trueblue32

Keeping discussion of re-recruiting players in the portal in house, which is fair, but also reads to me like not everyone is going to be re-recruited lol (which is probably for the best)

Halcovage thanked the current players for meeting him on Friday, and said he's looking forward to talking more with them "and some other guys who are already here" (paraphrasing), maybe he already has some unannounced recruits? Or maybe I'm reading too much into wording

Like others said they’re tanking and the season is nearly over so likely yes. I will buy a Blazers Jeenathan Williams jersey if he plays even one second if that incentivizes them at all lol

Maybe Whitesell’s crowning achievement during his time here was Jeenathan’s development. Good 24 hours for the #brand with Halcovage’s boy Jalen Brunson scoring 48 last night too

We can do one of those deals where we get you an assistant coaching gig if you get him to come. We have a few openings

Ideally yeah, on this play not shown in the screenshot was Foster was driving and kicking it out to Powell. Maybe if we had better spacing Foster is able to get all the way to the rim for a layup. There's only so much you can do to space the floor when you're playing 3 non-shooters (and none of them are a real post presence either), which was my point on roster construction as well.

Yeah this was his first 3 in the Akron game. His defender was in the paint helping off of him and he ends up missing the shot. It was a recurring theme by the end of the season. If he’s not on-ball and can’t stretch the D you’re just playing 4 v 5. I do think whitesell tried to rein him in, he stopped starting and his minutes were significantly reduced for parts of the season. He has his strengths and in the right role I’m sure he will be productive but I don’t envision him taking well to a smaller role here and I think it’s best for everyone to get a clean start. Also as a general comment on the Whitesell era look at that spacing. It’s poor offense and poor roster construction. Hoping Halcovage takes a more balanced approach to recruiting more polished shot makers as well as a few upside athletes. It felt like we were just always swinging on upside and not developing them enough once they got on campus

We'll see how much Halcovage sticks to Villanova principles, but I don't imagine him fighting too hard to re-recruit a shooting guard who shot 17% from 3

It appears we have hired George Halcovage III, George Halcovage Jr. (his dad?) is in the headlines for his own reasons

I don't know how to feel about him but I'm glad this search is over

It seems we all agree that Alnutt is doing a bad job so I don't know why you would assume his list is perfectly numbered and it's just everything else that is going poorly. I'm just speaking personally to my view of them as candidates. Yeah I mean they had a slightly down year and there are thousands of coaches so "hot name" lists tend to have a pretty heavy degree of recency bias. ESPN had him at #24 a couple years ago in their 40 under 40 list (Adam Cohen was an honorable mention). I don't see trying to leave Nicholls State as a negative thing lol Like I said he wouldn't have been my top choice, I just wanted to provide some more context to the record checking that was posted Not sure where you're getting this number from. They were 47th in the country in offense this year. His previous years at Youngstown were 177, 171, 173, 178, 242. Claunch's areas of expertise I would say are finding undervalued players in the portal and pressure defense (twice being top 10 nationally in turnover rate)

New Mexico St had a player arrested for murder and they basically cleaned house with that program. I understand not wanting to touch it with a ten foot pole if you are still on the way up. I don’t know about Idaho but it could just be that it’s Idaho. Not sure it’d have been an upgrade enough to justify starting over

I will say, the order in which Alnutt has reached out to them does not mean a ton to me. Claunch is more interesting to me than Calhoun, and pretty even with Halcovage and Jones. Claunch has been a hot name for people that follow the D1 landscape for a few years now. Hiring a 33 year old with head coaching experience is good, Hodgson/Cohen are similar ages (maybe even older?) with no experience leading a program. People wanted a young up and comer and now they're confronted with what that means with a MAC program hiring from low majors and now they're scared.

Austin Claunch (aside from not having known NE connections) would be a good hire. He's a well regarded up and comer. His record at Nicholls (which is still good) understates the job that he has done there. The Southland is one of the worst conferences in the country and Nicholls was rated as the worst job in that conference. https://watchstadium.com/southland-basketball-coaches-rank-the-best-jobs-in-the-conference-08-29-2019/ KenPom ranks them as the #309 program in the country and that's AFTER the 4 successful years that Claunch has had there. He was also known as an early embracer of the transfer portal, and I'd suspect could cobble a good roster together from the portal alone in short order. He wouldn't have been one of my top options but I'd be happy if we can land him

He’s pretty well known/regarded in the analytics community and I didn’t realize that he’s from Williamsville. Interesting one (which means he will say no)

Search firms are not really what they sound like. Generally the AD brings the names to the table and they facilitate the process and "take the fall" if the hire doesn't work out. I don't have faith in Alnutt or the firm. https://www.si.com/college/2019/05/22/coaching-search-firms-consultants-freshmen-mailbag

This is actually a fair point I hadn't thought of. Kim English is doing it right now moving from George Mason to Providence. It'll be hard for the first school that's strapped enough to do it to get a decent candidate to agree to it, but if the market moves that way it does make some sense on the school's end.

It's a trade-off to consider depending on the gap in candidate quality between those looking for 5 and those looking for 6+. Personally, after the Whitesell debacle and this search I'm not super keen on handing out extra years to candidates with no leverage and I can understand why the department wouldn't be either

UB Hires: Whitesell: 5 years Burke: 5 years 2023 Carousel Comps (that I could easily find details for): Hodgson at Arkansas St: 5 years Steve Lutz at WKU: 4 years Brooks Savage at ETSU: 5 years Tobin Anderson at Iona: 5 years Sundance Wicks at Green Bay: 5 years Will Wade at McNeese State: 5 years Jason Hooten at New Mexico State: 5 years I don't understand how the length is a possible hang-up. 5 years is pretty standard. If Alnutt is offering any less than 5 (maybe 4) then I understand why people are saying no. If the candidates want more than 5 years then they are not serious about getting the job

While you get results it will be almost impossible to recruit high schoolers if there's no "guarantee" they the coach they are committing to will be there for the full 4/5 years. Even landing younger transfers will be difficult with the new limits on transfer waivers. If the coach they commit to doesn't get renewed they're stuck without being able to transfer a second time with immediate eligibility

There's also time for Curtis Jones to transfer to Toledo or something, but I'm trying my best over here

The bright side is we aren't a farm system for other MAC teams like NIU. In '21 their leading scorer transferred to Ball State, in '22 their second leading scorer transferred to Akron, in '23 their leading assister transfers to Akron.

The key is apparently finding a coach who will sign a contract without thinking about it:

Yeah I think this kinda sums up the gap in the opinions on Whitesell here over the years. The variance in a given season can really shape the outlook. Analytics help you cut thru the noise, although I understand many fans don't care about that. I think his first 3 seasons were fine as a "floor" for what everyone wanted UB to become, and that's why I was fine with Whitesell when he was hired. I value never falling off the map like we have started to do this year. Some people wanted a "ceiling" hire during the last go around, and I didn't think that's wrong either, but I think there was risk to starting from scratch and hoping you don't bust on the first season. There are different risk tolerances, but I think everyone hoped for UB to continue to rise one way or another. I would've liked to see UB sit on the Oats' buyout, and then use it to buyout Whitesell after last year when we'd be starting anew regardless, but with a coach with more upside. Hindsight, yada yada. Now we need a "ceiling" hire and the handling of the Whitesell era has handicapped us. I thought the Whitesell era could've been a bridge to the next great era of UB basketball, but it looks like we'll be stuck settling for a coach and hopefully it works out somehow.

I don't know if it devalued the position itself. Good candidates were taking interviews. We still need to be able to pay good candidates. There are other good positions that will also pay well.