Brandon Miller left Butler because he requested a medical leave of absence and hasn't coached since. I wouldn't exactly call that bigger and better things. Either way both Mack and Holtmann took the path of being assistant coaches and waiting for a coaching spot to open up rather than looking to become a head coach right away. Holtmann got a bit lucky in the sense that he joined Butler and then all of a sudden Miller left and he got the interim job. Guys like Will Wade and Archie Miller in the a10 took the same type of path. Spent years as an assistant coach and then worked their way into a head coaching job. Obviously I can't say how well they would have done in a situation like ours but I think they're currently better coaches due to the path they took.Blue Man wrote:Yes and both of those coaches stepped into prime coaching jobs that were already established as perennial sweet 16 teams. For YEARS. Both previous coaches (2 previous coaches in Xavier's case) left for bigger and better things, so neither coach even came close to having to resurrect a dead program and fan base.josephski wrote:The two coaches of those programs have a combined 8 NCAA tournament appearances in 12 combined seasons as head coaches. Hurley has 0 NCAA tournaments in 6 seasons as a head coach.Blue Man wrote:
Wait...other ranked teams lost games!? To unranked teams they were better than!?
FIRE THEIR COACHES! BURN THE PROGRAMS!! THEIR SEASONS ARE OVER PACK IT IN!!!!!
Let me know if either of them could have stepped into the situation Hurley did and performed any better, or not high tailed it out of here when a P5 program came calling.
Hurley decided to go right for head coaching which probably hurt his overall growth as a coach. He did spend four years at Rutgers under Kevin Bannon but that was prior to his time at St Benedicts and Rutgers was not a great program when he was there. That's why I'm still not sold on Hurley. Can Hurley still continue to grow? Sure but I think he would have progressed as a coach quicker if he spent more time as an assistant under a proven head coach.