The Coaching Carousel

[Gonebarongone]

yeah, its almost as if people can improve a skill....

If you were going to list five reasons to hire Dan Hurley, X's and O's is not one of them. Still think, offensively in big spots, he struggles. Had no plan to attack the Duke zone. Most everyone has a weakness. This just happens to be his. I am guessing he would have the funds at a place like Pitt or UConn to attract top bench minds. So, it can be patched. And, of course, he has gotten better (not sure how much is the staff now vs six years ago). It's just far from a strength. The vast majority of wins over his six years is out-talenting people. Rather have that than not having the talent and trying to outsmart someone.

GBG, are you trolling, or do you just want him gone? He has top shelf assistants, and they only way we beat Duke isnif they played like VA did UMBC, and we played like Duke actually played that night.

Like I said that day, I think our guards were good enough to beat Duke two or three out of 10 ten times. Like BC did with really good guards. Yes..they have talent but they also lost six ACC games. But, that quickly turned into one out of 100 when we had no answer for the zone. I want DH here but I also don't mind having honest conversations about him. Of course, you want the guy who can bring in the best talent in the league. That's how you win a lot of games. But, you can also hope for him to take that next step. A Sweet 16 or better run is going to mean beating really good teams. If you honestly looked at his record against teams with the same or better talent, you would see what I am talking about.

[NYGFan_Section208]

Yes have heard everything's done but the dinner.

In other words we're just waiting for the word.

ham?

glazed.

[bigappleram]

We had a solid game plan vs Duke - and then Duke showed up. John Wooden couldn't have coached URI to victory against that Duke team.
We attacked the foul line which was the only way to go - and then looked for dump downs to the big. Then Andre, afraid of being swatted by their twin towers proceeded to miss multiple layups, fumble the entry passes and kaput the game was over. Even using that game as some type of indictment on Dan's abilties as an X and O coach is ridiculous. Duke was basically playing a 4-1 zone, with 4 guys spread around the 3 pt line and 1 monster under the hoop. 1 of those guys playing on the wing was a 6'10 NBA #1 pick that has a 7'5" wingspan and is an insane athlete. Their defense has been close to Top 10 since K went to zone. This is a misnomer about X's and O's - good strategy aims to get you a tiny advantage (a mismatch, someone a bit out of position or in bad angle/close out positions, etc). Against Duke a tiny advantage was mitigated by their overwhelming talent and size disparity.

[TruePoint]

GBG, the problem with the Duke game was that they were a little more locked in that I'm guessing they were against BC. We could have played that game 1,000 times and if they played the way they did, it is hard for me to see how we win one of them. Against just about any other team in the tournament, I'd have given us a puncher's chance. But that Duke team is too big and, if they are locked in, too talented to lose to anyone.

[bigappleram]

Does Izzo not know Xs and Os because his team looked lost vs Syracuse zone? This is making the game way too easy, and is naive and just wrong.
Talent wins. Duke had overwhelming talent advantage. Citing a game 2 months ago on the opponents court, especially with a team full of freshman is hardly a legit comparison. In conference shit happens, that does not mean Duke had some glaring weaknesses we failed to expose. They have a preseason All American as a role player - case closed.

[TruePoint]

[DC_Rams]

If you were going to list five reasons to hire Dan Hurley, X's and O's is not one of them. Still think, offensively in big spots, he struggles. Had no plan to attack the Duke zone. Most everyone has a weakness. This just happens to be his. I am guessing he would have the funds at a place like Pitt or UConn to attract top bench minds. So, it can be patched. And, of course, he has gotten better (not sure how much is the staff now vs six years ago). It's just far from a strength. The vast majority of wins over his six years is out-talenting people. Rather have that than not having the talent and trying to outsmart someone.

GBG, are you trolling, or do you just want him gone? He has top shelf assistants, and they only way we beat Duke isnif they played like VA did UMBC, and we played like Duke actually played that night.

