• Welcome to OGBoards 10.0, keep in mind that we will be making LOTS of changes to smooth out the experience here and make it as close as possible functionally to the old software, but feel free to drop suggestions or requests in the Tech Support subforum!

Wes Miller named Head Coach at Cincinnati

You guys, he's 29 and not 28. That's all I wanted to add to this thread. I'm tired of seeing the wrong age.
 
When I read yesterday that Wellman is 64 it dawned on me, as Pilchard stated earlier, that Wellman will never hire a young coach. He probably doesn't even know anybody in college athletics under the age of 50. All of "his guys" are older and on the downside of their career. Look at Bzz. He's basically said this is one last run at being a head coach before collecting social security.
 
Any coach that comes in when a team is 0-3 and turns that team around to 10-5 deserves a fair amount of credit.

Maybe I am being a little nitpicky, but, I really hate absolute statements like this. If a team is 0-3 because it played 3 great teams and the new coach comes in and takes them to 10-5 against a bunch of really crappy teams, does the coach still deserve a fair amount of credit? I don't know but I doubt the turn-around in record is any big deal in that scenario.

I don't know the details of the situation here, but, from the stats someone else posted it looks like a lot of the improvement in w-l record may have come from playing worse competition or the same competition at home instead of away...
 
When I read yesterday that Wellman is 64 it dawned on me, as Pilchard stated earlier, that Wellman will never hire a young coach. He probably doesn't even know anybody in college athletics under the age of 50. All of "his guys" are older and on the downside of their career. Look at Bzz. He's basically said this is one last run at being a head coach before collecting social security.

Well said. However, that may not apply when hiring a big donor's son. Sure Wes Miller is a young coach, but he's connected to a contemporary of Wellman.
 
It's impossible to make a HR hire of a 58 year old. The shelf-life is just too limited.

Look at the clear HR hires of our lifetime in the ACC: Dean Smith, age 32. Coach K, age 31.

He will be Duke or UNC's coach one day if we do not hire him now.

I said this 2 years ago and I am saying it now. He is our best chance at starting a huge 30+ year run. That is what we all want and need and that does not start with a broken down old man who will be dead soon.

This kid knows every high school coach in this State and has been dedicating his life to coaching ACC and college basketball on a daily basis for years. He is focused and will not stop and can be had for a steal as he grew up watching the Deacs. He wore #22 at UNC for a reason.

The credibility he has from winning that title recruiting wise cannot be overstated. Vic Bubas went to N.C. State. Bones McKinney went to Carolina. The fact that he went to Carolina and played for Roy is actually a strength for us--not a weakness.

I know you know this already, but, the possiblity of making the HR hire is definitely there with a young coach, but so is the risk of the strikeout. It is easy to look at the Smith and Coach K hirings in hindsight and say 'that is how you do it'... does anyone know how many young or young-ish coaches have been hired in the ACC since Dean Smith was hired? How about in the NCAA? How many went on to be "HR hires" for that school? I don't know the answers, but, it is obvious that HR hires on the level of Smith or K are VERY few and far between...

None of this speaks to the Buzz hire at all or to Wes Miller, specifically... Just saying that the whole concept of spotting a great coach when he is young, hiring him and having him coach your team to greatness for multiple decades is great in theory but very difficult in practice.
 
Maybe I am being a little nitpicky, but, I really hate absolute statements like this. If a team is 0-3 because it played 3 great teams and the new coach comes in and takes them to 10-5 against a bunch of really crappy teams, does the coach still deserve a fair amount of credit? I don't know but I doubt the turn-around in record is any big deal in that scenario.

I don't know the details of the situation here, but, from the stats someone else posted it looks like a lot of the improvement in w-l record may have come from playing worse competition or the same competition at home instead of away...

UNC-G before the split:

0-3: 1 home/2 road SoCon winning % of opponents 42%

after split:

8-2: 6 home/4 road SoCon winning % of opponents 40%
 
Losses before:

NC A&T - #226
App - #250
Western - #278
Elon - #259

Wins after:

CoC twice- #145
The same App and Western teams
Won 10 of their last 11.
 
