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Our Next BB Coach or #MannUp + other coach talk

Say Hey Deac said:
If you went back through old threads from December, quite a few folks around here were "meh" on Clawson (especially vis-a-vis Lembo), and that sentiment just completely vanished after the press conference. I wonder if Lonergan was hired if you'd see the same thing -- don't know how his personality plays in real life, other than he sounds like Matt Seracen which is amazing.

On paper, Lonergan seems like a winner. Despite having 21 years of head coaching experience, he's only 48 (a year and a half older than Clawson). Won a D3 National Title at Catholic and won their league for 7 straight years. Finished 1st or 2nd at Vermont in 4 of 6 years there. Turned around GW and will have them in the NCAAT this year. Assisted Gary Williams for a year.

That's the type of resume I think Wellman goes for. All due respect to White, Miller and the Italian guy, I don't think Wellman will go for a dude with 3 years of HC experience. Through the previous coaching searches in basketball and football, Wellman has never had one of those young guys on any of his rumored short lists.

Also, this dude just kind of looks like a Wake Forest basketball coach:

Mike-Lonergan_UP_JMC_2011-4916-C_460x200.jpg


Of course, he's another guy who is from the area and is basically coaching in his hometown where he has family, elderly parents, children, etc, so not sure how that factors in.
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I bet this will be the guy. I just watched some clips of him and he seems tailor made for Ron and his pals.
 
Fuck Your Couch said:
You forgot his style of basketball is about as entertaining as watching paint dry.
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Funny, I remember a lot of people saying the same thing about Tony Bennett a year ago. The dude wins, I couldn't care less about his style.
 
Yeah, it is a good thing that the style of basketball a coach employs has no impact on the players he recruits. You can win in all different ways, which way do we want to try to win?
 
OldGoldBeard said:
Bullshit it isn't. He inherited an utter train wreck, went 6-25 in his first year, more than doubled his win total in year two (15-18), and is now 19-9 (35th in Pomeroy) in Year Three. Yeah, he hasn't won 22 games like Masiello, but the PAC-12 is slightly tougher sledding than the MAAC. I'm Team Masiello Crew, but that's just an asinine evaluation.
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lol OK my completely off-the-cuff evaluation of Krystkowiak wasn't accurate. You're right, I should have taken into account that 8 players left the program after he was hired, his starting C was injured before the first game of the year, and his starting PG was dismissed from the team during the middle of the season.

So yes, under those circumstances, his first season record at Utah deserves an asterik. Yes, his steady improvement during Year 2 and Year 3 is actual improvement, not Ron Wellman improvememnt. And yes, his record at Montana is strong, as he made the NCAA tournament both years with 18-13 and 24-7 records, respectively.
 
Playing slow in Winston-Salem is not the same as playing slow in Los Angeles.
 
BobStackFan4Life said:
I bet this will be the guy. I just watched some clips of him and he seems tailor made for Ron and his pals.
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Probably. But it's going to be hard for people to get behind a guy with one NCAA Tournament appearance and (currently) a losing record at his current school. He'll need to reach the Sweet Sixteen to generate any real excitement among the fanbase.
 
BobStackFan4Life said:
I bet this will be the guy. I just watched some clips of him and he seems tailor made for Ron and his pals.
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Lonergan has a rather bland personality but has a very good resume and is just the type that Ron would go after. But out of all the middle and lower tier guys on our list, he is the most likely to reject our overtures. Guys like White, Massiello and Miller are looking for the next stepping stone. Lonergan is late 40s as I recall, and both he and his wife are from the DC area and still have family there. I can see him rejecting mo money to stay where he wants to be.
 
BobStackFan4Life said:
Same here. There are a lot of unanswered questions with the second tier guys. Wake bball does not need another mistake for the next four or five years.
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For whatever reason I'm very confident that we're going to make an outstanding hire. I know I'm in the minority, but I just have a gut feeling about this one.
 
TUA01576 said:
What does that even mean?
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Seriously?

You guys are saying he'll recruit well at Wake despite his slow, ugly style because he recruited well in Los Angeles at a basketball blue blood. Kevin Love was going to UCLA even if [Redacted] was the coach.

Shabazz Muhammad and Kyle Anderson went to UCLA because Adidas told them to.
 
Fuck Your Couch said:
Seriously?

You guys are saying he'll recruit well at Wake despite his slow, ugly style because he recruited well in Los Angeles at a basketball blue blood. Kevin Love was going to UCLA even if [Redacted] was the coach.
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Izzo teams also tend to be very slow as do Billy Donovan teams. Howland can say he's been to Final Four's and coached multiple NBA players.
 
CumberlandDeac said:
For whatever reason I'm very confident that we're going to make an outstanding hire. I know I'm in the minority, but I just have a gut feeling about this one.
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The more I think about it, the more I agree. Wellman has to know what's at stake. His legacy, the future of our program, and the overall financial well being of our AD stand to tank if he fucks this up. Then again... Buzz happened.
 
For whatever reason I'm very confident that we're going to make an outstanding hire. I know I'm in the minority, but I just have a gut feeling about this one.
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Ron Wellman, April 14, 2010
 
Say Hey Deac said:
This is why I think all the discussion about Howland is a waste of time. The national perception of Howland is a jerk who let a program spiral out of control at UCLA. If Wellman hires Howland, it basically negates Wellman's ability to point to any success from the [Redacted] Experience, because Wellman won't even be able to claim a victory for reestablishing "culture." So [Redacted] fixed the culture, but Wellman immediately hires a guy whose most recent coaching experience flies in the face of culture? No way. Wellman is not going to allow that to happen.

Plus, it's not even as if Howland is a slam dunk hire in terms of W/L. If you're going to hire a guy with that much baggage, he'd better have a sterling resume. While Howland definitely had some fantastic years and a great run of Final 4s, the mediocre years that ended his UCLA tenure and the questions about how much he relied on his departed assistant coaches will not be ignored.
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From what I have read today, Howland seems to have changed his winning formula because that's what UCLA demanded..maybe not the AD but the pressure. He seems to be a guy like Bz...a very successful version....who then tried to do Dino and things got out of control with recruiting. That doesn't mean he's a jerk, he just couldn't adapt to a changing formula. The good thing is, he could go back to the formula that worked. The danger is, his winning formula won't work anymore which is something that's been discussed on these boards. It's a bit of a risk. Bz players would fit him though.
 
I can't really think of any conceivable way that we downgrade from [Redacted], so that's good
 
deacz said:
Ron Wellman, April 14, 2010
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Clearly he fucked up on April 14, 2010. Fucked up is an understatement, but as DG3 points out above, he knows his legacy is at stake. We talk about how big Ron's ego is, well does he want his legacy tarnished by messing up another basketball hire? He can't afford to be the "smartest guy in the room" and try and potential to others. He has to sell a proven product and I think he will do so.
 
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