Like I said that day, I think our guards were good enough to beat Duke two or three out of 10 ten times. Like BC did with really good guards. Yes..they have talent but they also lost six ACC games. But, that quickly turned into one out of 100 when we had no answer for the zone. I want DH here but I also don't mind having honest conversations about him. Of course, you want the guy who can bring in the best talent in the league. That's how you win a lot of games. But, you can also hope for him to take that next step. A Sweet 16 or better run is going to mean beating really good teams. If you honestly looked at his record against teams with the same or better talent, you would see what I am talking about.

You’ve got to be kidding me....any other 2 seed in the tourney we could’ve beaten them. It’s hard to shoot over 7 footers with their arms straight up.

[Rhody83]

If we get him back. Raise the buyout! Double it!

And if he balks because I think they lowered it last time. Stomp your foot on the ground. He understands the foot stomp means business.

Go Rhody!

Your comment about last time is incorrect. The buyout was raised from $1.2 million to $1.5 million in last year’s contract.
You also have to realize that Dan has the leverage right now and not Thorr/Dooley. They aren’t going to give Dan an ultimatum about increasing his buyout when he is turning down an offer from Pitt that pays 2-3 times what URI is paying.

[rhodyrudder]

Yes have heard everything's done but the dinner.

In other words we're just waiting for the word.

ham?

cooked, baked, sliced AND glazed

[ramster]

GBG, yes there are still some questions concerning late game situations....but he's definitely improved and some of that might be due to Moore and Cox....who knows.

And yes the game plan versus Duke had no chance of working. Very little defensive pressure resulted in no easy baskets and standing around on offense with no ball movement. I was surprised. We did not attack their zone at all.

I doubt we would have won even if we had shot lights out, but still.....

What are the “questions concerning late game situations?”

Which games did Hurley bring this question to the table this season?

GBG,

Come on. You rarely make an appearance during the season with a record breaking AP Top 25 run.

Who do you and Rambone think would be a better Head Coach than Hurley?

[sandman012]

Yes have heard everything's done but the dinner.

In other words we're just waiting for the word.

ham?

glazed.

[rambone 78]

You want it, you got it.

URI offer was for 17 million over 10 years. Average 1.7 mil a year.

Practice facility....yes. More charters...yes. More $ for assts...yes....

Sounds good, no? So why might he not take it?

It's the conference we play in. Can Dan get to where he wants to go playing in the A10?

Shaka and Archie didn't think so. And they were both making over 2 mil a year and had better fan support and facilities than we do.

[xcrun]

Oh John Wooden, let's get him if Hurley leaves!

You're right about Andre. Duke definitely got in the players heads. Not an X and O issue but defiantly a mental toughness matter. But then how does one prepare mentally to face Duke. I think we could have won that with a half second pause before every shot. We got nervous and rushed it. Our shooting then suffered.

[sf2010]

Lol xcrun a half second pause before a shot results in Bagley/Carter sending the shot into the 4th row

[TexRam]

We had a solid game plan vs Duke - and then Duke showed up. John Wooden couldn't have coached URI to victory against that Duke team.
We attacked the foul line which was the only way to go - and then looked for dump downs to the big. Then Andre, afraid of being swatted by their twin towers proceeded to miss multiple layups, fumble the entry passes and kaput the game was over. Even using that game as some type of indictment on Dan's abilties as an X and O coach is ridiculous. Duke was basically playing a 4-1 zone, with 4 guys spread around the 3 pt line and 1 monster under the hoop. 1 of those guys playing on the wing was a 6'10 NBA #1 pick that has a 7'5" wingspan and is an insane athlete. Their defense has been close to Top 10 since K went to zone. This is a misnomer about X's and O's - good strategy aims to get you a tiny advantage (a mismatch, someone a bit out of position or in bad angle/close out positions, etc). Against Duke a tiny advantage was mitigated by their overwhelming talent and size disparity.

Since Duke deployed a zone as the primary defense in February, their KenPom defensive efficiency went from 100+ to top 10. BC beat them at the very beginning of ACC play.

[Da_Process_Survivor]

You want it, you got it.

URI offer was for 17 million over 10 years. Average 1.7 mil a year.

Practice facility....yes. More charters...yes. More $ for assts...yes....

Sounds good, no? So why might he not take it?

