Hoops Post-Mortem (Part 1 of 2): Season ending Grade

And, although my response is late, let's keep Grooms out of this discussion. Grooms was never offered. Hickey Jr. and Talley were both in the mix and the only two spring signing offers. Trent has said publicly that this spring he could sign 1 or 2 players, so frankly, he was going after both Talley and Hickey. Talley to be more of the immediate shot in the arm, and Hickey as a foundational player. Trent goes 1 for 2, probably. Which is not too bad. Considering Hickey also got offers from the likes of Tennessee, South Carolina, West Virginia, Miss St, Butler, etc. I don't know if that's the "rabbit" or not, but I'd say it's a nice spring pick up.

 

Per WAFB, Hickey signed his LOI with LSU today.

 

I got an email about basketball. One of 2 things, Marquette is on the non-conference schedule, so that means we either have a series coming with them, or they have decided on the SEC/Big East matchups already and LSU got Marquette.

 

Gary Williams at Maryland is retiring. It's not SEC news yet, but Maryland can get about 95% of coaches in the country to go to Maryland. That includes Billy Donovan, which would be a huge hit to the Gators and his name is being tossed around.

 

Hmmm. Interesting, but not sure it's SEC interesting. I don't know if I'd go that far... maybe 90% of the coaches. But, what was G.W. making at Maryland? Maybe 2M per?

Not sure I see Billy D, who is making I think something like 3M+ per, and then has his run of FL talent, and basically a perennial challenger for the SEC East, jumping to take the Maryland job. Let's be fair, Maryland is a mid-tier (to upper tier) ACC job. No doubt it is an attractive job, but will it attract someone like Billy D, Rick Barnes, Rick Pitino, or another upper echelon big conference coach? Not sure. I'm sure they'll make calls (Rick Barnes would be a better fit than Billy D there, IMO), but I see them settling in on a middle tier big conference coach, or a top mid-major coach, with ACC country ties.

In any case, it's an interesting case of how the world turns. Much like the NBA playoffs are showing, age is a powerful thing. There is a changing of the guard that is gradual, but yet inevitable. The lakers and celtics look old. The Heat and Grizzlies look young. And, young teams inevitably get better.

Perhaps this bodes well for Trent, who's frankly just plugging away executing to his plan of building gradually and methodically.

 

....and after Trent Johnson turns LSU around, wins the SEC and leads LSU to the elite eight again, his name will be mentioned at every coaching change board meeting around the NCAA.

He'll then have the rep of turning dismal programs around to go along with his rep for getting big men NCAA ready.

Maybe he'll also be tired of not being appreciated for his efforts by the "What have you done for me lately, short sighted, W-L focused" football fans who don't appreciate basketball.


(Instead of putting heat on the guy, we should be worrying if we'll ever be able to keep him here.)

 

Sean Miller says no to Maryland. As they continue to cross names off their list, they get closer and closer to SEC coaches. With the way other coaches are saying no, it's not likely whatsoever that Donovan leaves UF. However, Anthony Grant at Bama is a name that might start popping up.

LSU fans should hope that Grant takes the job, because at this point it would hurt Bama's chances a lot for next season. With all of the trouble that a lot of schools had getting coaches, it's likely that Alabama would have more trouble because they are a football school without a ton of tradition. And it's really late into the offseason.

 

As I predicted, perhaps Maryland isn't the dream job for many of these folks... Miller no. Stevens, Dixon, Wright, all nos.

It appears that Mark Turgeon from Texas A&M/Wichita St will look to make the jump from mid-upper tier Big 12, to mid-upper tier ACC.

[ame="http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/news/story?id=6515713"]Source: Texas A&M coach Mark Turgeon receives contract offer from Maryland - ESPN@@AMEPARAM@@http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=6516399@@AMEPARAM@@6516399[/ame]

Don't think Anthony Grant is in that prestige range, yet, frankly with all due respect to Mr. Grant.

 

UMD gets Turgeon at 2.5 million/year. Not a bad hire considering how late in the offseason it is, but that's a lot of money for a head coach. It puts him up in terms of pay probably in the top 10 of all coaches.

An analysis of salaries for college basketball coaches - USATODAY.com


Keep that in mind non-Johnson fans. Do you think LSU is gonna pay 2.5 mil/year for a basketball coach? Do you think with the struggle that other schools had getting coaches that they would come to LSU and want to rebuild?

 

You raise a good point---it's not just the money, or lack thereof, but there's also frankly, the challenge of the job itself. What Trent inherited was no doubt a challenge, in the wake of Brady's recruiting and how he managed his kids.

Case in point, I heard yesterday in all of the post-Lakers sweep talk folks talking about what's next for Phil Jackson. Would he take a year off and come back? If he came back what situation would he look for. Let's be real, for a guy who has won 11 championships, he wouldn't come back to a team in "rebuilding" mode. He'd come back to a team looking for a coach merely to "get them over the hump." My point? Well, LSU isn't that team (at least in 2008) that is going to attract that kind of coach. Kentucky, Duke, UNC, etc., are teams that demand that kind of coach--they aren't that far off in terms of talent and foundation to turn around relatively quickly. LSU? We really do underestimate how far LSU had to go. Even if LSU was able to pony up $2.5M, there's no guarantee a Mark Turgeon would leave A&M to come to LSU. Now, in a year or two, with Trent's classes as Juniors and Seniors, who knows. But, hopefully by then, LSU is winning. We need to appreciate that in fact, Trent was known for rebuilding, or at least building and being patient. He did this at Nevada for sure, and also showed improvement at Stanford. It's taken a little bit of time and some bad luck has slowed that at LSU, but look for 2011-12 to be a turning point.

That said, there's also something to be said about finding a coach that has that infectious charisma to go with the Xs and Os and experience. You look at the top of the list, and it's a question of do you put your money on a Rick Pitino, Billy D, or Mike K, or do you roll the dice on a coach from Wichita St, Xavier or Northern Iowa? There are no guarantees, as we saw with Capel, Dawkins, Pelphrey, etc. All young coaches with good pedigrees, who are now back to being assistants.