With the splashy hires of Rob Lanier at Georgia State and Scott Cross at Troy, and then the App State hiring a quick winner in Dustin Kerns... to along with the rest of the good coaches in the Sun Belt like Cliff Ellis, Mark Byington, Chris Ogden, Bob Marlin, Danny Kaspar, and Keith Richards...

We may have ourselves quite the basketball league soon.

I'm underwhelmed with the hires by State and App.

Kerns is an okay hire I guess, though he seems kind fo an unknown. He's worked only in the SoCon and Big South with 2 seasons as a HC.

Lanier has a career losing head-coaching record, and if I'm a State fan that's concerning. He's got an impressive list of places he's worked as an assistant but so does our former head coach Charlton Young (now at Florida State), who was awful as a head coach.

(04-09-2019 12:54 PM)EigenEagle Wrote:  I'm underwhelmed with the hires by State and App.

Kerns is an okay hire I guess, though he seems kind fo an unknown. He's worked only in the SoCon and Big South with 2 seasons as a HC.

Lanier has a career losing head-coaching record, and if I'm a State fan that's concerning. He's got an impressive list of places he's worked as an assistant but so does our former head coach Charlton Young (now at Florida State), who was awful as a head coach.

Understandable, but you've got to figure after spending 14 years as an assistant at Virginia, Florida, Texas, and Tennessee... all powerhouse basketball programs... he's probably learned A LOT since his time at Siena.

And he's obviously hitting the recruiting trail hard, considering he's already made offers to some high-profile recruits.

His head coaching record is unimpressive, but that was nearly a decade and a half ago.

All college basketball experts: "Lanier is a great coach and recruiter, GSU or Buffalo would be lucky to have him"

All Tennessee fans: "dont let Coach Lanier leave. We want him to take over after Rick Barnes."

Georgia southern fans: "Lanier who?"

Rob Lanier sucks. He interviewed for our position last year. We dodged a bullet.

(04-09-2019 01:20 PM)GSUALUM17 Wrote:  All college basketball experts: "Lanier is a great coach and recruiter, GSU or Buffalo would be lucky to have him"

All Tennessee fans: "dont let Coach Lanier leave. We want him to take over after Rick Barnes."

Georgia southern fans: "Lanier who?"

Most every head coaching hire comes highly recommended. And being a highly-regarded assistant doesn't make you a good head coach.

I'm sure time will tell everything...one way or another.

(04-09-2019 01:20 PM)GSUALUM17 Wrote:  All college basketball experts: "Lanier is a great coach and recruiter, GSU or Buffalo would be lucky to have him"

All Tennessee fans: "dont let Coach Lanier leave. We want him to take over after Rick Barnes."

Georgia southern fans: "Lanier who?"

Yup, some things never change

(04-09-2019 01:41 PM)Bobcat2013 Wrote:  

(04-09-2019 01:20 PM)GSUALUM17 Wrote:  All college basketball experts: "Lanier is a great coach and recruiter, GSU or Buffalo would be lucky to have him"

All Tennessee fans: "dont let Coach Lanier leave. We want him to take over after Rick Barnes."

Georgia southern fans: "Lanier who?"

Yup, some things never change

Can you believe some people have the nerve to give their opinions on the new basketball hires on a thread about that very subject? There ought to be a rule.

I'm kind of with Eigen here. Not saying its a bad hire by any means. Could turn out to be a great one.

But I don't know how you couldn't be concerned about his time at Siena:
The 3 seasons prior to Lanier's arrival they won 20, 24, and 25 games. Then he take over and goes:
17-19
21-11
14-16
6-24

Not exactly a good trend.

(04-09-2019 01:58 PM)EigenEagle Wrote:  

(04-09-2019 01:41 PM)Bobcat2013 Wrote:  

(04-09-2019 01:20 PM)GSUALUM17 Wrote:  All college basketball experts: "Lanier is a great coach and recruiter, GSU or Buffalo would be lucky to have him"

All Tennessee fans: "dont let Coach Lanier leave. We want him to take over after Rick Barnes."

Georgia southern fans: "Lanier who?"

Yup, some things never change

Can you believe some people have the nerve to give their opinions on the new basketball hires on a thread about that very subject? There ought to be a rule.

Some are more sensitive than others... it happens.

(04-09-2019 01:25 PM)MissouriStateBears Wrote:  Rob Lanier sucks. He interviewed for our position last year. We dodged a bullet.

