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Candidate Thread: Eric Musselman (Arkansas)

Hovadipo

By Hovadipo
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IUc2016 Newbie

IUc2016

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I used to say this but I’m slowly realizing that Indiana Basketball isn’t what we think it is. It’s not what it used to be. We’d have found a suitable coach by now. If this job was such a desirable one, we’d have suitors busting down Dolson’s door. The Zeller years are the outlier in my entire lifetime. 
 
** when I say we would have found a suitable coach by now, I mean since Knights dismissal 21 years ago. 

You are misunderstanding me. Indiana basketball, despite its recent history, still has one of the largest followings in all the country and still draws prime time to slots. This coaching search has drawn more attention than any other coaching search since, well, our last one four years ago.

Despite the last 21 years, Indiana basketball is still a national brand. That hasn’t changed. Just because some coaches don’t want to come here doesn’t mean that Indiana basketball isn’t what we think it is.


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Feathery
Feathery

I think people may be sleeping on Musselman. People think he is Crean, but he isn’t. He has NBA background, killed it at Nevada, and in 2 years at Arkansas has them as a 3 seed. He can coach, he can w

Demo
Demo

I think the other element is sort of an evolution in supply and demand. How many programs in the country now would really just have their choice? Duke, UNC, KU and UK, isn’t that pretty much the list?

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HoosierHoopster Collaborator

HoosierHoopster

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3 minutes ago, HoosierTrav said:

I used to say this but I’m slowly realizing that Indiana Basketball isn’t what we think it is. It’s not what it used to be. We’d have found a suitable coach by now. If this job was such a desirable one, we’d have suitors busting down Dolson’s door. The Zeller years are the outlier in my entire lifetime. 
 

** when I say we would have found a suitable coach by now, I mean since Knights dismissal 21 years ago. 

In all fairness there have been plenty of opportunities over the past 20 years to land great coaches but the problems started with the U settling for Mike Davis to appease the players (Fife was leading the charge to leave us Davis wasn’t hired after RMK’s dismissal). The U / AD / Pres then landed a genuinely great coach in Sampson but rolled the dice on his lack of ethics and blew it. But he was and is a great coach, can’t really disregard that.
 

Then the AD/committees got a guy in Crean who restored the U’s integrity and academics while bringing back B1G championships — was he the best IU could’ve landed then? No. Was he picked because that’s all IU could get? No. Was he the right guy at the time? Maybe maybe not. He did restore the U’s integrity, he did start playing a baseball player and Walkons courtesy of the u’s overreaction and caving to the NCAA’s pursuit of Sampson, but he obviously wasn’t the right guy long-term. 
Then we hired CAM. In retrospect that was a real failure. But it didn’t look like it at the time. I don’t think we’re where we are because big name coaches haven’t been interested and I’ve followed all of this for the full 20 years, fwiw. I do think we blew it with CAM and that this coach decision is the biggest one we’ve had since Knight was fired. I hope we don’t roll any more dice or settle. Get the guy we need now.

Demo Rising Star

Demo

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12 minutes ago, HoosierHoopster said:

In all fairness there have been plenty of opportunities over the past 20 years to land great coaches but the problems started with the U settling for Mike Davis to appease the players (Fife was leading the charge to leave us Davis wasn’t hired after RMK’s dismissal). The U / AD / Pres then landed a genuinely great coach in Sampson but rolled the dice on his lack of ethics and blew it. But he was and is a great coach, can’t really disregard that.
 

Then the AD/committees got a guy in Crean who restored the U’s integrity and academics while bringing back B1G championships — was he the best IU could’ve landed then? No. Was he picked because that’s all IU could get? No. Was he the right guy at the time? Maybe maybe not. He did restore the U’s integrity, he did start playing a baseball player and Walkons courtesy of the u’s overreaction and caving to the NCAA’s pursuit of Sampson, but he obviously wasn’t the right guy long-term. 
Then we hired CAM. In retrospect that was a real failure. But it didn’t look like it at the time. I don’t think we’re where we are because big name coaches haven’t been interested and I’ve followed all of this for the full 20 years, fwiw. I do think we blew it with CAM and that this coach decision is the biggest one we’ve had since Knight was fired. I hope we don’t roll any more dice or settle. Get the guy we need now.