It's the conference we play in. Can Dan get to where he wants to go playing in the A10?

Shaka and Archie didn't think so. And they were both making over 2 mil a year and had better fan support and facilities than we do.

but they both also held out, accomplished more in this conference and went to top P5 jobs directly. Dan can too. Pitt or UConn is just as likely to kill his momentum and knock him back to the mid majors as they are to lead to a top 10 job.

[Gonebarongone]

We had a solid game plan vs Duke - and then Duke showed up. John Wooden couldn't have coached URI to victory against that Duke team.
We attacked the foul line which was the only way to go - and then looked for dump downs to the big. Then Andre, afraid of being swatted by their twin towers proceeded to miss multiple layups, fumble the entry passes and kaput the game was over. Even using that game as some type of indictment on Dan's abilties as an X and O coach is ridiculous. Duke was basically playing a 4-1 zone, with 4 guys spread around the 3 pt line and 1 monster under the hoop. 1 of those guys playing on the wing was a 6'10 NBA #1 pick that has a 7'5" wingspan and is an insane athlete. Their defense has been close to Top 10 since K went to zone. This is a misnomer about X's and O's - good strategy aims to get you a tiny advantage (a mismatch, someone a bit out of position or in bad angle/close out positions, etc). Against Duke a tiny advantage was mitigated by their overwhelming talent and size disparity.

Again...if you want to think he is great at everything, that's fine to. For me, it's his big weakness. Those same Duke players lost to teams with much less talent than URI. And our game was over in a second. It was a 30 point game. I am also fine not using the Duke game. If you want to use the last four years when URI was a top 100 kenpom team, he is 19-33 against other top 100 teams. And it's not like he was playing a bunch of ACC type top 100 teams. Like I said, if you just want to love everything about him, cool. There are plenty of ways to be a fan. If you want to peel the layers of the onion a bit, a message board about URI hoops is probably a good place to do it. He is good at just about everything when it comes to college coaching. X's and O's? Not so much. I do agree it's probably only good for a few points here and there but it does matter the farther you want to go in a tournament.

[TruePoint]

You want it, you got it.

URI offer was for 17 million over 10 years. Average 1.7 mil a year.

Practice facility....yes. More charters...yes. More $ for assts...yes....

Sounds good, no? So why might he not take it?

It's the conference we play in. Can Dan get to where he wants to go playing in the A10?

Shaka and Archie didn't think so. And they were both making over 2 mil a year and had better fan support and facilities than we do.

So....no, then? Or maybe the "source" forgot to add "new conference" to the list?

[bigappleram]

The conference thing seems odd here for 2 reasons - first, he himself has cited Gonzaga as a benchmark. Um, A10 is WAYYYYY better than WCC.
And second, seemingly his next best choice is Uconn in the AAC, which by all metrics is marginally better than A10 if that.

[hrstrat57]

Clear to me bone and gbg both want DH gone.

Had my doubts about his XO abilities/Dan answered all my criticism 10 fold. Didn’t like some of his antics, he cleaned that up too. Dan’s big recent fail was not getting a serviceable big with the last scholly - dunno what happened there.

Pretty sure he’s got one coming in tho.

Still waiting for sources....

Calling huge BS

[URI2006_Andy]

Shaka went to Texas and Miller to Indiana. Good conferences but also great schools to win big.

UConn - trying to fire Ollie for cause meaning either (1) there is cause (which leads to NCAA sanctions) or (2) UConn administrators are just trying to screw Ollie (and who would want to work for people like that?).

Or Pitt (1 elite 8 in 30 years, doormat of ACC)

To me, the big difference between those schools and URI is money which is why I think he stays if URI can come close to narrowing the money/facilities gap.

