Coaching Search Thread

[CHRISTOPHER JAMES JOLLAY]

I continue to maintain that something changed in Brad's mind literally from last week when he initially met with Dave and this week.

That to me is pretty good circumstantial evidence we're already zeroed in on who (a few guys, tops) we want.

So, if you're in the L tree and haven't heard anything yet, you almost certainly aren't getting the job.

Somebody should be able to verify if Skinn, Konkol, or Caputo has heard anything.

There may be a few courtesy interviews to come, but that's my hypothesis and I'm sticking with it.

Buy off whoever Brad's assistant is if you're eager for inside info. Itineraries tell a lot...

 

[GMU_DCU]

https://www.coachesdatabase.com/lets-speculate-potential-george-mason-head-coach-candidates/:

"Today’s program is George Mason, coached by Dave Paulsen for the last six seasons (fired on March 16).

• Mike Jones – Radford head coach
  • Jones has built a nice program at Radford, going to the NCAA Tournament back in 2018 and sharing in two of the last three Big South titles. He is right there in the DMV, where he has spent the majority of his career as a coach and player (Howard grad). An A-10 job would definitely be an upgrade in terms of status and paycheck for Jones and presents an opportunity to take his career up to the next level while still tapping his familiar local ties.
• Jason Williford – Virginia associate head coach
  • Former Virginia player now coaching at his alma mater, Williford would bring National Championship experience to Mason as a key member of the 2018-19 Cavaliers squad that won it all. Before returning to Charlottesville in 2009, he coached at both American and Boston University. He’s making good money as second-in-command at UVA, but without the status of being head coach.
• Tony Skinn – Seton Hall assistant coach
  • The only George Mason graduate on this list, Skinn played for the Patriots under Jim Larrañaga and was a senior on the 2006 Final Four team. Played overseas for a bit before getting into coaching, first at the AAU level. After a stint at Louisiana Tech, he’s back on the East Coast coaching under Kevin Willard at Seton Hall. What he lacks in coaching experience he makes up for in local and school ties, which is enough to make him an enticing option.
• Karl Hobbs – Rutgers associate head coach
  • Hobbs spent ten years as the head coach at George Washington, reaching the NCAA Tournament three times and finishing with a 166-129 record overall. Outside of that, he spent 12 years at UConn and has been Steve Pikiell‘s associate head coach at Rutgers since 2016. Definitely deserving of another head coaching opportunity and his stock is rising, as he is headed back to the NCAA Tournament this year with the Scarlet Knights.
• Kim English – Tennessee assistant coach
  • One of the hottest assistant names across college basketball, English is a Maryland-native and currently works at Tennessee under one-time GMU head coach Rick Barnes. He doesn’t have any head coaching experience but he’s been a D-I assistant since 2015 and he could be an exciting young hire to re-invigorate this program.
• John Becker – Vermont head coach
  • Becker has a pretty sweet set-up at Vermont: he wins a lot of games, goes to the postseason every year, regularly wins the America East title and has a long and lucrative contract by mid-major standards. But at the same time, he is still coaching in the AEast and there is plenty more to conquer in the college basketball world. Maybe he is waiting for something even bigger, but moving up to the A-10 and landing firmly in the fertile recruiting grounds of the DC area could be really enticing.
• Kevin Broadus – Morgan State head coach
  • His time at Binghamton ended in controversy and lawsuits, but Broadus has re-established his career over the last decade and now has a solid program running at Morgan State. A DC-native, Broadus has spent his entire coaching career in the DMV and has deep recruiting ties across the area. This year’s squad nearly made the NCAA Tournament after finishing in 11th the year before Broadus was hired to turn things around."

English, Skinn then Becker in that order.

 

[GMUgemini]

John Becker would be interesting if we are going for a head coach. Vermont is more of a mid-major power than Bucknell was. Would he even be willing to leave though?

 

[gmutom]

I continue to maintain that something changed in Brad's mind literally from last week when he initially met with Dave and this week.

