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Fire Shaka Smart

smokebomb

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Red Five
Red Five

That is tough to accomplish in four years, but I wouldn't put it past Shaka.

immamac
immamac
Camelback80
Camelback80

Shaka should definitely get at least one more year. Many of his recruits will finally be upperclassmen by then, and he'll have his best shot of any year he's been here. Fans need to realize 2 maj

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Guest Lobo

Guest Lobo

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If you have a propensity for misreading things, you'd make a fine assistant coach to Shaka Smart.  ;) 

"Here's the video on ACU's defense Coach Smart.  You're not gonna fucking believe this shit..."  

 

 

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Sir Ulrich

Sir Ulrich 5,187

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2 hours ago, Lobo said:

I forget that Smart lost his opening round tourney games in his last two seasons at VCU as well.  Making 8 consecutive seasons with no NCAA Tournament wins (5 1-and-dones and 2 years he didn't make it at all, and 1 Covid-19 cancellation, which he should be given a pass for).  But 5 first round exits, with 4 of those having his teams as the higher seed.  Shaka Smart's last NCAA Tournament win came this week...8 years ago.  In that timeframe, he has made over $20.0mm as a head coach at VCU and Texas.  No other coach in the nation has gone 8 years with 0 Tournament wins and made even close to half that amount.  

I think we have a new candidate for "FUPM" 

Since the Final 4 he won 2 Tournament games against Wichita St (good win but still a mid major) and Akron. Followed up by those two first round exits. All this without ever winning the conference regular season title. Nobody should be surprised by his performance here. 

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Guest Lobo

Guest Lobo

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Fair point.  I know baseball intricately, I kinda know some football, but I don't know shit about basketball.  I wouldn't know a good X's & O's coach from a bad one, but I knew when we hired him that Shaka would be a good "leader" of the program and a great recruiter.  But he's just out of his depth when it comes to coaching in primetime.  I dunno if he peaked at 35, but it's starting to look that way.  He'll be in his mid-50's before anybody ever gives him the keys to a big program again. 

Great recruiter, players liked him for the most part, and helluva nice guy.  But you know what Coach, we've given you $17, $18mm right?  time to move on.

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Js1

Js1 85,151

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I mean, if ACU wasn't the nail in the coffin, it was definitely CDC sitting there last night watching HIS new hire for WBB take that average roster to the Sweet 16 in year 1 while Shaka couldn't take his best roster in 6 years that he constructed past the first round.

CDC will want HIS guy. 

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TXSooner518

TXSooner518 2,432

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2 hours ago, Sir Ulrich said:

Since the Final 4 he won 2 Tournament games against Wichita St (good win but still a mid major) and Akron. Followed up by those two first round exits. All this without ever winning the conference regular season title. Nobody should be surprised by his performance here. 

Legit him never winning the Colonial or A-10 in six shots should have been a red flag.

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Sir Ulrich

Sir Ulrich 5,187

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2 hours ago, Lobo said:

Fair point.  I know baseball intricately, I kinda know some football, but I don't know shit about basketball.  I wouldn't know a good X's & O's coach from a bad one, but I knew when we hired him that Shaka would be a good "leader" of the program and a great recruiter.  But he's just out of his depth when it comes to coaching in primetime.  I dunno if he peaked at 35, but it's starting to look that way.  He'll be in his mid-50's before anybody ever gives him the keys to a big program again. 

Great recruiter, players liked him for the most part, and helluva nice guy.  But you know what Coach, we've given you $17, $18mm right?  time to move on.

I am no basketball savant when it comes to Xs and Os either but a good coach will translate when they do a couple of things at their smaller school. 1. Dominate their conference in the regular season multiple times including winning the conference tournament. 2. Out coach multiple bigger school coaches during a Round of 32 or better run. Multiple tournament runs is preferred red to make sure it wasn’t a fluke. 

Underwood lost one Southland Conference game in 3 years then won two first round games including upsetting Shaka and Bob Huggins. 

