either we hired Shaka Smart, a young coach whose career success was based on a certain style of play, knowing that he was going to completely abandon that 

or

We didn't even bother to dig deep enough to find that out.

While I'm hoping it's the former, either way it's indicative of how lazy our search for a new HC was. Now every time I think about it it just reminds me of Conan during the infamous Norm/CTS interview: "That's a bad time to take away everything you know about comedy", or in this case, basketball. 

https://youtu.be/5F6dXcW-_Fc

 

"this link could not be embedded because youtube does not allow embedding of that video." GAY. 

that was the point of my post.  even if it was #1, you don't give a guy an extension that is admittedly learning on the job until he proves it(no a first round bounce out to N Iowa is not proof). 

If I was into the whole brevity thing my post could have been summed up with "Mike Perrin is a dumbass." 

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On 1/27/2020 at 11:07 PM, El Squared said:

Nope. Wouldn’t help. It’s the new normal.

We need a neutron bomb to keep the buildings but remove the millionaire losers, and those that enable this styrofoam strategy .

Clean slate.I would rather take our chances with a bunch of randomly selected homeless people that the established cleptocracy that is Bellmont today.

This is the reason I won't buy season tickets to any sport.  I am much happier grinding for the cheapest seat available and moving up.  They give us the same product so what do I care.

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17 hours ago, TXSooner518 said:

VCU 2015 - top A10 team in KenPom, finished T-4th in A10, did win A10 tourney, lost in first round NCAA as higher seed

VCU 2014 - top A10 team in KenPom, finished 2nd in A10, lost A10 tourney final, lost in first round NCAA as higher seed

VCU 2013 - top A10 team in KenPom, finished 2nd in A10, lost A10 tourney final, lost in 2nd round NCAA by 25 points in 4-5 matchup

VCU 2012 - 2nd CAA team in KenPom (1 spot behind Drexel), finished 2nd in CAA, won CAA tourney, lost in 2nd round NCAA

VCU 2011 - 3rd CAA team in KenPom, finished 4th in CAA, lost CAA title game, then ran to Final Four after the least-deserved at large in history. 

VCU 2010 - 2nd CAA team in KenPom, finished 5th in CAA, lost CAA semifinals, won CBI.

 

So in Shaka's six seasons at VCU, he never won a regular season title, despite having one of the best 2 teams in the league 5 times and the best 3 times. 2 of his 6 seasons he finished 3 spots below expectation. His last 4 NCAA games there were a win over a 12 seed, a 25 point loss, and two losses as the favored seed. 

Seriously, where is Shaka's career without the gift of that 2011 at-large bid??

In Shaka's defense, VCU did move to a tougher conference in his 3rd year. And the Briante Weber injury in 2015 was a really bad break. VCU was 7-0 in conference before he got hurt.

Without the FF he was still averaging 27 wins/season, competing for the A10, and making the tourney every year, which sounds pretty successful to me.  I wonder how many active coaches have made it to the dance five four years in a row? 

Edited by CurlyDumps
math
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7 minutes ago, CurlyDumps said:

In Shaka's defense, VCU did move to a tougher conference in his 3rd year. And the Briante Weber injury in 2015 was a really bad break. VCU was 7-0 in conference before he got hurt.

Without the FF he was still averaging 27 wins/season, competing for the A10, and making the tourney every year, which sounds pretty successful to me.  I wonder how many active coaches have made it to the dance five four years in a row? 

A10 was slightly tougher than the CAA, but nonetheless he had the best team in the A10 3 straight years but never won the league, and the only time they won the conf tourney was that 2015 season. 

The 3 seasons before Shaka VCU averaged just over 25 wins a game, won the conference all 3 seasons, and the conference tourney 2 of the 3. They won 25+ games in 3 of the 4 seasons after Shaka as well, and have won the conference 2 of those 4 seasons. So in the years surrounding Shaka's 0 for 6 mark in winning the conference, VCU won their conference 5 out of 7 times. Shaka's performance is at or below the coaches surrounding him, except for the Final Four run, which literally never should have happened.

And you had it right the first time, it was 5 straight bids. He got to 6 straight with his first season at Texas. 

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anyone have a decent list of targets for the upcoming hire?  i was really big on archie miller and buzz williams the past few years, but both are in new spots that i doubt they would leave.

greg mcdermott has been at creighton for awhile, but i'd guess he would be getable.    who else?

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52 minutes ago, TXSooner518 said:

A10 was slightly tougher than the CAA, but nonetheless he had the best team in the A10 3 straight years but never won the league, and the only time they won the conf tourney was that 2015 season. 

The 3 seasons before Shaka VCU averaged just over 25 wins a game, won the conference all 3 seasons, and the conference tourney 2 of the 3. They won 25+ games in 3 of the 4 seasons after Shaka as well, and have won the conference 2 of those 4 seasons. So in the years surrounding Shaka's 0 for 6 mark in winning the conference, VCU won their conference 5 out of 7 times. Shaka's performance is at or below the coaches surrounding him, except for the Final Four run, which literally never should have happened.

And you had it right the first time, it was 5 straight bids. He got to 6 straight with his first season at Texas. 

There's a valid argument to be made that VCU has a tendency to make their coaches look good; Shaka, Capel, McCarthy, & Grant all had shaky results at their next stop. Will Wade is bucking the trend at LSU, though there's a FBI van following him to the grocery store due to his dalliances with paying players so maybe there are 'external' reasons he's bucking the trend.

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6 hours ago, SwanderedTalent said:

why would we be open to cheaters? 

I guess I'm just done with pretending that the rules matter or as though in college basketball anyone really adheres to them.  College football may be different,  but college basketball is a totally different animal in my eyes. 

1 hour ago, Bitterwhiteguy said:

There's a valid argument to be made that VCU has a tendency to make their coaches look good; Shaka, Capel, McCarthy, & Grant all had shaky results at their next stop. Will Wade is bucking the trend at LSU, though there's a FBI van following him to the grocery store due to his dalliances with paying players so maybe there are 'external' reasons he's bucking the trend.

Not sure that's there's much distinction between Wade and Capel other than Capel being at OU long enough to fail.  We'll see how Wade turns out in year 5. 

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3 hours ago, BigOrange1 said:

anyone have a decent list of targets for the upcoming hire?  i was really big on archie miller and buzz williams the past few years, but both are in new spots that i doubt they would leave.

greg mcdermott has been at creighton for awhile, but i'd guess he would be getable.    who else?

Musselman and Wojo will be looked at. 

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2 hours ago, Bitterwhiteguy said:

There's a valid argument to be made that VCU has a tendency to make their coaches look good; Shaka, Capel, McCarthy, & Grant all had shaky results at their next stop. Will Wade is bucking the trend at LSU, though there's a FBI is  following him to the grocery store due to his dalliances with paying players so maybe there are 'external' reasons he's bucking the trend.

Anthony Grant is killing it at Dayton, and i wouldn't be surprised if we have him a look when we shit can Shaka.

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6 minutes ago, Goo Punch said:

Anthony Grant is killing it at Dayton, and i wouldn't be surprised if we have him a look when we shit can Shaka.

He’s clearly a better coach than what we currently have, but what has he done at the major level?  A couple of “ok” seasons at Alabama...

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