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VeevlandBrowns

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Everything posted by VeevlandBrowns

  1. VeevlandBrowns

    College Football Thread

    Harbaugh cried after beating Michigan State?
  2. VeevlandBrowns

    College Bball Thread

    If you’re paying attention to the DOJ college basketball case, you’ll note that the $125K is in line with the numbers being tossed around as having been paid to players via shoe companies. In some cases more, in some cases less than what players allegedly received but in the ballpark. I think this won’t be the easy decision some are already claiming it is, though. Yes, you get paid without any hassle and you get access to “NBA infrastructure, as well as a bevy of off-court development programs geared towards facilitating and accelerating their transition to the pro game.” However, there are some questions… 1. Brand. The reality is that no serious number of people are going to watch the GLeague, with or without elite HS players coming straight into it. That’s just reality. Might it shift over time? Sure, but that will take a LONNNNNNGGGG time. The calculation for many will be that the year of playing at a high profile school for a year will more than offset $125K. For everybody? Nope, but I believe absolutely so for some. So if you want name recognition, I’m not sure the GLeague is the best way to go about it. 2. More importantly, there’s the issue of the draft. Keep in mind, when someone takes this offer, they’re not signing a two way or playing in the NBA at all that year. The entry rule for the Draft remains unchanged. So they’re going to be earning their draft position by playing against men 5-6 years older than they are (in most instances) who are desperately trying to earn a look from the NBA, same as they are…except they’ll be more physically and mentally mature in most cases. Again, in the long run, are you better off going this route and possibly being exposed or just simply shown to be not ready for grown man levels of play, or are you helped more by playing in college for a year? I think that’s going to be a calculation with multiple answers, depending upon the situation. To me, it boils down to this…does the $125K “move the needle,” given the downsides (worse conditions for training/playing in most instances which negatively impacts draft status, etc.)? I’m not sure it does but we’ll begin to find out soon enough.
  3. VeevlandBrowns

    College Bball Thread

    This is conducted now by The Athletic and the Columbus Dispatch (used to just be the latter, IIRC). 28 media members from around the conference coverage area participated. Order of Finish 1. Michigan State 2. Michigan 3. Indiana 4. Nebraska 5. Purdue 6. Wisconsin 7. Maryland 8. Ohio State 9. Minnesota 10. Iowa 11. Penn State 12. Northwestern 13. Illinois 14. Rutgers That’s relatively close to my own. The top 3 are inexactly the same order. I have Purdue 4th, Wisconsin 5th but it’s close. They’ve got Minnesota a shade higher than I do but if everything breaks right and they stay healthy, that kind of finish is certainly possible. They’ve also got OSU much higher than I do…we’ll see if Holtmann makes me look bad two years running. I just think they go from a very experienced core to one where they’re relying on a lot of youth and I think it’s going to show up. MSU was 1st on 22 of 28 ballots and 2nd on the remaining 6. That’s a pretty definitive #1 according to the media guys. Personally, while I expected MSU to be the consensus favorite (and they are), I also think the league has less at the top than it had a year ago, so it doesn’t feel much like last year’s preseason, even though the view in terms of order of finish is pretty similar. The bigger surprise to me was seeing Winston as 1st Team All Big Ten. Not that I don’t think he can end up there but I thought there might be a little more support for Cowan from Maryland. Haven’t seen a vote total so maybe it was close. Good for him getting that kind of recognition and I absolutely think he could make good on it.
  4. VeevlandBrowns

    Corruption in College Basketball

    Interesting show cause ruling out of CA... http://www.latimes.com/sports/sportsnow/la-sp-todd-mcnair-show-cause-20181009-story.html Essentially, a state court in California ruled that the NCAA’s “show cause” penalty for a USC assistant football coach is an “unlawful restraint” on his pursuing a lawful profession and thus struck the penalty down. I won’t be surprised to see the NCAA pursue this further, because at the moment it removes one of its go-to moves in penalizing individuals associated with NCAA violations. A couple of quick points on this… 1. Not surprising at all that this happened in California. For any of our attorney members who do any type of employment/contractor related work which touches that state, I’m sure you’re familiar that state law there is construed against employers and any restrictions (non-competes, non-disclosures, etc.) in the most extreme fashion of any state in the nation. So, under that theory, not surprising to me that a judge there found that penalty to be an unlawful restraint. I question whether we’ll see that anywhere else but we’ll see. 2. It is of at least tangential interest in regard to the current college basketball case, in that at least one of the assistants under indictment was also a USC coach. Prior to this, I would have expected that individual to have received a show cause at the bare minimum, with more penalties to the program also possible. Now? Well, we’ll see.
  5. VeevlandBrowns

