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UT's next basketball coach - discussion/debate


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3 minutes ago, Js1 said:

Don’t end a sentence with a preposition 

Angry Inside Out GIF by Disney Pixar

It's 2023. Besides, when you do it for emphasis it's more effective. 

"You fuck up shit. "

sounds way weaker than "You fuck shit up"

It's in the lexicon through pop culture. And that boy would Fuck. Threads. UP

 

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Not the sexiest name in the world but has anyone given any thought to Chris Jans at Mississippi State? He's won pretty much everywhere he's been as a head coach (75% of his games to be exact), took New Mexico State to the tournament and won the WAC in 3 of 4 years there and seems to have MSU trending in the right direction in year 1.

Pretty similar to Beard style wise. Defense, defense, defense. Won at the JUCO level (similar to Beard). Recruiting would obviously be a question mark.

Edited by Hookem2147
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Okay. But not to Bennett. I think you should cross him off (then). 
And lol at “except for Sampson and the guy who is coaching them right now, the one that won a title”. You can’t fucking exclude those things. 

Prior to Bennett kicking ass at Virginia, they were 2nd rate and mostly irrelevant for 25 years. Virginia sans Bennett is without question a step down from Texas. And we’re debating a hypothetical situation where Bennett considers program prestige. And him self-evaluating his own impact and what he could do at Texas.
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10 hours ago, royiv said:

Marquette-Shaka-Header.thumb.jpeg.47ca29cd0913e6567c1ae3026e1c7bbd.jpeg

Shaka lost to ACU with 3 future NBA players on the roster. You literally couldn’t do that if you simply rolled the ball out, told them to win without coaches on the sideline, and left for dinner, watched post-game highlights of W from home.

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45 minutes ago, Hookem2147 said:

Not the sexiest name in the world but has anyone given any thought to Chris Jans at Mississippi State? He's won pretty much everywhere he's been as a head coach (75% of his games to be exact), took New Mexico State to the tournament and won the WAC in 3 of 4 years there and seems to have MSU trending in the right direction in year 1.

Pretty similar to Beard style wise. Defense, defense, defense. Won at the JUCO level (similar to Beard). Recruiting would obviously be a question mark.

Have not seen his name brought up, but given what we’ve gone through with Beard there is zero chance.  

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12 hours ago, Hookem2147 said:

Damn. Didn’t even know that. Nevermind then.

Yeah:

Quote

Prior to New Mexico State, Jans was hired by Bowling Green in March 2014—his first Division I job. He led Bowling Green to its most wins in 13 years. However, on March 21—shortly after losing to Canisius in the 2nd round of the 2015 CollegeInsider.com Postseason Tournament, a drunken Jans was seen engaging in lewd and inappropriate behavior toward women at a bar near campus. A Bowling Green alumnus recorded Jans on his cell phone, and was so outraged by what he saw that he reported the incident to school officials.[1] Following an internal investigation, Bowling Green fired Jans for violating a morals clause in his contract.[2][3]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Jans

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2 hours ago, shadow_operative said:

i was calling for cronin to replace shaka five years ago. i'd be thrilled to land him in the wake of chris beard's monumental fuck up. make it happen CDC. 

 

That buyout, though. 

I mean, if you want to be marketable to other teams even a little bit, you can sign a contract with a big buyout without it being $26 million. I mean, $26 million. That's a lot. 

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14 minutes ago, SL Xpress said:

That buyout, though. 

I mean, if you want to be marketable to other teams even a little bit, you can sign a contract with a big buyout without it being $26 million. I mean, $26 million. That's a lot. 

I mean, the way CDC can justify that is Beard still had just south of $30m on his contract we don't have to pay him.  We didn't have to pay any money to get rid of him and Rodney is making just a little over $1 million this year. 

But yeah, $26m is a lot.  Like, a lot for a basketball coach.  But ya know, just the THE NUMBERS, it ain't our job to worry about it, because it's not our money.

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Just now, Js1 said:

I mean, the way CDC can justify that is Beard still had just south of $30m on his contract we don't have to pay him.  We didn't have to pay any money to get rid of him and Rodney is making just a little over $1 million this year. 

But yeah, $26m is a lot.  Like, a lot for a basketball coach.  But ya know, just the THE NUMBERS, it ain't our job to worry about it, because it's not our money.

I don't know that I worry about it, as much as I simply acknowledge it.

The point I'd make along with the sheer size of the buyout, is what Cronin is indicating when he signs that contract. You don't sign a contract like that if you're looking to leave. 

