Coaching Staff Change

[Gurleyman]

I can think of three 5 stars ... The big from Oriakhi's class, Adams, and the Canadian lefty that transferred to UNLV. We're any of them Slice recruits?

No - he was gone in early 2006 to take the Manhattan job, where he drove that program into the ground.

I mean, he's obviously not a bad recruiter or Kentucky wouldn't have opened the purse strings for him. It certainly wasn't for his keen X's and O's basketball mind. But people think he was the guy behind all the great Pitt players in the 00s, even though Pitt first became good with some great players before he became an assistant (Knight, Page, Troutman, Krauser) and they got great players after he left (Blair, Gibbs, Adams). His big gets were Taft, Fields and Young - certainly good players, but we aren't talking about guys who transformed the basketball landscape.

 

[msgordon]

okafors a brilliant, cultured, well-rounded dude who will probably retire with a net worth of about 100 million dollars. i imagine grinding the college recruiting trail after he hangs it up from the league would literally be his worst nightmare. as for burrell, id wager 75%+ of high school-aged uconn fans couldnt even identify him, let alone kids from around the country.




other than that, i like your idea

 

[Palatine]

okafors a brilliant, cultured, well-rounded dude who will probably retire with a net worth of about 100 million dollars. i imagine grinding the college recruiting trail after he hangs it up from the league would literally be his worst nightmare. as for burrell, id wager 75%+ of high school-aged uconn fans couldnt even identify him, let alone kids from around the country. other than that, i like your idea

Burrell will walk in the door as the only athlete in history that was a first round draft pick in MLB and the NBA. He earned an NBA championship ring playing with Michael Jordan on the Bulls.

I think he might carry a little credibility.

 

[caw]

Burrell will walk in the door as the only athlete in history that was a first round draft pick in MLB and the NBA. He earned an NBA championship ring playing with Michael Jordan on the Bulls.

I think he might carry a little credibility.

That and some time as an assistant at Quinnipiac. Not sure he's quite ready for the jump, but he would probably be better than Ray or Okafor.

Similar with Donyell. At least both of them have been assistants for a few years.

 

[MattMang23]

Haven't read through the whole thread, and maybe it was mentioned before the post above mine, but if we are clammoring for a bigs coach, in the family, with a bit of coaching experience, isn't Donyell Marshall a no-brainer?

 

[CAHUSKY]

Rohrssen has been at Kentucky for 10 months. Hired in May of 2014. His first class hasn't even arrived yet. Thank you for proving my point that his reputation is largely a myth.

At Pitt, his biggest success was Chris Taft. DeJuan Blair wasn't his - he came in after. Neither was Krauser - he came in before. There were some good players, yes - Young, Fields. But Pitt didn't drop off when he left.

http://www.cardiachill.com/2014/4/1...-recruiting-pittsburgh-panthers-john-calipari

Youre right, I erroneously gave him credit for this years KY class. That said, his Pitt classes were strong and I don't really care that those players, for the most part, didn't have good NBA careers. What we need, in my opinion, is someone who is respected/liked on the AAU circuit with long standing relationships. That's exactly what our staff, in my opinion, is lacking. I love Ray but he isn't what we need and that's what my initial post was referring to.

 

[Gurleyman]

Youre right, I erroneously gave him credit for this years KY class. That said, his Pitt classes were strong and I don't really care that those players, for the most part, didn't have good NBA careers. What we need, in my opinion, is someone who is respected/liked on the AAU circuit with long standing relationships. That's exactly what our staff, in my opinion, is lacking. I love Ray but he isn't what we need and that's what my initial post was referring to.

I actually mostly agree with you. Just sometimes laugh at how Rohrssen got some sort of super guru reputation over Chris Taft and Levance Fields. And then couldn't do squat in a head role in the city where he has all his contacts. But he obviously brings a lot to the table or he wouldn't be where he's at.

On our staff, I still kinda feel like the assistants have done the early leg work to get us on the final lists of a lot of players. We haven't closed enough, which is really what the head coach generally does (only under extreme circumstances - dad or former coach on staff - is an assistant really the reason a player makes his choice). Some of our misses can be excused away (got in late, kid wanted to stay local, trying to recruit wings behind Hamilton, Ollie was still an unproven coach, etc.) and I'm sure some of it is on us (Ali/Jackson was a costly waste of time, felt like we backed off Jones to go harder for Mack and ended up with neither since UNLV stayed on Jones and VCU had a one year head start for Mack). Hobbs is supposed to be the primary guy who has been the primary recruiter for better recruits than Slice ever got (Rip, KEA, Caron) but maybe he's not quite the aggressive go-getter he was in his first go round, I don't know. If we feel he's lost his touch, maybe he can take over for Howie soon and we can find someone knee deep in the AAU world. But maybe Hobbs has been doing all you can legitimately expect from an assistant and we need to just figure out a better closing strategy - (and have a better sense of our own needs before it's too late).

 

[Kitaman]

Haven't read through the whole thread, and maybe it was mentioned before the post above mine, but if we are clammoring for a bigs coach, in the family, with a bit of coaching experience, isn't Donyell Marshall a no-brainer?

Vin Baker is available and is currently coaching: Linky

BTW: He seems to have gotten his act together.