Potential Coaching Candidates

[KennyFreaselefteye]

Not ready to surrender and call the Brannen hire a dud yet, but it’s becoming hard to support him. Inherited a really good situation and has struggled to get his players to consistently play hard, close out games and wisely balance scholly positions (IE- Centers) or lack there of.

If he were to go, I believe we have a home run hire in our backyard. A.W Hamilton, Head Coach at Eastern Kentucky. He’s a Georgetown native, so he knows the area. He was Head Coach at Hargrave Military and has helped produce the likes of Montrez Harrell and Terry Rozier.

The guy is a hustler. Everything Brannen isn’t, Hamilton is. The guy is full of energy and his teams rub off on him. They play harder than everyone and he coaches like a maniac. Full court press all game. They’re tough and they run. The style would be a match made in heaven and his personality would be a hit. He’s going to be big time. Also, his team is 17-5 this year and doing better than just about any EKU team in history. Look him up and start the chatter if JB doesn’t clean it up soon.

 

[TheLivingLegend]

Hi Mr Hamilton. It's nice to meet you.

 

[cincyguy13]

To late to get mr. Hamilton back on here?

 

[KennyFreaselefteye]

He’s 90 minutes up the road. It’s him or Pitino as slam dunk hires. I get trying to give Brannen a fair chance, but the body language of his teams alone just don’t get it done for me. Hope I’m wrong.

 

[justinhub2003]

Or John Beilein... he’s 68, maybe we get him for 5-6 years and he grooms an assistant to take over?

 

[cincyguy13]

Or John Beilein... he’s 68, maybe we get him for 5-6 years and he grooms an assistant to take over?

I’d love John beilein

 

[Queens_NYC]

Or John Beilein... he’s 68, maybe we get him for 5-6 years and he grooms an assistant to take over?

I'd take him tomorrow but there's no way he'd be interested in a program like ours when he can take his pick of nearly any open high major position in the country.

 

[cincyguy13]

I'd take him tomorrow but there's no way he'd be interested in a program like ours when he can take his pick of nearly any open high major position in the country.

I don’t know if he can go wherever he wants, he is 68 years old.

 

[skyblade]

We could go back to the local, Horizon league well and hit up Scott Nagy at Wright State.

 

[sedziobs]

We could go back to the local, Horizon league well and hit up Scott Nagy at Wright State.

I've been on this train since Cronin left. But admittedly it's just based on past performance. I don't know much about him or any connections. There's probably some reason no major program has snatched him.

 

[skyblade]

I've been on this train since Cronin left. But admittedly it's just based on past performance. I don't know much about him or any connections. There's probably some reason no major program has snatched him.

In the last 9 years, his team has been 1st or second in their conference regular season 8 times (only exception was 5th in his first year at Wright State). With 4 NCAA tournaments. This year they are currently tied for first.

I imagine that he hasn't caught eyes because despite winning the regular season, he has lost in the conference tournament lately, with only one NCAA tournament in the last 4 years. Make the NCAA tournament (especially if he wins a game or two) and he will be moving up.

He also has a reputation for developing big men, which would continue a trend from Huggins and Cronin.

 

[sedziobs]

In the last 9 years, his team has been 1st or second in their conference regular season 8 times (only exception was 5th in his first year at Wright State). With 4 NCAA tournaments. This year they are currently tied for first.

I imagine that he hasn't caught eyes because despite winning the regular season, he has lost in the conference tournament lately, with only one NCAA tournament in the last 4 years. Make the NCAA tournament (especially if he wins a game or two) and he will be moving up.

He also has a reputation for developing big men, which would continue a trend from Huggins and Cronin.

It's also possible he just doesn't want a high profile job. Some people might not want to take on the stress. You'd think he would have some kind of upgrade offered after SD State, rather than a lateral move. Even to just a better mid major conference like ours or maybe the A10.

He does have a couple of pretty good underclass players he could bring, since that's been talked about recently.

 

[cincrulz11]

I've been looking over smaller conference coaches but something that always sticks out is there resumes look just like Brannens. Struggle the first 2 years almost always (unless they step into a spot like Nate Oates and Craig Smith did) and sometimes year 3 is a big step, and other times it takes even longer. It took Scott Nagy 5 years to get South Dakota St. into the top 100 and then 5 years to do it at Wright St.

It took 6 years for Porter Moser at Loyola to get in the top 100. 4 years for Craig Smith to get South Dakota in the top 100 (then took over a roster that was set for year 1 and 2 and Utah St.) Mark Schmidt took 5 years to get St Bonnie to the top 100, took Tod Kowalczyk 5 years to get Toledo to the top 100. Took Grant McCalsand 3 years to get North Texas to the top 100. Took Nate Oates 3 years at Buffalo and then he walked into an amazing long term situation at Alabama.


