Johnson and Alabama negotiating buyout. Their fans believe they can get Billy Donovan. But that doesn’t seem realistic for a number of reasons.
Avery Johnson Out @ Alabama
- Thread starter Carolina4
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Johnson built a very athletic team there. I thought he would do better.
I'm shocked they got rid of him; hasn't he only been there about 3 or 4 years?
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anon_n4c0cp5zhdxn7
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Mack should be able to transfer to USC without sitting out, right?
GandBinNC
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Surprising. Someone evidently has hacked his Wiki bio... it shows his middle name as "Dimwitt": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avery_Johnson
Now this is rich, "some were displeased because he had only been to the tournament once in 4 years". Let that sink in for a moment.
On that note, I will let you draw your own conclusions.
On that note, I will let you draw your own conclusions.
Yup - hired in April 2015. Records have been 18-15, 19-15, 20-16, and 18-16, but they only finished over .500 in the SEC once (2016-17). Alabama was nowhere near the dumpster fire when Anthony Grant left as when Horn left USC, though.
If Frank bolts for UNLV, I'd love to get him. He recruits very well, so even if it doesn't work out, the cupboard would be stocked for the next coach.
Well they are firing a coach so they are GUARANTEED to be better with the next guy. That's how it works right?
He got some one-and-done kids, but that's not the way to build a program. I understand the argument, "was he supposed to not recruit those kids?"
It's tough, especially for the Power 5 schools who aren't Kentucky, Duke, UNCarolina, Kansas when it comes to recruiting.
Do you go after the one-and-done kids or not?
Schools like Wofford benefit from knowing what kind of program they are and recruiting appropriately.
He was there 4 years, made it the NCAA one year, last year and made the NIT every year he didn't make the NCAA, seems like a upgrade for us
He coached at a Nike school, not an Under Armour school.. Kids follow the money. Nike is money.
The only thing that could help him recruiting wise here is he is black. I am not trying to be racial or prejudiced or start some kind of war. But, maybe some of the people that help "steer" the good players away from South Carolina would change their mind at that point. But then you still have the AAU coaches and the Nike money to contend with.
This is a mutual parting of the ways. Avery Johnson realized 2 years ago that Bama doesn't give a hair off a rats ass about basketball! He was looking for a way out before the season. After the season Bama is happy to let him go!
This is no slight to Under Armour as a product, but instead of contending, I wish our athletics department would get in bed with Nike and the AAU circuit. Is there a big time school, other than Kansas, having major success with another brand?
The thing about these SECs schools is that they are all in position to win a bidding war for a head coach if they want to, and win a facilities arms race as well. Basketball plays second fiddle to football, obviously, but the gap isn't as big as it used to be. And basketball is the sport trending upward with the under 30 crowd. People still talk like these SEC schools don't care about basketball, but then you have 5 or 6 SEC schools finishing in the top 25 in attendance every year, the TV money from basketball is fantastic and the coaches salaries across the conference are all top notch.
Billy Donovan is almost certainly going to be fired this year, as OK City falls apart again. If he wants to come back to college, I would not be at all surprised if an SEC school like A&M or Alabama wins the bidding war for him.
I dont know maybe he follows up more with the player, shows more interest, has better assistants who can recruit, establishes better relationships with the player, family and instate coaches, is more approachable, accessible.
We have seen several stories where instate top rated players say they dont hear much from us, yes Frank seems ok in his sit down and when player visits but what about after that?
I dont think the reason Avery recruits better is just his color, you forget their is a bunch of issues with the way Frank&Co does instate, when it comes to recruiting, is one of Avery's top assistants, 68 years old? Or is it a bunch of younger guys who can connect and sale, we are rolling in 68 yr old Perry Clark, Avery is rolling with Antoine Pettaway, that is another major reason in my opinion.
If anyone needs the young hungry super likable recruiters on his staff it is Frank to overcome some of his image/rep, and get the players to want to come, Frank's staff does not have that and Tanner doesn't bring it up or force him.
You want to change things, tell Perry to go retire before he turns 70 and hire Pettaway or some other assistant with recruiting chops, you have to surround Frank with these types since he isn't a stellar recruiter himself.
Now that all being said if you can use the Race card, can it help, absolutely, see Dawn Staley for an example
And before someone gets bent out of shape, its in black and white on espn's article how we got such a great women's class and see the recruitment of Laeticia Amihere, the Connecticut dude could not pitch that.
Amihere, who is fluent in French and is interested in studying sports management, said she thought convincing her mother to go with her Gamecocks plan was going to be the toughest component in her recruitment.
"Coming from Canada, my mom was concerned with the racism that we've seen in the States," Amihere said. "My mom raised me to be a powerful black woman.
"But Coach Staley was real with me. She talked a lot about how to make it in the world as a black woman."
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At places like Alabama, they don't mess around. They'll plug and play until they get somebody.