[bigappleram]

We had a solid game plan vs Duke - and then Duke showed up. John Wooden couldn't have coached URI to victory against that Duke team.
We attacked the foul line which was the only way to go - and then looked for dump downs to the big. Then Andre, afraid of being swatted by their twin towers proceeded to miss multiple layups, fumble the entry passes and kaput the game was over. Even using that game as some type of indictment on Dan's abilties as an X and O coach is ridiculous. Duke was basically playing a 4-1 zone, with 4 guys spread around the 3 pt line and 1 monster under the hoop. 1 of those guys playing on the wing was a 6'10 NBA #1 pick that has a 7'5" wingspan and is an insane athlete. Their defense has been close to Top 10 since K went to zone. This is a misnomer about X's and O's - good strategy aims to get you a tiny advantage (a mismatch, someone a bit out of position or in bad angle/close out positions, etc). Against Duke a tiny advantage was mitigated by their overwhelming talent and size disparity.

Again...if you want to think he is great at everything, that's fine to. For me, it's his big weakness. Those same Duke players lost to teams with much less talent than URI. And our game was over in a second. It was a 30 point game. I am also fine not using the Duke game. If you want to use the last four years when URI was a top 100 kenpom team, he is 19-33 against other top 100 teams. And it's not like he was playing a bunch of ACC type top 100 teams. Like I said, if you just want to love everything about him, cool. There are plenty of ways to be a fan. If you want to peel the layers of the onion a bit, a message board about URI hoops is probably a good place to do it. He is good at just about everything when it comes to college coaching. X's and O's? Not so much. I do agree it's probably only good for a few points here and there but it does matter the farther you want to go in a tournament.

No one is great at everything. It's like when fans wish Cyril had Andre's hands and Hassan's springs...I tell them if he did he wouldnt be at URI he would be at Kentucky or Duke. You have since Day 1 cited X and Os as his weakness, even though our offensive efficiency has improved every year and there were numerous stats showing how good we are out of Time Outs when Dan is calling a specific play. So the narrative doesn't fit. You also are not a URI fan so your MO is suspect at best.

[BleedBlue87]

You want it, you got it.

URI offer was for 17 million over 10 years. Average 1.7 mil a year.

Practice facility....yes. More charters...yes. More $ for assts...yes....

Sounds good, no? So why might he not take it?

It's the conference we play in. Can Dan get to where he wants to go playing in the A10?

Shaka and Archie didn't think so. And they were both making over 2 mil a year and had better fan support and facilities than we do.

And how is Shaka faring at Texas? How about Oliver Purnell, Jerry Wainwright and Brian Gregory? Too early for Archie but sometimes the grass isn't always greater on the other side.

[OrangeRam]

Dan stays, I'll bring him up a fresh New Haven pie every home game. Sallys, Pepes, Modern, even a Bar potato pizza. What ever you want Dan. With pleasure.

[Rhodymob05]

You want it, you got it.

URI offer was for 17 million over 10 years. Average 1.7 mil a year.

Practice facility....yes. More charters...yes. More $ for assts...yes....

Sounds good, no? So why might he not take it?

It's the conference we play in. Can Dan get to where he wants to go playing in the A10?

Shaka and Archie didn't think so. And they were both making over 2 mil a year and had better fan support and facilities than we do.

This is on top of the recruiting class/players coming back, fanbase and school support/love plus recent success and putting URI on the MAP again. As well as living in southern RI? My god, you can keep the basement of the ACC and the conn traffic. That is one hell of a pitch!

[PeteRI]

Pete, who is your source?

The kid at the Dave's pizza counter in Wickford.

[Rhodysk]

enough already something has to give.
If Hurley stays they can name the court after him!
Give him his own street on campus.
No stone should be left unturned
Offer him anything!!!!

[rambone 78]

URI with that offer has done all that Dan has asked for.

Would be great if he would stay and build even more and compile an even better resume.

But it's not our decision.

And no, I do NOT want Dan gone. Good frigging grief.

[reef]

Well if that offer is true then URI stepped up to the plate

Just stay DH you said if URI meets your demands then you would take less

Build us up for 2 more years then if a top 5 school blows you away leave then

[jcru]

You want it, you got it.

Toyota!

[Da_Process_Survivor]

Well if that offer is true then URI stepped up to the plate

Just stay DH you said if URI meets your demands then you would take less

Build us up for 2 more years then if a top 5 school blows you away leave then

exactly.

what level of job comes to him if he stays another 2-3 years and adds a Sweet 16 or better?

