TheTastyGreek

It's not just that... I think that as good of a coach as he may be, his system (perhaps dictated by talent) doesn't seem like the best fit for the returning roster we all hope can lift us to a new level of success. Our roster isn't built to play successfully in the 50's and 60's. Bringing in someone with a UALR philosophy could cause some serious transition pains in a critical year for our program. While Kaspar is definitely a solid and experienced head coach, he doesn't seem to hit any of the other major criteria we seem to be looking for. He doesn't recruit above his league, and he doesn't have a name/reputation that makes his hire cement us as a school with a serious, growing basketball program. I think that we're likely to come out of this hiring process with someone that relatively (not completely) casual college fans will hear and think "Wow, he's working at North Texas?". Not necessarily a splash hire for a million plus dollars a year or anything, but someone with a track record that non-hardcore people will recognize. I don't think you guys need to worry about losing him to us at this point. I don't think he'd get an offer before Shawn Forrest. And if Forrest does get an offer, the search is over.

I would be quite surprised if that's the direction we went. Shocked, even. No disrespect to Danny Kaspar, but I don't think that's the kind of hire we're planning on making.

I've been trying to figure out what his situation is for weeks now. Oddly quiet in terms of recruiting. He said via Twitter that he'd be signing somewhere in April, but there's very little discussion of the guy anywhere. It's like he fell off the map after AAU season last year. Went from the national top 150 to practically ignored. I'm wondering whether there may be some eligibility concerns that are scaring people away? Doesn't make much sense otherwise.

Not necessarily the best, but the ones that are consistently exceptional. Memphis has done both the outside hire and promote-from-within process, and they do pretty well for themselves. I was one of the first and loudest guys banging the drum to promote Coach Forrest. And I still think he could be a very good head coach for us (or someone else, somewhere down the line). But the potential for catastrophe with him and JJ departing isn't as terrifying, to me at least, as it appeared to be earlier in the week. I'd still love to see him get his shot here, with this team that he played such a large role in assembling. But the main things I wanted to make sure we didn't lose (team continuity, area connections, and recruiting above our station) could potentially come from an outside hire. Potentially in even greater measure than what we'd get by sticking with Forrest as an inside hire. If we don't promote him (and it seems very likely that we won't), it's likely because we'll bring in someone from outside that offers everything Coach Forrest could bring plus a proven track record as a head coach. I think someone else (maybe LSU, maybe K-State, maybe someone else) will wind up with a phenomenal recruiter and assistant, and some other program is going to get a very talented and dynamic head coach some day. As long as we have a coach next week/month that can make us succeed next year and continue to bring in the level of talent that our previous coaching staff was providing... We'll be fine.

Another thing that drives me nuts about the SOS argument is that ours is lower than many if not most of our conference mates because we insist upon scheduling in a way that has proven to be critical in achieving success and building a consistent winner: HOME GAMES. Year after year, the highest non-conference RPI goes to SWAC teams. Because several of them play 13 road games against BCS schools to generate the revenue that finances their entire athletics programs. If we have years where we can't bring in higher RPI opponents (like the season where we didn't have a single marquee home game), that's the tradeoff for insisting on building and exploiting your home court advantage. I don't care that ULM has a higher non-conference RPI than we do, because the stat is irrelevant if it comes from them selling 5 road games to power conference teams. FAU, the preseason favorite, played a whopping TWO home games against D1 opponents (and one against a non-D1). They were one of the most talented teams in the league, and they went 4-10 in non-conference play. Louisiana-Lafayette scheduled a murderer's row of Southland and worse OOC opponents, and Mighty Bob Marlin went 5-10 against them. Fun research project for everyone who likes to rail on our scheduling and call JJ a paper tiger while praising the genius of Bob Marlin: Can you guess how many non-D1 opponents Bob Marlin scheduled in the most recent of his 2 NCAA tournament appearances in 12 years at Sam Houston State? [Please feel free to gasp in amazement that a coach could be SO TERRIBLE as to make only 2 NCAA appearances in a dozen years at a school, and to NEVER WIN A GAME THERE!! Luckily, Bob Marlin is undefeated in NIT games.] Spoiler alert: Four. Le Tourneau, Texas College, Mid-America Christian, and Ecclesia. Second spoiler alert: None of those Shit-On-A-Coach Game facts mean Bob Marlin isn't a damn good coach. Given that we've proven willing to do home and homes with pretty much anyone, I give our guys the benefit of the doubt in trying to book our schedule. For instance... ULM scheduled a home-and-home same year with an Indiana State team apparently desperate to fill their non-conference schedule. Why come we didn't? Are we scared of them? Well... Given that we swept them home and away in a series from 3-4 years ago... I don't think so. Given that we've scheduled (and beaten) A-10, MVC, CUSA... Any mid-major conference with a team willing to come here... It should be pretty obvious that it's not a lack of willingness on our part. Having heard what we went through trying to assemble last year's schedule... I'm amazed we still manage to get 7-8 games at home against anyone we aren't paying to show up.

