IU Prof

In all seriousness, it should be easy to determine if Dolson is at Gainbridge today for the ladies game.

I was wrong...all it took was one new Beard rumor.

Not to pour cold water on this, but based on a quick check, I didn’t see any return flights scheduled back home to either location on the books for today. That suggests that it might not be a coordinated business meeting.

One can certainly interpret Beard's record as someone who could win here. But you could also interpret it as Beard putting together an outlier season or two early at Texas Tech, and then reverting to his actual ability level there after. He wouldn't be the only coach that shines bright early at a school, but is unable to maintain it. Again, what McCasland has done at Texas Tech makes Beard's 3rd and 4th seasons there more concerning.

That's fair. Although I'd point out that McCasland's success at TTU suggests that it's not such a difficult place to win at after all, making Beard's final two seasons there more concerning.

That's totally fair. I'm just talking final records. I have no doubt Beard's teams are consistently more competitive. But I don't think people would sign up for those end results. People keep saying "Beard wins." But he actually doesn't.

Not really. Here are Beard's records at Power 5 schools (omitting the shortened, final season at UT): 18-14 (6-12) 27-10 (11-7) 31-7 (14-4) 18-13 (9-9) 18-11 (9-8) 22-12 (10-8) 20-12 (7-11) 21-9 (10-7) Take away a big year 3, and that's very Woodson-esque. If I showed you that resume with any other name attached to it, people wouldn't get nearly as excited as they do when it's Chris Beard. And that's before we even get into the baggage.

Does he, though? Most of his career at the power conference level looks a lot like Woodson, especially recently.

If we could actually be in a position where Brad is the ceiling and Otz is the floor for this search, then Dolson deserves a lifetime contract.

This thread if it really does take 3 more weeks to name a new coach:

I don't think that's accurate.

Yeah, the innocent explanation is that he wanted to catch a game at ND, and now was the best time since the waiver deadline recently past. ND has a home game Saturday, too, but the Celts are hosting the Lakers that night. That having been said, I do think it was interesting rumors were flying last night before it was discovered he was in the state.

It certainly is interesting that we later discovered Brad was in the state on the same day that new rumors started percolating. Could be coincidence, but the timing is interesting.

I don't think we can afford to wait until April 1 to name a coach. Especially not for Cronin.

I wouldn't be opposed to Cronin as about 8th or so on the list. But his buyout is $16 million. Unless UCLA is desperate enough to lower that by 70-80%, that simply isn't happening.

Whenever you find yourself taking on an entire forum, 100:1, you might want to consider that perhaps, just perhaps, you are the problem.

Something tells me the lesson didn't stick...

If not Brad, then make it Otz.

I seriously think you'd be happier at HSN. They largely don't buy the Brad rumors, and he's almost never discussed. You might want to give that site a try.

That's always stuck with me too, and seems consistent with the kind of guy Brad is supposed to be. But I've also heard others insist he'd only come back to college to coach at IU. But that post has reduced my hopes for Brad.

I do wonder what Brad could still be mulling over at this point. Unless he's trying to squeeze every last dime out of IU, it seems that by now any potential questions would have been answered, and any concerns resolved to the best of IU's ability. So it seems to me that in all likelihood, he must either be in or out at this point. The idea that he's still in play, but not committed, seems unlikely.

I guess it can cut either way, but being the only team in the top 100 when the rest of the league is 164 or worse, is actually really impressive to me. Doesn't mean it'll level up, or that he's the man for IU, but I think that suggests Hess had a brighter future than someone able to leverage A10 level resources into a top 100 Net.

Greg Gard is an interesting option. Hadn't even though of him yet. But there's a lot to like, but also some concerns as well.