mslacat wrote: ↑Sat Mar 23, 2019 2:36 pm
What I want is a coach:
#1 Players Coach (enough hard ass, I want MSU to be a place players like to play for. Example looked 200 miles N.w. of Bozeman)
#2 An up tempo offence (even if they are losing they are fun to watch)
#3 Proven recruiter (recruit the country but occasionally take a chance on a Montana Kid)
#4 A coach who will engage (happily) with the fans, boosters and news folks
#5 Court decorum (never thought of this before about 5 years ago)
So go to work Committee, I will trust you to do your job, When you make your choice I will support it with Cautious optimism and fingers crossed.
I love this list. I think us old guys get too hung up on a hard-ass because that's what we were coached by. Some guys can still pull this off, but not many. Tom Izzo is getting absolutely crucified right now (by some, and defended by many others) for yelling at a player the other day. And that's Tom freaking Izzo. Everybody knows that's who he is and how he operates AND how much he cares about his players. But it still doesn't matter. We can argue about whether that's right or wrong, but that's the way it is these days. Gone are the days when kids just did whatever the coach said because he's the coach. Kids need to know a coach loves them, and kids need to have fun. I personally don't think there's anything wrong with that necessarily, but an athletic program needs to recognize that programs with these types of coaches are the ones succeeding. Granted, there are some blue blood programs with old-school coaches who are still doing it, but I don't know of any programs being built without being players-first.
And speaking of being players-first, most players want to play an up-tempo offense. They don't mind pressuring the ball and playing great defense, but only inasmuch as it translates to transition opportunities, IMO.
Proven recruiter is a no-brainer and should be on anybody's list.
I like the last two a lot too. I think a guy who's "cool as the other side of the pillow" will do well. Somebody who can glad-hand donors and not piss off media members will be important. MSU needs more from donors, plain and simple. And donors want to get behind something they believe in and somebody they see doing good things. I think we could get behind a person who's just an impressive human being. Most successful people we know are impressive in more ways than just their expertise at their job. They're highly disciplined, they're charismatic, they're energetic, they're intelligent, and they're cool under pressure.
MSU is a really tough job. Montana is irrelevant in high school basketball on a national scale, as much as I hate to say it. The facilities are not awful, but nobody is making a decision based on Brick Breeden Fieldhouse. Football is able to get some country boys from out of state because they love to fish and hike and hunt or whatever, but those kids don't play basketball. If MSU is able to land somebody good, they won't be here long, because everybody will know they did something incredible in a place that's hard to do anything. We can just hope for coaches moving the needle steadily and for each coach to leave MSU better than it was when they got there. I believe Brian Fish did that and I believe the next coach will do it too.