2023 Coaching Carousel

[Herman Cain]

Jonas Hayes reportedly to Georgia State

https://247sports.com/college/georgia/Article/Georgia-mens-basketball-Jonas-Hayes-to-be-new-Georgia-State-head-coach-per-reports-185802532/

[Warrior Code]

Not sure Mulaney will be on board...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aiqKK4ysI7g

I love this bit.

YOU SPENT IT ALREADY?!

[Avenue Commons]

Shoot, all they have to do is hit up their famous Irish comedian alumni.  Have Jim Gaffigan and John Mulaney split it.  Easy Peasy.

You forgot Nick Kroll, whose dad I believe is a billionaire.

[Hards Alumni]

You forgot Nick Kroll, whose dad I believe is a billionaire.

He is, but I respect the way he made it.

[Skip Intro]

You forgot Nick Kroll, whose dad I believe is a billionaire.

I'm distantly related to Nick Kroll by marriage, and am expecting my windfall very soon. 

On the topic of Georgetown alums and buyouts, I wonder what the alum engagement in the bball program is like compared to a school like MU?  Obviously they've had a lot of success over their program's history, but I get the sense that basketball may be of much less importance to the school's national relevance, so the donations of wealthy alums go elsewhere.  And, as others have said, Ewing was king to many of their alumni that do care about the bball program, particularly those at an age where multi-million dollar donations are possible.  Paying to get rid of someone you idolized is a lot different than paying to get rid of an outsider you never really liked to begin with.

[Avenue Commons]

I'm distantly related to Nick Kroll by marriage, and am expecting my windfall very soon. 

On the topic of Georgetown alums and buyouts, I wonder what the alum engagement in the bball program is like compared to a school like MU?  Obviously they've had a lot of success over their program's history, but I get the sense that basketball may be of much less importance to the school's national relevance, so the donations of wealthy alums go elsewhere.  And, as others have said, Ewing was king to many of their alumni that do care about the bball program, particularly those at an age where multi-million dollar donations are possible.  Paying to get rid of someone you idolized is a lot different than paying to get rid of an outsider you never really liked to begin with.

There’s a strange disengagement about hoops with Georgetown alumns. Unless they’re winning. But losing just elicits s shrug. At least the ones I know who otherwise are big sports fans.

[DegenerateDish]

Steve Lavin your new USD head coach.

[Herman Cain]

Steve Lavin your new USD head coach.

https://mobile.twitter.com/JonRothstein/status/1511824252827226113?cxt=HHwWgsCyibyJivspAAAA

[Avenue Commons]

Interesting thing about Lavin is he didn’t coach between 2003-2010 and 2015 and the USD gig in 2022 if I’m reading into this correctly.

Coaching career (HC unless noted)
1988–1991
Purdue (assistant)
1991–1996
UCLA (assistant)
1996–2003
UCLA
2010–2015
St. John's
2022–present
San Diego
Head coaching record
Overall
226–133

[DFW HOYA]

On the topic of Georgetown alums and buyouts, I wonder what the alum engagement in the bball program is like compared to a school like MU?  Obviously they've had a lot of success over their program's history, but I get the sense that basketball may be of much less importance to the school's national relevance, so the donations of wealthy alums go elsewhere.  And, as others have said, Ewing was king to many of their alumni that do care about the bball program, particularly those at an age where multi-million dollar donations are possible.  Paying to get rid of someone you idolized is a lot different than paying to get rid of an outsider you never really liked to begin with.

This is a good question on many levels.

Georgetown isn't a "basketball school" in the way it might be at MU or Creighton. For a number of years, in some ways which were subtle and in ways less so, Georgetown has steered its public image away from basketball---not as a result of scandal or revolt, but more towards benign indifference. You can visit georgetown.edu and struggle to find any athletics imagery on the site. The archetypal Georgetown student of 2022 is multicultural, a polyglot, and someone looking to solve the world's problems through think tanks and consulting firms, not through the NBA, e.g., the next Jen Psaki as opposed to the next Mac McClung. Those of us who spent our college years yelling at refs and discovering kegs inside the perimeter of the gym aren't the message it wants to send today.