    NBA Thread

    Precarious time for Towns. This is the first point I've seen him start to receive some criticism...this time last year, he was the Golden Boy and the future of NBA big men. Now it seems some are doubting a bit. Reading that story, I flashed back to that Kobe interview in a parking lot somewhere when he tore into Andrew Bynum...I'm not a Kobe hater but I don't think that guy was ever the same and he certainly never reached his potential. That's not all Kobe's fault by any means but it might light even more of a fire under the TWolves to get Butler out of there, before things escalate and maybe it does start to impact Towns negatively.
  6. VeevlandBrowns

    UFC/Boxing Fans

    That Ferguson-Pettis fight had more blood than I’ve ever seen in a UFC fight. Too bad Pettis broke his hand to end the fight — that was an incredible fight.
  7. VeevlandBrowns

    Music Thread

    In watching a few commercials over the weekend, two music background drops jumped out at me. First of all, I think I heard a Rolling Stones song in a commercial for the first time, ever. It was a cover version of "Sympathy for the Devil" for what I think was a car commercial. (A heavy cover version of the song. Sounded pretty good, actually). Made me think, "Well, I guess the Stones don't have enough hundreds of millions of dollars individually, so might as well sell portions of their catalog for another few million." ** There used to be a loss of street cred for artists who "sold out" and allowed their music to be used in commercials. But I don't think it carries the same stigma that it used to. And it's become an effective way for bands to get their music heard by the masses (google search interviews with John Mellencamp about this topic. After selling a song for a car commercial, he said, "it turns out that General Motors is a better record company than Columbia or MCA.") [He simply said he wanted people to be aware that he had a new song out, a new album, and he had no faith in the record company promoting his work, and no faith that his new songs would get airplay. He lamented that Tom Petty had released what John thought was a great album one year earlier, but no one knew anything about the album because old acts weren't getting any airplay.] So the Stones, 50-plus years into their career, have "sold out." Some would say they've been selling out, in more ways than one, for more than 40 years. Dabbling in disco probably disappointed their fanbase in the late '70s. I don't think "cred" is anything Mick Jagger and the guys are worried about at this point. And I guess I don't care one way or another. ** On the other side of the coin, I'm sure some of you have heard of a new blues/hard rock band from Frankenmuth called Greta Van Fleet. They are young guys, early 20s, and they sound like early Led Zeppelin. Almost exactly like Led Zeppelin. This sound has given them an instant following with older rock fans who have precious, precious few new bands to listen to, because that genre of music has become an endangered species. So Greta Van Fleet is a wonderful breath of fresh air for tons of older fans, and I'm assuming that at least a few younger fans are appreciating them to. So this past weekend, I noticed a commercial for Fanatics.com sports apparel, and in the background is Greta Van Fleet's song, "Highway tune." ** So it struck me that here's one band, the Rolling Stones, 50-plus years into their career, one of the top two most famous bands ever, and they are just now "selling out." And here is the apparent torch bearer of blues/rock, brand new Greta Van Fleet, "selling out" with basically their first or second song. I thought it was interesting and ironic. Feel free to disagree or challenge anything that I posted, because I'm by no means an expert on music. I just call 'em as I see 'em.
  8. VeevlandBrowns

