Name the next head coach (a GMUJim tribute album)

[Herndon]

What about Dino Gaudio? He got a raw deal at Wake...and since his firing they haven't been relevant. I know I know...retread! But he was 61-31 at Wake in 3 years.

You know, That's interesting.

 

[gmujim92]

Does the fact that we suck a** now hurt us with potential candidates or help that we really can't get any worse?

As soon as Hewitt gets fired, we become an ideal job for any number of coaches.

Rule is, you never want to be the one to replace "the guy," i.e., the Elderly Cuban.

You want to replace the guy who replaced "the guy."

After Hewitt's disgusting display over the past four seasons, the bar for our next coach will be set so low (at leasr early) that if he makes even the slightest progress in his first season, he'll be treated like a conquering hero.

 

[gmujim92]

What about Dino Gaudio? He got a raw deal at Wake...and since his firing they haven't been relevant. I know I know...retread! But he was 61-31 at Wake in 3 years.

We could do much, much worse than Gaudio, who doesn't count as a "retread" because he was fired unjustly to make room for that idiot Bzdelik at Wake.

If he's looking to coach again and willing to meet our price, I hope Edwards has talked to him.

 

[Patriotsince81]

I would pass on Dino. While he had some success at Wake he was abysmal at Army and Loyola. Career record at those two was 68 - 124. In conference 33 - 73. Best conference finish at those two was 5th place.

 

[A.-Siegfried]

After watching that amazing highlight reel of John Brown dunks, it's clear why High Point was so good for the last three years. But can Cherry win without a beast like Brown? I have no idea...

The year before Brown started playing at High Point (his redshirt freshman season) the team shot 40% from behind the arc. Certainly John Brown has been a big reason for the Panthers success, but Cherry can coach offense. They shot 38.9% from deep this season. Brown was 0-5 from long range. He finds ways to get guys open looks, up to them to make them.

They also don't turn the ball over, finishing 3rd this year and 1st last year in their conference in total turnovers. I'll take that in my next head coach...someone that can get the value of possessions through to his team.

Questions were raised after Evans left Mason, could Coach L win without Evans? We did pretty well. I think Cherry will do well.

 

[Walter]

I wonder if the Minnesota coach that was mentioned in another thread was former NBA player and current Timberwolves assistant coach Sam Mitchell? There are a few Georgia Tech fans who are wanting him to replace Gregory.

 

[DeepValue]

Throwing Will Brown from UAlbany out there.

 

[KAOriginal]

Lamar Butler will tell you that Cherry"s guidance on offense is where the players thrived in....

 

[dr. gunnie]

If Cherry is the pick, I would be fine with it... but I don't want him just because he used to be here. I want the best guy for the job. If it's Scott - great, but I want the search to include numerous candidates, both low-major head coaches and BCS assistants.

I do think that Cherry deserves to be on our short list of candidates based on what he has done at High Point. I just wish he could have done a little bit more in their post season tourneys while he was there.

 

[KAOriginal]

With the whole "world university/diversity" play....we may have to look at some foreign coaches.....

Yoo Jae-hak of South Korea may be high on the list...

 

[Old Man]

Definitely a consideration, although I would think he'd be energized by moving up on the food chain and getting a chance to recruit a level of athlete he (with a few notable exceptions) can't even get in the door with at W&M.

One thing not many people know about Shaver is he prefers to play full-court pressure D and up-tempo offense. His teams at Hampden-Sydney used to blow people's doors off.

He only changed to the modified Princeton when he got to W&M because he knew he'd never get the athletes to play 94 feet in the CAA.

You mean there's a coach out there that will adjust HIS preferences and the way he coaches according to the circumstances?

C'mon that's fantasy land talking. Next thing you're going to say is there are coaches who actually coach!

 

[GSII]

I think one can easily miss calculate a potential candidate by over analyzing conference tournament results. That is kind of like the Tom O'Connor mindset of ....took a team to the national title game therefore he must be the perfect candidate. in all phases of what is looked at there should be a thorough how and why things happend. for scott cherry, I would say that he has some good players ie brown, but has also instilled a foundation for success that is sustainable. The coach can get lucky with players that will carry him and even hide his bad coaching, but they leave, and what remains is what either forms a strong foundation of a program, or contributes to its demise. Imo, scott cherry has built a solid foundation at his school Bc he does well in all phases. I dont if he is the best candidate for the job, but if he does become our coach I would be very happy with him. plus he comes from a good tree played for Dean Smith and worked under a Cuban.