I'd hit it.

Bruce Pearl reminds me... Whoever we hire, it's not going to be as insane as what ULM just did. They went through last season down an assistant. Possibly as a cost-saving measure, we speculated at the time. Well, I guess one way to save a few bucks on staff is to hire guys right out of the federal penitentiary. http://www.ulmwarhawks.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=19000&ATCLID=205392356 http://www.lawschoolloans.com/articles/20208/Fraud-at-Barton/ http://sports.espn.go.com/ncaa/news/story?id=2611020 Any time you can get a guy who's a CONFESSED FELON OUT OF FEDERAL PRISON, I think you have to jump on that opportunity. ESPECIALLY when his crime is directly tied to coaching basketball, and shows a distinct lack of ethics and shamefully inappropriate behavior. I'm not sure how work release furlough Assistant Basketball Coach compares to Prison Laundry in terms of pay scale. Maybe ULM only has to pay him something like 13 cents an hour? In all seriousness, I'm all in favor of a guy getting a second chance... But considering he's literally just a few years removed from probation, post-federal incarceration... Have fun next season, Pit Crew!

D-2 or NAIA means immediate eligibility. We call it "The FIU Shuffle". Isiah taught it to at least half a dozen guys during his tenure, and it looks like a few more might dance that way after his departure.

Lester Earl, the guy who accused Brown and JJ of impropriety, recanted everything and said the NCAA pressured him into making the accusations by threatening his ability to play elsewhere. Tic Price was fired at Memphis for banging a female student, not for any recruiting violations or illegal benefits to scholarship basketball athletes.

Agreed. When Cooley says someone is a potential transfer, and then steps further out and identifies where he thinks they may end up... History knows he knows what he's talking about.

Pye officially signs with A&M-Corpus Christi

LeDay officially signs with South Florida

King officially signs with Loyola Chicago

Goines signed with UCLA for football a few months back.

Holland officially signs with Texas

After delaying from fall to spring period... Izundu officially signs with Houston.

Very timely, very appreciated news. I desperately needed a good laugh after a miserable day. Thanks, SMU.

If Google Image Search can be trusted, it's a road sign leading into Chernobyl.

Missed free throws always stick out, too. The worst 3 or 4 games each year that bring down the average tend to linger in the memory. And it's always hard to forget the ones where we shoot below average and lose by just a few points. The Josh/Tristan teams were 3 of our 5 all-time best in terms of team free throw percentage... But I still remember a few losses where we could have won it at the line.

We shot free throws at 71.2%, good for 98th in the country. Just outside the top 25% among D-1 schools. Not our greatest showing ever, but still much better than average. Meanwhile, we shot field goals at 43.4%, tying us for 169th in D-1. Right at mediocre. Free throws, we're good but not as great as we were with the last group of guys we had. Field goal shooting, we're mediocre at best.

Remember, a lot of your seeding is based on what your conference mates are able to do in OOC games. Last year, even when Middle Tennessee was sitting on 20+ wins and just 2 losses, they were projecting as a 13 or 14 seed. And last year was, disgustingly, an uptick year for the Belt as a whole. This year, we're playing 20 conference games. Everyone only has 8-9 OOC games, and they'll almost all be finished by mid December. If the league doesn't start hot, fast... It might be hard for even a 3 or 4 loss team to get above the 13 line. When you consider how terrible some of our conference mates traditionally are in starting the season, and that schools like ULM that have to sell 3-4 games to make budget would need to sweep their non-paycheck games just to break .500 in OOC... Even with a more talented league overall, the new scheduling might make next season a terrible conference RPI year.

Not to be a downer, but... Unless our 3 point and midrange shooting improve, we may not even be a mid-major top 25 team. Amazing talent, amazing potential... But our most devastating flaw from last year will be our undoing if we can't improve on it this season.

Very fun question. My opinion: They'd all be starting given the youth and/or inconsistency of the others they'd be fighting for playing time. If for no other reason, because of how they solve our major issue from last season: outside shooting. Chris would run point, Josh would be able to play where he was most explosive early in his career at the 2. Tristan would be a starting 3, Odufuwa at the 4, and Tony at the 5. And it would be an absolutely sick lineup that I'm sad we'll never actually get to see. Shots raining down from outside, rebounds getting hoovered up by the dozens whenever the shots weren't getting blocked outright. I don't think Alzee shoots as well as either Josh or Tristan (and I think the guy is so humble that he'd volunteer it as a fact), and he doesn't quite slash to the basket as well as either. Jordan Williams doesn't shoot from outside as well as Tristan does, at least not yet. Odoh is tall, but he's also raw and new to the team, and JJ doesn't generally throw JUCOs right into the starting 5 (even Tramiel sat behind Howerton for a few games, for crying out loud). Starting 5: Chris Josh Tristan Odufuwa Tony 2nd line: Alzee Jordan Patton Franklin Odoh Our backups would be the second scariest team in the Sun Belt. I also think that team might post one of the best free throw shooting percentages of all time.