Well said. However, that may not apply when hiring a big donor's son. Sure Wes Miller is a young coach, but he's connected to a contemporary of Wellman.

So what you're saying is perhaps Wellman's good old boy network could maybe actually work to our benefit one of these years?
 
Well said. However, that may not apply when hiring a big donor's son. Sure Wes Miller is a young coach, but he's connected to a contemporary of Wellman.

We can only hope. Wellman still strikes me as one that might allow him to be an assistant coach but not the head coach right out of the chute.
 
UNCG played Davidson in Greensboro shortly after Miller took over; Davidson won 92-63. Davidson is clearly the class of the SoCon this year (14-2 with two games remaining), but UNCG has been playing really well for a month and a half now--much better than they were when Davidson beat them. They've pretty much got the #1 seed from the North Division wrapped up for the conference tournament in two weeks.

I was always surprised that Dement didn't get more out of that roster, as they certainly had enough talent to compete in the SoCon. Of course, one of their problems has been that they are playing a ridiculously tough non-conference schedule in an attempt to get fans of BCS programs to come and buy tickets at the Coliseum.
 
UNCG played Davidson in Greensboro shortly after Miller took over; Davidson won 92-63. Davidson is clearly the class of the SoCon this year (14-2 with two games remaining), but UNCG has been playing really well for a month and a half now--much better than they were when Davidson beat them. They've pretty much got the #1 seed from the North Division wrapped up for the conference tournament in two weeks.

I was always surprised that Dement didn't get more out of that roster, as they certainly had enough talent to compete in the SoCon. Of course, one of their problems has been that they are playing a ridiculously tough non-conference schedule in an attempt to get fans of BCS programs to come and buy tickets at the Coliseum.

Who was it that was pimping Dement hard on the old board after Odom left? Was it HeavyPetter?
 
HA! No way a Tarheel ever coaches at Duke - not sure if anyone has been paying attention but that is a pretty large rivalry.

I am very meh on Wes Miller and his 1/2 season of coaching. It is not the ACC and their are lots of really crappy teams in that conference - but yet still own Wake. Let him move around a bit, but I think there is a butt load of experienced coaches who have put forward more than acceptable results at higher rated conferences.

I hate it, but new coach is a completely useless excersise. If Wake wins a few more games, no way Bzz is going anywhere anyway. By the time, Wellman is ready to pull the trigger, Smart, Mooney, Hurley, Miller, will all be locked up in big name programs anyway.
 
I know you know this already, but, the possiblity of making the HR hire is definitely there with a young coach, but so is the risk of the strikeout.

This is definitely true, but one thing that will be interesting to see with the next coaching search is now that Wellman has seen the failure of his effort to make the "safe" hire with [Redacted] and avoid the strikeout, will he be more likely to go after a younger coach? We've already bottomed out, so hiring someone primarily because they have a high floor should not be a priority.
 
Wake has an opportunity to absolutely kill it with Wes Miller. I think it's low risk, high reward. If we hire him and he's not great right off, he has time to grow and is a young guy that fans will definitely be willing to get behind and give him the required time.

Miller has ties to Wake so he would definitely consider us. This is the best opportunity Wake may have ever had in hiring a basketball coach. We need to take this.
 
HA! No way a Tarheel ever coaches at Duke - not sure if anyone has been paying attention but that is a pretty large rivalry.

And it's not clear UNC would be eager to entrust the keys to another young alum with a championship but limited HC experience:

matt-doherty-unc.jpg
 
I'm totes on board with Wes Miller as WFU coach. Just make sure we get an assistant or two that knows how to kill it on the national recruiting trail/can get him into good situations there at least.
 
Wake has an opportunity to absolutely kill it with Wes Miller. I think it's low risk, high reward. If we hire him and he's not great right off, he has time to grow and is a young guy that fans will definitely be willing to get behind and give him the required time.

Miller has ties to Wake so he would definitely consider us. This is the best opportunity Wake may have ever had in hiring a basketball coach. We need to take this.

Doesn't he have a .500 record?
 
Back
Top