    College Bball Thread

    Certainly fared well at Texas Southern, given the challenges. 4 NCAA trips in 6 seasons...in a one bid league, that is a great run. Which happens first: IU plays in a regional final or UD plays in the 2nd round? Big Dance not NIT. I like the Davis hire but UD has a hard row to hoe in that league. Even with Valpo having moved on, you still have strong programs in Oakland, Northern Kentucky, the two Wisconsin schools, etc. I think IU has a shot to get to the second weekend this year. It all comes down to whether they can get their point guard situation addressed, but at least they have options. Their post combination will be one of the better ones you'll find anywhere and Langford gives them a major talent on the wing. I'm not betting on an Elite Eight but I do think they've got a shot at it this year if everything breaks the right way. I think they are the team in the Big Ten with the best chance of pulling away from the pack. I've got them 3rd because I'm not a believer that everything will come together entirely for them, but if it does, there's enough material on hand to have a very good season.
  9. VeevlandBrowns

    Colts / NFL Game Thread

    I like the Lions. I like the Lions the way they are. If they changed and became great, I might not like them anymore. It would seem strange. So I like the Lions as they are. They were horrible last night, and that makes life seem correct and comfortable.
  10. VeevlandBrowns

    College Bball Thread

    Former MSU commit Eric Devendorf is coming home (sort of) to Michigan. He's been an assistant strength and conditioning coach at Syracuse, where he ended up playing. He's leaving to become a "special assistant" (not an "assistant coach") to Mike Davis at UD. Looks like he may be involved in scouting, film work, etc. For those who may not recall, Devendorf was a high level prospect out of Bay City (#22 nationally per RSCI) who originally committed to MSU and then de-committed, leaving to play his last year of HS at Oak Hill and then committing to Syracuse. He was known as something of a hot head and head case as a prep and even collegiate player but it seems that he's matured a lot since those days, so good for him getting a shot as a coach in his home state.
  11. VeevlandBrowns

    College Bball Thread

    M lost again in Spain this past weekend. This time to Jovenut, a team playing in the highest rung of the Spanish professional league, 85-79. Good experience for them. I expect M to be the consensus pick for #2 in the conference behind Michigan State. Tough to draw many conclusions from what they did over there. They faced some good competition without Beilein. Didn’t play well offensively at all, which (to the probable surprise of many) was something of a rerun of last season…that was not a great offensive team. Yet, they were facing professionals. From what I can gather, the opposition they played was a tick below what MSU faced in Italy three years ago, when they played the national teams from Russia and Georgia along with a second tier Italian team. If you’re looking for positives, the Canadian freshman forward was right at the top of their scoring chart. Charles Matthews seemed to put up good numbers. Negatives would be that they got nothing from any of the other freshmen (and they’re going to need Brandon Johns at least, and probably more than just him, to step up next season in a big way) and Xavier Simpson didn’t show signs of any real improvement offensively.
  12. VeevlandBrowns

    College Bball Thread

    M in trouble around shoe resale by players? http://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/24344541/north-carolina-tar-heels-warn-others-wake-ncaa-violations-shoe-resales UNC just suspended 13 football players for doing this. Article does not clarify which sport is potentially impacted. Seeing some talk around the Internet that it may involve "double digit" number of M athletes between both football and basketball. No names yet, obviously. Interestingly, Marquette has already released a statement saying that no "current players" have sold shoes and thus they feel safe in declaring they're in the clear. Notice what that doesn't say..."past players."
  13. VeevlandBrowns

    College Football Thread

    A popular OSU site (11 Warriors) has an interview with Smith's mother where she (as one would expect) denies her son's guilt. More importantly, they also talked to his ex-wife's mother, who supports her former son-in-law's version of events and casts doubt on her daughter's story. Both claim that she told them multiple times she would "take Zach down and take Urban Meyer down with him." None of that is dispositive, of course. You'd expect his mother to defend him and mother and daughter could have 1000 issues between them leading to this. However, at a minimum, when the mother of an alleged victim is saying her daughter is lying...that has to give one at least a second of pause, right? My bottom line on this, and why I haven't posted a word about this whole thing until now, isn't very different than my feelings about some of the OTL stuff in regard to MSU. When you are dealing in these kinds of dynamics...sexuality, families, etc...finding "THE TRUTH" is not as simple as most want it to be. I would think if any group of people would understand this, it's the Michigan State fanbase. McMurphy's story looked awful and maybe it's ultimately mostly or even entirely correct in what it says and what it suggests (two different things, of course). However, much as in the MSU stories, in the fullness of time we start to see other voices, other perspectives and other facts begin to emerge which suggest that maybe it's not quite as cut and dried as it first appeared. My conclusion? Apply rational, reasoned skepticism with regularity and you won't go wrong. https://www.elevenwarriors.com/ohio-state-football/2018/08/95121/lynn-bruce-zach-smiths-mom-alleges-that-courtney-smith-vowed-to-take-zach-down-and-take-urban-meyer-down-with-him
  14. VeevlandBrowns

