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Possible Wake Forest Coaching Candidates Analysis

Who are you hearing we're going after, godeacsplate?
 
Not much leaking out about candidates. The only name I've heard mentioned other than the usual suspects is Wojo.
 
This DM contract mess would probably start us at tier 2 at best, but if thats not an issue:

Tiers

Matta / Musselman / Cronin

Shaka / Turner / Forbes

Oats / Miller

Kelsey / Odom / some unknown mid major coach
 
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I sure hope Oats’ name is among the usual suspects. He is going to take a job somewhere, don’t see why that place wouldn’t be awake.
 
PaddyWF said:
This DM contract mess would probably start us at tier 3, but if thats not an issue:

Tiers

Matta / Musselman / Cronin

Shaka / Turner / Forbes

Oats / Miller

Kelsey / Odom / some unknown mid major coach
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Wow, Russell Turner just got his 2nd NCAA tournament bid in 9 seasons coaching Big West basketball. To call him Tier 2 is far from reality. He is the guy Currie approaches after completely failing the search.
 
Bob Niedbala said:
And some middle aged lawyer in Greensboro is qualified to identify the best coaching candidates how? I’d like to understand how is credentials are better than mine (which essentially don’t exist) or anyone else?

Let’s be clear, his list of 3 is all about DR and not about what’s best for Wake. He wants to be this wise voice from the shadows whose motivation is driven by a desire to tell everyone “I told you so”. Keep in mind he’s still saying we should have hired Miller 5 years ago. Think about that.

His act is old and tired. And kind of pathetic.
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Like I said, he’s actuakky watched these guys. Have you spent much time watching UC Irvine? He may be wrong, but he’s at least watched some games.
 
daaberry said:
Wow, Russell Turner just got his 2nd NCAA tournament bid in 9 seasons coaching Big West basketball. To call him Tier 2 is far from reality. He is the guy Currie approaches after completely failing the search.
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Why? He has won or tied for conference championship 4 times in 9 seasons. The Big West didn't have auto bid in 2014? Don't know why that was NIT.

Turner's conference record is .682 from a total rebuild. He is crushing his conference competition consistently. UC Irvine is garbage historically besides a couple good seasons at the turn of the century.

He has has success at every college program he is coached at, including Hampden-Sydney, Wake and Stanford. And he has coached in the NBA.

Only concerns I see is the Big West is weak, but not awful, and he has been on the west coast for awhile. Some say he has a dry personality (wgaf). He is not real young, but under 50.
 
Wes Miller is a bad hire at this stage. We cannot afford to hire someone who will take 3 seasons to find themselves in big time college basketball. Also, if Wes Miller hadn’t played at UNC, he wouldn’t be mentioned once on this board. People are over weighting this lame “he gets NC” narrative. That’s small time. We need a legit big hire. Period.
 
[video=youtube;sEQlLRJXMcY]https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=86&v=sEQlLRJXMcY[/video]
 
ChrisL68 said:
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Is this supposed to be an example of him being good or bad? Just typical coach speak, don't see anything unusual here. Better than Bz and Danny.

You know what he has that WF doesn't? WINS.
 
Nothing one way or another other than showing that he can effectively communicate.

Just pulled a random press conference off YouTube so people could judge for themselves.
 
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I would take Turner over Miller, his track record is consistently solid.
 
Those who think Turner would be a bad hire simply do not know enough about him. He worked under Odom, Mike Montomery, and Don Nelson. He has high major recruiting experience both at Wake and Stanford so he definitely understands the recruiting landscape. His NBA background is also a recruiting plus. UCI was an awful program when he got there (2 conference titles in 33 years). Took him 3 years to build the program, but in the last 6 years has won the league 4 times, finishing 2nd the other 2 years. That is consistent excellence. Plus his personality is not blah at all as some have suggested. He is actually a dynamic leader who has the type of commanding presence that can't be taught. He exudes confidence and swagger. I do not think there is any way he fails to be successful if we hire him. He returns us to the Odom/Prosser era level of success, possibly even higher. I would take him over anyone we have discussed except Matta.
 
89deac said:
Those who think Turner would be a bad hire simply do not know enough about him. He worked under Odom, Mike Montomery, and Don Nelson. He has high major recruiting experience both at Wake and Stanford so he definitely understands the recruiting landscape. His NBA background is also a recruiting plus. UCI was an awful program when he got there (2 conference titles in 33 years). Took him 3 years to build the program, but in the last 6 years has won the league 4 times, finishing 2nd the other 2 years. That is consistent excellence. Plus his personality is not blah at all as some have suggested. He is actually a dynamic leader who has the type of commanding presence that can't be taught. He exudes confidence and swagger. I do not think there is any way he fails to be successful if we hire him. He returns us to the Odom/Prosser era level of success, possibly even higher. I would take him over anyone we have discussed except Matta.
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He should be the #1 "realistic" candidate.

