UA & Pac-12 Basketball Thread

[TJ]

If Smart turned down a better job at Illinois, why would he go to Minnehaha?

Money.

I'm not sure what Minnesota is willing to pay its next coach, but it has been reported that UCLA won't pay its next coach much.

 

[desertdawg]

I just went home for a quick break to let the dog out, Wilbon and Canada was on ESPN discussing the sweet 16. I just kept waiting for something about Az, but zilcho. Seemed like they mentioned 15 teams, I guess that's good though.

 

[Dback Jon]

Money.

I'm not sure what Minnesota is willing to pay its next coach, but it has been reported that UCLA won't pay its next coach much.

Illinois was willing to pay Smart a lot more than he makes now, and likely more than Minnesota could afford to pay Smart.

 

[MaoTosiFanClub]

If Smart turned down a better job at Illinois, why would he go to Minnehaha?

Relationship with AD.

 

[MaoTosiFanClub]

if true I'd be too mad to pay off the bet.

I think the top 3 are all somewhat unlikely. I think Minnesota firing Tubby screws things up a bit because the AD there hired Smart at VCU and Smart is his top choice now at Minnesota. So if UCLA whiffs on their top 3, their 4th might already be at Minnesota.

But it had to be done, howland had worn out his welcome.

UA should own the conference next year with their roster and then hopefully the new UCLA coach gets us back on the map starting the next season.

Yeah Pitino and Donovan are pipe dreams for sure.

 

[overseascardfan]

Would Howland be an upgrade over Sendek? I know the question hovering around the local media is if ASU cans Sendek who is there to replace him? Doesn't he and Howland run the same sort of slow tempo, ball motion offense? Howland or Tubby Smith would raise ticket sales at ASU.

 

[Mathew81]

Would Howland be an upgrade over Sendek? I know the question hovering around the local media is if ASU cans Sendek who is there to replace him? Doesn't he and Howland run the same sort of slow tempo, ball motion offense? Howland or Tubby Smith would raise ticket sales at ASU.

From what I've read (admittedly not a lot), Howland seems to have a lot of negativity surrounding him with HS & AAU coaches.

And I'll definitely pass on Tubby. He's in his 60's on the downside of his career. We've had our run of has-beens and mediocre coaches at other big conference schools. It's the type of hire our athletic department has been obsessed with as long as I can remember. I'd rather go young and try and get someone who's actually on the upward trajectory in their career.

 

[Russ Smith]

Money.

I'm not sure what Minnesota is willing to pay its next coach, but it has been reported that UCLA won't pay its next coach much.

If that's been reported the person saying it is completely out of the loop. UCLA is going to pay in excess of 3 if not 4 million if they can get the coach they want. Money is NOT an issue this time around they are perfectly willing now to let boosters kick in money, they weren't doing that the last time around although adidas did put up some cash.

Smart has a very good relationship with the AD at Minnesota and they are also expected to offer him 3 million.

My concern is UCLA will spend too much time chasing after Donovan and Pitino, not get them and by the time they realize they should be after Smart, he may already have taken the Minn job. My one hope in that is that if by some surprise Donovan took the UCLA job, Smart would be the guy Florida went after to replace him. So I'm hoping that as long as Donovan is in play to UCLA, Smart won't take another job in case the Florida job opens up. That way if and when Donovan turns down UCLA, Smart will still be a possibility.

 

[MaoTosiFanClub]

Donovan is going to take a paycut, a 10% in hike in taxes, and another 25% increase in cost of living to go to UCLA despite the fact that they really haven't been much better in basketball than Florida over the last 20 years? Don't see it. He didn't take Kentucky twice.

 

[Russ Smith]

Donovan is going to take a paycut, a 10% in hike in taxes, and another 25% increase in cost of living to go to UCLA despite the fact that they really haven't been much better in basketball than Florida over the last 20 years? Don't see it. He didn't take Kentucky twice.

Agreed. What I'm saying is as long as he's in play for the job, Smart is in play to replace him at Florida. So I'm HOPING, Smart won't take the minn job until it's clear Donovan is staying at Florida.

Then maybe UCLA will go after him before Minnesota locks him up.

With Donovan it's not even about money or basketball right now he has his dad at every home game, his son is a walkon and his other son is a soph in HS. Why uproot all that?

 

[carey]

Info on Jerett yet?

 

[TJ]

Info on Jerett yet?

Cleared for Thursday

He's fine

 

[MaoTosiFanClub]

Shaka allegedly signing extension. Stevens or nothing for UCLA? Can't say I envy Russ, I remember how nerve-wracking the Miller ordeal was. I was refreshing my Blackberry every 10 seconds.

 

[carey]

Wait, Brad Stevens at UCLA? He's a super slow grind it out guy too and they are trying to move on from that I thought. Anyway, if I'm him I absolutely take that job over Butler.

 

[Russ Smith]

Shaka allegedly signing extension. Stevens or nothing for UCLA? Can't say I envy Russ, I remember how nerve-wracking the Miller ordeal was. I was refreshing my Blackberry every 10 seconds.