Chris Beard dominated at Arkansas Little Rock in his only year including a first round win against Purdue before Tech took a chance on him. He then preceded to take Tech to an Elite 8 and OT in the Championship game in back to back years in the toughest conference. 

Moser has won the regular season crown 3 of 4 years (2nd in the other) and made one Final 4 including at worst a Sweet 16. His tournament wins have come against Underwood, Barnes, Mussellman, and Weber. There is a good chance he gets to the Elite 8 again with a win over Oregon State this weekend. 

These are type of coaches you want to find and I did this with 10 minutes of research. CDC’s job finding a new head coach in basketball really isn’t that hard, let’s see if he has what it takes. 

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Blotto

Blotto 23,436

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8 minutes ago, PilotsError said:

lol ten minutes of research.  as if those names haven't posted on this forum five thousand times with the exact info.  but congrats on your research. 

I did 30 seconds of research, but I'm convinced Sir Ulrich should replace CDC. I mean goddamn, he has it all figured out. 

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Machinator

Machinator 32,098

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It doesn't take much research to come up with the names Moser, Underwood, and Beard. Getting those guys to come here is the challenge.

Some actual under the radar names:

The next men up based on stated criteria are probably Craig Smith at Utah State and Brian Dutcher at San Diego State, though neither has won a tournament game yet. Same for Chris Jans at New Mexico State.

Ritchie McKay wasn't special at Oregon State or New Mexico, but he learned under Tony Bennett for 6 years, then moved to Liberty, where he's been dominating the A-Sun, and has won a game in the NCAA tournament (Ben Howland's Mississippi State) despite being the lower seed.

Wes Miller consistently fields competitive teams at UNC-Greensboro but hasn't broken through in March yet. Worth noting that the previous two conference SoCon Champions have had their head coaches hired away by ACC teams - Steve Forbes (ETSU) to Wake, Mike Young (Wofford) to Virginia Tech.

Matt Langel is considered an up-and-comer at Colgate (the team with the abnormally high NET that gave Arkansas a run for their money this year). Won the Patriot League outright one year, and a share of the title the next. His teams are fun to watch, too.

Grant McCasland's name is hot right now because of what he's done at UNT. Won the C-USA last year, upper-middle finish this year (but obviously won the tourney title).

If not for the pandemic, quite a few people thought Russell Turner at UC Irvine would have been hired away. He's won the Big West five times in eight years, made the tournament twice, and beat Bruce Weber's KSU team as a 13 seed a few years back.

John Becker has built a consistent winner at Vermont. Never won a tournament game, but has kept it competitive the two times his team got a decent seed line.

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Catdaddyhorn

Catdaddyhorn 3,444

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41 minutes ago, Machinator said:

It doesn't take much research to come up with the names Moser, Underwood, and Beard. Getting those guys to come here is the challenge.

Some actual under the radar names:

The next men up based on stated criteria are probably Craig Smith at Utah State and Brian Dutcher at San Diego State, though neither has won a tournament game yet. Same for Chris Jans at New Mexico State.

Ritchie McKay wasn't special at Oregon State or New Mexico, but he learned under Tony Bennett for 6 years, then moved to Liberty, where he's been dominating the A-Sun, and has won a game in the NCAA tournament (Ben Howland's Mississippi State) despite being the lower seed.

Wes Miller consistently fields competitive teams at UNC-Greensboro but hasn't broken through in March yet. Worth noting that the previous two conference SoCon Champions have had their head coaches hired away by ACC teams - Steve Forbes (ETSU) to Wake, Mike Young (Wofford) to Virginia Tech.

Matt Langel is considered an up-and-comer at Colgate (the team with the abnormally high NET that gave Arkansas a run for their money this year). Won the Patriot League outright one year, and a share of the title the next. His teams are fun to watch, too.

Grant McCasland's name is hot right now because of what he's done at UNT. Won the C-USA last year, upper-middle finish this year (but obviously won the tourney title).