If we take 3 random coaches we've talked about on here - Cronin, Musselman, and Bennett - I'd say they're in that order in terms of least likely to most likely for Texas to be able to obtain. Part of it is due to UCLA's tradition, but a big part is that buyout. It just doesn't make the chances of pulling him away from there look very good to me.

But I wouldn't call that worrying about it. 

5 minutes ago, shadow_operative said:

if cronin wants the move then i'm sure he can make it happen. 

If I can buy a house with a 30 year amortizable mortgage, why not a buyout contract? Amirite?

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How much money are we really saving by firing Beard?  I get that we weren't on the hook for a buyout, but in reality we gave RT a raise and presumably paid Beard this year's salary (without any performance bonuses).

If we have to pay $26M to buy out a Cronin, then pay him $6M annually or whatever, that's still a $26M stick in the eye.

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23 minutes ago, jimmyjazz said:

How much money are we really saving by firing Beard?  I get that we weren't on the hook for a buyout, but in reality we gave RT a raise and presumably paid Beard this year's salary (without any performance bonuses).

If we have to pay $26M to buy out a Cronin, then pay him $6M annually or whatever, that's still a $26M stick in the eye.

Yeah, we aren't really "saving" any money. If anything, we are actually going to be losing quite a bit (or we can phrase it different and just say we are investing more) because the next coach will probably be paid just as much, if not more, than Beard and there will be turnover on the assistant/support staff side. I'm assuming some of the assistants and strength staff have multi-year deals. Some might leave on their own and we won't owe them anything, or we could be forced to buy some of them out depending on what the new coach wants.

Either way, we aren't saving money in the long run.

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1 hour ago, jimmyjazz said:

How much money are we really saving by firing Beard?  I get that we weren't on the hook for a buyout, but in reality we gave RT a raise and presumably paid Beard this year's salary (without any performance bonuses).

If we have to pay $26M to buy out a Cronin, then pay him $6M annually or whatever, that's still a $26M stick in the eye.

I'd be a bit surprised if Texas paid Beard his entire $5 million salary for 8 games.  

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Gabe Muoneke actually has a great story about Ime. Think it may have been posted here before…

Spoiler

It’s a trip when you get to know people. Ime was so quiet and I figured he was just some guy who could play with a Nigerian father. Well, folks in S.A., don’t be fooled. That dude in an Afr-I-CAN! I mean damn! The only thing non-African about him is his accent. We went to Nigeria, man… When they brought out the food I figured uh oh… He aint eatin’ th… What the?! Ime was tearing that Fu-fu (thank Jay-Z for everyone knowing what that is now) to shreads. I asked him about his adornment of the vittles. He said that’s all he ate growing up. Imagine my surprise when I saw he must have grown up doing the African ju-jitsu too.

When the National Team went to Algeria for the African Championships in Algiers, every team was on edge because the Top 3 squads got the invite to the World Championships. So after we lost to Angola in the semis and had to play Algeria for the third spot, they knew, we knew, everyone knew they had no shot. First quarter… Tactics. African ball, man. Trust me: as corrupt as can be. Despite all the cheating from the three-man (North African) refereeing crew they just couldn’t beat us. So the coach sent in their best player, who was injured but came in with a purpose. I think his name was Ali Bidane or something. We had the ball out of bounce under. He guarded me. As the ref handed us the ball, he turned, looked at me as if there was not a game going on. And pop! Not an elbow, not even a signature yours truly gutter. He decked me right in the jaw. I couldn’t believe it. And come on. I freely admit when I throw cheap shots. I wouldn’t hide it if I started to. I mean, I’m in the middle of basically middle eastern country playing the local team. I know better (read on to see my contradiction). He nailed me, we turned it over, and yes, my Rodman 101 class did well. I looked up court, saw both refs back and calmly asked him in by most polite French, “Pardon me sir, I object to you striking me.” Next thing you know… Both teams on the court going at it. Wow.

Imagine my surprise! (My cheeks hurt). That wasn’t the real brawl. After we won was the real issue. After the game, they were waiting for us to come out of the locker room. And seriously, I didn’t start it. Kingsley Ogwudire was in front of our team in an all-out tirade in his best Arabic. The next thing you know, there were three Algerian players on him. Everyone was engaged in combat save me, if you can believe it. And lo and ehold… Ime! He was taking people out like in Mortal Kombat. Finish him!Incredible. I was so out of it as I had five guys I was fighting (oh yeah, the crowd jumped in as the fight spilled over to the court of the championship game of Senegal and Angola).