Look at Brannen and he got there in year 3 at NKU. Oates and McCalsand were the only other 2 that got there that quick at the small schools.


If we want to change and go a different direction, why would any of those guys still at the smaller schools be different?

 

[sedziobs]

Consistency is the main reason I would have chosen a Nagy type over a Brannen type. Without digging into details and just looking at performance, a coach who has taken a program in poor shape and then had consistently good teams over many years is more appealing to me for his predictability. And Nagy did it twice.

That's in the past though. We went with Brannen, and generally I'd rather think more about our team under him than looking at other coaches right now. We still don't really know what he wants his team to look like here. We might never know because of the roster holes that are at least partially (or mostly) self inflicted, but as you say coaches have made big strides after struggling out of the gate.

 

[cincrulz11]

Consistency is the main reason I would have chosen a Nagy type over a Brannen type. Without digging into details and just looking at performance, a coach who has taken a program in poor shape and then had consistently good teams over many years is more appealing to me for his predictability. And Nagy did it twice.

That's in the past though. We went with Brannen, and generally I'd rather think more about our team under him than looking at other coaches right now. We still don't really know what he wants his team to look like here. We might never know because of the roster holes that are at least partially (or mostly) self inflicted, but as you say coaches have made big strides after struggling out of the gate.

And Brannen faced a reset in year 2 instead of starting over in year 1. Thats going to push the process back. We might not like it, but thats the reality. He did a nice job of grabbing Davenport and MAW really late, but he also went with immediate help for Jarrons SR year.

I'm not going to be surprised if they let his first real class get to at least the JR year (this years freshman). Now if they don't stay, then thats another factor.

 

[cincrulz11]

I mean I see the options as cut after this season and try to get a guy in to go after the local guys for 2022, or you ride it out and let brannen try to get them. Worst case is fire after next year and lose any hope of the local guys.


If he gets McMillan and Mahaffey then things are looking pretty good. He can't whiff the local talent.

 

[sedziobs]

He can whiff on local guys if he's getting comparable or better guys elsewhere. We're in a black hole right now as fans. We have no clue what the roster will look like going forward. Only Brannen and his staff have a concept of what roster moves he plans to make.

 

[cincyguy13]

And Brannen faced a reset in year 2 instead of starting over in year 1. Thats going to push the process back. We might not like it, but thats the reality. He did a nice job of grabbing Davenport and MAW really late, but he also went with immediate help for Jarrons SR year.

I'm not going to be surprised if they let his first real class get to at least the JR year (this years freshman). Now if they don't stay, then thats another factor.

Completely agree. The fact that he got a couple guys that can play at all that in the first couple months is impressive. He was not recruiting anyone at this level. He was hired in April and had to find talent and recruit them in a month or two.

It would have probably been more beneficial for the future to completely rebuild the first year. I’m not saying he’s doing great, but it wasn’t exactly a perfect situation. That’s why he probably should get time. It’s not going great now though. I see both sides

 

[sedziobs]

Going back to coaches, there are plenty who quickly brought teams into the top 100, but then didn't sustain success. Danny Manning did it in 2 yrs at Tulsa and 3 at Wake Forest, but those were his only two winning seasons. That's my concern with bringing in a guy based on recruiting connections or hype. It's pretty common among the NBA players turned coaches. Juwan Howard looks like an exception.

Steve Prohm is an example coming from the mid-major ranks. He inherited a great situation his first year at Murray St with Isaiah Canaan paired with 3 seniors. Then he had a couple years outside the top 100 before getting them back in in yr 4. Moving to Iowa St he had a couple great seasons inheriting Fred Hoiberg's roster, but only one first round tourney exit since. He is 2-17 this year. Not that those types can't be successful, but pointing to success in the first several years is premature I think.

And I don't think Oates or Musselman are fair comparisons. Those guys didn't just bring their teams to the top 100, they were 29 and 35 respectively on Torvik. They each had a couple of tournament wins over their final two years. I would've taken either of them for sure, but I don't know if either of them would have picked us over an SEC school.

This is a tough year for a lot of coaches though. We've seen how the freshmen loaded blue bloods have been impacted. Several coaches with long consistent records are having a really bad season, like Bruce Weber, Bruce Pearl, and Jim Larranaga.

 

[cincrulz11]

He can whiff on local guys if he's getting comparable or better guys elsewhere. We're in a black hole right now as fans. We have no clue what the roster will look like going forward. Only Brannen and his staff have a concept of what roster moves he plans to make.

Who knows how accurate the recruiting sites are, but the local guys are the only ones we are warm on. I think those guys have always been a target for us fans.

If he can get other top 50 guys from wherever, I'm down, but we don't seem to be in a good spot for that.