College Basketball 2015 - 2016: Wherein we forget that last season ever happened

[Rhom]

Some JUCO transfer is set to announce at 3:30 and UK seems to be the favorite and apparently we have also offered a 3* guy who was looking at NCSt.

:bang:

Oh how the mighty have fallen...

[RedEyedGhost]

:D Chieck please!

It sounds like our staff is going pretty hard after former VCU commit Tevin Mack, too.

[sperry]

Some JUCO transfer is set to announce at 3:30 and UK seems to be the favorite and apparently we have also offered a 3* guy who was looking at NCSt.

:bang:

Oh how the mighty have fallen...

Oh, the horror of recruiting actual college players.

[Rhom]

Oh, the horror of recruiting actual college players.

Readily admit that I am spoiled.

[Greywolf2375]

I might have been wrong about K not getting a Parker/Okafor in this recruiting class - 5 star SF Brandon Ingram commited on Monday. Was worried he was going to be going to UNC given the track record from his HS.

[Rhom]

I might have been wrong about K not getting a Parker/Okafor in this recruiting class - 5 star SF Brandon Ingram commited on Monday. Was worried he was going to be going to UNC given the track record from his HS.

Read an interesting article on that just this morning. How concerned should North Carolina fans be that Ingram passed on the Tar Heels?

That would be just how much the NCAA’s investigation into academic impropriety at North Carolina, and the sanctions that are looming over the head of the program, are currently affecting the Tar Heels.

UNC is currently the NBCSports.com preseason No. 1 team in the country. The Tar Heels bring back essentially everyone from last year’s team. Marcus Paige will be healthy, Brice Johnson and Kennedy Meeks will once again be roaming the paint, and the play of Joel Berry, Justin Jackson and Theo Pinson will only get better after a full year on campus. But their 2015 recruiting class consists of a three-star forward whose father played quarterback on the football team, and it’s not for a lack of effort.

North Carolina went after Ingram hard, even before he turned into a top five prospect. They likely would have gotten him as well, as Ingram told reporters “I think I would have” committed to UNC had they not been facing this investigation.

I'm still not convinced that the NCAA will act, but its a story to watch.

[Rhom]

Looks like Donovan to the Thunder may happen.

It looks like Billy Donovan may actually leave Florida. According to ESPN’s Marc Stein, Donovan and Oklahoma City Thunder GM Sam Presti have started formal talks about him taking the head coaching position a week after the Thunder dismissed Scott Brooks.

Presti and Donovan go way back, and Stein points out that over the past year, Presti has hired two members of Donovan’s staff at Florida for the Thunder organization: Mark Daigneault as coach of the Thunder’s D-League team and Oliver Winterbone as a data analyst.

[sperry]

Readily admit that I am spoiled.

It will be a good thing for the program. A nice mix of 1 and done elite talent with steady four year guys will have more success than the current model, IMO. At least in terms of winning at all once every few years.

[Switchback the Second]

Looks like Donovan to the Thunder may happen.

I've been trying to get myself used to this since the OKC job opened up. I was worried from the get-go, and now it's looking more and more bleak.

I will wish him well of course, if it wasn't for my undying love of Spurrier he'd be my favorite Gator coach of all time. And it's probably fair to say he's been a better coach than even Spurrier was. He always represented my school with the utmost class and I was always proud of the team he put out there. Plus he's an incredible x's and o's guy and one of the top 5 coaches in college basketball. He will be missed if/when he leaves.

[Greywolf2375]

Looks like Donovan to the Thunder may happen.

Wow. I can't believe he has been at FL for almost 20 years.

[Rhom]

Wow. I can't believe he has been at FL for almost 20 years.

Yeah, I almost referred to him as "Billy the Kid" when I shared the link. I didn't feel that was apropos anymore! :lol:

[Rhom]

So its officially official now. There's an opening in Gainesville.

Its a depleted roster and pretty much only one coach has had success there. (Although Lon Kruger did reach a Final Four at one point.) So who's the next man up?

Most of the speculation I've seen seems to be either John Pelphry (failed at Arkansas, so-so success in the Sun Belt) or Anthony Grant (failed at Alabama, good success in the Sun Belt). I've also seen some off the wall speculation that Richard Pitino could be a candidate.

My response to young Ricky is the same as it was when he was rumored for the Tennessee job. His dad is grooming him for the chair in Louisville. Losing to Kentucky twice a year in the SEC is a very poor audition for that job.

