ADVERTISEMENT

Harper....The next UNLV head basketball coach

It might. They have four huge opportunities ahead. I don’t think 2-2 will do it.

It’s the dumbed down expectations of here taking hold. A new normal. If he makes it this year, it’ll be a hotseat next season unless he’s more than 1 and done in the NCAAT. But OU goes from making the tournament better than 75% of the time to making it 25% of the time (giving him this season for best case) and it’s somehow considered successful. I don’t comprehend that.

Now if he saves his job this year and does something next season, then he’s gaining ground and will start to shut up his naysayers, which is most of Sooner nation.

Maybe it happens.

If he falls flat this season, that’d be 2 NCAA tournament appearances in 21 years. A career winning percentage of 55. And a conference winning percentage around 42.

This is the very definition of mediocre, at best. At least so far.
24-44 in conference a 35% winning percentage...puke. And he took over a good team they made the tournament 7 out of 9 years. The previous year to his takeover they advanced to the second round. Then they disappear. No slow build needed, the team was doing great and there are few schools with more resources than OU. He is a bust. Plain and simple.
 
24-44 in conference a 35% winning percentage...puke. And he took over a good team they made the tournament 7 out of 9 years. The previous year to his takeover they advanced to the second round. Then they disappear. No slow build needed, the team was doing great and there are few schools with more resources than OU. He is a bust. Plain and simple.
Slow growth … nah … moderate deterioration.
 
  • Like
Reactions: LVRebel2000
Gotta admit, great game last night between Kentucky at OU. Nip and tuck the entire way, high level entertaining basketball, both teams making huge plays down the stretch. A lot on the line, for UK, they’re playing for seeding, for OU, fighting to get into the field of 68.

In a bizarre ending, a former OU player now playing for UK hits an unlikely twisty off balance thing near the rim with a few seconds left to take a 1 pt lead, OU drives the length of the floor only to have a layup attempt swatted/swallowed up at the buzzer. UK wins by a point.

Highly entertaining for any fan of basketball, competition.
 
Looks like there may be a lot of good openings for the best coaching candidates to go to. Rebs may get stuck with one of the fired losers.
Well we have tunnel vision when it comes to a job opening for the UNLV basketball program. We don’t consider other programs are always looking to upgrade and we don’t have $$$ to compete with the Texas Techs and Oklahomas.
 
  • Like
Reactions: WarthogRebel
Well we have tunnel vision when it comes to a job opening for the UNLV basketball program. We don’t consider other programs are always looking to upgrade and we don’t have $$$ to compete with the Texas Techs and Oklahomas.
I think that’s the biggest thing about it.

We need to look at schools with openings that can afford 1.5 to 2, then we need to find a coach that fits into that bracket and hope that he’s not pulled away by somebody with interest that can afford 2.5-3. There really is a sweet spot. You have to find peer schools, fit is always important.
 
Well we have tunnel vision when it comes to a job opening for the UNLV basketball program. We don’t consider other programs are always looking to upgrade and we don’t have $$$ to compete with the Texas Techs and Oklahomas.
Plus recruiting is going to get harder and harder for any new coach going from p4 to G5. With the average NIL for P4 in basketball at $ 171,000 vs less than $ 20,000 for G5 it will take some smooth talking to get the players needed to compete nationally. Admittedly, our NIL is the best or nearly the best in the MW, but it's nowhere near what a P4 coach has.
 
Plus recruiting is going to get harder and harder for any new coach going from p4 to G5. With the average NIL for P4 in basketball at $ 171,000 vs less than $ 20,000 for G5 it will take some smooth talking to get the players needed to compete nationally. Admittedly, our NIL is the best or nearly the best in the MW, but it's nowhere near what a P4 coach has.
When you say best in MWC does that mean Football or Basketball? Is the NIL fund all one big pot or is it separate for each sport? We could have the largest for football and smallest for basketball.
 
When you say best in MWC does that mean Football or Basketball? Is the NIL fund all one big pot or is it separate for each sport? We could have the largest for football and smallest for basketball.
Early in the season, I read somewhere a Mountain West coach (I think Wyoming BB) complaining that our NIL was the biggest in the Mountain West. Beyond that I have no inside info comparing NIL from Mountain West program to program.
 
I remember that. I just don't know How much each sport gets. Harp might be focusing on Football now and maybe we don't have a lot for Basketball.
 
AJ Cerio has a tweet about Tom Crean being next coach. Does have successful big time experience. He has had so many others stops that have not gone well. If we are going that route, does not Craig Smith look good by comparison?
 
AJ Cerio has a tweet about Tom Crean being next coach. Does have successful big time experience. He has had so many others stops that have not gone well. If we are going that route, does not Craig Smith look good by comparison?
He was definitely an epic bust in Georgia. Particularly his last year. No one has succeeded there so the lack of success doesn't necessarily scare me but that last year they were putrid.
 
Hell nah. Crean??Dude is Rice 2.0. I have not seen anything that leads me to believe he is a GREAT hire. Decent. That is it.
 
Hell nah. Crean??Dude is Rice 2.0. I have not seen anything that leads me to believe he is a GREAT hire. Decent. That is it.
He has a significantly better track record than Rice. I don’t want him either he is more of a stabilization hire. We would be better than now but probably around the same as Rice.
 
You Crean haters. He's been to the post season 13 times with three sweet 16's. Not as good as Tark, Lon or Rollie. But significantly better than any other coach. ( Comparing him to Rice is a joke - Rice as two one and done NCAA appearances ) Interesting quote from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel "Between 1999 and 2006, Marquette saw a 70% overall increase in attendance, three total attendance records broken, and 1.5 million fans pass through the turnstiles." This year was the last of his $ 3.2 million buyout from Georgia where he was fired after stinking it up. ( But since he left, Georgia has continued to blow) I wouldn't be surprised at all if Harper didn't bring him on board - or somebody very much like him.
 
AJ Cerio has a tweet about Tom Crean being next coach. Does have successful big time experience. He has had so many others stops that have not gone well. If we are going that route, does not Craig Smith look good by comparison?
I’d take Crean one million times over Pastercrack or Turner or Smith.

That said, I wouldn’t be ecstatic. But I’d have some hope because he’s done some good things at higher levels. I know Odot liked him.
 
  • Like
Reactions: TimothyC3
Not my first choice. But I would take Crean. At 58 he still has some gas in the tank and he has a reputation of a good recruiter and talent evaluator. Can coach too.
 
Spoon was a stabilization hire.

I like Crean for more than that. But not sold completely either.
He would probably do fine here because the conference sucks vs having to coach in the SEC or Big 10. But 6 wins his last season is God awful. I think what we saw with Rice making the tourney and losing then getting some recruits but underachieving and going back and forth with those results is what we would get. It’s better than now but who knows maybe he can coach better in a small conference like he did with Marquette. I would much rather have Wade or Marshall but it is better than Menzies or KK that’s for sure.
 
He would probably do fine here because the conference sucks vs having to coach in the SEC or Big 10. But 6 wins his last season is God awful. I think what we saw with Rice making the tourney and losing then getting some recruits but underachieving and going back and forth with those results is what we would get. It’s better than now but who knows maybe he can coach better in a small conference like he did with Marquette. I would much rather have Wade or Marshall but it is better than Menzies or KK that’s for sure.
Yep!

Let’s just get on with the new coach already! Lol
 
Yep!

Let’s just get on with the new coach already! Lol
Let it play out. Likely 2 weeks more. I will give CKK credit that he has guys playing hard and with more confidence than they were playing with before DJ went down. With coach rumors, best player going down, and disappointing season, some teams would have packed it in.
 
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT