Head Coaches Discussion

[EtomicB]

Any takers?

[hoyaboya]

Dec 30, 2022 9:33:19 GMT -5 EtomicB said:

Any takers?

Better than what we have? Sure. But I'm not looking for guys coming in from the NBA at this point. I like that he had success at Pacific, but you have to wonder why he then chose to be an NBA assistant.

[EtomicB]

Dec 30, 2022 9:35:03 GMT -5 hoyaboya said:

Dec 30, 2022 9:33:19 GMT -5 EtomicB said:

Any takers?

Better than what we have? Sure. But I'm not looking for guys coming in from the NBA at this point. I like that he had success at Pacific, but you have to wonder why he then chose to be an NBA assistant.

www.bostonglobe.com/2021/09/30/sports/assistant-damon-stoudamire-joined-longtime-friend-celtics-coach-ime-udoka-help-talented-team-reach-greater-heights/


“But to do it for Ime was an easy call,” he said. “I didn’t even have to think about it. You want to work with great, quality people, and the relationship me and him have goes deeper than basketball, so that made it easy.”

[cas92]

Submitting here for contrast.

[EtomicB]

Dec 30, 2022 10:34:14 GMT -5 cas92 said:

Submitting here for contrast.

This is an understatement but that was impressive...

[hoyasaxa2003]

I really do not understand the mentality of folks who keep making crazy suggestions like G-league coaches, high school coaches, or even some assistants. What other programs pick their college coach this way? The reason we are in this mess is because Georgetown took the unconventional route in 2017. At the time we heard things like, "Ewing has been an NBA assistant for 15 years! He knows the game!" We see how that worked out. Ewing also proves that you cannot know if someone without head coach experience is even capable of coaching college basketball well.

In my mind, I would simply not hire anybody who did not have recent experience as a head coach in college basketball (okay, I might take Brad Stevens or Billy Donovan, but that's not happening). The only way to mitigate the risk of hiring someone new is to choose someone who has done it before. Pitino is the obvious choice, and one that should be considered. Beypond him, you have to see who is available, who has had success. McAsland, someone like that maybe. Richard Pitino. But that doesn't mean you pick someone like Amaker and Jones at Yale and throw your hands up, either.

I don't want an assistant who has never coached like Mike Jones, because the world is littered with tons of "great" assistants who do not pan out. Wojo is a good example, but there are many, many, examples. Very few of those guys actually succeed. I am not interested in playing the lotto. I want someone with proven success, unless that's impossible, at which time only then do you evaluate people like Mike Jones.

[nbhoya]

No high school, G league, NBA assistants etc.

We either need: 1) a steady current veteran high-major college head coach; or 2) up-and-coming, proven-winner mid-major head coach.

That’s it. This is too good of a job to settle for some off the wall nonsense.

I’m also tired of hearing how much understanding DC “culture” matters. That’s code for keeping it local or “in the family”. We need something different, way different.

[alleninxis]

Fully agree, but I will say I don't think we should be lumping James Jones and Tommy Amaker into the same basket. Recruiting could be an issue for Jones at this level, but he's a very, very good coach.

[TC]

Dec 31, 2022 16:41:57 GMT -5 alleninxis said:

Fully agree, but I will say I don't think we should be lumping James Jones and Tommy Amaker into the same basket. Recruiting could be an issue for Jones at this level, but he's a very, very good coach.

I wouldn't lump Jones into the same basket as Amaker. There's a lot to suggest that Amaker would be more of the same.

If Jones has ties to Falk/Thompson/etc I'm not aware of them.

[nbhoya]

Dec 31, 2022 16:41:57 GMT -5 alleninxis said:

Fully agree, but I will say I don't think we should be lumping James Jones and Tommy Amaker into the same basket. Recruiting could be an issue for Jones at this level, but he's a very, very good coach.

Jones is barely above .500 as a college coach.

[CTHoya08]

He’s at .620 in league play, which seems like a better measure of a college coach than overall record. Maybe not world beating, and he wouldn’t be my first choice, but we could do much worse.

[trillesthoya]

Dec 31, 2022 17:00:53 GMT -5 CTHoya08 said:

He’s at .620 in league play, which seems like a better measure of a college coach than overall record. Maybe not world beating, and he wouldn’t be my first choice, but we could do much worse.

He’s at 0.620 in a league where Harvard and Yale get by far the most talent in any given year. Not a particularly meaningful stat. We could do so so much better and this is the type of move that would be waving the white flag on trying to ever return to national prominence. 

[CTHoya08]

That’s true today, but it wasn’t true back when he started at Yale, when Penn and Princeton were the dominant teams. His league record over the past decade or so is pretty impressive. I don’t want him, because it would be a white-flag hire (especially given his age—kind of late in the game to get the first call to the big leagues), but if we’re going to take a “safe” coach from the Ivy League, give me Jones over Amaker all day.

[hoyaatheart55]

THIS is a coach. If not slime ball Rick, Ed Cooley is my dream hire.

[hoyaatheart55]

I mean come on how can you not love this guy

I know him coming here is a pipe dream though

[SSHoya]

I can't think of one single reason that Cooley would abandon Providence for a deeply-troubled program. Except $$, assuming that would still be on the table for whoever is selected as next coach.

[hoyaatheart55]

Jan 1, 2023 16:40:14 GMT -5 SSHoya said:

I can't think of one single reason that Cooley would abandon Providence for a a deeply-troubled program. Except $$, assuming that would still be on the table for whoever is selected as next coach.

Probably true. He’s got such a great thing going at Providence.

[TC]

Jan 1, 2023 16:40:14 GMT -5 SSHoya said:

I can't think of one single reason that Cooley would abandon Providence for a a deeply-troubled program. Except $$, assuming that would still be on the table for whoever is selected as next coach.

I'm not sure the $$ gap between Ewing and Cooley is that big anymore. I don't think he's making Ewing's base with his new contract, but he might get there with incentives.

nonprofitlight.com/ri/providence/providence-college

I bet if Georgetown had tried we could have hired Cooley in 2017, but that would have made too much sense.

[SSHoya]

Jan 1, 2023 16:50:57 GMT -5 TC said:

Jan 1, 2023 16:40:14 GMT -5 SSHoya said:

I can't think of one single reason that Cooley would abandon Providence for a a deeply-troubled program. Except $$, assuming that would still be on the table for whoever is selected as next coach.

I'm not sure the $$ gap between Ewing and Cooley is that big anymore. I don't think he's making Ewing's base with his new contract, but he might get there with incentives.

nonprofitlight.com/ri/providence/providence-college

I bet if Georgetown had tried we could have hired Cooley in 2017, but that would have made too much sense.

Then there is zero reason Cooley would ever come here. I can't help but see Ewing's contract extension as somewhat akin to deferred NIL money and/or a golden parachute.

I once received the maximum bonus allowed from a supervisor at DOJ for reasons that were a bit mysterious to me. When I asked her about it she said consider it like a lifetime achievement award, by which she meant she knew the number of years where there was no bonus money even available and it was like a deferred catch-up bonus - she was a great boss! . That's how I view the contract extension.

[alleninxis]

Cooley grew up a Georgetown fan and idolized John Thompson. There's not much more to it (although he sent his daughter to Georgetown). It tugs at his heartstrings (which PC fans don't understand), but with John Thompson no longer around, I don't think the job would resonate with him like it would have. And Providence is on pretty stable ground now and he has little reason to leave.