In the middle of the whole thing I heard Ime, literally in mid-swing of another opponent say,”Watch back, Gabe” and he calmly, I mean calmly, smeared a guy who, as I turned to see his warning, jumped from the stands with a chair to probably kill me or knock me out to where the crowd would have. I mean, Ime caught the guy in mid air with a fist and calmly continued his dispatching of oncoming people. He and other guys (yes, me too) were whoopin’ so many people the crowd backed up. True to the letter! But Ime had the most notches by far. As we retreated to the locker room to kind chants of, “You cudly blackies! We highly doubt your ability to leave this gym with lives intact” in French, (it might have been a bad translation) all I could do was marvel at Ime. This guy, I thought, was a quiet American guy was standing there – all his stuff gone (gym bag, wallet, shoes, jersey) – with a stick in his hand we tore off the walls of the locker room in the middle of North Africa quite literally with our lives on the line… laughing. All the while I was texting my wife that I loved her and might have a hard time seeing her again while she was watching the whole incident on BBC News. And Ime… laughing. He is and always will be my 9ja broda. Ime… Wetin happen bros? Abi na notin. Notin dey happen. To this day I don’t know how we got out of there. But that night we ate like kings at the Nigerian Embassy. And Ime was with us… Killing his Fu-fu.

Tell me how I could have seen a thing like that if I had made the NBA out of college! You just can’t make this stuff up.

 

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I like Ivey's upside, but he's a pretty big risk. Especially when Texas has a new arena they need to fill. BUT I think there's a little window for him to figure it out at Texas. The SEC, forgive me, sucks at basketball. I think we'd have 2 losses tops if we played the same conference schedule as aggy. 

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56 minutes ago, billfromlaketravis said:

I like Ivey's upside, but he's a pretty big risk. Especially when Texas has a new arena they need to fill. BUT I think there's a little window for him to figure it out at Texas. The SEC, forgive me, sucks at basketball. I think we'd have 2 losses tops if we played the same conference schedule as aggy. 

Anyone who is hired is going to be a risk. I just want us to grab the best, most qualified candidate possible, whoever that might be. If it ends up being Royal Ivey I'll be excited for him. I'll be excited to root for him. But the basketball hiring process will be a disappointment for me. 

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58 minutes ago, billfromlaketravis said:

I like Ivey's upside, but he's a pretty big risk. Especially when Texas has a new arena they need to fill. BUT I think there's a little window for him to figure it out at Texas. The SEC, forgive me, sucks at basketball. I think we'd have 2 losses tops if we played the same conference schedule as aggy. 

I don’t want any more coaches who are learning on the job. 

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30 minutes ago, CTC2 said:

I don’t want any more coaches who are learning on the job. 

Every coach worth having is learning on the job. Otherwise, the game passes you by.

What we don't want is a coach who isn't qualified for the job in the first place, in the hopes he'll gain those qualifications along the way.

Which is what I think you meant to say. 😁

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I don't get where this 'Texas only hires coaches who've had success at P5 programs" comes from?  

Coach Barnes did, wish he was still here.  Shaka hadn't had any P5 success.  Beard had a little but it was still more an upside/flyer hire than many remember.  They were a bubble team at best in 2020 to make the Big Dance.  Before that, he did make the Elite 8 twice (including title game), but also failed to make it once and got knocked out in game 2 another season.  Yes, that's a good track record, but it wasn't the national splash hire we like to think it was.  We all knew around that he had massive upside being a Longhorn, the new Moody, great connections with former players and high school coaches, etc.  But like Shaka, he was coming here on the coattails of two deep tourney runs, and that was it on paper.  That he did it at Tech in arguably the best hoops league in the country is the only reason much of the rest of the nation even noticed the hire.  Our next hire is going to be something similar to a Shaka/Beard level of hire.  We're in a bind because we need a coach with a longer track record of success to quell anxiety among our recruits, donors, and the people on the hook for Moody.  And that level of coach isn't really available this year.  

In baseball, Coach Pierce was a great hire IMO as a Texas baseball guy.  But he had a few regional appearances at Sam Houston State and Tulane.  Hardly what I'd call sustained, major-conference success.   Strong was completely out his depths in the Big XII coming from Louisville.  Herman was all hat, no cattle except the Sugar Bowl win.  Turns out Houston isn't the same as the Big XII in football.  Sark is still a question mark, I'm not nearly as bullish on him as most of y'all.  He was a whopping 5 games over .500 in 5 seasons with Washington with 1 bowl win and 0 Top 25 finishes.  Small sample sets at USC and Texas are still question marks to me.  But again, that was not a major coach from a major program with major success making a lateral move to Texas.  