    College Bball Thread

    Mike Davis with an interesting staff at UD... Tracy Dildy, former head coach at Chicago State and I believe worked for Davis as an assistant at UAB (also assistant at places like DePaul, Auburn and Ole Miss). Chicago guy. Rod Strickland – Longtime NBA player. Was in an administrative role under Cal at Memphis and worked at USF as an assistant for 3 years. Also hiring Mike Davis Jr. On paper, at least, it would appear to be a staff with some recruiting chops. Nothing in terms of local background, though, which makes me wonder if UD is going to continue to cede Michigan kids at their level to Oakland and go a bit more national in scope.
  15. Not a big surprise. Some may recall there was an incident last winter where Keion missed a game. Some sense that there wasn’t a meeting of the minds between coach and player/parent.
  16. VeevlandBrowns

    NBA Thread

    Would be very interesting to see them add Cousins along with Leonard, as has been rumored. Lakers would likely be cutting against the current grain, trying to win with a frontcourt dominated team as opposed to perimeter players. I'm reasonably convinced that at some point, the pendulum will swing back to big men (the right big men, of course) being used to exploit inefficiencies and weaknesses of the small ball approach. Whether that group would be the one to successfully do it is anyone's guess.
  17. VeevlandBrowns

    College Bball Thread

    I'm surprised how many jobs Davis has lost. Every time I see him coach a game, he seems pretty darn good to me. Fife's Indiana team was good because it was good on defense first and foremost. That's a sign of good coaching. Anyone can lose out in the Indiana pressure cooker, but I'm surprised he didn't gain traction somewhere else. Detroit might have stumbled onto a good hire, here. Older coaches who operate at cruising speed sometimes gain a second coaching wind at the mid-major level. He'll need some help from good assistants, but this could work.
  18. VeevlandBrowns

    College Bball Thread

    I grew up as a little kid on the U of D Titan bandwagon. I can now start rooting for them again, for the first time in a long time. Back in the late 1970s, there weren't many college basketball games on TV, especially on week nights. But if you watched Channel 7 Action News at 5:30 p.m. in Detroit, you'd see U of D highlights from the night before, back when Vitale and Duerod and Terry Tyler and those guys were doing their thing. It made an impression on me. Seemed like a happenin' place.
  19. VeevlandBrowns

    NBA Thread

    Former blue chipper Brandon McCoy went undrafted and signed a FA deal with the Bucks. As much as anything, it was reflective of the NBA’s shift away from the traditional center. McCoy showed no signs of a perimeter game and his defense in space was seen as highly questionable. That’s enough to leave you undrafted today. Remember, this is a guy who was borderline Top 10 nationally in his class just one year ago.
  20. VeevlandBrowns