The other openings of late in the SEC have gone to some really good coaches, I'd like to see UF nail this one as well.

[sperry]

Grant took an assistant position with OKC. And you aren't going to get fired from Alabama one year and hired as head coach at Florida the next. That would look too bad.

Pitinio would be nuts not to take the job if he got it. He has a much better chacne to get the Louisville job out of Florida than out of Minnesota. Of course, he'd also be nuts to take the Louisville job.

I mean what kind of lunatic would turn down the 2nd best job in the soft SEC to stay at the 8th best job in the Big 10.

[Rhom]

Grant took an assistant position with OKC. And you aren't going to get fired from Alabama one year and hired as head coach at Florida the next. That would look too bad.

Pitinio would be nuts not to take the job if he got it. He has a much better chacne to get the Louisville job out of Florida than out of Minnesota. Of course, he'd also be nuts to take the Louisville job.

I mean what kind of lunatic would turn down the 2nd best job in the soft SEC to stay at the 8th best job in the Big 10.

Those are good points. I agree that Florida is the second best job currently, but that's largely because Donovan made it that. Is it historically the second best job? I wouldn't say so. I think that's Tennessee over the long term and probably Arkansas in the more recent past. Most of what I've seen seems to favor Pelphry for the job though.

I don't know if that would excite me as a Florida fan, but I also don't know what other options might be attractive. :dunno:

[Mexal]

:D Chieck please!

It sounds like our staff is going pretty hard after former VCU commit Tevin Mack, too.

Annoys me. Terry Larrier, our other top 50 recruit, also has asked to leave VCU. Will Wade is going to be a great coach. He was actually the architect behind our defense and plans on making our offense be more efficient. All of this is good. Smart set up the basis with Wade and now Wade can make some changes to hopefully continue down the path.

All that being said, he won't be able to recruit the same caliber of players that Smart did because he's not a name yet and that sucks. The program is on the map but will we actually take a step forward if we can't recruit the same quality players that Smart started being able to?

[RedEyedGhost]

I hate seeing one of the top college coaches leaving for the pros. I would have much rather watched him there for another 25 years, turning that school into something similar to what K has done at Duke. They really need to knock this hire out of the park if they want to keep any of the success he has built. I feel bad for the board's Florida fans.

Those are good points. I agree that Florida is the second best job currently, but that's largely because Donovan made it that. Is it historically the second best job? I wouldn't say so. I think that's Tennessee over the long term and probably Arkansas in the more recent past. Most of what I've seen seems to favor Pelphry for the job though.

I don't know if that would excite me as a Florida fan, but I also don't know what other options might be attractive. :dunno:

Frank Haith? He had a great year at Tulsa :lol: But he's also failed at Miami and in the SEC with Missouri.

[RedEyedGhost]

Annoys me. Terry Larrier, our other top 50 recruit, also has asked to leave VCU. Will Wade is going to be a great coach. He was actually the architect behind our defense and plans on making our offense be more efficient. All of this is good. Smart set up the basis with Wade and now Wade can make some changes to hopefully continue down the path.

All that being said, he won't be able to recruit the same caliber of players that Smart did because he's not a name yet and that sucks. The program is on the map but will we actually take a step forward if we can't recruit the same quality players that Smart started being able to?

Did Smart take his other assistants to Texas with him, or did any of them stay behind too? How much of a recruiter is Wade? Typically that's more the assistants' job, and then the head coach comes in as a closer (unless it's a recruit they really want then the HC will be there all along the way). So he might have some good connections of his own, and if he hires well they should still be able to get into those home visits, and he'll just need to work on his closing. There will be some drop off because of Smart's name recognition, but maybe only for one year if you guys have another good season. If Wade's main function as an assistant was the X's and O's, then I would be much more worried if I were you. That's because he will probably be able to keep the W/L ratio the same for a couple of years, so it will look like all is well, and then he's relying on his own recruits and you get a precipitous decline (think Bruce Weber).

[Mexal]

Did Smart take his other assistants to Texas with him, or did any of them stay behind too? How much of a recruiter is Wade? Typically that's more the assistants' job, and then the head coach comes in as a closer (unless it's a recruit they really want then the HC will be there all along the way). So he might have some good connections of his own, and if he hires well they should still be able to get into those home visits, and he'll just need to work on his closing. There will be some drop off because of Smart's name recognition, but maybe only for one year if you guys have another good season. If Wade's main function as an assistant was the X's and O's, then I would be much more worried if I were you. That's because he will probably be able to keep the W/L ratio the same for a couple of years, so it will look like all is well, and then he's relying on his own recruits and you get a precipitous decline (think Bruce Weber).