Only real recent major program 'splash' hire was Vic Schaefer.  Major P5 program in Mississippi State.  6 straight years in tourney with 2 championship game appearances, 1 Elite 8's, and a Sweet 16.  And two conference championships.  Here at Texas, that high level continues with 2 Elite 8's (and a likely 2 seed this year) and a shiny, new conference championship.  Something we hadn't had here in almost 20 years.  

tl;dr We don't regularly make the big name, big program splash hires around here we think we do.  At least not in the big 4 sports.  

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33 minutes ago, YGIFS said:

I don't get where this 'Texas only hires coaches who've had success at P5 programs" comes from?  

Coach Barnes did, wish he was still here.  Shaka hadn't had any P5 success.  Beard had a little but it was still more an upside/flyer hire than many remember.  They were a bubble team at best in 2020 to make the Big Dance.  Before that, he did make the Elite 8 twice (including title game), but also failed to make it once and got knocked out in game 2 another season.  Yes, that's a good track record, but it wasn't the national splash hire we like to think it was.  We all knew around that he had massive upside being a Longhorn, the new Moody, great connections with former players and high school coaches, etc.  But like Shaka, he was coming here on the coattails of two deep tourney runs, and that was it on paper.  That he did it at Tech in arguably the best hoops league in the country is the only reason much of the rest of the nation even noticed the hire.  Our next hire is going to be something similar to a Shaka/Beard level of hire.  We're in a bind because we need a coach with a longer track record of success to quell anxiety among our recruits, donors, and the people on the hook for Moody.  And that level of coach isn't really available this year.  

In baseball, Coach Pierce was a great hire IMO as a Texas baseball guy.  But he had a few regional appearances at Sam Houston State and Tulane.  Hardly what I'd call sustained, major-conference success.   Strong was completely out his depths in the Big XII coming from Louisville.  Herman was all hat, no cattle except the Sugar Bowl win.  Turns out Houston isn't the same as the Big XII in football.  Sark is still a question mark, I'm not nearly as bullish on him as most of y'all.  He was a whopping 5 games over .500 in 5 seasons with Washington with 1 bowl win and 0 Top 25 finishes.  Small sample sets at USC and Texas are still question marks to me.  But again, that was not a major coach from a major program with major success making a lateral move to Texas.  

Only real recent major program 'splash' hire was Vic Schaefer.  Major P5 program in Mississippi State.  6 straight years in tourney with 2 championship game appearances, 1 Elite 8's, and a Sweet 16.  And two conference championships.  Here at Texas, that high level continues with 2 Elite 8's (and a likely 2 seed this year) and a shiny, new conference championship.  Something we hadn't had here in almost 20 years.  

tl;dr We don't regularly make the big name, big program splash hires around here we think we do.  At least not in the big 4 sports.  

Most of those guys weren’t cdc hires though.  I think he’ll try to go big

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28 minutes ago, YGIFS said:

I don't get where this 'Texas only hires coaches who've had success at P5 programs" comes from?  

 

This is not a "Texas" thing

This is a Chris Del Conte thing.  Look at his damn tenure here so far and his hires. 

Floreal - Stanford, Kentucky = 3 top 4 finishes for the women, including runner up in 2015; men finished top 25 6 times
White - Oregon = never missed the Super Regional round as a coach at Oregon, including 5 WCWS in 9 years
Schaefer - Miss St = 4 straight trips to Sweet 16 or better and back to back runner up finishes
Beard - Texas Tech = took Tech to an Elite 8 and NCAA runner up in back to back seasons
Berque - Michigan (and then led the team to a national title as interim) = NCAA appearances in 9/10 seasons, including a round of 16 finish

He didn't nab up and coming mid-major/G5 coaches, he went out and got coaches with successful stops.  He wants Texas top 10 in every sport, which requires proven, successful P5 coaches.  

And he didn't hire Sark, because the AD at Texas doesn't hire the head football coach, but his top choice for the job sure seemed to have a good year at TCU. 

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1 hour ago, LTtxfan said:

Besides hiring Terry, what other realistic options are there that don't have the ridiculous buyouts like Cronin??

Here's a few that I've seen discussed so far...

  • Jay Wright
  • Royal Ivey
  • Jerome Tang

I just like that you started your realistic list with Jay Wright. 

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Fair points, but it does still speak a bit to our "We're Texas, the best coaches will come to us." dangerous mentality.   And granted, we have demonstrated across 4 AD's, that we're willing to throw money around and get a coalition of donors, regents, and tower folks on the same page to court someone big here.  But our track record in the Big 4 sports, does demonstrate that we rest on our name and budget way more than we should. 

