Hire Joe Dooley

[Side Show Joe]

I know he doesn't have solid Texas ties, but the guy is a winner, and we need a winner. Dooley was an assistant coach at Kansas for 10 seasons,where he won a national title in 2008. Dooley is working on his 4 straight 20 win season at Florida Gulf Coast. This season FGC lost by one point to #13 Michigan State, and beat UT- Arlington by 13 point. Also Dooley is 3-0 against C-USA teams this season, which is much better then Benford. Dooley is also affordable. I believe he is only making around $260,000.

I really hope Wren is looking at this guy.

[UNTFan23]

How about this guy from Oklahoma State:

Danny Henderson - " Texas high school coaching legend Danny Henderson joined the Oklahoma State basketball coaching staff on April 7, 2016.

Henderson won over 700 games and four state titles as a high school coach in Texas, including a stay at Flower Mound Marcus High School, where he coached Cowboy standouts Marcus Smart and Phil Forte. Henderson spent the last three seasons as an assistant coach at Boise State, where he helped the Broncos win the 2014-15 Mountain West Conference title and at least 20 games each season."

[Side Show Joe]

3 minutes ago, UNTFan23 said:

How about this guy from Oklahoma State:

Danny Henderson - " Texas high school coaching legend Danny Henderson joined the Oklahoma State basketball coaching staff on April 7, 2016.

Henderson won over 700 games and four state titles as a high school coach in Texas, including a stay at Flower Mound Marcus High School, where he coached Cowboy standouts Marcus Smart and Phil Forte. Henderson spent the last three seasons as an assistant coach at Boise State, where he helped the Broncos win the 2014-15 Mountain West Conference title and at least 20 games each season."

No. I want a proven winner at the top level of college basketball. Dooley took FGC to the NCAA Tourny and looked respectable doing it. I think Dooley would be a great hire.

[UNTFan23]

Just now, Side Show Joe said:

No. I want a proven winner at the top level of college basketball. Dooley took FGC to the NCAA Tourny and looked respectable doing it. I think Dooley would be a great hire.

So you're willing to forgo on someone who is, possibly in the eyes of many coaches here in Texas, a coaching legend with the hope that he can right the ship here without an idea what the recruiting in Texas looks like? He's making $275k at Florida Gulf Coast so we'd have to pay him around $400k starting out plus we'd have to pay off his contract, which is good through the 2019-2020 season. Not a cheap hire by any means that comes with, in my opinion, lots of risk.

[TheTastyGreek]

On mobile, I'll do a write-up later. But, Dooley is not a realistic option for us. 

Based on guaranteed money, based on other midmajor jobs he considered and withdrew from ($500k+), based on other jobs he's been rumored around... There's no way. 

 

[greenjoe]

Why is Dooley not likely ?  And, why must we offer 5 years ?  How about 3 years with a 3 year option if all parties still like each other ?

GO MEAN GREEN

[Side Show Joe]

17 minutes ago, UNTFan23 said:

So you're willing to forgo on someone who is, possibly in the eyes of many coaches here in Texas, a coaching legend with the hope that he can right the ship here without an idea what the recruiting in Texas looks like? He's making $275k at Florida Gulf Coast so we'd have to pay him around $400k starting out plus we'd have to pay off his contract, which is good through the 2019-2020 season. Not a cheap hire by any means that comes with, in my opinion, lots of risk.

I don't see Dooley as a risk. Florida Gulf Coast has an RPI of around 100. We are around 300. I have no problem with him making more then 400K, or paying off his FGC contract. Our athletic department has wasted money on losing coaches. Dooley went to Florida Gulf Coast from Kansas, but he has managed to recruit just fine over there. I have no problem with him not having Texas ties. He is a proven winner, not a risk.

[UNTFan23]

8 minutes ago, greenjoe said:

Why is Dooley not likely ?  And, why must we offer 5 years ?  How about 3 years with a 3 year option if all parties still like each other ?

GO MEAN GREEN

Dooley was given a 5-year contract by Florida Gulf Coast. We might be able to go that route with a coach from a lower division or maybe a mid-major assistant but I suspect a 4-year contract will be the minimum.

[UNT90]

45 minutes ago, UNTFan23 said:

How about this guy from Oklahoma State:

Danny Henderson - " Texas high school coaching legend Danny Henderson joined the Oklahoma State basketball coaching staff on April 7, 2016.

Henderson won over 700 games and four state titles as a high school coach in Texas, including a stay at Flower Mound Marcus High School, where he coached Cowboy standouts Marcus Smart and Phil Forte. Henderson spent the last three seasons as an assistant coach at Boise State, where he helped the Broncos win the 2014-15 Mountain West Conference title and at least 20 games each season."

