The UCLA fans' expectations are no doubt out of whack, but the presence of so many other things going on in LA makes it much less of a pressure cooker job than UK/UNC/Duke/Kansas/Indiana where the local media and populace is laser-focused on the basketball program.
My take having grown up in LA and then moving back here after graduating from Duke is that the biggest problem with the last two coaches (Alford and Howland) hasn't so much been a lack of winning -- though they should have won more -- but style of play. They just haven't been exciting enough offensively to capture attention in LA, outside of the Lonzo season (when the excitement here was real) and the Howland FF season when they had Westbrook, Collison and Kevin Love (whose incredible outlet passes were unique enough to be exciting).
I think Marshall (while a great x and o coach) would be another terrible fit. And Hoiberg would likely put the right kind of game plan in, but he has too little interest in recruiting to be a good match. Cal will flirt with it, but ultimately I don't think he'd leave UK now. I don't see Wojo as a great fit in LA either.
Quin is a very interesting choice and, while he's been away from recruiting for a long time, he was definitely good at it while at Duke and Mizzou.
Musselman seems like the best fit from an energy perspective -- both on and off court. Oddly, I think UCLA would have preferred for Alford to win enough to muddle through to the end of the season. Firing him now complicates chasing Muss b/c he will not want to mess up a dream season at Nevada by publicly being courted by UCLA for the next 2 months whereas UCLA will be under pressure to hire someone now.
I think jumping to sign Hoiberg just b/c he's available would be another big mistake by UCLA.
Ozzie, your paradigm of optimism!
Go To Hell carolina, Go To Hell!
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All that is true....but Enfield apparently made a bunch of money, I think on Wall Street, married a super model, and then wanted to coach. He got the job at Florida Gulf Coast, inherited a bunch of players no one else wanted, and then figured out about six of them could jump out of the gym...and Dunk City was born. And the FGCU players loved him to boot.
That's why I thought he would sell in LA...he's got a lot going for him that's not purely hoops...surely the Maxim model bride doesn't hurt. And - his incoming recruiting class is ranked number one at the moment.
Potential UCLA replacements according to the LA Times:
https://www.latimes.com/sports/ucla/...231-story.html
“Potential candidates to replace the 54-year-old Alford could include the Oklahoma City Thunder’s Billy Donovan, Virginia’s Tony Bennett, Michigan’s John Beilein, Gonzaga’s Mark Few, North Carolina State’s Kevin Keatts, Texas Christian’s Jamie Dixon, Texas Tech’s Chris Beard, Cincinnati’s Mick Cronin, Wichita State’s Gregg Marshall, Utah’s Larry Krystkowiak and former Chicago Bulls coach Fred Hoiberg.”
Billy Donovan always had that "LA" vibe to me. Maybe it's just the greased hair.
Some of these candidates could be legit but there are some real reaches here - I highly doubt that Beilein (about to turn 66) or Few are realistically in the running - Beilein is unlikely to move at this point and I think Few is very happy where he is and has likely been approached previously for the same job.
UCLA is still a huge job but perhaps not quite as huge as its fans think it is, which makes it that much harder. They are going to have to throw out huge amounts of money to get the type of coach they think they deserve.
Why fire him on December 31? Are there tax considerations? Is it like couples who get married before the end of the year because they can file jointly for the whole year? I’m sure that’s exactly what Miley and Liam had in mind.
Just watching the Gator Bowl on New Year’s Eve, and thinking about tax issues. Not sure why.