To that point, athletics has a different feel at GU than other Big East schools. Basketball has never been part of the alumni DNA because John Thompson kept his distance from them and because John did it, his predecessors inevitably follow. You won't see coaches at alumni gatherings and even former players are a rarity. As such, alumni giving directed at basketball is far less than what you would expect, outside of the declining season ticket base, and even alumni of the 1980's aren't riding the Ewing train. His biggest supporters exist not with alumni but within a University which is adverse to change of any kind--Georgetown has had only three university presidents since 1976, just four head football coaches, and just four head basketball coaches. There's an entire column on this which I won't restate, but this quote is important: "Candor is not easy at a University where the power of the bureaucracy falls somewhere between the Pentagon and the Roman Curia, a culture that prefers [talk about Ewing] kept out of public consumption and handled "in the family". But it's no longer enough to assume that this approach is the only way forward. It's also not enough to run a major college program on a business model created in 1972."

Finally, there is this factor: today's Georgetown students have no culture of winning. It hasn't been ranked in the Top 25 or won a post-season game (NCAA or NIT) in seven years, and has won a total of two NCAA and one NIT tournament game since 2008. Much like the nearby Washington Redskins/Commanders (who haven't sniffed the NFC championship game since 1991), you can only sell the past so long until students lose interest altogether.

Georgetown doesn't want to be DePaul but they keep kicking the can on Ewing. All it does is delay the rebuild, but therein lies the problem--some at the University don't see need for a rebuild because, well, it's only basketball.

[The Hippie Satan of Hyperbole]

Lavin is St. John’s most successful post Carnesseca coach by winning percentage.

[The Equalizer]

This is a good question on many levels.

Georgetown isn't a "basketball school" in the way it might be at MU or Creighton. For a number of years, in some ways which were subtle and in ways less so, Georgetown has steered its public image away from basketball---not as a result of scandal or revolt, but more towards benign indifference. You can visit georgetown.edu and struggle to find any athletics imagery on the site. The archetypal Georgetown student of 2022 is multicultural, a polyglot, and someone looking to solve the world's problems through think tanks and consulting firms, not through the NBA, e.g., the next Jen Psaki as opposed to the next Mac McClung. Those of us who spent our college years yelling at refs and discovering kegs inside the perimeter of the gym aren't the message it wants to send today.

I think this is an interesting perspective on the situation at Georgetown and not far off from the point I tried to make a few months back:

My perception is that over the last 40 years, the student body has slowly transitioned from students happy for a traditional college experience (and excited over a top-level basketball program) into a pre-professional development program for those looking to change the world through government, associations, and NGOs.  And for that type of student, there is far too much relevant experience to be gained in DC and doesn't leave time to get all that into the basketball program.

I think it's that the type of student that represents Georgetown today simply doesn't care about athletics.  For too many students, when it comes down to whether you want to head to watch the Hoyas take on Providence or Creighton, or go listen to a speech from some climate activist on how to mobilize global action, the speech is going to win out every single time.

My comment was not well received here at the time--if only I called the student body polyglots instead of pre-professionals. 

I also thought this was an interesting comment, but I had a different conclusion.:

Georgetown doesn't want to be DePaul but they keep kicking the can on Ewing.

Specifically, on this point, I think you've got the wrong Chicago school as the comparable. Certainly, they don't want to be DePaul, but I'd suggest they wouldn't mind Northwestern. And I would bet there are more than a few in positions of power that would be happy if Georgetown went the University of Chicago route.

[Herman Cain]

Lavin is St. John’s most successful post Carnesseca coach by winning percentage.

I never understood why they canned him

[TAMU, Knower of Ball]

My comment was not well received here at the time--if only I called the student body polyglots instead of pre-professionals. 

DFW was one of the ones who didn't receive your comment well

Not buying it. It's closest admissions peer is Duke--how's that pre-professional student body doing with athletics?

Give people a good product and students will respond. Georgetown students ringed the soccer field three deep for NCAA playoff games this fall and helped charter buses to Cary, NC for the semifinals. Could they do better? Sure. Football is under-supported and women's basketball is only a rumor to most students. Baseball? Forget it.