No. Good Lord.

[TheTastyGreek]

2 minutes ago, greenjoe said:

Why is Dooley not likely ?  And, why must we offer 5 years ?  How about 3 years with a 3 year option if all parties still like each other ?

GO MEAN GREEN

I'll write it up when I'm not thumb typing.

A follow up non-rhetorical question: Why would a guy leave a successful program running exactly how he likes it with 4 or 5 more guaranteed years to come to a rebuild with only 3 years guaranteed? 

[UNT90]

9 minutes ago, TheTastyGreek said:

I'll write it up when I'm not thumb typing.

A follow up non-rhetorical question: Why would a guy leave a successful program running exactly how he likes it with 4 or 5 more guaranteed years to come to a rebuild with only 3 years guaranteed? 

Strikes me as the type of guy we may have been able to get in 2012, but not in 2017.

[TheTastyGreek]

7 minutes ago, UNT90 said:

Strikes me as the type of guy we may have been able to get in 2012, but not in 2017.

Yes, but part of that was him being an assistant (Kansas) at the time. 

I don't think we could poach a guy in his current situation even if it we were fresh off JJ leaving us healthy. 

[untbowler]

Outside of money, why would Dooley take demotion to come here where BBall is an after thought, see Benford situation. Dooley will looking at G5 or very least a top 3 mid major team

[Harry]

Wren has to sell him on what we can be.

[TheTastyGreek]

So, last year, I started doing capsules/breakdowns for viable "ideal hire" options (meaning, an experienced D1 head coach with a track record of success). 

Here's the full writeup for some of the "why", but the 4 qualifying factors for a current D1 head coach were: 

1) Not already interviewing for Power Conference jobs or better paying jobs at bigger basketball leagues than CUSA

2) Base salary under $300k

3) Total contract guaranteed money is under $2 million

4) Not qualified/active in the 2016 NCAA Tournament (for a hire this year, it would rule out anyone that qualified for this year's tourney instead)

Those are criteria completely of my own creation, but I think/hope I did a pretty decent job of explaining why I chose them in that post and the responses further down in the thread. 

Dooley, in addition to making almost $300k with his "easy" incentives (even though his base is only $275k), was a finalist (not just an interviewee) for two different head coaching jobs last year. One was at Wright State, which ultimately hired Scott Nagy for a base salary of over $500k guaranteed for 5 years. The other was at St. Louis, which hired Travis Ford to replace a guy making over $1 million per year. 

Dooley may once again be two months away from a shot at a $500-700k per year job at a multi-bid league. And that's if he doesn't make another tournament and win a game, at which point he's an easy hire (like Enfield before him) for a low level power conference job at $1-1.5 million, minimum. 

He already took almost a six-figure pay cut to leave Kansas and take the head coach job at FGCU. He almost left last year to take an assistant gig at NC State (for a 50% pay raise... ultimately taken by the UT-Martin head coach instead).

If he wants to coach and win at a mid-major, he's already set up and winning at a place where basketball comes first, and he's guaranteed there into 2020 at least. 

If he wants to move to another mid-major and potentially rebuild, he's already come close twice, and for more money (potentially more than double) what we could expect to pay him. 

If he's out for money, he could have left to take an assistant job at a power conference (like Buzz Williams did when he left UNO), gotten a fat raise once again in line with what we pay Benford, and set himself up as a hot name assistant in a year or two. 

If he's holding out for a power conference gig, he's not going to consider us anyway. 

I don't mean to crap on the idea, because I agree with Side Show Joe that he's a good coach. I'd love to have him. But he's not in a situation right now where we can realistically get him. 

 

[Mean Green 93-98]

4 hours ago, Side Show Joe said:

No. I want a proven winner at the top level of college basketball. Dooley took FGC to the NCAA Tourny and looked respectable doing it. I think Dooley would be a great hire.

He absolutely would be.  But our present place on the basketball totem pole is clearly too low.  No chance.

[untjim1995]

Dooley will be coaching at a power conference school (SEC, Big XII, B1G, ACC, PAC, or Big East) or at a school in a league above ours that has resources--see AAC, MWC, A10 or MVC. It wouldn't surprise me to see him be the successor to Gregg Marshall at Wichita State if/when he leaves.

[UNT90]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't Dooley handed a gem of a program at FGC from the previous coach that left for a better job?

[GrandGreen]

The odds of Dooley coming here are lower than  Benford winning the CUSA tournament.  

NT will have plenty of good candidates, the challenge will be picking the right one.