Pure speculation on my part, but four A10 teams not named George Mason making the NIT certainly didn't help Dave's cause.

 

[mkaufman1]

If it's Karl Hobbs I'm out. I went to a few GW games at the end of his tenure. I'd rather have Paulsen.

:SCREAMS:

No way.

 

[Pikapppatri8]

I continue to maintain that something changed in Brad's mind literally from last week when he initially met with Dave and this week.

That to me is pretty good circumstantial evidence we're already zeroed in on who (a few guys, tops) we want.

So, if you're in the L tree and haven't heard anything yet, you almost certainly aren't getting the job.

Somebody should be able to verify if Skinn, Konkol, or Caputo has heard anything.

There may be a few courtesy interviews to come, but that's my hypothesis and I'm sticking with it.

Buy off whoever Brad's assistant is if you're eager for inside info. Itineraries tell a lot...

Who has itineraries in the post Covid freakout zone we live in?? Its Zoom calls baby.

 

[Patriot8]

For those Pat Kelsey fans out there, it's not looking great for Frank Martin at South Carolina. He may get one more year to see if he can right the ship, but his contract expires in 2022, and Pat could make a very easy and obvious transition down I-77. If I'm him, and nothing is intriguing right now, I hold onto my very secure, successful job for another year and see what happens with Papa Frank.

 

[Falco]

Budgets from the state are set a year ahead of time, so if there is more private money they would be able to help with the cost of a coach. Of course they can always increase the budget in a year or two pending performance, back load etc potentially. I completely agree that they could do the latter.

Just relaying what I heard from a bunch of folks. Not sure of exact logistics or whatever.

I also wonder if the team had a surplus of money for this season, practically no money spent on recruiting and travel was limited.

 

[Pikapppatri8]

I also wonder if the team had a surplus of money for this season, practically no money spent on recruiting and travel was limited.

Hell their should have been a reduction in utility bills and other costs since the campus was closed down

 

[Falco]

I’ve said multiple times before I want an assistant from a top program.

I love Jason Williford from UVA. Everyone already knows his credentials.

but what about Larry Harrison, the WVU associate head coach

Harrison will be entering his 22nd season overall on Bob Huggins’ coaching staff after spending eight seasons with him at Cincinnati. He came to West Virginia from the Washington Wizards, where he served as a scout in 2006-07. He has more than 30 years of coaching experience.

Since 1989, Harrison’s teams have earned 15 bids to the NCAA Tournament and three NIT bids. During Harrison’s tenure, Cincinnati advanced to the Final Four once (1992) and Elite Eight twice (1993, 1996). West Virginia won the 2010 Big East Championship and has advanced to nine NCAA Tournaments, including the 2010 Final Four and five NCAA Sweet 16s.

Harrison served as head coach at Hartford from 2000-06, earning America East Coach of the Year honors in 2006. He led Hartford to a third-place conference finish in 2002, 2003 and 2006 and semifinals of the conference tournament in 2002, 2003 and 2004. Hartford had the nation’s second-best total win increase from 2001 to 2002 with four wins in 2001 to 14 wins in 2002.

Known as one of the top recruiters in the nation, Harrison’s recruiting classes have been ranked among the best in the nation on a regular basis. His 1998 recruiting class at DePaul was ranked as the No. 1 class in the nation by The Sporting News. During his last four years at Cincinnati, three of the Bearcat recruiting classes were ranked in the top 10, including the Bearcats’ 1996 recruiting class, which was regarded as the best in the nation.

 

[FreeGunston12]

Off of that list I’m still on the English or Skinn boat.

I think there is a certain element of needing to put butts in seats with this hire. Those two would certainly do it from day 1. Of course, getting the best coach is the priority. But if you can kill two birds with one stone, you do it.

 

[Herndon]

From that list, give me Williford. A decade apprenticing under (IMO) the single best coach in the country? Yes, PLEASE.

 

[Walter]

https://www.coachesdatabase.com/lets-speculate-potential-george-mason-head-coach-candidates/:

"Today’s program is George Mason, coached by Dave Paulsen for the last six seasons (fired on March 16).

