Shaka Smart is from Wisconsin, that must have played a big role(in addition to boosters and a lot of fans wanting him out) in why he took the Marquette job. Shaka was well on his way to having VCU become a Gonzaga-like force where he could regularly beat out BCS schools for recruits and have them ranked in the top 10 every year. How much different would the A-10 look now if Shaka stayed and actually turned VCU into an east coast version of Gonzaga? He never got past the 2nd round at Texas but he did recruit a number of guys who are now in the NBA. I guess he can sell that to recruits at Marquette. 

Take this for what it's worth, but @coachingchanges(Isn't that GW Rising's favorite twitter site?? LOL) is saying that Mark Turgeon could be in the mix for the Oklahoma job, Lon Kruger retired yesterday. If Turgeon left for Oklahoma( or maybe Texas) or got fired, they list Tommy Amaker, Ben Howland, John Lucas, Ryan Odom, Bruce Pearl and John Thompson III(LOL..really??) as candidates to replace Turgeon. 

https://twitter.com/CoachingChanges/status/1375501064938561541   

Thomas, I could not have foreseen Shaka having Gonzaga-like success in the A10, a conference that's too difficult to dominate the way Gonzaga can dominate the WCC.  Even during their best seasons, it's not like Temple or Xavier won the A10 perpetually.  Also, Seth Davis predicted that Turgeon will be hired at Oklahoma.  Found that to be interesting. 

danjsport wrote:

Shaka leaving demonstrates that it’s not just the players who are apparently sefish

Shaka was most likely getting fired if he didn't leave. I would call it more self-preservation. Smart man. Nobody at Texas is too upset apparently.

Thomas wrote:

Shaka Smart is from Wisconsin, that must have played a big role(in addition to boosters and a lot of fans wanting him out) in why he took the Marquette job. Shaka was well on his way to having VCU become a Gonzaga-like force where he could regularly beat out BCS schools for recruits and have them ranked in the top 10 every year. How much different would the A-10 look now if Shaka stayed and actually turned VCU into an east coast version of Gonzaga? He never got past the 2nd round at Texas but he did recruit a number of guys who are now in the NBA. I guess he can sell that to recruits at Marquette. 

Take this for what it's worth, but @coachingchanges(Isn't that GW Rising's favorite twitter site?? LOL) is saying that Mark Turgeon could be in the mix for the Oklahoma job, Lon Kruger retired yesterday. If Turgeon left for Oklahoma( or maybe Texas) or got fired, they list Tommy Amaker, Ben Howland, John Lucas, Ryan Odom, Bruce Pearl and John Thompson III(LOL..really??) as candidates to replace Turgeon. 

https://twitter.com/CoachingChanges/status/1375501064938561541   

Remember when JTIII tried to leak his name as potential GW coach?  Guess he’s doing it again, with Maryland.  He needs a better strategy than leaking his own name for jobs he’s never going to get to try to drum up interest.

In my opinion, JTIII coming to GW a few years ago, had way more credence than him going to Maryland now. Despite how things ended at Georgetown for JTIII, he did make the Final 4, produce several NBA players and won the Big East a couple times, so a step down from the Big East to the A-10 after getting fired seemed logical. Going to Maryland after getting fired from Georgetown and being out of coaching for a few years makes zero sense. Maybe JTIII has access to @coachingchanges twitter password and put his name as a candidate!! HA!

If Turgeon does get bought out by the boosters or gets hired by Oklahoma, Tommy Amaker or Ryan Odom would make the most sense to me.

Now that Loyola Chicago's season is over, it will be interesting to see what Porter Moser does. He's now made 2 deep runs into the NCAA tournament with Loyola and there are some high profile jobs open with Indiana, Texas and Oklahoma. Maybe the DePaul job would interest him since he's been coaching at Loyola and could probably get the some of the best high schoolers from Illinois to sign with DePaul since he's already been recruiting a lot in the state. A big reason Brad Underwood was able to turn Illinois into an elite team was signing 2 or 3 of the top players from Illinois(Dosunmu and Adam Miller) over the last few years.

Last edited by Thomas (4/03/2021 9:19 am)

GMU has released Kim English’s compensation. He’s set to earn $925,000 this season. Pretty good work if you can get it.

https://t.co/nqpbGcDCE3

This has been quite a year for big-time jobs opening up now with North Carolina. North Carolina is truly a blue blood, unlike schools like Texas and Indiana who seem to think they are a blue blood. Unfortunately for North Carolina there doesn't appear to be any former great players or coaches(King Rice? Jerry Stackhouse? Hubert Davis? Joe Wolf? Jason Capel? Jeff Lebo?) who are tearing it up right now on their own and they seem to be a school who likes to hire from the North Carolina "family." UNC-Greensboro coach Wes Miller may be the only former Tar-Heel who is flourishing now.  The best available coach for all these jobs is probably Brad Stevens, leaving the Boston Celtics(who appear to have quit on him) for North Carolina makes the most sense to me because UNC is on par with Duke and Kentucky, in terms of tradition and winning, B.Stevens is young enough to have a historic 25-30-year run.

Oklahoma has hired Loyola Chicago coach Porter Moser. He took this job too soon, he should have held out for North Carolina!! 

Hubert Davis will become the next UNC coach. Big move by UNC for two reasons. On a lesser note, they hired an assistant as opposed to a head coach. On a more important note, Hubert will be the first black head coach at UNC which along with Duke were two of the remaining schools never to have a black head coach. 

GWRising wrote:

Hubert Davis will become the next UNC coach. Big move by UNC for two reasons. On a lesser note, they hired an assistant as opposed to a head coach. On a more important note, Hubert will be the first black head coach at UNC which along with Duke were two of the remaining schools never to have a black head coach. 

GWRising, who you feel would replace Coach K if he decided to retire this summer?  I feel Tommy Amaker would be a good choice but he's not working for Coach K at the moment and Harvard may not let him go.  I was also thinking Johnny Dawkins could be a possibility but he's not on the staff and hasn't been overly successful.  I am thinking it could be Nate James as he is is on staff and is known to be highly respected by Coach K.  

Not to say that it couldn't be verbal abuse but the consensus appears to be more along the lines of physical abuse.  Too many practices.  Practicing for too long.  And who knows what may have gone on at some of these practices?  It is indeed a balancing act.  A coach can not afford to push, push, push without ever pulling back.