Shaka Smart turns down UCLA

[GGGG]

Kareem wants a shot

http://espn.go.com/blog/los-angeles/ucla/post/_/id/13696/kareem-expresses-interest-in-ucla-job

"I certainly would be interested in coaching the team," he said. "It would be great to have an opportunity to restore the program to what it was. Not in terms necessarily of winning, but just having the guys get their degrees and learn about how to play the game of basketball. UCLA is still putting out fine scholars but the basketball program is suffering a little bit"

That's cute.

Why doesn't he coach a D3 team somewhere then?

[hairy worthen]

That's cute.

Why doesn't he coach a D3 team somewhere then?

I heard some rumblings of Kareem as the next Bucks coach. I can not see how that guy would be a good coach of anything. Just something about him that screams "Not a leader"

[Niv Berkowitz]

I think that Shaka and Few and Buzz' comments yesterday have shown that the playing field has really leveled as far as coaching D1 goes.

Look at the money "mid-major" school coaches are getting. And also "perceived" mid-majors (MU/Buzz). I mean, guys are getting $1-2M/year and that's salary. We don't know all the shoe, post-game-show, camp, sponsorship money is piled on top of that.

The point being, you don't HAVE to be at a so-called "traditional" big-time school to be heavily compensated anymore. You can be at a smaller school where the expectations aren't as high, you are beloved, you don't have as much pressure, you have a solid "brand" of the type of ball/style you play, and, you are paid a ton. In essence, you are "happy".

I'm not going to be surprised if the Shaka's, Stevens', Williams' of the world don't go anywhere. Goes back to my argument from last week - why should they? Step back and think about it from a reasonably objective standpoint.

And I think that this is also great for college hoops. Great young coaches are building their own legacies at schools that didn't "traditionally" have them. And the one thing in common is that those schools mentioned above do NOT have football breathing down their neck. That also helps. With all the money at stake for football, there's still a lot on the line for schools that have hoops as their primary athletic source of income.

[Marquette_g]

Just so I'm clear, threads on our coach taking a new job are relegated to the Super Bar, whereas posts about what the VCU coach is doing stay here.  Color me confused.