MBB Coaching Carousel, 2024-25 Edition

[Billy Dat]

Chris Holtmann out at OSU

@trillydonovan
Ohio State’s candidate pool is probably deeper than Louisville’s as far as reasonable options.

Greg McDermott
Sean Miller
Nate Oats
Lamont Paris
Dusty May
Mick Cronin
Porter Moser

Healthy NIL and resources. A sitting high major coach will take this one.

[DavidBenAkiva]

Bizarre timing on this one. It's mid-February. They couldn't wait another 4 weeks?

[Bluedog]

Bizarre timing on this one. It's mid-February. They couldn't wait another 4 weeks?

Not sure how things work behind the scenes, but perhaps they think by acting earlier they can start vetting/searching and get their preferred candidate with a higher probability than they would have by waiting.

[AGDukesky]

Not sure how things work behind the scenes, but perhaps they think by acting earlier they can start vetting/searching and get their preferred candidate with a higher probability than they would have by waiting.

Plus avoids uncertainty when the transfer portal opens- might help retention and bringing players in

[proelitedota]

What kind of job will Jai Lucas be tempted by? Hoping we can keep him for as long as possible.

[Faustus]

Maybe Corey Alexander can take the job and relieve the rest of us. After all, he's clearly been a spectacular summer league coach because he's told us that so many times, and surely so many of 'his guys' will flock to play for him, so recruiting will be no problem.

I'll be curious to see if many of these now Big Twenty Conference jobs become almost poisoned chalices as such. Add UCLA and these ex-Pac12 schools and it could be quite easy to simply disappear into basketball oblivion and obscurity there. Look at Maryland, and Rutgers (well, Rutgers... who ever cared...?). I almost forgot that Nebraska is Big10 now, which they have been for some years, and they're even having a good year, for them. For here's the other side of making sure your school is 'at the table' of Big Time Football relevance. The cost of gaining that in the one big money sport could forever hamper so many others. Is this really the goal of a school's athletic director? To undercut the successes of all your other sports besides football?
In basketball, your school at Champagne-Urbana may now have midweek night games in LA or Piscataway (or conversely, you might not visit some 'conference' teams for years - there are just too many of them). Can your fans really get excited about a 'good' year when you moved up from 17th to maybe 14th? How many schools will really have a chance to win the conference championship year in and year out? I think in future all Big10 teams won't even be invited to the end of season tournament. That'll make for fun times at Murriland if they have to watch both the Big10 AND the ACC tournaments on tv from home. Will be worth every penny for their extra $$$, while they may never sniff a CFB football playoff either. Someone better from their own conference always will get those spots. Yet Fla State, Clemson, others(?) are desperately trying to get in that mass of schools. Meanwhile, I'd love to see UCLA just run roughshod over the rest of them in bball next year, although that ain't happening, but IU fans would be apoplectic if it did. (The ghost of John Wooden will laugh and laugh and laugh, except he'll have to beat Purdue too...) Glad you got all those extra millions now, IU? You voted to let them in. Thanks for playing.

So how much patience with their head coaches are these ADs in the Big10and SEC going to have when so many schools will be mired almost constantly in 10th to 20th place in their conference? Ohio State used to matter almost every year in the Big10. There's no guarantee that the next coach there will be able to do any better than this last one. You'll get paid lots of $$$, but for how long? He didn't get many years.

[CameronBornAndBred]

Bizarre timing on this one. It's mid-February. They couldn't wait another 4 weeks?

Every Louisville fan is jealous of the move.

[TywinBlue]

After the implosion at UCLA and their B1G move,
you just know Mick Cronin is skedadeling it back east for a big job, right ?

[Billy Dat]

Maybe Corey Alexander can take the job and relieve the rest of us. After all, he's clearly been a spectacular summer league coach because he's told us that so many times, and surely so many of 'his guys' will flock to play for him, so recruiting will be no problem.

I'll be curious to see if many of these now Big Twenty Conference jobs become almost poisoned chalices as such. Add UCLA and these ex-Pac12 schools and it could be quite easy to simply disappear into basketball oblivion and obscurity there. Look at Maryland, and Rutgers (well, Rutgers... who ever cared...?). I almost forgot that Nebraska is Big10 now, which they have been for some years, and they're even having a good year, for them. For here's the other side of making sure your school is 'at the table' of Big Time Football relevance. The cost of gaining that in the one big money sport could forever hamper so many others. Is this really the goal of a school's athletic director? To undercut the successes of all your other sports besides football?
In basketball, your school at Champagne-Urbana may now have midweek night games in LA or Piscataway (or conversely, you might not visit some 'conference' teams for years - there are just too many of them). Can your fans really get excited about a 'good' year when you moved up from 17th to maybe 14th? How many schools will really have a chance to win the conference championship year in and year out? I think in future all Big10 teams won't even be invited to the end of season tournament. That'll make for fun times at Murriland if they have to watch both the Big10 AND the ACC tournaments on tv from home. Will be worth every penny for their extra $$$, while they may never sniff a CFB football playoff either. Someone better from their own conference always will get those spots. Yet Fla State, Clemson, others(?) are desperately trying to get in that mass of schools. Meanwhile, I'd love to see UCLA just run roughshod over the rest of them in bball next year, although that ain't happening, but IU fans would be apoplectic if it did. (The ghost of John Wooden will laugh and laugh and laugh, except he'll have to beat Purdue too...) Glad you got all those extra millions now, IU? You voted to let them in. Thanks for playing.

So how much patience with their head coaches are these ADs in the Big10and SEC going to have when so many schools will be mired almost constantly in 10th to 20th place in their conference? Ohio State used to matter almost every year in the Big10. There's no guarantee that the next coach there will be able to do any better than this last one. You'll get paid lots of $$$, but for how long? He didn't get many years.

