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re: Who should Alabama go after when Grant gets fired
Posted on 1/28/15 at 3:50 pm to SummerOfGeorge
Posted on 1/28/15 at 3:50 pm to SummerOfGeorge
quote:
Gottfried signed tons of elite players and elite classes. More of them were underdeveloped, but even he coached quite a few solid NBA players
Yeah, Gottfried started off recruiting with a vengeance. I suppose that he did even still have Green and Mitchell when he was fired.
I always considered recruiting to be Gottfried's strong point... by a long shot.
quote:
Grant's class that are now seniors were a Top 5 class. Lacey, Cooper and Randolph were all Top 75 guys. Lacey and Cooper were top 40 guys. We just haven't developed them.
I think the failure, for whatever reason, to have a legitimate big man for his entire tenure is what will doom Grant. Other than that he's seemingly had similar talent to the Alabama teams in the past that at least made the NCAAs consistently.
I don't think Grant's a great coach but probably "good enough" if he could have recruited only 1 or 2 actual power forward types during the entire 5 years. Though maybe "development" has been more the issue in this regard.
Alabama has legitimately been one strong rebounding PF (not All-SEC, just solid) away from probably being a Top 20 team this season but that seems to have been pretty much the same story for his entire tenure.
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Posted on 1/28/15 at 3:53 pm to wm72
Yep - Grant clearly has a GIANT blindspot when it comes to identifying and recruiting big guys as well as developing them. ALL of his JuCo projects have been total disasters and his highly signed big guys have just been giant cluster fvcks.
Randolph and Cooper have developed into solid SEC players (which is way less than their recruiting ranking would suggest they should be, but maybe that's just who they are). Releford developed.
But man, the year to year decline or stagnation of some guys is just maddening. Shannon Hale was a promising freshman last year and he may be the worst 20 minute plus player in the league right now. Just miserable.
Randolph and Cooper have developed into solid SEC players (which is way less than their recruiting ranking would suggest they should be, but maybe that's just who they are). Releford developed.
But man, the year to year decline or stagnation of some guys is just maddening. Shannon Hale was a promising freshman last year and he may be the worst 20 minute plus player in the league right now. Just miserable.
Posted on 1/28/15 at 3:56 pm to FleshEatingSalsa
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I think the point is, the money is there, and that is enough for plenty of the bigger names out there. Any anyone with any sense knows, of course, that it will never be on par with football, but a coach who gets that team to the dance with consistent Sweet 16 appearances will have a fairly rabid fan base behind them.
Any team in the SEC outside of Kentucky and Florida will likely struggle to make consistent Sweet 16 appearances.
Posted on 1/28/15 at 3:59 pm to BayouBengals03
quote:
Any team in the SEC outside of Kentucky and Florida will likely struggle to make consistent Sweet 16 appearances.
Yep. I don't think we have unrealistic expectations.
- Consistently make the NCAA tournament (70-80% of the time)
- once every 3-4 years be in the hunt for the conference title (and in turn a 4-8 type seed)
- win most of your home games
- develop players
I think a coach with any confidence would look at our current roster, our money, our conference, etc and say "I can do that there". Gottfried did it until his personal life fell apart and he lost focus. Wimp did it. We will pay Top 25 level salary. It shouldn't be a hard sell.
We aren't demanding Final Fours and National Titles here.
This post was edited on 1/28/15 at 4:00 pm
Posted on 1/28/15 at 4:06 pm to SummerOfGeorge
quote:
The Pastner thing is intriguing, but man he just isn't a very good basketball coach.
Yeah, he's the first name that came to mind because he was receptive to LSU before we hired Jones. Honestly I prefer gambling with Jones, and so far so good.
I think Jamie Dixon wouldn't mind a change of scenery from Pitt too. That fanbase is just awful
Posted on 1/28/15 at 4:08 pm to tigerbait2010
quote:
Yeah, he's the first name that came to mind because he was receptive to LSU before we hired Jones. Honestly I prefer gambling with Jones, and so far so good.
I think Jamie Dixon wouldn't mind a change of scenery from Pitt too. That fanbase is just awful
Yea, I agree on Jones. Heck, Jones is probably recruiting better at LSU than Pastner is at Memphis. And he appears to at least be as good if not a little better coach than Pastner is.
Yea, my ideal scenario is that we pull a Virginia Tech w/ Buzz and find a guy like Dixon who is ready to move on and throw a ton of money at him. I just don't think Battle will be that creative.
Quite frankly, I'm still not 100% convinced we will fire him if we finished something like 18-13 and go to the NIT. I'm really not convinced.
This post was edited on 1/28/15 at 4:09 pm
Posted on 1/28/15 at 4:08 pm to SummerOfGeorge
quote:
Yep. I don't think we have unrealistic expectations.