There's some big coaches that arent getting any younger...

[ramfan85]

Boneyard just said theyd rather live in New Haven than in Newport. IM DONE ahahahahhahahaaa

if there's 1 thing Craptasticut leads the nation in, its delusion.

they are the 'fly over state' of New England.

Its the nondescript wasteland of construction and cities you hold your breath going through you pass to get from NYC to New England.

I went to law school in New York and used to go back and forth from the City to Rhode Island a lot going 95/Merritt, and now I live in Boston and go see my in-laws in upstate NY via 84. I can confirm that there is literally never a good time or a good way to go thru that God-forsaken place.

It is definitely the "drive-thru" state of New England, and they aren't even good at that. Construction and traffic at all hours, no good places to stop and get food, nothing to look at while you're driving, nothing interesting to get off the highway to do. Oh, and traffic. Endless, ceaseless, day-ruining, needless traffic. The very southeastern corner is a semi-adequate commuter suburb for New York City if you can't afford to or don't have enough taste to live in Westchester, but that is about it. It isn't the worst state in the country because the Union won the war and we are saddled with the deep south, but it is by far the worst state north of the Mason-Dixon line, and that includes gross-ass Pennsylvania.

I've been quiet on this post. But, I have to comment on this subject. I used to do a lot of work in Ct. My son now lives in Burlington (next to Bristol).
Without a doubt, route 84 through Hartford is by far the worst stretch of highway in the country. With all the double lane entrance ramps, it is literally impossible to stay in the right lanes. If you blink, you're on your way to Springfield or New Haven.

[PeteRI]

Boneyard just said theyd rather live in New Haven than in Newport. IM DONE ahahahahhahahaaa

if there's 1 thing Craptasticut leads the nation in, its delusion.

they are the 'fly over state' of New England.

Its the nondescript wasteland of construction and cities you hold your breath going through you pass to get from NYC to New England.

I went to law school in New York and used to go back and forth from the City to Rhode Island a lot going 95/Merritt, and now I live in Boston and go see my in-laws in upstate NY via 84. I can confirm that there is literally never a good time or a good way to go thru that God-forsaken place.

It is definitely the "drive-thru" state of New England, and they aren't even good at that. Construction and traffic at all hours, no good places to stop and get food, nothing to look at while you're driving, nothing interesting to get off the highway to do. Oh, and traffic. Endless, ceaseless, day-ruining, needless traffic. The very southeastern corner is a semi-adequate commuter suburb for New York City if you can't afford to or don't have enough taste to live in Westchester, but that is about it. It isn't the worst state in the country because the Union won the war and we are saddled with the deep south, but it is by far the worst state north of the Mason-Dixon line, and that includes gross-ass Pennsylvania.

I lived and worked in New York for 20 years and agree with your assessment of Connecticut with the exception of Fairfield County - probably because my wife comes from there. But Westport has gotten too frou frou, and anything north of there in Connecticut makes Northern Rhode Island look like Shangri-La.

[Bigsnoop]

@NoEscalators: Hearing that Dan Hurley is torn between Rhode Island Clam Chowder, a Connecticut lobster roll, or a hot dog that fell on the floor of a Pittsburgh gas station for lunch.

[PeterRamTime]

If we can give him all that he wants then I feel like he'd have to take it right now.
He could stay, get what he wants, build from it, win a lot and in the near future there will maybe be even better offers out there.
Each year he's gotten better and better offers. Rutgers, then Georgetown and St. John's now Pitt and Uconn.

C'mon Danny stay wif us pweease

[rambone 78]

Well if Dan does go, URI has to follow through with all of these promises to the new coach.

Maybe not 1.7 million a year, but at least what Dan is making now.

DPS, yup. He's only 45....plenty of coaching left.

Going to take another several years to get Pitt and UConn back to successful levels.

This should be a no brainer by now, Dan...Dan....Dan?

[rjsuperfly66]

The conference thing seems odd here for 2 reasons - first, he himself has cited Gonzaga as a benchmark. Um, A10 is WAYYYYY better than WCC.
And second, seemingly his next best choice is Uconn in the AAC, which by all metrics is marginally better than A10 if that.