If not for the pandemic, quite a few people thought Russell Turner at UC Irvine would have been hired away. He's won the Big West five times in eight years, made the tournament twice, and beat Bruce Weber's KSU team as a 13 seed a few years back.

John Becker has built a consistent winner at Vermont. Never won a tournament game, but has kept it competitive the two times his team got a decent seed line.

All those names sound great to me. Especially the ones with fun-to-watch offenses. 

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Guest Lobo

Guest Lobo

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Wow, didn't realize Kruger had been there 10 years already.  68 years old.  Always thought he looked like an older Will Forte and because Will makes me laugh so damn much, I felt Kruger was the least shitty person at Oklahoma.  But still shitty.  

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Pancho

Pancho 44,535

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CBS advocating for Moser to choose Marquette over Indiana if he decides to leave at all. 

https://www.cbssports.com/college-basketball/news/loyola-isnt-a-cinderella-anymore-under-porter-moser-who-should-favor-marquette-over-indiana-if-he-leaves/

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It's why one of the biggest questions that's emerged in the lead-up to the Sweet 16 is: Will Moser leave Loyola Chicago? Should he? He almost did two years ago, when St. John's was ready to hand him the keys. In the 11th hour, Moser balked and stayed home, where he's built a viable small-school darling of a power in one of America's best cities. That decision has improved his career and Loyola's program. The Ramblers boast the top-ranked per-possession defense (per KenPom) in the sport. This achievement still isn't quite getting the attention it deserves. He's doing this at Loyola Chicago. Coaches who've finished with No. 1 defense in the past decade include Hall of Famers Rick Pitino and John Calipari, in addition to surefire future Hall of Famers Mark Few and Tony Bennett. 

 

Keep in mind what it took for Moser to get back to this spot -- to another Sweet 16 by scaling the craggy path. Under-seeded Loyola has overshot expectations again in part because of scheduling prejudice that, in all honesty, is probably the No. 1 reason Moser should consider upgrading gigs. His program continues to be shrugged off -- if not outright ignored -- when it comes to nonconference scheduling. Two years ago Moser lamented to me about the challenges of trying to build a mid-major power.  It hasn't gotten much easier since then. 

When you're great and at that level -- yet still so far away from elevating to Gonzaga's status -- power-conference programs either won't play you or won't play you on equal terms. 

"I'm trying," Moser told me then. "You know what kills me … when you hear first five in, last five out, and you're approaching Selection Sunday and you hear people criticize you for your schedule. That kills me at our level. We're out there trying to do it. We're getting teams buying out of contracts, not wanting to play home-and-homes. It's very tough. You see a lot of the inequality."

He wouldn't have to worry about this at Marquette or Indiana. So let's talk about those two. They are the vacancies that make sense for Moser, a man born, raised and built to thrive in the American Midwest ... if he wants to leave Loyola. Indiana and Marquette both should -- and I believe both are -- looking at Moser as a top-target kind of candidate. Indiana is reportedly trying to narrow its scope to candidates with "Indiana ties," for whatever that's worth, but it would be incompetent at this point to not wait for Loyola's season to end and formally interview Moser, should he accept an interview (and he should). 

I won't speak for Moser or his interests. From afar, and for him, Marquette feels like the better move. It's a Jesuit institution, just like Loyola Chicago, and I know that means something to Moser. The gap between IU and MU isn't that big. Since 2000 Marquette has been to 12 NCAA Tournaments with one Final four, one Elite Eight and two more Sweet 16s. Indiana in that same span has been to 11 NCAA Tournaments with one title-game appearance and three Sweet 16s but no Elite Eights. 

And a hell of a lot more melodrama. 

Indiana is in a deeper league with better coaching (according to coaches I've asked across the country). Marquette -- like Loyola Chicago -- is in a basketball-first conference. Marquette can more than double Moser's money by placing a "3" at the front of his annual salary, just the way Indiana probably would. Moser also carries ties -- and something he considers a lifelong debt -- to the late Rick Majerus. Moser's career reboot came as an assistant to Majerus at Saint Louis. Marquette is Majerus' alma mater and where he got his start in coaching.

