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Larranaga to Miami

Buncha old dudes in the ACC. Bz is what, the 6th oldest now?
 
Clearly a bridge hire, which is a fine thing for a school to do. Not earth-shattering or anything, but a fine thing to do.

As far as the comparisons to our hire ... at best, we're hoping for [Redacted] to somehow evolve into a bridge hire. Which, you know, would buck anything and everything else accomplished on his career resume.

Le sigh.
 
Martin is going to have to really sweet talk his peops in manhattan Kansas. It's like he got caught sleeping with his old high school girlfriend
 
Can't say I'm all that impressed. He's just too old. Should have stayed at Mason.
 
I kinda understand it. Larranaga wanted a bigger pay day before he retired and Miami has some good talent coming back and they wanted to make a run to make the job more attractive next time it opens up. I'm not in love with the hire for them, but I can see where it would make sense.
 
Don't be fooled by his age. Larranaga will inject serious energy in to that program.

It may take a few years to have true success on the court because he relies heavily on experienced players. First couple years will be a crap shoot. He will need to get his guys in there and seasoned, which will take 3 years minimum. But he is a solid, solid coach. He may even be able to land some seriously big time recruits at Miami, he's never been in a position to recruit that is this attractive before. But he's had plenty of national exposure, and is extremely likeable.
 
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TwentyONE said:
Don't be fooled by his age. Larranaga will inject serious energy in to that program.

It may take a few years to have true success on the court because he relies heavily on experienced players. First couple years will be a crap shoot. He will need to get his guys in there and seasoned, which will take 3 years minimum. But he is a solid, solid coach. He may even be able to land some seriously big time recruits at Miami, he's never been in a position to recruit that is this attractive before. But he's had plenty of national exposure, and is extremely likeable.
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That really works both ways. He's never recruited at this level so who the hell knows how he'll do recruiting high level talent. This hire seems to have really limited upside given that he's 62.
 
The decision to stay at Mason after the 2006 FF makes 0 sense now. That was the time for him to cash in. He could have had any number of higher profile / paying jobs.

Though I guess the possibility exists that the Pres and/or AD at GMU might be on the verge of leaving. Merten has been Pres there since 1996. If the Pres or AD is on the way out, then at age 62 I can understand moving on for the final paycheck rather than the unknown of a new administration.
 
Chill22 said:
The decision to stay at Mason after the 2006 FF makes 0 sense now. That was the time for him to cash in. He could have had any number of higher profile / paying jobs.

Though I guess the possibility exists that the Pres and/or AD at GMU might be on the verge of leaving. Merten has been Pres there since 1996. If the Pres or AD is on the way out, then at age 62 I can understand moving on for the final paycheck rather than the unknown of a new administration.
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That's what still puzzles me. He got offered the job at his alma mater (Providence) for more than what Miami will be paying him. And I'm sure he could have gotten an even better job than that if he wanted to.
 
Thanks.

ryalaman said:
That's what still puzzles me. He got offered the job at his alma mater (Providence) for more than what Miami will be paying him. And I'm sure he could have gotten an even better job than that if he wanted to.
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I checked out the GM roster to see if they had a lot of guys leaving, but they only had one senior leaving.
 
Some posters on the Maryland board reporting both that (1) Larranaga apparently had a really shitty relationship with GMU's AD that was getting progressively worse and (2) GMU's president--whom Larranaga supposedly had a great relationship with--plans to retire at the end of the year. Assuming any of this is true, looks like there could be internal, administrative reasons why JL would leave now rather than back in 2006.

Oh, and as Ph said, don't underestimate the appeal of south Florida to a guy who is 5 years nearer to retirement than he was in 2006.
 
KidA23 said:
Some posters on the Maryland board reporting both that (1) Larranaga apparently had a really shitty relationship with GMU's AD that was getting progressively worse and (2) GMU's president--whom Larranaga supposedly had a great relationship with--plans to retire at the end of the year. Assuming any of this is true, looks like there could be internal, administrative reasons why JL would leave now rather than back in 2006.

Oh, and as Ph said, don't underestimate the appeal of south Florida to a guy who is 5 years nearer to retirement than he was in 2006.
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If he's got a promising experienced assistant coming along with him, that's probably a decent plan.

Unrelated, but my department has been back and forth courting a very well-regarded scholar in our field in his 70s who basically wants to work near his vacation home in Sarasota. His ideal situation is to come to campus one day a week to teach a grad class and meet with grad students and then spend the rest of the week chilling on the beach. We've had a tough time working out a plan for him to actually work instead of just semi-retiring and collect a paycheck.

I could see Larranaga figuring out a way to enjoy "retiring" in FL while getting a taste of the big leagues.
 
Gary Parrish of CBS Sports reported this a few hours ago:

On the surface this move makes little sense considering Larranaga had rejected overtures from power-conference schools before. Combine that with the fact that the core of his 27-win team was returning, and there's no obvious reason for Larranaga to leave one of the best CAA jobs for one of the worst ACC jobs ... except for money. Larranaga was scheduled to make between $525,000 and $700,000 at George Mason next year (depending on bonuses). His deal at Miami, a source said, will be worth more than $1 million annually. That combined with what a source described as a rocky relationship with athletic director Tom O'Connor helped pushed this over the edge, and, the source added, it got "nasty" at the end.

Link: http://gary-parrish.blogs.cbssports.com/mcc/blogs/entry/6271764/28731914?source=rss_blogs_NCAAB
 
Chill22 said:
Though I guess the possibility exists that the Pres and/or AD at GMU might be on the verge of leaving. Merten has been Pres there since 1996. If the Pres or AD is on the way out, then at age 62 I can understand moving on for the final paycheck rather than the unknown of a new administration.
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The president of GMU is leaving. He had a very, very successful tenure at Mason and definitely draws a lot of water, so to speak. I think they are even considering erecting a statue of him, although I dont know if that rumor was serious. But regardless, he did a hell of a lot for the unviersity. Not sure how much things will change when he leaves, but its safe to say that it is the end of an era.
 
PhDeac said:
If he's got a promising experienced assistant coming along with him, that's probably a decent plan.
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Chris Caputo is a very promising assistant on Larranaga's staff. He has great ties to the DC area and Maryland thought about hiring him (and nearly did) just last year. Larranaga taking him to Miami would be big... it would also keep him away from VT and thats always good because fuck VT.
 
Thanks, ryala. I had actually heard of him before but didn't make the connection when I made that post. Not sure where I heard of him. I don't remember him from the MD business last year.
 
There can be a lot of worse places to be for your last job than Miami. Hell it saves moving there.
 
This hire is interesting... kind of like it. He is older but had some nice seasons at Mason, including a solid first round win this year (before the drubbing to #1 seed Ohio State).

3 NCAA appearances in the last 6 years, advancing twice past the first round and of course the amazing final four run. Definitely an upgrade over Haith IMHO.

Didn't know that he was an assistant at Virginia for 7 sevens... so ACC territory not completely unfamiliar, although that was over 20 years ago.
 
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