All those reports are from one tweet by Pete Thamel. I'm sure VCU is trying to extend him, but UCLA hasn't even talked to him yet he's not on their top 3 list.

I think Stevens would play faster if he had the talent, he's a statistical analysis guru kind of guy, he's quite smart. He gets that if you have more talent it makes sense to maximize possessions. The more times you have the ball over the course of the game, the more likely your talent takes over. He doesn't do it at Butler because he doesn't have the talent. He did put up 88 on IU this year but his teams tend to score in the high 60's

I prefer Smart but he's not their target, at least not yet.

I think both guys would kill at UCLA, especially with the right assistants in place to help WC recruit.

 

[Lefty]

Smart staying at VCU. I doubt Donovan will leave and I don't see Stevens taking the job. Rumor has UCLA looking at Gottfried. If I was a Bruins fan I would not want him as the guy replacing Howland. As a Cat alum, I hope they hire him. He is not a very good X & O guy.

 

[MaoTosiFanClub]

UCLA is a Brad Stevens extension at Butler away from being UofA fan circa April 1-4, 2009.

 

[Lefty]

Wow, take Gottfried off the Bruins list.

Mark Gottfried ‏@Mark_Gottfried 50s
#WPN I am committed to being at @NCState for a long time Still as dedicated to rebuilding the program as I was 2 yrs ago when I arrived
Details

 

[Russ Smith]

Smart staying at VCU. I doubt Donovan will leave and I don't see Stevens taking the job. Rumor has UCLA looking at Gottfried. If I was a Bruins fan I would not want him as the guy replacing Howland. As a Cat alum, I hope they hire him. He is not a very good X & O guy.

FWIW Smart turned down an offer he never had and got a 300K raise. Even ESPN already changed their story after the AD at VCU admitted they wanted to do the extension BEFORE Smart got offers from other schools. So he had no UCLA offer.

Gottfried floated his name to UCLA back in November reportedly, he did have some backing from people in the Harrick years but he wasn't one of the leading candidates, knew it, and moved on.

2 LA tv stations reported last night that Stevens was on campus in Westwood yesterday. I don't know if it's true or not, I just know KCAL and KTLA both reported it. It was speculated Tuesday that Guerroro had flown to indiana on Mon on a private plane, again can't confirm it.

But my guess is they've dialed in on Stevens and are trying to close on him. If they can great, if they can't, they'll move on. But the idea that Smart and Gottfried turned them down is just stuff their agents did, and in Smarts' case it was brilliant he got a raise, an extension and purportedly raises for his staff out of it.

 

[MaoTosiFanClub]

Yeah and UA technically never "offered" the job to Tim Floyd.

 

[Russ Smith]

Yeah and UA technically never "offered" the job to Tim Floyd.

I don't know if they did or not, I do know UCLA didn't offer Smart, because Guerrero wasn't in California or Virginia he was in Indiana.

I think Smart figured out he wasn't the prime candidate despite media reports to the contrary, and he used the media to get himself a raise. It was brilliant.

UCLA has 3 prime targets, 2 of whom are still alive in the tournament and can't be interviewed yet if they choose to be interviewed. There could be a 4th who's also still alive but that one seems to be a conjecture thing more than anything.

None of those 4 were Smart. He's my choice, I love the guy, but he didn't have an offer and he knew that. Hell his own AD admitted it he said we wanted to get the new contract negotiated BEFORE someone else came in with an offer.

No idea if they get their prime target or not, but it wasn't Shaka. He did exactly what you should do in that scenario, get yourself a raise.

 

[AzStevenCal]

What a ******!

Steve

 

[carey]

I hate to be that guy, but.... atrocious job by the refs. Esp that Mayes call.

 

[TJ]

I was at the game. The officiating was horrendous and gift wrapped a few points for OSU; however, if we score more than 2 points in the first five minutes of the 2nd half, we win the game.

 

[Russ Smith]

I think the problem is the calls that hurt UA were at the end, the Mayes call and the odd tieup call on Hill when the guy didn't have possession.

That said, TOSU is up 10 and rolling and then Hill drives pulls up, clearly drags his pivot foot no call makes jumper cuts to 8. TOSU then misses a shot where I think Lyons actually undercut the shooter so that his feet are off the ground, no call. Go down the other end Hill catches wing and does his move I've been complaining about for 4 years now, he steps forward with the right foot, back with the left, doesn't dribble, and no call. By definition that's a walk, you have no pivot foot. the defender gets beat he goes to the rim and dunks, and they called a ticky tack reach as well and like that it's a 5 point game.

So it's hard for me to say the refs gave it to TOSU when UA was dead in the water until those 2 plays.

Still thought Lyons was the difference besides his stats. 2 very bad 3's in the last few minutes that missed. In the run where TOSU pulled ahead Lyons had a couple of terrible turnovers and was getting beaten so often they actually pulled him off Craft and put him on another player. He nearly got UA allthe way back at the end, but he was a big reason they were behind in the first place.

Also thought Ashley's defense on Ross killed UA, got blown by repeatedly.