    College Bball Thread

    He led a seemingly great life. Celebrate it.
  21. VeevlandBrowns

    2017-18 Season Expectations

    The Hoosiers are my #10 team. Last year offensively - 4th in the conference. 108.1 offensive rating. Defensively, not quite so hot, 111.2 points per 100 possessions, 12th in the Big Ten. Rebounding went much of the same way. 2nd in offensive rebounding, 9th in defensive rebounding. They’re in a similar position to Illinois in some ways. I have them ahead of Illinois because I like their interior better. I think they’re a bit more balanced. I think they have the same problems a year ago, which starts at the point. They were 4th in adjusted offense, which is low compared to what it would have been with even competent point guard play. Josh Newkirk is back who shot better than I thought he would but he just isn’t a guy you feel great about running your offense. They also have Devonte Green, who is Danny Green of the Spurs younger brother. I’m not convinced he’s the answer at point guard. Robert Johnson’s return was big. Johnson is the kind of guy I think Miller can reach and who can play the two way game he is likely to want to emphasize. I think the problems are the same. It’s almost a blessing that somebody like James Blackmon and even Thomas Bryant too for that matter opted not to come back. That might sound strange because you can look at what they did offensively, and say boy that’s a lot to replace, and it’s true. If I’m Archie Miller, I know that no matter what happens, I don’t have a Final Four team. So I want to get started in getting my program installed. We know from watching him at Dayton that defense is going to be part of that equation. He is not going to want to play defense the way Tom Crean’s teams did. There’s no way. I think with guys like Blackmon and Bryant, it would have been harder to establish the culture that he wants to put in place if you’ve got guys like that around. They are almost better off in my mind with more of a clean slate. You move out guys that would have been dominant presences on this team who aren’t going to necessarily buy into the way you want to play and you start over. He’s not starting from scratch. It wasn’t a scorched earth deal. That’s what I mean a guy like Robert Johnson I think fits what Archie Miller wants to do going forward a little better than James Blackmon. I think point guard is going to be an issue. I think interior depth could be an issue, although I like their young guys Davis and I guess he’s a junior now, Juwan Morgan. I think Morgan is pretty good and De’Ron Davis could be an all-conference player at some point. I really liked him at times for Indiana. At times I thought he was better than Bryant. He was certainly more willing to do what a post typically does. There’s enough here where Indiana is going to take some people out on given nights. They’re not devoid of talent. This is what I was alluding to when I talked about the league being deeper. When you’re talking about Illinois as an 11th place team, and Indiana as a 10th place team, or even Ohio State as a 12th place team, all of those teams have individual players who can get it done. They’re not devoid of talent completely. It’s just they don’t have as much or pieces fitting together as well as some other teams. I think Archie Miller is going to find out pretty quickly that the level of expectation at Indiana is high. He probably gets this year as a mulligan and after that, ha, you better be making the tournament. But I think he has a reasonable chance at success and we’re going to see an Indiana team that plays differently than we have become accustomed to for the last decade. I think there’s going to be more of an emphasis on defense. There has to be. His Dayton teams were generally pretty tough. They played that way with a bit of an edge. I wouldn’t be surprised to see more of that. And maybe a little less reliance on three point shooting and high octane offense to go along with that.
  22. VeevlandBrowns

    College Bball Thread

    Just started reading "Boys Among Men" by Jonathan Abrams on a recommendation from a buddy in Grand Rapids. Great so far...the book starts with Moses Malone and works its way through all aspects of the prep-to-pro period in the 90s and 00s, starting with Kevin Garnett. Anyway, I'm up through Tracy McGrady and what's so striking is how EVEN the shoe companies seemed to be during that period, in large part due to Sonny Vaccarro working for Adidas and getting in early with guys like Kobe, McGrady, etc. I don't know what the exact split was in those days among elite players but I'm guessing it was something close to 60/40 or so. Nike had its July camp and Adidas inherited the ABCD camp started by Sonny, and I believe the talent was well distributed between the two. MSU has landed a ton of players from the Mustangs AAU program, which is Adidas affiliated...Jason Richardson, Kelvin Torbert, Paul Davis, Drew Neitzel and a bunch of others. Even as recently as a few years ago, Adidas teams had a lot of talent. Up until last year the Mustangs were holding their own with Michigan kids...Appling, Denzel, Derrick Walton, and the bulk of the best 2017 players were with them two seasons ago. I remember seeing Indiana Elite about 6-7 years ago when they had guys like Zeller, Kenny Kaminski, Yogi, etc. in their program. Those days are gone. I just took a quick look at the RSCI Top 20 for 2017 and if my math is right, 17 of those kids are playing for Nike teams. UA has 2 and Adidas a whopping 1. Stop the fight, because it's over. The Swoosh won. I don't have any particular gripe with Nike and I don't think any of the shoe companies are worth rooting for (or against) but I do worry when any one entity gets a virtual lock on an element of the game. It can't be healthy for anybody.
  23. VeevlandBrowns

    College Bball Thread

    @JSHoosier They run a lot of good stuff, and they do it well, good screens, cuts, sending the offense through the high post. Varied. That matchup zone is really hard to teach, hard for kids to pick up, and hard to execute. Dana Altman was masterful in the tournament. He's a good, solid coach. Not a Hall of Famer.
  24. VeevlandBrowns