 

[mkaufman1]

I think one can easily miss calculate a potential candidate by over analyzing conference tournament results. That is kind of like the Tom O'Connor mindset of ....took a team to the national title game therefore he must be the perfect candidate. in all phases of what is looked at there should be a thorough how and why things happend. for scott cherry, I would say that he has some good players ie brown, but has also instilled a foundation for success that is sustainable. The coach can get lucky with players that will carry him and even hide his bad coaching, but they leave, and what remains is what either forms a strong foundation of a program, or contributes to its demise. Imo, scott cherry has built a solid foundation at his school Bc he does well in all phases. I dont if he is the best candidate for the job, but if he does become our coach I would be very happy with him. plus he comes from a good tree played for Dean Smith and worked under a Cuban.

Very good point. This is why I think an up and comer like Andy Toole may also be a fit, because after he was an assistant to Mike Rice, and Rice left for Rutgers, he was head coach and he hasn't skipped a beat.

Toole will be a target of many schools however.

 

[GMUSig03]

I think it is an excellent point to value sustained and consistent success as our goal should be to be consistently in the top half of our league, which would get us consistently to the NCAA's when we are able to finish in the top half, of the top half.

Look at Coach L's record here as a blue print, after his first season he never had a losing season again and consistently finished in the top 4 in the league, which turned into 5 NCAA tournament appearances over a 12/13 year period.

 

[Walter]

Would we have to buyout the remaining years of a HC at another school? If so then we are likely to go after an assistant.

 

[wijg]

I think one can easily miss calculate a potential candidate by over analyzing conference tournament results. That is kind of like the Tom O'Connor mindset of ....took a team to the national title game therefore he must be the perfect candidate. in all phases of what is looked at there should be a thorough how and why things happend. for scott cherry, I would say that he has some good players ie brown, but has also instilled a foundation for success that is sustainable. The coach can get lucky with players that will carry him and even hide his bad coaching, but they leave, and what remains is what either forms a strong foundation of a program, or contributes to its demise. Imo, scott cherry has built a solid foundation at his school Bc he does well in all phases. I dont if he is the best candidate for the job, but if he does become our coach I would be very happy with him. plus he comes from a good tree played for Dean Smith and worked under a Cuban.

GSII, I agree 100%, but I also think you can't completely ignore tournament performance either. Part of coaching is to get in to kids heads (in the right way) to have them at their best for a tournament. I am not saying this is the case with Cherry (as I don't know), but sustained success during the season and not being able to make it through a tournament could be a red flag or something he needs to work on.

This is not coach L worship or revisionist history because there were many things he did that irked me, but one thing he seemed to do particularly well was managing the mental state of the players. He knew how to motivate and knew when to call in that sports psychologist guy. There was a story about, I believe it was Will Thomas, before the final four. If I recall it correctly, Coach L saw that Thomas had something bothering him, that he was about to explode. If I remember correctly, L saw that and was concerned and he consulted the sports psychologist guy and he told him it was a good thing. He told L to just should make sure not to push him to explode in practice, let it happen in a game.

Again, I like Cherry, just pointing out that tournament record is a valid data point. I agree it should not be weighted too highly as what it might indicate is probably something that could be learned.

 

[GSII]

Would we have to buyout the remaining years of a HC at another school? If so then we are likely to go after an assistant.

I'm worried our budget is overly dictating who we target. If Hewitt demands all 650k upfront then it gets tricky for our budget people. He could very well do that. I would guess that we probably could handle most of that with cutting the travel budget in half, and with the incentives of his contract already budgeted. But we might be a few hungyK short. If so, we are looking at hiring a new coach at the 400k level. And that means guys like Wilford from UVA who are the second assistants who would rather make 300-400k instead of 150k. If we can't extend the buyout payments, Brad should have a considerable bump in pay in year 2 of the deal. Hopefully, the budget isn't a factor.

 

[Walter]

Since Hewitt will be getting paid from Georgia Tech for at least another three years, for tax purposes he might not want our buyout to kick in until after that. But he might want some inflation clause.

 

[wijg]

I find it interesting that several people have now expressed concern about the budget for a new head coach, yet very few seemed to be concerned about that just 2 to 3 weeks ago, when there was an opportunity for the AD to save some money...

 

[polepino]

I do think that Cherry deserves to be on our short list of candidates based on what he has done at High Point. I just wish he could have done a little bit more in their post season tourneys while he was there.

...I like the Cherry hire based off history with the program, but, if my memory serves me correctly, Larranaga didn't exactly have Bowling Green going post season every year... Did he?