No but it seems like they’re willing to roll the dice and try to make the tournament more than once every four years. Looks like they have expectations of making it consistenty, a wild concept for some I realize
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Oh yea, there's money involved alright. Just like Ole Miss in football, you don't just all of a sudden start signing some of the best players in the nation seemingly overnight.
I could see Donovan end up with Florida or Providence again. He seems like the kind of guy that would do that. Of course neither of those jobs are open that I’m aware of. I’m not sure Alabama or A&M can wait long enough to pass on available candidates to get into a bidding war for Donovan IF he comes available. I think the bidding for Donovan would be next year. I wouldn’t feel good being Mike White if Billy D were sitting out there available, I know that.
Another part of these good coaches is being wise on where to take opportunities. Donovan advisesd Grant not to take our job when we offered. He ended up at Alabama. They fired Grant. Those two are close and I wouldn’t be shocked if that wouldn’t impact his decision. I don’t think Donovan really needs the $$. I’m assuming, if he comes back to the college game, it’ll have to be the right situation moreso than the right amount of $$.
There could be 4 coaching changes in the SEC...
- Vandy: Fired Bryce Drew after an 0-19 conference record (which is amazing when you consider the studs he recruited, yet still couldn't win)
- Texas A&M: Fired Billy Kennedy (been saying for awhile now that Rick Stansbury is the guy that gave them their best 2 years)
- Bama: Negotiating a buyout with Avery Johnson
- LSU: Suspended Will Wade and, since he could be indicted in the FBI probe, it seems like a longshot that he would be back (still not sure how Bruce Pearl is getting away with it)
Surprisingly, there have been no firings at all in the ACC, Big Ten, or Big XII.
Worked when we brought in McGuire, spurrier, Staley, Tanner.
We could have kept horn, Scott, for 20 yrs and wouldn’t have shown improvement
Nope. Your logic is backward. Its more like....we know this guy is not meeting our expectations and we don't believe with additional time he can, so we need to try another coach.
You act on what you already know.
Hopefully the one-and-done is going to end soon and high school players will be eligible again. Mirror the MLB rules, ideally; even the NHL draft rules would be better.
It's a fair point... lots of folks acting like we can go get whoever we want though.
I'd argue that McGuire was so long ago that it's hard to compare a coaching search today to that. As for Spurrier and Staley, they inherited programs that were either declining or just awful... I don't think this team is that bad. The Tanner hire is very comparable and if we could get a guy that's headed up a Power Five school already and had success? Sure. Pull the trigger. I don't think we can.
According to reports we are one of the most profitable athletic programs in the country. If we can’t get a coach we want with$$$. How can any other school?
Ok. Let's talk names. Who do you want that we can get for what we are paying Frank, which is top 25 money?
I guess part of what I'm saying is this... we hired Frank to take over for a coach who destroyed our program and talked what talent we DID have into transferring. Frank made the tourney once and had a good enough record to make it two more times. We made it to a Final Four and our first home game after that season when we unfurled our banner the stands were empty. I took half the day off of work and took my kids and it was... depressing... to say the least. I lost a lot of faith in our basketball fan base that night. I don't think we have the best reputation when it comes to basketball.
Now, if the problem is recruiting and we think that Frank's style of coaching has turned off local coaches and they are steering talent away from us, then make the case and show me some proof... because otherwise, I tend to remember that crowd of maybe 2000 people watching a freaking FINAL FOUR banner hung and I wonder what I would think of THAT if I were a talented in-state recruit.
I'm not convinced I'm right. I love the debate. I just think there are MANY factors that contribute to our lack of success that are going to still be here when Frank is gone, however he goes.
Now, if the problem is recruiting and we think that Frank's style of coaching has turned off local coaches and they are steering talent away from us, then make the case and show me some proof... because otherwise, I tend to remember that crowd of maybe 2000 people watching a freaking FINAL FOUR banner hung and I wonder what I would think of THAT if I were a talented in-state recruit.
I'm not convinced I'm right. I love the debate. I just think there are MANY factors that contribute to our lack of success that are going to still be here when Frank is gone, however he goes.
Leonard Hamilton from FSU. Mike Cronin from Cincinnati. Ed Cooley from Providence. Mike Hopkins from Washington. Greg Gard at Wisconsin. Bobby Hurley from ASU. Nate Oats from Buffalo. Eric Musselman from Nevada. All have lower compensation packages than Frank, among many others. Luke Walton, Billy Donovan, and Fred Hoiberg might enter the market.
Probably not a good time to switch coaches, with so many openings already known and some others likely. But any of the above would be fine with me right now if it happened. Donovan, would obviously be a dream.
If Frank does leave, I'd go after an assistant from a talented school that is nearby- Jon Scheyer, can recruit , young, bring a different style of basketball to columbia, players coach, has played and coached under coach k (like him or not, the man wins)
High revenue, not high profit. The AD spends almost everything, so if you need to spend even more money, you have to increase revenue or cut something else to avoid the risk of a deficit. The legislature is on UofSC’s back already over the mountain of AD debt.
The Legislature needs to worry about the pathetic state of our schools, roads and bridges.