"I think it's a better job," one major-conference head coach told CBS Sports this week re: Marquette. Two other industry sources agreed.

One source referenced how the next coach of Indiana will have to endure a fishbowl-like existence. That wouldn't be the case at Marquette. Another source said that if Archie Miller could be fired after four years thanks to one unhappy booster willing to pay $10 million to kick him out, the next guy isn't going to be given any more leniency. If you win big, they will love you forever, but it's been a long time since anyone won big at IU. 

Marquette has a fevered fan base of its own -- Steve Wojciechowski's ouster wasn't exactly pretty -- but the expectations are more realistic. 

The Indiana perk: IU at its peak is close to being the best job in college basketball. Marquette can't equal that. But while both jobs would bring plenty of weighty expectations -- and pressures Moser would never have on his shoulders at his current post -- getting to that peak becomes the question. When weighing all of the pros and cons of Marquette vs. Indiana, Marquette has a lot to sell. High-quality league, major metropolitan area, pro arena, A-level facilities, good tradition but without a 10,000-pound magnifying glass over your head every day throughout the season.

Ask Archie Miller, Tom Crean, Mike Davis and Kelvin Sampson about how the Indiana experience can be. Hell, even ask Bob Knight. It's still a great job, but is it a great job for Moser? 

For all the speculation about whether staying at Loyola would be a good move, something that gets lost in this: Moser is 52 years old. He's by no means entering the winter of his career, but his upstart days are behind him. Moser has been a head coach for 17 seasons: three at Little Rock (2000-03), four at Illinois State (2003-07) and, after a stint as an assistant at Saint Louis, the past 10 years in Chicago, where he's accumulated a 188-140 record.  

That spiffy hair and peppy personality in part cover up some of the coaching scars. He was fired at Illinois State, which amounted to an awakening for him. It was the type of devastating blow that aligned him with Majerus and put him on a trackway to be where he is right now. But prior to the Final Four season of 2018, Moser's mark at Loyola Chicago was 89-105 with a 33-73 league record. He was a sub-.500 coach until 2018. Despite the struggles, Moser has thrived and swooped into his coaching prime well over a decade into his career. He carries a borderline pristine reputation. He's earned this moment and deserves to be discussed at the best job openings in college basketball. 

If he opts to stay, he'll probably be able to get Loyola Chicago to an NCAA Tournament-level more years than not. But playing in league that is one-bid more often than not wears on most coaches, Moser included. Having your season come down to one week of conference tournament play is an excruciating part of mid-major life. If he's going to stay with the Ramblers, the school will probably have to make a Gonzaga-like commitment. It will have to do something it's never done before and financially commit on a scale that would blow away every other mid-major program. 

If he's ever going to leave, this is the year. Near-perfect opportunities for great jobs in the region won't get better than this. As the drama of the NCAA Tournament continues to play out this weekend, the futures and fates of three programs seems to dangle in the balance. 

 

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Catdaddyhorn

Catdaddyhorn 3,444

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2 hours ago, Machinator said:

https://bitterwhiteguy.substack.com/p/the-calculus-of-a-coaching-change

Mike Brey is actually an under the radar guy I'd be curious to see what he could do with consistent access to better talent. He can coach offense with the best of them, but is somewhat limited on the type of players he's able to get to Notre Dame. Obviously he'd be someone far down the list, but I wouldn't be mad at a choice like him. 

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Js1

Js1 85,151

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Of course we will never know the *true* story, but it does (if it come to fruition) look like CDC played hardball with Shaka's agent on the no extension thing and dared him to walk.

Maybe CDC will finally get some credit, but I doubt it.

I also think back to that tweet Machinator posted yesterday about some "big news" potentially coming out of Lubbock this week.....

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Js1

Js1 85,151

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Just now, Pancho said:

IT saying (yah I know it’s IT) money wouldn’t be a factor in getting Beard and they’ve heard there’s mutual interest. 

Suddenly the cost to make a change for Beard just dropped by about $7m or so

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