Looks like this guy just read the speculation here. Pass on Broadus, Hobbs and Jones.

 

[Walter]

John Becker would be interesting if we are going for a head coach. Vermont is more of a mid-major power than Bucknell was. Would he even be willing to leave though?

I was impressed when I looked up Becker's record. And he is from the area.

 

[gmutom]

I was impressed when I looked up Becker's record. And he is from the area.

Definitely an impressive resume, but he just strikes me as Paulsen 2.0 — white guy in his early 50s who did well at a lower conference. The flip side is he could be Larranaga 2.0 coming from Bowling Green. Who really knows.

 

[mkaufman1]

I also wonder if the team had a surplus of money for this season, practically no money spent on recruiting and travel was limited.

If I had to guess, any surplus they had was spent on the volume of testing they had to do.

Definitely an impressive resume, but he just strikes me as Paulsen 2.0 — white guy in his early 50s who did well at a lower conference. The flip side is he could be Larranaga 2.0 coming from Bowling Green. Who really knows.

That is true. I'd like a BCS assistant this go round but they probably won't ask me haha

 

[FreeGunston12]

It's clear to me that whoever they bring in there are two musts:

1.) Recruit at an A10 level. No excuse to be an A10 school and not have multiple three-star+ recruits. That was happening in the CAA...
2.) Repair relationships with former players. Lamar is an assistant at Paul VI and Team Takeover. He should be a force-multiplier for Mason. Surely there are others...

I'm getting pretty tired of reading Lamar Butler shit talk our school. I get it. They've done some things that pissed you off. Me too. No need to pile on on twitter. Talking about "why would anyone choose Mason?". I'm all for reparing relationships, but he's got a vendetta. Good luck extending that olive branch.

 

[Falco]

I really don’t care if they have ties to DMV. There’s already so much competition for this talent.
I rather a coach who has their own talent pool to pluck from.

 

[Walter]

Okay, I just watched Kim English talk recruiting. I see why some of you have moist panties.

View: https://youtu.be/y5hygxuT_7g

 

[gmubrian]

I continue to maintain that something changed in Brad's mind literally from last week when he initially met with Dave and this week.

That to me is pretty good circumstantial evidence we're already zeroed in on who (a few guys, tops) we want.

So, if you're in the L tree and haven't heard anything yet, you almost certainly aren't getting the job.

Somebody should be able to verify if Skinn, Konkol, or Caputo has heard anything.

There may be a few courtesy interviews to come, but that's my hypothesis and I'm sticking with it.

Buy off whoever Brad's assistant is if you're eager for inside info. Itineraries tell a lot...

I have a different theory bouncing around in my head. I think Brad initially expected Paulsen to tank this year and then he would have been easy to fire. Then Paulsen had his little run at the end, putting things in doubt. Because of this, Brad doesn't make any moves to have him fired at the end of the year. Then Paulsen won his first game in the tourney, too. At this point, Paulsen had the horrific performance in the final game of the season. I think that put the thought back into Brad's head. Then, Brad meets with Paulsen to do a status of the program and it probably could have gone either way. Paulsen says ho hum stuff (like we really progressed at the end of the year, practiced well, we will make incremental improvements, they are good kids). This isn't the firey stuff that Brad is looking to hear to convince him Paulsen has to stay. He leaves the meeting feeling queasy and freaked out and realizes he needs to replace Paulsen to have any chance of improving the team and saving his job and long term AD at a football school dreams. He has been caught flat footed and now needs to write up a justification for Dr. W that Paulsen needs to go and to pay his severance package. This took the time from the last game of the season until yesterday.

This theory, to me, would better explain the delay in firing Paulsen. Now, though, I hope your theory is more right than mine.

P.S. This is completely made up based on no facts other than what I read on the boards here and guessing what Brad is thinking. You would have thought I would have learned my lesson about speculating on poeple's actions, but I guess I haven't.