If you look at the AAC in it's present form, the one thing it offers that perhaps the A10 cannot is talented stability at the top. If you are looking at program longevity, who do you trust more? Cincinnati, Wichita, and SMU or Dayton, VCU, and Davidson? Further, UCONN at it's core can be a Top 10-15 program in the country and return to 90% of what it was with the right hire. Ollie lost control of the program, period. Despite that, they were still in the Top 3 or Top 5 of many of the top recruits in the country that many teams couldn't sniff. Hamidou Diallo, the stud at Kentucky, chose them over UCONN. They brought in guys like Jalen Adams, Alterique Gilbert, etc. They can recruit at an elite level with a guy who puts the program on the right trajectory, especially if they bring in a guy who brings in some of his talented guys.

That said, if I'm a coach I'm also weary of that situation for many of the same reasons -- sure they might be able to give me $2.5 million, maybe even $3 million dollars. But what does that conference look like in 3 years? 5 years? 10 years? Where is UCONN standing, what is left? Are they now worried about playing Cincinnati, Wichita, and SMU, or Tulane, Navy, and Boise St?

[jcru]

How much does Dan like to win? Pitt: complete rebuilding job from the bottom of the league. Not to be heard from for years.

UConn: facing NCAA probabtion?

URI: rebuilding year, but likely top half of the conference, looking to make noise.

[rambone 78]

If Dan were to know UConn would be in the BE or ACC in a couple of years, then duh.

But like 66 just said, it could go the other way too.

[URI96]

To quote Dennis Leary in "The Ref", "Connecticut is the fifth ring of hell".

[hrstrat57]

Link to source of URI offering $1.7m

With details

Or it is trolling BS

PS I want it to be true!

If true Coach stays no doubt

[Rhody83]

You want it, you got it.

URI offer was for 17 million over 10 years. Average 1.7 mil a year.

Practice facility....yes. More charters...yes. More $ for assts...yes....

Sounds good, no? So why might he not take it?

It's the conference we play in. Can Dan get to where he wants to go playing in the A10?

Shaka and Archie didn't think so. And they were both making over 2 mil a year and had better fan support and facilities than we do.

78 thanks for sharing this.

On the money part, offering Dan $17 million in total is a statement that he is set for life.
If Dan wants more charters or more pay for Ast than they offered he could suggest allotting some of his $500,000 pay increase to those two items.

Great job by Thorr & Dooley. I wobder who the big donor is for the practice facility?

[Dre3000]

The UConn violations are pretty overblown! A couple kids participated in illegal offcampus workouts. I'm pretty sure that's considered a minor infraction by the NCAA especially since they self reported.

I'd be surprised to see any major penalties from the NCAA, seems they'd have bigger fish to fry. It was clearly stated they were never under FBI investigation.

[Da_Process_Survivor]

The conference thing seems odd here for 2 reasons - first, he himself has cited Gonzaga as a benchmark. Um, A10 is WAYYYYY better than WCC.
And second, seemingly his next best choice is Uconn in the AAC, which by all metrics is marginally better than A10 if that.

If you look at the AAC in it's present form, the one thing it offers that perhaps the A10 cannot is talented stability at the top. If you are looking at program longevity, who do you trust more? Cincinnati, Wichita, and SMU or Dayton, VCU, and Davidson? Further, UCONN at it's core can be a Top 10-15 program in the country and return to 90% of what it was with the right hire. Ollie lost control of the program, period. Despite that, they were still in the Top 3 or Top 5 of many of the top recruits in the country that many teams couldn't sniff. Hamidou Diallo, the stud at Kentucky, chose them over UCONN. They brought in guys like Jalen Adams, Alterique Gilbert, etc. They can recruit at an elite level with a guy who puts the program on the right trajectory, especially if they bring in a guy who brings in some of his talented guys.