[Skip Intro]

I also thought this was an interesting comment, but I had a different conclusion.:
Specifically, on this point, I think you've got the wrong Chicago school as the comparable. Certainly, they don't want to be DePaul, but I'd suggest they wouldn't mind Northwestern. And I would bet there are more than a few in positions of power that would be happy if Georgetown went the University of Chicago route.

Northwestern is a good comp for Georgetown.  Their fortunes as an institution definitely don't rely heavily on athletic success.  They're elite academically, so the enrollment and the money will always be there.  On the other hand, schools like MU, Creighton, Xavier, Butler, Gonzaga, etc. see their fortunes rise and fall based on basketball alone, so that's where they invest.  I think that we expect Georgetown to emerge from the BE basement, but I'm not sure that it will actually happen, and there may not be an urgency for it to happen. 

[MUBurrow]

Was Lavin's studio work for fox sports based out of NY or LA?  Just curious how much of a geographic move the SD job is for him.  He's from San Francisco, and obviously has his experience at UCLA, so he's familiar with the area and SD is great.  Wonder what, if any, recruiting connections he has these days. 

I also wonder if this will open up studio time for Crean.  Lavin was on a ton for fox sports, and Crean would seemingly be able to fill a lot of that coach analyst role pretty seamlessly.

[MU Fan in Connecticut]

Was Lavin's studio work for fox sports based out of NY or LA?  Just curious how much of a geographic move the SD job is for him.  He's from San Francisco, and obviously has his experience at UCLA, so he's familiar with the area and SD is great.  Wonder what, if any, recruiting connections he has these days. 

I also wonder if this will open up studio time for Crean.  Lavin was on a ton for fox sports, and Crean would seemingly be able to fill a lot of that coach analyst role pretty seamlessly.

I thought he was in the LA studio for the Big East games unless he was calling the game.

[The Equalizer]

DFW was one of the ones who didn't receive your comment well

Ha--I wasn't going to call him out on the change of opinion! Maybe it really was referring to the student body as  "pre-professional" as opposed to "polyglots."

[Mr. Nielsen]

Was Lavin's studio work for fox sports based out of NY or LA? 

FOX Sports is out of LA.

[Herman Cain]

St. Peters gets a replacement for Shaheen. Bashir Mason, Head Coach at Wagner.

https://nypost.com/2022/04/11/saint-peters-hiring-bashir-mason-as-new-coach/

[MUBurrow]

St. Peters gets a replacement for Shaheen. Bashir Mason, Head Coach at Wagner.

https://nypost.com/2022/04/11/saint-peters-hiring-bashir-mason-as-new-coach/

That's a heck of a poach as far as these schools' hires go.

[Herman Cain]

Evansville Coach Todd Lickliter canned by new AD.

Article lists Crean among rumored successors …….🤓

https://www.indystar.com/story/sports/college/butler/2022/05/05/evansville-basketball-fires-todd-lickliter-butlers-david-ragland-target/9663239002/

[4everwarriors]

Crean sucks

[Billy Hoyle]

I never understood why they canned him

Lav had lost some passion after the cancer and his dad’s death, and his contract was up. Then a new President came aboard and fell in love with the idea of the greatest player in school history (and local dude) running the show. Thought Mullin could do even better. That President is gone now, particularly after how he and the school’s General Counsel ran their own coaching search after Mullin was pushed out.

[Scoop Snoop]

Lav had lost some passion after the cancer and his dad’s death, and his contract was up. Then a new President came aboard and fell in love with the idea of the greatest player in school history (and local dude) running the show. Thought Mullin could do even better. That President is gone now, particularly after how he and the school’s General Counsel ran their own coaching search after Mullin was pushed out.

Lavin has been a class act on Fox. I'm happy for him that he got another chance at coaching at San Diego.

I loved his sense of humor at Fox. After he congratulated a coach on winning some big games, the coach returned the compliment and said something like "C'mon Lav. You've had some big wins too." Lavin responded quickly with "Not often enough! That's why I'm here."

After Lavin strongly criticized Howard's actions after the Wisconsin game, his colleagues played an old tape of a coach getting tossed. It was young Coach Lavin. He laughed along with them and added that he was not at all proud of getting tossed.