Plenty of coaches not only come here without the proper track record and bona fides, and we've also seen lots of coaches do poorly here move on far lesser programs.  And I think that speaks to their lack of capability just as well.  If somebody leaves Texas FB for Notre Dame or Michigan, I get it.  Or leaves our hoops program for UNC or Michigan State, I get it.  Or baseball for LSU or USC, I get it.  But they don't.  They get shitcanned and go coach football at Arizona or USF.  They leave to coach hoops at Marquette or women's basketball at UTSA.  For the most part, we don't bring in tenured, successful coaches from major programs.  And when they inevitably leave here under clouds of disappointment, they often go to far lesser programs.  

CDC does appear to be turning that around, and this will be a huge test for him.  Hartzell is all-in, as is Eltife.  But just want to temper expectations for myself and some of y'all.  

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6 minutes ago, YGIFS said:

Fair points, but it does still speak a bit to our "We're Texas, the best coaches will come to us." dangerous mentality.   And granted, we have demonstrated across 4 AD's, that we're willing to throw money around and get a coalition of donors, regents, and tower folks on the same page to court someone big here.  But our track record in the Big 4 sports, does demonstrate that we rest on our name and budget way more than we should. 

Plenty of coaches not only come here without the proper track record and bona fides, and we've also seen lots of coaches do poorly here move on far lesser programs.  And I think that speaks to their lack of capability just as well.  If somebody leaves Texas FB for Notre Dame or Michigan, I get it.  Or leaves our hoops program for UNC or Michigan State, I get it.  Or baseball for LSU or USC, I get it.  But they don't.  They get shitcanned and go coach football at Arizona or USF.  They leave to coach hoops at Marquette or women's basketball at UTSA.  For the most part, we don't bring in tenured, successful coaches from major programs.  And when they inevitably leave here under clouds of disappointment, they often go to far lesser programs.  

CDC does appear to be turning that around, and this will be a huge test for him.  Hartzell is all-in, as is Eltife.  But just want to temper expectations for myself and some of y'all.  

Good post. On a side note, I’m beginning to think that Eltife is more of a meddler than asset at this point. 

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8 minutes ago, CTC2 said:

Good post. On a side note, I’m beginning to think that Eltife is more of a meddler than asset at this point. 

And that would make you about the 10th person in the last 10 days who've told me the same thing.  A few of whom who would know.  I'm already counting the days until Weaver or Dr. Perez takes over that spot.  Rad is the serious and pragmatic leader that Eltife thinks he is.  Perez is the charismatic and likable guy that Eltife thinks he is.  All three are smart as hell, but I think Eltife may have over-shot his, "I wanna get elbow deep into all the fun stuff on our campuses and make 'suggestions' on key hires."  And it worked for a few minutes but I think there's a certain fatigue settling in.  Very dedicated to UT though with the best of intentions, for the record.

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18 minutes ago, YGIFS said:

Fair points, but it does still speak a bit to our "We're Texas, the best coaches will come to us." dangerous mentality.   And granted, we have demonstrated across 4 AD's, that we're willing to throw money around and get a coalition of donors, regents, and tower folks on the same page to court someone big here.  But our track record in the Big 4 sports, does demonstrate that we rest on our name and budget way more than we should. 

Plenty of coaches not only come here without the proper track record and bona fides, and we've also seen lots of coaches do poorly here move on far lesser programs.  And I think that speaks to their lack of capability just as well.  If somebody leaves Texas FB for Notre Dame or Michigan, I get it.  Or leaves our hoops program for UNC or Michigan State, I get it.  Or baseball for LSU or USC, I get it.  But they don't.  They get shitcanned and go coach football at Arizona or USF.  They leave to coach hoops at Marquette or women's basketball at UTSA.  For the most part, we don't bring in tenured, successful coaches from major programs.  And when they inevitably leave here under clouds of disappointment, they often go to far lesser programs.  

CDC does appear to be turning that around, and this will be a huge test for him.  Hartzell is all-in, as is Eltife.  But just want to temper expectations for myself and some of y'all.  

I don't remember anyone ever leaving Texas for a lateral move, voluntarily.  Michigan is not a better job than Texas, nobody, other than you, actually thinks that.  We made a run at Urban, but he was set on coaching in the NFL at least once.  I'm old enough to remember that Saban was very likely coming here if Mack had played ball. 

 

USC baseball is in shambles.  LSU is not a bigger job than here.  We are arguably the most coveted baseball job in the land.  We did get turned down I think, it happens.

 

Both Herman and Shaka were the hot names du jours when hired.  

 

You're a great poster, but this Monday morning spray and pray approach ain't working.

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