NashvilleHoosier

Good news everyone. Scotty responded to my request. And though he’s not directly committing, I think it’s pretty safe to say Nate Oats is on his way. This was definitely not a canned response from an intern.

Hah! I wasn't saying he/she has been more consistent than others. We all love you here Chris!! Only saying Nonymouse has been consistent in their Stevens isn't coming stance. For my mental sanity, I need to believe that.

If anyone has been consistent it’s been @Nonymouse. I don’t even care if he/she has sources, I need the consistency in my brain that Brad isn’t coming. Never ever. No chance at all. If we adopt this mindset...hell if Brad sticks his head out the window driving down 37 one day then we got closer than we expected.

“Get the $&@% out of here woodsman!” -Nate Oats

T White get the #$%& out of here!! Sorry, couldn't resist. There was a pregame kerfuffle where I think the LSU players were barking quite a bit. Wade is an a$$hat. They totally needed to be told to get the #$%& out of there.

Well I just emailed my recommendation to Mr. Dolson about 20 minutes ago. Oats was my recommendation so it makes sense that it's gaining steam.

My take is that I thought $12M was extreme until I heard what we were gonna pay Stevens. Oats makes $3.225/year right now. We could offer $4.5-$5M/year and pay the buyout and in 6 years or so we'd have spent less than we would have on Stevens. If the total package for Stevens was doable, the total package for Oats is.

I understand your point but if our baseline is to build a team better than the first one Crean had, every person on this board is a candidate. We could field a team of Leal, Galloway, Martha, Dolson, and a baseball player and they'd be better than that team.

Well he's been at Bama for 2 seasons, not 1 :-). Potentially ruin his career? There'd be 20 Bama's lining up for his services if he failed here. Being at the biggest football school in the country means you have no chance of basketball being near as important. Some might want to play second fiddle. He doesn't seem to have that personality. He's making sweet money there but could make sweeter money here. If he can have success at Alabama, there is no evidence he can't have success here.

Haven't we covered this a few times too? :-) They had the back to back first round exits, which are more noticeable b/c they were back to back. His other teams have generally performed to their seeding and his elite 8 losses were to eventual national champions. And he's built the Indiana Football of basketball into a major player in college hoops. In my opinion if there are questions about Drew, it all off the court stuff, not on court results.

Just curious why it doesn't make sense? He's from Wisconsin, coached at Buffalo previously (i.e has not connection to Alabama or the South), we could offer a substantial raise, we can pay the buyout, and he's at a place where football will always be king. And king probably doesn't cover it. A 0-12 Bama football team will overshadow a 32-0 Bama basketball team every day of the week by a lot.

You've been beating this drum for weeks now. Just curious...Baylor beats Nova on Saturday and Arkansas on Monday, what are your thoughts on Drew exactly 6 days from now?

I don’t see the issue, Joash.

There will be pros and cons for every candidate in every coaching search. But is it normal to feel like every single candidate has a HUGE caveat? Beard could leave at any time for Texas, Musselman could leave any time for the NBA, Beilein - age and the thugs comment, Matta has massive health concerns, Drew wanted to deport a former player of ours, Altman has character concerns, Alford isn't very good at coaching. It's still Oats at the top of the list for me. The biggest caveat I can think of for him is that he seems like the least likely candidate for us to approach, for reasons that I couldn't even begin to explain (the $12M buyout should not be an issue with the $$ we were planning on throwing at Stevens).

I keep wondering if its been so quiet b/c we actually do have intentions of reaching out to some folks that are still coaching or were still coaching this weekend. If the all eggs in one basket stuff with Stevens was true, that didn't play out until the first weekend was underway. If any backup plan included Oats, Musselman, Drew, Beard, Enfield, whoever else, we may have put some back channel feelers out that said let's talk after the weekend. At least that's what I'm telling myself is happening.

Dang man. Pretty sure you've called the program a f-ing joke in the toilet on a further downward spiral. Now our best players deserve better opportunities, before even knowing what kind of opportunity they'll have right where they are. I understand being concerned, but it may time to put down the ol' keyboard and back away from the message boards for a bit.

The 76 year old has been at his program for 42 (I think) years and 72 year old has been with his for 19 years. The 76 year old is the oldest coach to ever coach Division 1 basketball. I'm not 100% opposed to Beilein but if he were hired its highly likely that by the time he really got things going here he would be the oldest coach in D1 basketball (assuming Boeheim, K, Hamilton, Roy, etc retire soon). At very least he'd be one of the 5 oldest coaches and whether we want to admit it or not we're already talking about another coaching change. It would be far different if Beilein had been here for 15 years and we were talking about extending someone who already has his track record at IU, culture at IU, etc. in place. Age is a perfectly valid thing to be concerned about for this next coach.

He knows all.

Honestly I have no idea. It baffles me that the league hasn't had a champion for as long as it has. It baffles me that the Big Ten style doesn't translate to tourney success.

I think both can be right. If there is a problem, yeah figure out how to fix it as a league. But hearing how great the Big 10 is this year and in the past few seasons, then seeing so many flops in the tourney kind of contradicts that. If the best league with all the great teams continually underperforms when it counts, it's hard to justify the claim that it's such a great league.

Yeah whatever it is that needs to change as a conference, let's lead the charge. I still don't understand (or maybe a better word is buy) the concept that one particular league is supposed to be the best overall and be made up of several great teams but the league plays in a way and is officiated in a way that is detrimental to tourney success. If the league was and teams were great, adjust, and be great. Until some change happens, it's really just the Big Ten being a fraud.

1.) Nate Oats 2.) Chris Beard (w/$20M buyout specific to Texas schools) 3.) Musselman (w/$10M buyout for NBA job) 4.) Scott Drew 5.) Beilein (must hire associate coach in waiting that is NOT his son) 6.) Thad Matta (w/ doctors 110% assurance that his back problems aren’t an issue and maybe the same associate head coach requirement) 7.) Some combo of Fife and Lewis 8.) close up shop, we are a football school only.

Hmm...I could probably get behind this.

Ok but total fouls: ILL: 18, Loyola: 16 OSU: 17, ORU: 16 MSU: 19, UCLA: 15 It doesn’t appear that any player had minutes limited by foul trouble. the only game of those 3 where there was any notable FT disparity was Loyola 22, ILL 13. And watching that game it sure as hell didn’t seem like it was the way it was being officiated had any influence on the outcome. What am I missing?

This is part of my question though. Why does the Big Ten's style of play not translate to tourney success but other teams style of play does? If the Big Ten is the best conference with so many great teams but the style of play doesn't win against anything other than themselves, wouldn't that just mean the Big Ten is just a bit of a fraud and overrated?