That said, if I'm a coach I'm also weary of that situation for many of the same reasons -- sure they might be able to give me $2.5 million, maybe even $3 million dollars. But what does that conference look like in 3 years? 5 years? 10 years? Where is UCONN standing, what is left? Are they now worried about playing Cincinnati, Wichita, and SMU, or Tulane, Navy, and Boise St?

despite those advantages, since it's existed the AAC has less tourney berths and credits than the A10.

look, the AAC most likely doesnt survive the next conference shake up in 2023 when the TV contracts are all up.

Figure at least 2 of Cincy, Houston, SMU, ECU, Tulsa, Memphis get taken by the Big 12*. Maybe even 4.

I can see Wichita St going to the Big East if they want to expand

that conference is primed to get picked apart

[Rhodymob05]

The UConn violations are pretty overblown! A couple kids participated in illegal offcampus workouts. I'm pretty sure that's considered a minor infraction by the NCAA especially since they self reported.

I'd be surprised to see any major penalties from the NCAA, seems they'd have bigger fish to fry. It was clearly stated they were never under FBI investigation.

Minor infractions were enough to fire their head coach right?

[RhowdyRam02]

The UConn violations are pretty overblown! A couple kids participated in illegal offcampus workouts. I'm pretty sure that's considered a minor infraction by the NCAA especially since they self reported.

I'd be surprised to see any major penalties from the NCAA, seems they'd have bigger fish to fry. It was clearly stated they were never under FBI investigation.

Then that means they're purposely trying to screw over an alum who won a national championship because they don't have near as much money as they're representing.

[jcru]

Dan has bought himself a ton of job security over here from his work the past 13 months. Guaranteed $17 Mil over 10 years? Most likely, even with some moderate success, even if it takes until year #9 and #10 to get back to where we are now, he'll likely reach it here. Not many are going to question the guy who brought the program to back to back NCAA second round appearances for the first time in 2 decades. Even in the darkest of hours, and there a sure to be one or two, he's insulated.

He goes to Pitt: $6 Mil guaranteed before, if he doesn't product immediate results, they give him the boot.

[rambone 78]

83, not sure if the practice facility would be a stand alone....I doubt that...would probably be an upgrade of existing space.

Still, just renovating existing space will cost millions.

Dre, correct. And I think Dan has been told not much will come of that.

[Dre3000]

The conference thing seems odd here for 2 reasons - first, he himself has cited Gonzaga as a benchmark. Um, A10 is WAYYYYY better than WCC.
And second, seemingly his next best choice is Uconn in the AAC, which by all metrics is marginally better than A10 if that.

If you look at the AAC in it's present form, the one thing it offers that perhaps the A10 cannot is talented stability at the top. If you are looking at program longevity, who do you trust more? Cincinnati, Wichita, and SMU or Dayton, VCU, and Davidson? Further, UCONN at it's core can be a Top 10-15 program in the country and return to 90% of what it was with the right hire. Ollie lost control of the program, period. Despite that, they were still in the Top 3 or Top 5 of many of the top recruits in the country that many teams couldn't sniff. Hamidou Diallo, the stud at Kentucky, chose them over UCONN. They brought in guys like Jalen Adams, Alterique Gilbert, etc. They can recruit at an elite level with a guy who puts the program on the right trajectory, especially if they bring in a guy who brings in some of his talented guys.

That said, if I'm a coach I'm also weary of that situation for many of the same reasons -- sure they might be able to give me $2.5 million, maybe even $3 million dollars. But what does that conference look like in 3 years? 5 years? 10 years? Where is UCONN standing, what is left? Are they now worried about playing Cincinnati, Wichita, and SMU, or Tulane, Navy, and Boise St?

despite those advantages, since it's existed the AAC has less tourney berths and credits than the A10.

look, the AAC most likely doesnt survive the next conference shake up in 2020 when the TV contracts are all up.

Figure at least 2 of Cincy, Houston, SMU, ECU, Tulsa, Memphis get taken by the Big 12*. Maybe even 4.

I can see Wichita St going to the Big East if they want to expand

that conference is primed to get picked apart

There's good and bad to this. Of course the negative is that the conference loses its profile as one of the best mid majors, but that wild also make Uconn the clear favorite to win that conference year in and year out. The other side of that is, Uconn admin will aggressively try to get into a P5 conference or the big east.

[Rhody83]