You make a lot of interesting points. As I read and listen to college hoops discussion, many feel that the new environment (NIL, transfers, football-driven re-allignment) will usher in a massive wave of basketball coaching changes. Holtmann, at age 52, seems to be right on the line between old school and new school...old enough that he grew up as a coach in the old era but young enough that he can maybe pivot to the new era. That's one reason I am so glad Duke went with Jon, he's young enough to embrace the changing atmosphere. The thought is that people like Holtmann are relatively young in coaching terms. Other guys considered "young" are really around 50...Hurley, Scott Drew, Nate Oats, Dusty May, Hubert Davis, Damon Stoudamire, Micah Shrewsberry, Tony Bennett, Lamont Paris, TJ Otzelberger, Chris Beard, Buzz Willaims...etc. Jon is 36!!! His contemporaries at the Power 5 level are few and far between...Todd Golden at UF, Kyle Neptune at Nova, Mike Boynton, Wes Miller...there aren't a lot of them.

[crote]

You make a lot of interesting points. As I read and listen to college hoops discussion, many feel that the new environment (NIL, transfers, football-driven re-allignment) will usher in a massive wave of basketball coaching changes. Holtmann, at age 52, seems to be right on the line between old school and new school...old enough that he grew up as a coach in the old era but young enough that he can maybe pivot to the new era. That's one reason I am so glad Duke went with Jon, he's young enough to embrace the changing atmosphere. The thought is that people like Holtmann are relatively young in coaching terms. Other guys considered "young" are really around 50...Hurley, Scott Drew, Nate Oats, Dusty May, Hubert Davis, Damon Stoudamire, Micah Shrewsberry, Tony Bennett, Lamont Paris, TJ Otzelberger, Chris Beard, Buzz Willaims...etc. Jon is 36!!! His contemporaries at the Power 5 level are few and far between...Todd Golden at UF, Kyle Neptune at Nova, Mike Boynton, Wes Miller...there aren't a lot of them.

I have noticed a spate of younger hires in CFB as well, maybe for the reasons you identified. Dan Lanning it Oregon is 37, Kenny Dillingham at ASU is 33, Marcus Freeman and Sherrone Moore at ND and UM are both 38. Drinkwitz at Mizzou was 36 when they hired him, Norvell was 38 when the Noles hired him. I haven't done a deep dive but intuitively it seems like the number of major college coaches who are under 40 is at a modern era high.

[tommy]

I have noticed a spate of younger hires in CFB as well, maybe for the reasons you identified. Dan Lanning it Oregon is 37, Kenny Dillingham at ASU is 33, Marcus Freeman and Sherrone Moore at ND and UM are both 38. Drinkwitz at Mizzou was 36 when they hired him, Norvell was 38 when the Noles hired him. I haven't done a deep dive but intuitively it seems like the number of major college coaches who are under 40 is at a modern era high.

Yup. In both basketball and football, the game on the court/field is changing quickly and coaches need to adapt to it and embrace it. And with the challenges of roster building and retention of players, you have to be able to relate to the players and communicate with them, speaking their language. Both of those issues favor younger coaches rather than older retreads.

[camion]

The Chris Holtmann out at The OSU

@trillydonovan
The Ohio State’s candidate pool is probably deeper than Louisville’s as far as The reasonable options.

The Greg McDermott
The Sean Miller
The Nate Oats
The Lamont Paris
The Dusty May
The Mick Cronin
The Porter Moser

The Healthy NIL and resources. A sitting high major coach will take this one.

Fixed The problem.

[lotusland]

You make a lot of interesting points. As I read and listen to college hoops discussion, many feel that the new environment (NIL, transfers, football-driven re-allignment) will usher in a massive wave of basketball coaching changes. Holtmann, at age 52, seems to be right on the line between old school and new school...old enough that he grew up as a coach in the old era but young enough that he can maybe pivot to the new era. That's one reason I am so glad Duke went with Jon, he's young enough to embrace the changing atmosphere. The thought is that people like Holtmann are relatively young in coaching terms. Other guys considered "young" are really around 50...Hurley, Scott Drew, Nate Oats, Dusty May, Hubert Davis, Damon Stoudamire, Micah Shrewsberry, Tony Bennett, Lamont Paris, TJ Otzelberger, Chris Beard, Buzz Willaims...etc. Jon is 36!!! His contemporaries at the Power 5 level are few and far between...Todd Golden at UF, Kyle Neptune at Nova, Mike Boynton, Wes Miller...there aren't a lot of them.

Norlander randomly threw out Lamont Paris as possible candidate on yesterday’s podcast. Gamecock fans just can’t have nice things. Although my friends called Lamont “Big Dummy” when he was hired so maybe they don’t deserve nice things!

[BlueDevil2K]

Any list that includes Mick Cronin isn't worth the paper on which it's written. Cronin's entire career was launched by the Damon Flint saga. I can't see any way that a new AD starts his tenure with that hire.

[JasonEvans]

Distressing, but not surprising, to see Bobby's name on there.

[tommy]

Leonard Hamilton? That’s silly talk.

[53n206]

Leonard Hamilton? That’s silly talk.

Note that it says "retirement".

[TywinBlue]

Distressing, but not surprising, to see Bobby's name on there.

Very Harsh to read the day after Valentine's Day...

[tommy]

Note that it says "retirement".

Oh. I didn't catch that. Still, a guy that may retire isn't "on the hot seat." He'd be leaving voluntarily.

[-jk]

Oh. I didn't catch that. Still, a guy that may retire isn't "on the hot seat." He'd be leaving voluntarily.

Yeah, "voluntarily." Just like Boeheim.

-jk