    NBA Thread

    I really think it makes sense for both. Boston building on Hayward, Irving, Tatum, and future picks. Cavs get rid of a guy that wanted out. Got IT, a good defender in Crowder, and the Nets unprotected pick. I can see it from both angles.
  25. VeevlandBrowns

    College Bball Thread

    As I went to rank who I think the top 10 college basketball coaches are heading into this year, what you can't judge with a stat is what a guy does with talent. I think even in basketball that's a little bit easier to assess when you've only got five guys on the court at a time and 12, 13, 14 guys on a team which is a little bit harder to do in football. I'm gonna list my top 10 coaches in order, my honorable mentions, and some guys that are hard charging, firing up the radar quickly and then an overrated list. So my top 10 in order are: 1. Coach K - and I don't think it's close 2. Tom Izzo - and I do think it's close especially two through five 3. Jay Wright 4. Bill Self 5. John Calipari Here's where I jumped into a little bit of other metrics with the eye test: 6. Gregg Marshall 7. Sean Miller - who did let us down by not winning it all last year 8. Tony Bennett 9. Roy Williams - no matter what list you look at you won't find Roy Williams lower than my list 10. Chris Mack First couple guys out in the honorable mention: Mark Few, Dana Altman, Tommy Amaker and Mike Brey. Those aren't necessarily guys in that order but those are guys I considered moving into that top 10. I think Mark Few is a guy I really, really considered hard and it came down between Few and Chris Mack for me and it really wasn't close because I think Mark Few would have been in my 15-20 range which is kind of where John Beilein is prior to this last year but he really hard charged his way to the top. I think the eye test for me comes down to times as a coach where I felt if you gave me that guys team I know that I can beat you. One of the guys I feel really gets a raw deal is Bill Self. First of all, I always admire consistency. I always put a ton on the regular season. I understand what March Madness is and it's my second favorite sporting event ever as well after the NBA Playoffs. But I think sometimes we lose sight of how consistent you have to be over the course of a four-month grind to hang a banner for winning a regular season championship. Him doing so 13 consecutive times in the Big 12 in addition to doing it two times back-to-back in the Big Ten at Illinois is insane. Yup he's lost when he's been a higher seed but he's earned those higher seeds. I think more of Bill Self. He's better at Xs and Os than he gets credit for. He's good at player development and he also recruits really well. The two guys I think are Xs and Os geniuses on this board are Gregg Marshall and Chris Mack. Those are two guys where you could take Grand Valley's squad, put them in the MAC and Gregg Marshall and Chris Mack could put them in unbelievable positions on both ends of the floor. Chris Mack with the changing defenses. Gregg Marshall with just really tough man to man. And then offensively, both guys do an amazing job of putting their teams in position to make plays. That's why Gregg Marshall is kind of higher on my list than he would be on any other list. John Calipari at five you could argue that's a little low. But for me with the talent that he's had he's got to win it all more. It's not always about that for everybody and it might seem that I'm talking out of both sides of my mouth when I don't have Roy Williams that high for a guy with the glory of being a multiple banner winner. But when you have the type of teams and the type of talent that John Calipari's had and I don't care that you've only had them for one year, everyone has guys for one year now, that's how long Coach K is having them. When you have this kind of success at Kentucky, he's 249-53, and dominated the way he's dominated in the SEC in I think year nine and you've only won it all once, I think you've got to cut down banners. I think that's why I have him at five after Jay Wright and Bill Self. Sean Miller is just a guy that I feel like it's just right there. I feel like he's on the brink more than anyone else. I think he'll have his best team that he's ever had this year. You also can't forget his crazy success at Xavier. He was 120-47, made an Elite Eight and Sweet 16. I think he's a guy who is just really on the verge. Tony Bennett is doing it at a place where it's not super easy to do it. He has not had the post-season success that he would have liked to have. Winning the ACC in back to back years is something at that school which is really strong - back to back 30 win seasons and what was his problem in those two years? He ran into two really good Michigan State teams that knocked them off both times. So I'm a little bit higher on Tony Bennett I think. The Roy Williams thing to me is a tough one. I get it. I think he's coached 28 years, somewhere in there, 27 or 28 years at Kansas and North Carolina