Matta would be a home run if he is healthy. Musselman and Cronin are long-shots but better. Shaka is sort of in his own lane. I put him a tier with Turner and Forbes, but it would be much harder to pull off.

I don't see it getting past Turner or Forbes type hire. If it does, this program is in worse shape than we thought and its not just Wellman. I'm assuming the Currie hire completely changes the landscape and maybe he can pull a rabbit out of his hat.

Or this DM contract is ridiculous and we are relegated to cheaper options, though I still think we could afford Turner or Forbes. Seems like Forbes would give his arm for this job given what he's been through.
 
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Turner has been at UC Irvine for 9 years. They are #75 on KenPom right behind Northwestern. Pretty low level game last night. Would have to win a game or two in the NCAAs to merit serious consideration.
 
ChrisL68 said:
No, we need to hire the best coach we can. Maybe it is Kelsey, but what in his resume would indicate that?

He took over a program that dominated the Big South in the prior decade and has made the NCAAs once in 8 years.
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Yeah, I don't totally discount our resident golf course designer outright like some but try to sift the wheat from the chaff with his posts. Kelsey's resume at this time is not ACC worthy. I caught the UNCG final against Wofford and came away impressed with Miller and UNCG. They're not the team that Wofford is, especially on offense, but I liked what they did defensively, and they hung in against a better team for 35:00+. We could do worse than Miller, though I could see him go to an A-10 level school with hopes of eying Roy's job in another 4-6 years. I've caught a couple of COC games and was impressed with Earl Grant. Rhoades has done a nice job at VCU, though has only been there 2 years. I've long loved McKillop's teams at Davidson, though he's too old and will die on the Davidson bench. I hadn't caught a Buffalo game before last night, but I gotta say I was not overwhelmed with them last night against an inferior Bowling Green team. I know it's a 1 game sample, and they did pull away late, but they seemed disjointed a bit on offense, and their D didn't wow me. As for Turner, his resume at Irvine is strong - I just wonder about how well he'd do with that big a cross country move up. And I seriously doubt Musselman and Cronin are realistic possibilities.

Is Zona going to be open? If so, they might be tough to beat out for Matta. But I think I'm revising my list to Matta being a pretty clear #1, then Shaka after that. Then in that next tier maybe Rhoades, Oats, Grant, Turner and Miller. Would be disappointed with Odom or Kelsey.
 
Also, I also don't get the Oats love. He's an interesting candidate, but why is he better than Turner or Forbes?

Turner's experience blows his away and he's only 4 years older. He actually knows WF, has recruited p6 and coached in the NBA under legends. He's kicking ass at Irvine.

Forbes recruited Top-10 classes at Texas A&M and Tennessee. Yes, he got bit by the Pearl violations, but if you read about it he protected Pearl for something he apparently wasn't even involved with (pictures of recruits with Pearl at his house for a cookout). FWIW, he received only a 1 year penalty but basically had to start from scratch. He went to a JUCO, kicked ass, worked under Gregg Marshall during the 35-1 and 30-5 season at Wichita State and is now very competitive at ETSU in a good mid major conference. He hasn't won less than 24 games in a season! He's a little bit older, but could easily coach for 10-15 more years.

Oats last gig was high school. Yes, high school. He was fortunate to get a D1 job with Hurley leaving. No doubt his results at Buffalo are great, but the overall sample size is small. Hurley set the table there.
 
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PaddyWF said:
Also, I also don't get the Oats love. He's an interesting candidate, but why is he better than Turner or Forbes?

Turner's experience blows his away and he's only 4 years older. He actually knows WF, has recruited p6 and coached in the NBA under legends. He's kicking ass at Irvine.

Forbes recruited Top-10 classes at Texas A&M and Tennessee. Yes, he got bit by the Pearl violations, but if you read about it he protected Pearl for something he apparently wasn't even involved with (pictures of recruits with Pearl at his house for a cookout). FWIW, he received only a 1 year penalty but basically had to start from scratch. He went to a JUCO, kicked ass, worked under Gregg Marshall during the 35-1 and 30-5 season at Wichita State and is now very competitive at ETSU in a good mid major conference. He hasn't won less than 24 games in a season! He's a little bit older, but could easily coach for 10-15 more years.

Oats last gig was high school. Yes, high school. He was fortunate to get a D1 job with Hurley leaving. No doubt his results at Buffalo are good, but he scares me.
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There's a lot in here that I'd argue with, but I am most curious about is why you think moving up from high school to having a top 25 team in 6 years is a bad thing. At worst, seems pretty elitist. But way more than that, just seems incredibly narrow-minded -- guys who can rapidly move up the chain due to their merit / success (not being part of an ole boys club) is exactly what you look for (not just in basketball). His rise (and the story and reasons behind it) are some of the biggest reasons he's so coveted.
 
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