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Where will Tommy Amaker be coaching next season (the BC is terrible thread)

FreeStateDeac said:
Donahue took over a disaster zone, much like Bzz. Drawing any conclusions about either Donahue's future success -- or Amaker's -- from one game is ludicrous.
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Not sure anyone was drawing conclusions based on just the BC / Harvard game this week. Mine question about Amaker was based on Harvard's current season resume, plus their remaining schedule for 2012. It seems highly likely that he'll be in the limelight all year. Although I admit I know nothing about the strength of the Ivy League this season. Obviously Harvard now has a target on their backs so if they don't take care of business during their regular season we might not be thinking about Tommy anymore in March. But if I had to bet I'd say Harvard will win the Ivy and be in the tourney with lots of people moving them forward in their brackets... and certainly lots of anaylsts giving them coverage... and certainly lots of coaching carousel rumors arising about Amaker.
 
The other sleeper team that will get a lot of the limelight will be Murray State. It's very possible they could enter The Dance undefeated.
 
RJKarl said:
Totally immaterial and he did leave CU better than he found it.....
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Pretty damn material when you're evaluating a hire. And Colorado went to the NIT with 3 years of [Redacted] building and a lottery pick he lucked into. Awesome!
 
CU is probably the worst bball location in that conference and among the five worst BCS conference bball jobs.

I know you don't want to deal with that or that he was given a directive to get rid of the problem players immediately and then rebuild, but it is true.
 
IIRC didn't Amaker decline another job this past offseason and saying that he was quite happy staying at Harvard and building a program?
 
Brad Stevens fits Duke like a glove, which is a real shame because I really like him.
 
TBR said:
Pretty damn material when you're evaluating a hire. And Colorado went to the NIT with 3 years of [Redacted] building and a lottery pick he lucked into. Awesome!
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Lucked into? Give me a break.
 
Fuck Your Couch said:
Donahue took over a disaster zone inasmuch as he lost all their top commits and a bunch of their current good players and didn't make the tournament with a 1st round NBA early entry and a bunch of seniors as the supporting cast. Then he proceeded to fill the gaping hole of open roster spots with 2 and 3 stars.
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+1
Hate Bzz if you want, but Donahue is a joke.
 
Strickland33 said:
Lucked into? Give me a break.
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Yes. Like when Brad Stevens lucked into Gordon Hayward. Both were under the radar players who came in and a contributed immediately in a big way. Not quite the same as the typical recruitment of a lottery player.

RJ, Colorado is a tough place to build a successful program. Jeff [Redacted] did not build a successful program there. A successful program doesn't miss the NCAA tournament with a lottery pick.
 
So if Hayward and Burks would have been worse and just good 4 year players, would you say Stevens and Bz lucked into them?
 
Fuck Your Couch said:
So if Hayward and Burks would have been worse and just good 4 year players, would you say Stevens and Bz lucked into them?
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What I am saying is they lucked into them being as good as they were yet not noticed for having that potential by the recruiting services/major programs. No doubt that [Redacted] saw Burks's talent, but I bet he didn't expect him to be as good as he was.
 
RJKarl said:
The other sleeper team that will get a lot of the limelight will be Murray State. It's very possible they could enter The Dance undefeated.
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And so it has been spoken. Murray State will lose their next game, and Jamie Skeen will laugh while making it rain with his NBA paycheck.
 
Actually Murray State won by a large margin tonight in their next game after my post...but that's as accurate as your misrepresenttion of what I said about Jamie.
 
What I am saying is they lucked into them being as good as they were yet not noticed for having that potential by the recruiting services/major programs. No doubt that [Redacted] saw Burks's talent, but I bet he didn't expect him to be as good as he was.
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Well, here it is from the horse's mouth (or, rather, as told to Luke Winn):

Consider the case of Alec Burks, who left Colorado after two strong seasons and could be the first shooting guard off the board, somewhere in the 10-14 range. At the start of the summer of 2008, before his senior year of high school in Grandview, Mo., he had zero scholarship offers. He had just joined a fledgling AAU program, Spiece Mo-Kan Elite, that had yet to build a reputation on the grassroots scene. When Mo-Kan's chairman, Matt Suther, tried to tip off some mid-major coaches he knew about Burks, the response was tepid.

"There were some Missouri Valley [Conference] coaches I know -- and I won't name names, because I don't want them to get bad pub -- who saw Alec, and for whatever reason, never put an offer on the table," Suther said. "I still give them s*** all the time about that."

Kansas State showed interest in Burks after he attended a camp in Manhattan, and Suther also made a pitch to Colorado assistant Steve McClain. Still, it took Buffaloes coach Jeff [Redacted] stumbling upon Burks at a July camp outside Kansas City for his limited, major-conference recruitment to truly begin. "I was in a gym with no air conditioning, and just one other coach in the stands," [Redacted] said. "And I was there to see another player, a 6-foot-9 guy who didn't end up impressing me.

"But Alec was on the same court, and I remember him making a move right in front of me on the baseline, where he took a lazy dribble left, and then quickly did a Tim Hardaway crossover, drove baseline and dunked. That caught my eye. He made a few more moves like that; I started following him, and I've been following him ever since."

The other coach had daydreamed through Burks' brilliance, and [Redacted] managed to get Burks to commit to the Buffaloes in October, then sign early that November. He proceeded to have a monster senior year, winning a state title and being named the Gatorade Player of the Year in Missouri. "I went to see Alec [during that season] with an assistant, and we just looked at one another and said, 'We've got ourselves a gem,'" [Redacted] said.

Read more: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2011/writers/luke_winn/06/23/nba.draft/index.html#ixzz1i6VdXb8T
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I tend to agree with your viewpoint, but I'm not sure a coach offers a player that they don't feel can be an asset to the program. Whether or not that player develops into an NBA player while at said program, I feel, has quite a bit to do with the staff and the opportunities at said program. If [Redacted] (through this and other articles) is to be believed, however, then he knew Burks was going to be something special when he recruited him.

One could also say, though, that Burks lucked into [Redacted].

Consider the following:

If Alec Burks went to UCLA, for instance, as Chace Stanbeck and Mike Moser had, then I can imagine that things would have possibly ended up quite differently. Instead, he went to Colorado where he was able to earn playing time from day one on a team without a point guard (thus allowing him to play both on and off of the ball as a freshman), but with proven creator/shooter on the perimeter (Cory Higgins) who took the pressure off of his trademark mid-range/slashing game. His freshman numbers piqued NBA interest and his Big 12 resume exposed his game to scouts. He followed up on a good freshman year was his outstanding sophomore year. The rest is history.

So, sure, [Redacted] lucked into Burks, but by that same token, Burks lucked into [Redacted].

Fuck Your Couch said:
Did he luck into CMM because we offered when he was a 2-star?
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CMM is now a 4-star and he'll arrive on campus as such. Burks was a 2-star when it was all said and done. Andre Roberson, another high-profile Bzz-era-recruit was NR. There is a difference, I think, between other guys who fell through the cracks (Morrison, Fredette, Hayward, and Faried) and late-risers like CMM and Rountree.
 
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Coaches often go to see one player and end up with another. It's not as rare as some think.
 
he was worried about Miami getting bball probation as well.
 
I've always felt like Ivy League programs weren't getting the most of their name recognition in hoops. Obviously, it would be hard for them to build viable football programs. The name recognition of the league and most member institutions and definitely the quality of the degree should help them in hoops recruiting. If they really invested in develop a hoops reputation, it seems like they should be able to get up there with the Horizon League at least.

I definitely think Amaker could build a great program at Harvard. Of course, if he does too well, he'll be the obvious choice to replace K.
 
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