and I think if you gave anyone on my list 28 years at Kansas and North Carolina, they would win just as many championships as Roy Williams has won. He's coached in the best places that you could possibly ever coach and I actually think that I could cite very specific years where he should have won it all where he didn't win it all. I think there's a fair amount of criticism that comes with that. My guess is him being at Kansas all those years and never winning it all is probably something that they would agree with too. I just think if you give Gregg Marshall Roy Williams' teams, I think if you give Chris Mack Roy Williams' teams the types of things you might see would be a little bit different. Honorable mention guys: Mark Few knocking on the door, Dana Altman really knocking on the door just because he's done it at places that are not easy at all. He coached in Manhattan, Kansas, he coached Creighton, and now he's doing it at Oregon which basketball wise is not an easy place to do. He's won the PAC 12 the last two years, made it to a Final Four. I just can't see a scenario in a few years where he's not in my top 10. Another weird name to be in there considering what he did at Michigan and the struggles he had there is Tommy Amaker. I think in the next 5-7 years he's going to continue to have Harvard in a really good spot. He went to four NCAA Tournaments in a row. I think he's a guy if you look it will be interesting to see if he stays in that job, or he if stays in that job too long or he takes another crack at one of those big jobs. As a student of the Xs and Os side of this and given my belief in Chris Mack, I think if it wasn't going to be Chris Mack for the IU job, it seemed like it had to be Archie Miller. Archie Miller made a lot of sense. I don't know if we'll ever find out if Chris Mack was truly the runner up. Chris Mack is not a great recruiter and I'm sure that maybe made some of the fans down there a little bit leery. If someone else could pick the team, and he could do what he does best, I think that's the best-case scenario. Chris Mack in the NCAA Tournament, when he gets in, he's been to the Sweet 16 three times, he's been to the Elite Eight because they're so good at prep and turnaround, Xs and Os and really versatility in his offensive package is what's most exciting about the way he coaches the game. On the flip side of that, the Ohio State thing is interesting. My guess is a guy like Chris Mack wanted the Indiana job like everyone else who wanted the Indiana job and was probably a bit bummed that he was in the top group but didn't get it. I'm not sure how appealing the Ohio State job is depending on where he would want to land or where he would want to end. There are a lot of issues with that job. You kind of are the top dog at Xavier. You don't have to worry about the football beast. Who knows where he wants to go after this. If there's a different job other than Ohio State where he wants to land on or end on. I don't know if he wants to be the Notre Dame coach or he wants to be the Michigan State coach. I wouldn't be surprised if the Chris Mack interest in Ohio State wasn't as great. My guess is he was a little bummed out that Archie Miller beat him out at Indiana. Two other groups: guys that are hard charging up the list, actually a handful of guys. Wojo out at Marquette is really doing a solid job on the recruiting trail. He had a solid year this year. I did a breakdown of Chris Collins earlier this year. They now have facilities, are moving in the right direction at Northwestern, he's got guys that can play. So I would expect Northwestern to become a consistent upper echelon team in the Big Ten in the next couple of years. Mitch Henderson is a name to keep in mind at Princeton. Really young guy who's got them going in a great direction. And then Avery Johnson. Interesting, interesting name. I don't know why he took the Alabama job, I don't know what he was thinking when he took the Alabama job, but he has started to really tear it up on the recruiting trail and they're going to have big time players in there for the first time in a long time. In the 17 class, he's got five commits. Two guys that are in the top 100 which is interesting to see and they have a top 100 kid whom they brought in last year as well. So keep an eye on him in Tuscaloosa and what he might get going there. Finally, my overrated list. Steve Alford is the king of my overrated list. Scott Drew at Baylor. Kevin Ollie. It's hard to have a really bad year at UConn and now that Jim Calhoun's players aren't there, he's in a big struggle. I think Shaka Smart is a good coach but it's a little bit of a gimmick system in the Power 5, which he’s finding out, doesn't work. So those are four guys I have on my overrated list. And then I refuse to rank Rick Pitino. I think he should be fired. I think he's a disgrace to the coaching profession so I just didn't put him on my list in any way, shape or form.
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