(01-25-2016 10:41 PM)HoopDreams Wrote: (01-25-2016 06:02 PM)Tiger46 Wrote: Was Dana Kirk a wow hire?
Spot on
This is part of the whole thread that everyone is ignoring. Dana got the local HS talent to become Tigers and he was a very good bench coach. CJP is NOT a good bench coach. In fact, very few of our coaches besides Dana was a good bench coach.
Tiger Basketball can be back very quickly due to the H.S. talent level. Throw in a good bench coach and Tiger BB is back.
CJP was a 'great recruiter' but virtually ALL of his name recruits came from the Memphis area (JJ, Crawford, Adonis, Tarik, Elliot Williams, Austin, Lawson). The only exceptions were Will Barton and Shaq. And it's not like Shaq is going to go to the NBA.
CJP was really, really fortunate that the talent level was so good during his first 5 years or so. When the Memphis area HS talent started to wane a bit, CJP's coaching shortcomings were exposed. The current roster is a mixed-bag (at best) and Lawson.
The reason why Tiger BB CAN come back quickly is because of the high school level talent AND if we can make it to the Sweet 16 SOMETIME in the next 5 years I strongly believe attendance will be back in the 14k range.
The problem is that the entire NCAA BB is taking a hit attendance-wise. I am not a Grizz-basher, but the Grizz's glory days are about to hit a dead-end. Gasol, Z-bo are both over 30 and the Grizz's draft picks are not going to make them a bona-fide contender in the near future. If anything, the Tigers HC job is very, very attractive right now.
I'll catch flak for this, but Bruce Pearl would have us back on the map in 3 years AND we would be relevant again nationally.