I think the other element is sort of an evolution in supply and demand. How many programs in the country now would really just have their choice? Duke, UNC, KU and UK, isn’t that pretty much the list? Maybe Nova. Basically, universal tv exposure combined with the shear breadth of available talent allows a really good coach to win pretty much anywhere that has it’s basics in place.  If Izzo retired today, could MSU, certainly a top 10 program now, just call anyone they wanted? Could they call and hook up Nate Oats? He has everything he needs to win at Bama. Beard doesn’t need to be at an IU, he went to a NC game at TTU. UCLA had to “settle” for Cronin. Michigan had a great program after Beilein and everyone thought they REALLY settled with Howard. U of L got Mack, but IU could have had Mack. It’s not that IU isn’t still a great job.  It objectively is. It’s just that the positives at most high profile programs don’t outrun the challenges and expectations by as much as they used to. There’s a right guy for this gig. I fully expect Dolson to find that guy. If he does, that guy’s gonna win. It’s just a more complcated environment now and we have to allow for the possibility that the right guy may not be someone that every casual fan knows. 

IU Scott Newbie

IU Scott

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46 minutes ago, Demo said:

I think the other element is sort of an evolution in supply and demand. How many programs in the country now would really just have their choice? Duke, UNC, KU and UK, isn’t that pretty much the list? Maybe Nova. Basically, universal tv exposure combined with the shear breadth of available talent allows a really good coach to win pretty much anywhere that has it’s basics in place.  If Izzo retired today, could MSU, certainly a top 10 program now, just call anyone they wanted? Could they call and hook up Nate Oats? He has everything he needs to win at Bama. Beard doesn’t need to be at an IU, he went to a NC game at TTU. UCLA had to “settle” for Cronin. Michigan had a great program after Beilein and everyone thought they REALLY settled with Howard. U of L got Mack, but IU could have had Mack. It’s not that IU isn’t still a great job.  It objectively is. It’s just that the positives at most high profile programs don’t outrun the challenges and expectations by as much as they used to. There’s a right guy for this gig. I fully expect Dolson to find that guy. If he does, that guy’s gonna win. It’s just a more complcated environment now and we have to allow for the possibility that the right guy may not be someone that every casual fan knows. 

Finally someone gets it

HoosierHoopster Collaborator

HoosierHoopster

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3 hours ago, Demo said:

I think the other element is sort of an evolution in supply and demand. How many programs in the country now would really just have their choice? Duke, UNC, KU and UK, isn’t that pretty much the list? Maybe Nova. Basically, universal tv exposure combined with the shear breadth of available talent allows a really good coach to win pretty much anywhere that has it’s basics in place.  If Izzo retired today, could MSU, certainly a top 10 program now, just call anyone they wanted? Could they call and hook up Nate Oats? He has everything he needs to win at Bama. Beard doesn’t need to be at an IU, he went to a NC game at TTU. UCLA had to “settle” for Cronin. Michigan had a great program after Beilein and everyone thought they REALLY settled with Howard. U of L got Mack, but IU could have had Mack. It’s not that IU isn’t still a great job.  It objectively is. It’s just that the positives at most high profile programs don’t outrun the challenges and expectations by as much as they used to. There’s a right guy for this gig. I fully expect Dolson to find that guy. If he does, that guy’s gonna win. It’s just a more complcated environment now and we have to allow for the possibility that the right guy may not be someone that every casual fan knows. 

Fully agree and would add a similar thought or expand on the breadth of talent comment — the really good players used to all gravitate to the biggest programs. Yes the Dukes etc still get the top talent generally but there’s now a much bigger talent pool than there was back in the day, with the explosion of AAU and early bball development and the overall explosion of the game the depth of really good players has grown along with the evolution in supply and demand that you’re talking about. So really good coaches can succeed at a greater number of programs for a number of reasons 

Edited by HoosierHoopster
Alford Bailey Apprentice

Alford Bailey

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Arkansas has a decent basketball following though they’ve not been great recently. Bud Walton arena holds over 19000 and used to sell out regularly. So. I would expect them to put up a good fight to keep Musselman.

Papacap Newbie

Papacap

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I’d be jazzed for Musselman and I get the Crean comparison, but, and maybe I have rose colored glasses, but Musselman seems to know he’s being cheesy when he does these things. Like a way to break tension or get a point across by being silly.

Crean just seemed that way because that’s just the way he was. 

I know that make be a difference without a distinction. But it’s how I justify my support for Musselman.

Uspshoosier Rising Star

Uspshoosier

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Just now, hoosierpap said:

Fwiw, I believe when these teams met earlier this year Oral Roberts was up 10 at half. Muss came back with several adjustments and whooped them for the W in the 2nd half

Biggest adjustment was throw the ball on the rim and get the offensive rebound.   They destroyed them on the glass in the second half 

mark1981 Rookie

mark1981

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3 minutes ago, Redleader said:

Looks like the beginning of a Justin Smith disappearing act.

Just turned it on to see a few highlights of Smith getting beat on defense.  Hope Arkansas can get the w.

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