Bitterwhiteguy

It's less about the quarters themselves as it is about the resetting of team fouls after each quarter that improves the pace of play. They did this in the NIT, which is why the games were referred to a few times as pseudo-quarters. Also, eliminating the 1&1 would be a good idea.

The coaching grade would've been lower were it not for how well they did in the NIT. The story of the season is "this should be better than the record indicates". EDIT: I didn't think you were calling me out, just elaborating on why the grades ended up the way they did.

He's basically Gendry at Winterfell, but with grudges.

I'm not giving a season that ends outside of the NCAA Tournament a grade higher than C, regardless of how the individual elements are graded. But yea, it's fair to say the whole was less than the sum of its parts given how their record looked compared to what the analytics expected. Texas came in the bottom 10% of Pomeroy's "luck" stat for good reason, they should've won more games than they did.

I never said I wanted it to happen, just relayed what I was hearing.

Do you quit your current job before you start interviewing for new jobs?

The timing for hiring NBA coaches doesn't really work if they're in playoff contention due to them not leaving their jobs until well after the college hiring season is in full swing. It becomes a lot more feasible if the NBA team is tanking and/or the coach is actively wanting out. I would be all for hiring Donovan if he's on the market, but thus far that seems a lot more like a fever dream than a plausible candidate. Maybe 12 months from now the situation is a lot different and it makes more sense.

UCLA just threw $8m/year at Calipari. If they throw even half of that at Beard, Tech is going to have to up their salary offer even more than they expected.

He got his salary tripled and he doesn't have to live in Stilwater, he's probably pretty alright with the decision.

Sure, it's fair to say if Shaka has another season like this one he's probably sent packing.

You can be a top-15 coach throughout the year and not win a national title because usually you end up facing other top-15 coaches after the first round or two of the tourney. 2019: lost to Matt Painter 2018: lost to Loyola-Chicago who had the elite octogenarian nun in the tourney. 2015: lost to Chris Holtmann (then at Butler, now leading the Ohio State turnaround) 2014: lost to Beilein 2012: lost to Mick Cronin 2011: lost to Sean Miller 2010: lost to Dino Gaudio, who is clearly the most amazing co-oh, right, he's been an announcer for years. 2009: lost to Coach K 2008: lost to Calipari I could go back further - and somebody else is free to do so - but I think there's merit to the idea that Barnes is a top-20 or so coach who tends to stumble when he runs across the coaches in the top 15. Not all of the results I listed are HoF guys, obviously, but the guys who bounce him from the tourney more often than not tend to be the elite guys.

The reasons why Beard would choose to leave Tech for Texas tend to center around intangibles like him being a Texas alum, which is reasonable to point out. However, the reasons why Beard would choose to stay at Tech also involve intangibles (he lived there for a dozen years as an assistant coach, ditched UNLV after 19 days and bought out his own deal to go to Tech) and tend to be more grounded in finances IMO. He's already being paid relatively close to Shaka-level money (they doubled his salary to $2.8mil/year and it escalates each season so the gap is closing), he's got a number of contract incentives to stay (he gets a $750k bonus if he's still the coach on Sep 1, 2020, as an example) plus Hocutt has openly stated he's willing to rework the deal this offseason to enhance things, so Tech is prepared to at least match what someone else will offer. Texas doesn't have a massive financial advantage in basketball like it does in football; it can't really money-whip a coach who is already making in the realm of $3m/year when Tech is up to offer something competitive. It's also worth noting that $4-5m/year would put Beard above all except a very few basketball coaches, and I haven't seen much from Texas indicating they're willing to crack the $4m/year mark for a basketball coach. Football, sure, but that's a much bigger revenue generator than basketball. Maybe a year from now the math makes more sense; the buyout for Beard will be a bit lower and the remaining guaranteed money for Shaka will be ~$3m less. I'm still skeptical though, as the regents are wholly uninterested in paying out that guarantee as a lump sum and CDC was unable to wrangle donors to foot the bill. If next season is a faceplant, maybe donors get grumpy enough to write a check.

Wait who did I send my social to then?

Wear a wedding veil and pretend to be in a bachelorette party?

I like what I've seen from him as well.

I don't know that it did, my impression from what I was told is that it's more coincidental than causal. I think other things - like the Wake Forest and Boston College jobs not opening up - have more to do with it than the on-court results. The regents do not appear to have the appetite to eat the entirety of the guaranteed money, so it's now basically up to Shaka and his agent to decide. If they want to find another spot, they will; otherwise he's back for another year. It seems much less likely that Shaka ends up elsewhere than it did a couple of weeks ago.

Bill Self has said privately and publicly he knows his coaching style doesn't translate to the NBA - aka he screams at players in a way that only works when the players aren't empowered like the pros - and as much as he's buddies with Buford/Pop that fit would be terrible. Never say never, but it's doubtful he's ever going to the NBA.

He's already signed through 2024 thanks to last year's extension, so whatever rework they do is probably going to be more about salary/benefits rather than adding contract length.

He has been a head coach for 11 seasons and this is his second trip to the NCAAs; he managed to underperform Trent Johnson, who you might remember from his time as the guy spinning his wheels at TCU. No thank you. Speaking of Trent Johnson, guess who hired him at TCU? Yep. CDC's also responsible for hiring Ben Braun at Rice, who went 63-128 over 6 years. The only successful hire CDC has made in basketball is Jamie Dixon, who is unquestionably an upgrade for TCU. My Pretend We're Football co-host Tim Preston made the salient point that CDC's basketball hiring M.O. to this point hasn't been going after the up & coming guys (like Nate Oats now) but rather a safer re-tread with less upside. If he does find a new spot for Shaka, I'm more concerned about who he might hire than I was previously. Texas is not TCU or Rice so the comparison only goes so far, but the only data we have to go on indicates it's unlikely CDC will swing for the fences on a replacement.

No. Maybe I should rephrase that earlier post for clarity, it reads a little wonky: Chip says Morrell was recruiting Jacob Young. He was not. Chip says Morrell was recruiting Jase Febres. Jai recruited Febres. Chip says Texas lost on Culver due to firing Cason; Tech had been in on him for a long time and was tops for the Lubbock kid from the jump. Chip says Texas lost on Zhaire Smith due to firing Cason; Cason was late on Smith, Tech had the jump and Ogden was the lead recruiter. Chip says Tevin Mack is a senior. He's a junior. Chip spends a few sentences offering up vaporware insinuations about the Bowen & Bamba recruitments without anything substantive at all. Chip does not have the receipts, as usual. This piece is trash.

Oh and I glossed over some of the wildly inaccurate recruiting nuggets, like that Jase was actually recruited by Jai and Morrell didn't recruit Jacob Young. These aren't trade secrets or anything.

I don't believe so. He's mentioned in interviews he sees himself coaching another 5-7 years so he might be viewing Miss St at his final stop. I don't know if his contract was extended there, it was a 4-year deal so it would be near the end now if there was no extension.

Tevin Mack was a junior this year, but that's the sort of basic fact-checking Chip bypasses when he's got an axe to grind. Even money Cason is one of his sources based on the glowing aura Chip just put around a guy who got fired.

Their fans are also borderline insane, they tossed out Howland despite him taking the team to three straight Final Fours. He's now in the SEC turning Mississippi State relevant for the first time in a decade. Coaches remember how Howland was dismissed, it's part of the reason they've had trouble attracting a top coach lately. It's not impossible they get somebody great, they just have to overcome some self-inflicted wounds to do it.

I have a program from that season I had several of them sign when they came back to town after the loss. If I find it I'll tweet it out.