Demo

https://x.com/XavierJ0hnson/status/1888036713093574862 Check out some of the replies. Several people telling on themselves in a giant way. And I’m sure they’d tell you they’re good people. They really, really aren’t.

Honestly, I know you have to play the Stevens stuff out, but assuming 3rd times not a charm there and May is willing to leave UM after a year I think it’s a pretty straightforward call.

His stuff isn’t super special. He runs a lot of half court offense out of horns derivatives. Really likes that action a lot. They push pace, and they create a lot of 3’s but they’re not Bama. They play a lot of different defenses. I mean more than anyone. You watch a full Mizzou game and you’ll see man, 2-3, 1-3-1, they’ll trap half and 3/4 court out 1-2-2 and full court out of 1-2-1-1. They don’t play more than a handful of possessions without changing up. And they create a bunch of to’s, but I don’t think it’s about to’s strictly, it’s about just physically and mentally wearing teams down. He plays 10 guys or more every night, he insists on max effort or you’re gonna sit immediately, and they’re just tough to play. And they play without fear and he doesn’t bust them for odd mistakes. Bates looks like a completely different guy there. He makes a mistake now and he just plays. But what he does bust is effort. He sees a kid halfa$$ a play and thery’re sitting on the next dead ball. He plays so much depth he can do that. Even at a higher profile job I doubt he would load up on 5-star types. He really likes him his chip-on-their-shoulder kids. I like the guy a lot. Think he’s very good. And as I mentioned earlier, how he handled himself last year through that mess was super impressive. Dude just grinds. Would be pretty floored if he’s part of the conversation here, but would be fine with it if he is.

1 other thing about Gates. During that entire debacle last year that guy stood in front of everybody and took every bullet. He was a man. Temperamentally, he’s the goods.

Underwood was my guy in the Archie cycle. Just sayin’. Proof positive that the blind squirrel theory is undefeated.

Humblest brag of the day, Dude. Love it.

Accept him? I’ll accept him if he’s hired because as I said above I’m willing to trust the due diligence of the staff. But here’s the thing: the particulars are different, but there are similarities to the Sampson hire. If you’re Dolson and bring in a guy with a known history and you do it by standing in front of him he can’t ever F up. Not once. Sampson came with the same deal, you can’t F up, and it took him 18 months. But, yeah, if they hire him I’ll root for the program and if he has an issue I’ll say Dolson should be fired because it was completely foreseeable. And I’ll hope it never happens.

I’m not straight up opposed because I believe that given how buttoned up this school tends to be on things if they made a move with him it would be with due diligence down to the bone. But this is why he’s not probably top 5 for me despite being an elite coach: 1) He beat a woman. He did that. I don’t care if she refused to testify and they dropped the charges. The police report’s clear. He did it, 2) The alcohol thing is a concern. When a guy literally drinks himself blind at a Christmas fundraising event for freaking boosters, it’s not nothing. 3) The guy deflected UT questions by calling himself “the most honest guy you’ve ever met. If I say I’m not going, I’m not going.” Then he went. 4) Not saying that stuff is prohibitive on its face, but it’s not nothin’ and that stuff happened with much less scrutiny and heat than this job. Human frailty is more likely to arise under heightened scrutiny. 5) Hovadipo made the point elsewhere, and it’s a good one: If you’re Dolson and making as big a hire as you’ll ever make, are you really tieing yourself and your career to a grenade? I might be willing to overlook or talk myself most of that stuff if I thought he was just miles better than anyone else available, but I’m not sure that’s true.

Maybe, but I’d guess Woody has a few million good reasons to be a good boy tied up in very specific terms in his separation agreement. He may not be able to help himself, but I imagine he’ll try.

Trilly said at 1 point that the plan was for him to coach Gonzaga for the 1st year in the PAC-whatever it is and then retire. That makes perfect sense. Moving on from the only school he’s ever coached to take on a rebuilding job 2,500 miles from home does not.

Would bet a fairly painful amount of money that it’s not Cronin.

I had this exact interaction with someone on here during the post-Crean hiring cycle, minus the age part. It was dumb then, too.

Wright looks like the happiest dude on the entire planet doing what he’s doing. He’s not just done, he’s DONE.

That thing is bada$$. Love it. But I’m not sure exactly what I’m looking at.

Well, to be fair, someone has to be.

What is on the front of Teri’s hoodie?

If/when the back thing ends up ending his playing career, kid could have a hell of a coaching career if wanted it. Very smart. Great leader and worker. Kids just gravitate to him. Whatever “it” is, kid’s got it.

I think this is all true. I also hope that when we are fortunate enough to witness the start of the next era of IUBB we’re able to do so with hope for the future rather than dancing on the grave of the past. I think our million page thread here has already done a pretty decent job of preemptively doing that.

Welcome aboard. If you’ve been lurking for a minute then you know that we insist on only the most insightful and nuanced discussions and we’ll expect nothing less from you. See, I couldn’t even type that with a straight face. Feel free to jump in the mud with the rest of us.

In my case I can’t write it off because I’ve never for a single second wrote it on. But I’ll be pleased as punch to be wrong.

I imagine he will test and interview very, very well.

I hope so. I’m a fan. If I was someone like Florida St I’d absolutely inquire. He’s young enough to solve your problem for 20 years.

As good as there is. St Mary’s is destination viewing. But he is just a pure basketball coach. Is not wired for the outside noise of jobs like this. He’s exactly where he should be.

Honest to God, that might be my favorite individual play all season. Freaking great.

Wow, Danny Wolf with 1 of the coolest of plays the year. Gets the ball on the left wing. Puts it down going right and loses the defender with a spin dribble into a step back 23 footer that he rains. Dude is 7 feet tall. That was awesome.