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A Coach To Keep An Eye On?

DeacLaw05

DeacLaw05

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In the odd chance we need a new head basketball coach in the near future...

How about Matt Matheny at Elon? He is currently in his fourth season after taking over from Ernie Nestor. The cupboard was pretty bare when he got there, but he has improved them every season.

2009-2010: 9-23 overall, 5-13 SoCon
2010-2011: 14-17 overall, 5-13 SoCon
2011-2012: 15-16 overall, 9-9 SoCon
2012-2013: 19-10 overall, 12-5 SoCon

Elon has already clinched the North Division title this season, and with one more win will have the first 20 win season since Elon has been Division I. The will be the second seed in the conference tournament behind Davidson. Matheny is a Davidson grad and was an assistant under Bob McKillop for 16 seasons. He's got a lot of experience, but he's still only 43 years old. They currently start four juniors and a freshman (the juniors represent Matheny's first recruiting class). Regardless of what happens this season, they will be the favorites in the SoCon going into next year.

He's going to start getting looks from bigger programs pretty soon, I'd say.
 
DeacLaw05 said:
In the odd chance we need a new head basketball coach in the near future...

How about Matt Matheny at Elon? He is currently in his fourth season after taking over from Ernie Nestor. The cupboard was pretty bare when he got there, but he has improved them every season.

2009-2010: 9-23 overall, 5-13 SoCon
2010-2011: 14-17 overall, 5-13 SoCon
2011-2012: 15-16 overall, 9-9 SoCon
2012-2013: 19-10 overall, 12-5 SoCon

Elon has already clinched the North Division title this season, and with one more win will have the first 20 win season since Elon has been Division I. The will be the second seed in the conference tournament behind Davidson. Matheny is a Davidson grad and was an assistant under Bob McKillop for 16 seasons. He's got a lot of experience, but he's still only 43 years old. They currently start four juniors and a freshman (the juniors represent Matheny's first recruiting class). Regardless of what happens this season, they will be the favorites in the SoCon going into next year.

He's going to start getting looks from bigger programs pretty soon, I'd say.
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works for me. fulfills all my wants. can keep him for 20 years, has potential, bold choice.

either we get busy winning or we get busy dying. we need bold action. it is ok to fail, but its not ok to not try. we've been drowning for so long. time to go all in.
 
Absolutely not. We have to big or go home. We can't take a chance that someone who has never recruited close to this level can do it.
 
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RJKarl said:
Absolutely not. We have to big or go home. We can't take a chance that someone who has never recruited close to this level can do it.
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This is the completely wrong attitude. Anyone "big" wouldn't touch our program with a ten foot pole. The correct approach is exactly the type of up-and-comer the OP mentions.
 
You couldn't be more wrong. Wake still has a decent brand. The ACC will once again be the #1 bball league. It's all up to whether Wellman will pay the money. If he's willing to pay, we can get an A List coach.

We can't be LOWF or it will become reality.
 
After [Redacted], Matheny looks like our very own Wooden.

While I would love to toss enough money to lure an established young quality coach (Shaka, Stevens, etc) I just don't buy that anyone established or high profile would be interested in WFU. 3 years ago, maybe, now, not so much. Maybe us fans are not the best judge of this and perhaps our lack of national media coverage has helped to protect our image but forgetting the [Redacted] fiasco, I'm not so sure established coaches would want to go to a program who fires a coach for winning 20+, losing in the 2nd round and reaching #1 overall all in his 3rd season as coach. Being the #1 BBall conference may help, but it may also hurt. The trend with up and coming coaches is that there is more security in the mid majors where the pressure isn't as high and the money's almost as good.
 
WF does not have to go "big" with the next hire. One of the major problems with the Bz hire was the Wellman excluded young candidates from mid-tier or lower-tier schools (not counting Brad Stevens as he would have been a big" hire coming off an NC game appearance).

Duke did not go big when it hired K from Army, Villanova did not go big when it hired Jay Wright from Bucknell, Butler did not go big when it promoted Brad Stevens as an assistant, Wisconsin did not go big when it hired Bo Ryan from Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Florida did not go big when it hired Billy Donovan from Marshall. The next hire needs to be the best man for the job, and it's ass backwards to exclude candidates based on the amorphous definition of "big". Could care less if the next hire is a big name, he just needs to be the best candidate.
 
I'm on the Gregg Marshall bandwagon. Only negative I see is slow pace, but if we win I don't give a damn.

1zlvk82.jpg
 
Pilchard said:
WF does not have to go "big" with the next hire. One of the major problems with the Bz hire was the Wellman excluded young candidates from mid-tier or lower-tier schools (not counting Brad Stevens as he would have been a big" hire coming off an NC game appearance).

Duke did not go big when it hired K from Army, Villanova did not go big when it hired Jay Wright from Bucknell, Butler did not go big when it promoted Brad Stevens as an assistant, Wisconsin did not go big when it hired Bo Ryan from Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Florida did not go big when it hired Billy Donovan from Marshall. The next hire needs to be the best man for the job, and it's ass backwards to exclude candidates based on the amorphous definition of "big". Could care less if the next hire is a big name, he just needs to be the best candidate.
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With K , you are talking a completely different era and the fact he had Bob Knight (the #1 coach in the country at the time) pimping for him.