I haven't yet seen who went with Smart and who stayed. I know Wade is bringing a statistician with him from Chattanooga that he worked really closely with but that's all I've heard so far in terms of assistants. In terms of recruiting, Wade did a lot of it. For example, Melvin Johnson was recruited by Wade mostly, to the point that Wade followed him around for 2 weeks and went to his classes. How good of a recruiter he is, I'm not quite sure. The thing is, Smart was a nationally recognized coach so while assistants might have recruited the players, they did it with the understanding they'd be playing for Smart. So I guess we'll see. Wade is an Xs and Os guy too which is why I'm not sure how much recruiting he did though I know he definitely did some. Plus he has experience doing that at Chattanooga as the HC and given their dramatic increase from the the year before he got there to his last year, I think he did a pretty decent job for their program. Is it at the level of what VCU will need? Don't know.

I do really like him though. Everyone from the VCU program has talked very very highly about him, past and present players. Additionally, he's done a great job with the current players, having dinner with a different player every night of the week to get to know them. Sounds like he's getting really close to Michael Gilmore already and he's one of our really talented sophomores. I'm just surprised about Larrier since I thought the sophomore class was really close and Gilmore decided to stick around after asking to leave, citing the bond he had with his teammates.

Anyway, lots of question marks. It's exciting, just cause we'll get something new and hopefully evolve, but scary as well since we're losing Graham/Weber and are losing some of the great recruits I thought we'd have over next few years.

ETA: Just saw this on his bio, seems recruiting is one of the areas he seems to succeed in.

Wade is lauded as a hard worker and a strong recruiter. Prior to his first stint with the Rams, Wade served as assistant and recruiting coordinator for Tommy Amaker at Harvard, where he helped lay the foundation for the Crimson's resurgence. Wade had a hand in the development of future NBA standout Jeremy Lin and assembled a top-25 recruiting class during his stay. Harvard's 14 victories during the 2008-09 season were the school's most in 13 years.

[Ramsay B.]

I've been trying to get myself used to this since the OKC job opened up. I was worried from the get-go, and now it's looking more and more bleak.

I will wish him well of course, if it wasn't for my undying love of Spurrier he'd be my favorite Gator coach of all time. And it's probably fair to say he's been a better coach than even Spurrier was. He always represented my school with the utmost class and I was always proud of the team he put out there. Plus he's an incredible x's and o's guy and one of the top 5 coaches in college basketball. He will be missed if/when he leaves.

The fact that you didn't have a "Go Gators!" at the end of your post speaks volumes. My condolences, it's never fun losing an incredible coach.

[Ded As Ned]

I've been trying to get myself used to this since the OKC job opened up. I was worried from the get-go, and now it's looking more and more bleak.

I will wish him well of course, if it wasn't for my undying love of Spurrier Muschamp he'd be my favorite Gator coach of all time. And it's probably fair to say he's been a better coach than even Spurrier was. He always represented my school with the utmost class and I was always proud of the team he put out there. Plus he's an incredible x's and o's guy and one of the top 5 coaches in college basketball. He will be missed if/when he leaves.

There I fixed your post! :P All kidding aside, I'm sad to see Billy D go. His absence definitely undoes any and all work the SEC has done to "rebuild" the conference to relevance. Now it'll take another 5-10 years I predict.

Unrelated, I'm really irritated at UK right now, and not because of recruiting (looking at you Rhom). All this talk of the returning "3" players, and no mention of Hawkins whatsoever. They held a press conference with Ulis, Lee, and Poythress to discuss next season and there's been a lot of press about us losing 7 guys to the draft, and much ballyhooing about how awful we'll be next year without another 10-future-NBA players roster (again, looking at you Rhom, and which I'll note, did not equal championship #9). Hawkins bleeds blue and is immediately pushed to the fringe and unmentioned, by the university, coaches, and his teammates. Disappointing. I wouldn't be surprised if he transfers and honestly I'd recommend he does if this is how his school treats him. Am I the only UK fan looking forward to next season without whining? I honestly look forward to all the regular season games we might actually lose, as opposed to the "who's this week's roadkill?". It'll be much more exciting. I'll check back in a few weeks to the thread, as I get generally frustrated with the forum during the show season and don't show up much. (And damn me for watching the first 4 episodes early so now I have to wait another 2 weeks to find out what happens next).