- Consistently make the NCAA tournament (70-80% of the time)
- once every 3-4 years be in the hunt for the conference title (and in turn a 4-8 type seed)
- win most of your home games
- develop players
I think a coach with any confidence would look at our current roster, our money, our conference, etc and say "I can do that there". Gottfried did it until his personal life fell apart and he lost focus. Wimp did it. We will pay Top 25 level salary. It shouldn't be a hard sell.
We aren't demanding Final Fours and National Titles here.
Pretty much the description of SEC positions outside of Florida and Kentucky. John Brady would have been just fine at LSU had he just established some consistency. We were pretty badass every 3-4 seasons, but between those seasons was suck
Posted on 1/28/15 at 4:10 pm to tigerbait2010
quote:
Pretty much the description of SEC positions outside of Florida and Kentucky. John Brady would have been just fine at LSU had he just established some consistency. We were pretty badass every 3-4 seasons, but between those seasons was suck
Agree - I think the expectations at Alabama, LSU, Tennessee, Missouri and Arkansas are pretty similar (Arkansas' are probably a bit higher). Quite frankly when Donovan retires I'm not sure Florida's will be all that much higher.
Same with Gottfried. Heck, his brand of basketball drove me nuts and you just knew we'd lose to somebody we shouldn't in the tournament, but I didn't want to fire the guy until things went south his 2nd to last season. If he'd kept doing what he was doing he'd have been here for 20 years.
This post was edited on 1/28/15 at 4:11 pm
Posted on 1/28/15 at 4:15 pm to SummerOfGeorge
Brady also had Tyrus Thomas, Garrett Temple, and Glen Davis gift-wrapped to him, so that always helps
Dixon was apparently the darkhorse for the LSU job, but Pitt gave him a fat raise before he pulled the trigger. I think the ACC parity plus Pitt's fan support might be enough to have him change things up.
And yeah, for now I'm a huge fan of the Johnny jones hire. I think you're right about connections. Pastner relies heavily on one city, while Jones has great Texas and national ties. Fans are just too impatient and want greatness early on. We've come a long way from two 5'8" guards and a tuba player getting serious PT
Dixon was apparently the darkhorse for the LSU job, but Pitt gave him a fat raise before he pulled the trigger. I think the ACC parity plus Pitt's fan support might be enough to have him change things up.
And yeah, for now I'm a huge fan of the Johnny jones hire. I think you're right about connections. Pastner relies heavily on one city, while Jones has great Texas and national ties. Fans are just too impatient and want greatness early on. We've come a long way from two 5'8" guards and a tuba player getting serious PT
Posted on 1/28/15 at 4:16 pm to tigerbait2010
Yea - if you can bring in elite players year in and year out and just coach a little bit you will at least have a chance. And at the very least Jones' guys play hard as heck for him. Talent + effort is going to win you some games, regardless of how rag tag your offensive sets may look at times.
Posted on 1/28/15 at 4:20 pm to SummerOfGeorge
I really want to throw it all on Jones, but when you have a young, ex two-time NBA head coach as an assistant that can't through to their heads, I think we have a noticeable basketball iq problem
Anyways, I think Bama should realistically offer Michael White the job. I'm from the Ruston area, and it's pretty incredible the job he's done with a program that has so little money. His style is also perfect to get the home crowd going. Jones will run a similar defensive style once LSU gets more depth
Anyways, I think Bama should realistically offer Michael White the job. I'm from the Ruston area, and it's pretty incredible the job he's done with a program that has so little money. His style is also perfect to get the home crowd going. Jones will run a similar defensive style once LSU gets more depth
This post was edited on 1/28/15 at 4:21 pm
Posted on 1/28/15 at 4:22 pm to tigerbait2010
I agree, in a realistic world I think White is probably the best option. I like the fact that he built that program and then sustained good teams. He didn't take over when a coach got a better job off NCAA Tournament success. He took over a program that had hit bottom and pretty quickly was winning 25+ games.
Posted on 1/28/15 at 4:28 pm to SummerOfGeorge
I think it'll be telling of what White thinks of andy Kennedy's coaching abilities. Kennedy brings good talent to Oxford with the worst arena in P5 conferences, and he's the most consistent coach in the school's history. They should at least give Kennedy a year in the new arena to see how recruiting changes. Otherwise, I think he holds out for the Ole Miss job
Posted on 1/28/15 at 4:29 pm to tigerbait2010
Yea - I just can't see Ole Miss canning AK unless they have a 14-18 type season or something. They are enjoying more consistent success than they ever have, and they are going to be right on the bubble again this year. No way they fire him before they move into that new arena.
Posted on 1/28/15 at 4:36 pm to c on z
quote:
Grant though was not worth the money he was getting when he was hired.
At the time he was one of the top coaches available. Nobody knew it was Shaka behind the VCU program.
Posted on 1/28/15 at 4:37 pm to SummerOfGeorge
a certain coach in Boston will tire of the nba and its various headaches ... he will look for the premier coaching challenge in the land, and come to Tuscaloosa to win a national title and establish a basketball dynasty ...
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