Looking back and saying "well we won a natty so Calhoun was right" isn't going to help your case. We could play what if's all day. Maybe we hire Shaka and win 3 nattys. Maybe we hire some other schlub and never crack the top-100. No one knows.
What we do know is KO was completely unqualified in every way. Plain and simple.
I understand your point but disagree with using Shaka Smart as an example of someone who could win, as you say, "three nattys". It's a pet peeve just like Tex Schram with the Cowboys. The media kept hyping his draft choices from fifteen years before as the team was failing to make the playoffs. Shaka seems similar.
He's a gentleman, seems to recruit nice kids who seem to love him, but his success the last two years was based on the play of two kids he didn't recruit: Kolek and Ighodaro.
And, if you look at his performance at VCU, Texas and Marquette a pattern seems to emerge. He does better early, possibly an indication he can manage a roster but doesn't recruit well or recruit the right players.
He got to the Final Four his first year at VCU then tailed off. Texas was a disaster as he was one and done the three times he made the tournament and didn't make it his other three years.
While his trend is good at Marquette, I could argue the team improved as Kolek and Ighodaro improved. Now they're gone and he's losing Jones, Mitchell and Joplin. I don't see them going far this year and next year could be a downer.
After the FF:
2012 VCU--Round of 32
2013 VCU--Round of 32
2014 VCU--One and done
2015 VCU--One and done
2016 Texas--One and done
2018 Texas--One and done
2021 Texas--One and done
2022 Marquette--One and done
2023 Marquette--Round of 32
2024 Marquette--Sweet Sixteen