As to Wright, first of all he coached at Hofstra not Bucknell. Next he had been an assistant at UNLV and Nova prior to becoming a HC.

The guy at Elon has ZERO high D1 experience.
 
Stormfury said:
After [Redacted], Matheny looks like our very own Wooden.

While I would love to toss enough money to lure an established young quality coach (Shaka, Stevens, etc) I just don't buy that anyone established or high profile would be interested in WFU. 3 years ago, maybe, now, not so much. Maybe us fans are not the best judge of this and perhaps our lack of national media coverage has helped to protect our image but forgetting the [Redacted] fiasco, I'm not so sure established coaches would want to go to a program who fires a coach for winning 20+, losing in the 2nd round and reaching #1 overall all in his 3rd season as coach. Being the #1 BBall conference may help, but it may also hurt. The trend with up and coming coaches is that there is more security in the mid majors where the pressure isn't as high and the money's almost as good.
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You'd be wrong. If we tossed $2.5-3.5M at a coach they will come. Wake is still a premier program. We were #1 in the nation in the late 00s. Coaches understand this.

Yes, we can afford that kind of money. The new contracts are much richer. Plus we are probably averaging about 8500 paid with [Redacted]. Even if we get 12,5000 paid at a net of $25/ticket to the program, that will net us about $1.6-1.8M more in revenues.

If don't pay, we deserve what we get.
 
PhilliesDeacs said:
This is the completely wrong attitude. Anyone "big" wouldn't touch our program with a ten foot pole. The correct approach is exactly the type of up-and-comer the OP mentions.
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also, a "big" coach would leave in a few years, getting us right back where we are now.
 
Duncan said:
also, a "big" coach would leave in a few years, getting us right back where we are now.
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No he wouldn't. The ACC will be head and shoulders the #1 bball conference in the country. If he gets us consistently into the Top 15, there is nowhere to go.
 
There's no one right way to do it. You could hit a homerun hiring someone who has had success as a head coach at a high level (like KU hiring Self from Illinois) or it can bomb (like Michigan hiring Amaker away from Seton Hall, or Sampson at IU). Izzo had never been a head coach before and that worked out pretty nicely for MSU. Marquette hired Crean with no head coaching experience and then Buzz Williams after him. Of course there are any number of guys that were elevated from the assistant to head coach that didn't succeed (Quin Snyder, Gaudio?). Similarly, if you hire a guy with low or mid major experience, it could be K, Self (to Illinois), or Bo Ryan, or it could be Dan Monson or Todd Lickliter.
 
Izzo had been Jud Heathcoate's top assistant for a dozen years and his handpicked successor. That's a bad analogy/

Crean had been an assistant at Michigan State and Pitt.

A guy from Elon who has never coached anywhere major is not a risk we can afford to take at this point.

With the expansion of the ACC, we can't take much of a chance right now or we're dead.

And we aren't LOWF like many think.
 
seems your best option still is Greg Marshall although I think it would require a Sweet deal to get him.
 
DeacLaw05 said:
In the odd chance we need a new head basketball coach in the near future...

How about Matt Matheny at Elon? He is currently in his fourth season after taking over from Ernie Nestor. The cupboard was pretty bare when he got there, but he has improved them every season.

2009-2010: 9-23 overall, 5-13 SoCon
2010-2011: 14-17 overall, 5-13 SoCon
2011-2012: 15-16 overall, 9-9 SoCon
2012-2013: 19-10 overall, 12-5 SoCon

Elon has already clinched the North Division title this season, and with one more win will have the first 20 win season since Elon has been Division I. The will be the second seed in the conference tournament behind Davidson. Matheny is a Davidson grad and was an assistant under Bob McKillop for 16 seasons. He's got a lot of experience, but he's still only 43 years old. They currently start four juniors and a freshman (the juniors represent Matheny's first recruiting class). Regardless of what happens this season, they will be the favorites in the SoCon going into next year.

He's going to start getting looks from bigger programs pretty soon, I'd say.
Click to expand...

Observations:
1) He's at a good age and experience level.
2) Proven winner and program builder.
3) Definitely a coaching upgrade.
4) Might not have full slate of assistants that he wants to bring. So if Wellman still wants to keep one of our current assistants, that might be a possibility. (I am sold on Battle's recruiting skills. And I love Rusty from his player days but I'm still not sure that he brings what it takes as an assistant coach.)
5) If we don't start winning, with his SoCon experience he can ease Wake's transition from the ACC to the SoCon. (I hope that is a joke...)

Questions:
1) What's his post-season tournament resume?
2) What's his late season record?
3) Does he win the press conference or at least hold his own?
4) What's his public persona with students, fans, alumni?
5) Is he diplomatic enough to sell himself and his ideas to the AD (Wellman)?
6) And after he's hired, is he man enough to stand up to the AD (Wellman) when he needs to?

Of course some of those questions assume that Wellman will still be the AD which I hope is not the case?
 
I'd feel more comfortable hiring somebody from a mid-tier conference than a low-tier conference.
 
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