2024 Coaching Carousel

[MHettel]

To me, it’s inconsequential because I think there are better things that miller and staff should be doing than coaching in the nit. The roster obviously is going to go thru a pretty big overhaul, so to me it’s much more important to hit the portal early and hard. Not saying that x is “better” than the nit but with this roster, this year, I think imo its best to not play in it

I agree in part. But what needs to be considered is that only the bad teams are finished with their seasons when the portal first opens. So yeah an early start sounds like a good idea but you kind of want to see what dominoes fall before committing. I think this goes for players as well. They may enter the portal early, but prefer to wait and see if they can get a shot with a team that is making a deep tourney run and doesn’t even know it’s own roster status….

[profson]

I will think about it after we win the next two games as otherwise we are likely ineligible.

[XUGRAD80]

It’s usually later in March, after their teams are done playing, before the better players enter the portal.

[D-West & PO-Z]

I posted before, Miller was a poison hire last year for any school but us. It made sense for us and him. It’s still that way now, this season’s results have been poor but his coaching is too notch. He doesn’t have the right make up on the bench.

South Carolina offered him more money than we did.

[D-West & PO-Z]

So, assuming OSU wants to fill its position as quickly as possible to get a jump on the portal, it would stand to reason that a guy like McDermott could kind of play his way out of contention if Creighton makes a deep NCAA run. But that, of course, is an unknown. How would OSU approach his candidacy? Wait for him or move on? That’s not a decision they make late, that’s one they make now.

From that angle, it would appear that Miller could be available early. However an NIT bid could be out there as well.

So, take your pick assuming an NIT bid is forthcoming.

Decline the bid and get to work on the portal early, while exposing Miller?

Or, take the bid, extend the season, and risk missing out on the first few days / weeks of portal activity?

Presumably, Miller has input on whether to accept a bid or not. Would declining a bid signal that we plan to hit the portal, or that Miller wants to hit it with OSU?

Alternatively, does accepting a bid add protection against an OSU overture? Would we want that, at the cost of a later portal focus?

(Broader question about why the portal opens when many of the best teams are still playing. Who’s idea was that?)

Why does playing in the NIT (or the NCAA tourney for that matter) prevent a team/coaches from going after guys in the portal. I am not following that logic.

[MHettel]

Why does playing in the NIT (or the NCAA tourney for that matter) prevent a team/coaches from going after guys in the portal. I am not following that logic.

Well, time management comes to mind. Coaches work non-stop during the season. There won’t suddenly be more hours in the day to scout and engage with portal targets. We likely will have players on our team last year that none of our coaches have even heard of. They don’t just check their stats on ESPN and send them an email with a scholarship offer. They scout the players by watching film and making calls to people they know and trust.

Second, how do you prioritize you portal targets if you don’t know what your roster requires. I would guess there are a few players that have revealed their intentions to miller, but I would fully expect that if a guy like Claude, as an example, decides to enter the portal that it would be a bombshell on Miller. A surprise like that could change the entire portal strategy.

My guess is Miller has meetings with every player right after the season ends and presses them to reveal their intentions. This would also be the same meeting where Sean would reveal his intentions about the player remaking on the team.

These are not discussion you would have with active players in a current season.

So, how’s that?

[XUGRAD80]

MHET….i have to disagree with your above statement to a point. I do think that there are ongoing discussions with players throughout the year as to their intentions, and especially with players on a team in Xavier’s position.

I am equally confident that X coaches are already putting together a file of possible players to target once the portal opens. Many of those are going to players that they once recruited or have been on teams that X has played. Many others are going to be “steered” to X by coaches that the current staff has some ties with. I believe that Olivari stated that X reached out to him on the day that he went into the portal. If that is the case then they had to have had some thoughts and knowledge about him before then.

Putting film together on possible new players is one of the things that the video staff does in preparation for the actual coaches sitting down and watching it. For example, they may be told to gather all the film they can on the top possible graduate transfer rebounders in the country. They will reach out to the various contacts they have on staffs around the country and gather up all the film they can. They will then create highlight films for the top players that the coaching staff can then evaluate without having to sit down and watch complete games. This is all part of time management too. A recruiting coordinator will use their own staff to facilitate the search and work to make it effective and efficient, which allows the assistant coaches to spend more time on actual coaching of the current players.

Your correct that time management, especially in-season, is a very important part of the coaching staff’s job. But it’s not like in the old days where 2-3 assistant coaches did everything. There are now staffs of paid and unpaid people assisting the assistant coaches.

[UCGRAD4X]

There's going to be competition for the best players. Have to get a jump on the competition somehow. That makes having this kind of staff increasingly more important.

[Xville]

It’s usually later in March, after their teams are done playing, before the better players enter the portal.

Just not true. The better players are not typically on the better teams which is why they are transferring.

Knecht
Dickinson
Cam spencer
Olivari
Ike


Etc. etc. not saying good players from good teams don’t transfer but this whole “I’m transferring just for more nil money” is baloney. If Michigan was actually good. Dickinson would not have transferred.

I know that’s a tangent but that narrative that people are trying to spin hasn’t really happened and most likely won’t.

[xubrew]

It’s usually later in March, after their teams are done playing, before the better players enter the portal.

It's usually later in March because unless a player is graduating they cannot enter the portal until later in March. Unless a player is graduating at the end of this year or their coach has left, the earliest players can go into it this year is March 18.

While there isn't a rule against it, outside of the Ivy League I cannot recall an example of a player going into the portal while their team was still playing in a postseason tournament. That doesn't mean that it hasn't happened, but I can't think of when it ever did. The Ivy League does not allow for post-bachs or grad students to play, so I do recall some of their seniors going into it, but that wasn't really noteworthy since everyone knew they were going to have to transfer anyway.