Thanks for sharing your opinion from the perspective of a fan of Missouri State, basketball powerhouse. Your program hasn't been to the NCAAs since '99, before the school changed its name from that laughable directional BS. Can't do squat in a league that now no longer has Creighton or Wichita State. Your coach whom was fired a year ago went 106-121 in seven years. Here's your records from this season until the last time you had a decent team. Worth noting that not once in the last eight years have you finished above .500 in both overall and conference record.

16-16, 4th
18-15, 7th
17-16, 6th (last year of Wichita State)
13-19, 7th
11-20, 8th
20-13, 4th (still just 9-9 in conference)
11-22, 9th (last year of Creighton)
16-16, 6th

in 2010-11, you were good at 26-9, 15-3 (1st) but couldn’t close the deal in the conference championship game=(

Your program is steaming hot garbage. Ours is STILL rising. Rob Lanier dodged a bullet in passing on swMizzouST, not the other way around. No coach in his right mind would choose your program over ours.

Thanks for stopping by. Talk when your program actually does anything worth noticing. As it stands, your program is bordering on low-major in what's now a middling mid-major league.

(04-09-2019 02:56 PM)_x_ Wrote:  I'm kind of with Eigen here. Not saying its a bad hire by any means. Could turn out to be a great one.

But I don't know how you couldn't be concerned about his time at Siena:
The 3 seasons prior to Lanier's arrival they won 20, 24, and 25 games. Then he take over and goes:
17-19
21-11
14-16
6-24

Not exactly a good trend.

I'm optimistic he's both learned a lot and will be able to recruit here. I'll say it again and again...if you can recruit in the Sun Belt, you can win the Sun Belt. I'm not overly worried that, apparently, he didn't recruit well to Siena and crashed his last season with his own guys. Atlanta ain't upstate New York, and he has spent time at four major schools (Virginia, Florida, Texas, Tennessee) that are more or less in our region. He has connections out the wazoo.

If he gets the talent, he wins big here. I am counting on him getting the talent. Oh, and his kid can play too. Guarantee he's an All-Sun Belt player.

Wow. Had no idea that Missouri State has been that terrible. No wonder Rob Lanier passed on that dead end job.

(04-09-2019 05:15 PM)GSUALUM17 Wrote:  Wow. Had no idea that Missouri State has been that terrible. No wonder Rob Lanier passed on that dead end job.

Yep, I honestly would have guessed they'd made a tourney this millennium, but nope.

Love how that dude set himself up for an ethering, too.

Not really fair to judge someone by what he did when he was first starting out at 28 (I think CRL said he was 28 in his presser.) To those who criticize based on looking 5mins at his wikipedia source, are you better, same, or worse at your job since you were first starting out? Kinda ridiculous to compare two separate situations with 2 decades of time gap in between. His uncertain times at Siena was totally different than his current opportunity at Georgia State as a hardened 50yrs old veteran with decades of experience. Despite being a young head coach who was figuring things out as he went, he still took his team to 1 NCAA tourney and a deep NIT run at Siena. Since Siena, CRL had plenty of time to absorb everything he could from Billy Donovan and Rick Barnes....two HoF coaches in NCAA history.

https://utsports.com/coaches.aspx?rc=1892
Good Xs and Os tactician..check
"A highly effective communicator and relentless tactician, Lanier has handled the scouting duties for Tennessee’s four wins over highly-rated Kentucky teams over the last three years (during which the Vols are 3-0 vs. the Wildcats in Knoxville)."

Good recruiter...check
"In total, Lanier has played a role in signing nine McDonald’s All-Americans. And 11 players that he either signed or coached have gone on to become NBA Draft Picks."

Over a decade of P5 experience with countless NCAA tournament appearances...check
"Lanier’s leadership and experience was instrumental in guiding the Big Orange to the regular-season SEC Championship, the title game of the SEC Tournament, a No. 3 seed in the NCAA Tournament and a 26-9 record (third-most wins in program history)."
"Lanier served as assistant coach under Billy Donovan at Florida for four seasons. In those four years, Lanier helped the Gators advance to postseason play every year while posting a 99-44 (.692) cumulative record."
"Lanier’s tenure at Florida was preceded by a two-year stint as an assistant coach on Dave Leitao’s coaching staff at Virginia. During his second year in Charlottesville (2006-07), the Cavaliers posted a 21-11 record and advanced to the second round of the NCAA Tournament. "

Developing NBA talent...check
"Junior center Chris Mihm developed into one of the top players in the nation during that 1999-2000 season, earning consensus first-team All-America honors, and he was selected as the No. 7 overall pick in the 2000 NBA Draft by the Chicago Bulls (traded to the Cleveland Cavaliers on draft night)."


If he was so terrible, why did the entire UT nation want him to stay and take over the HC job after Barnes? UT fans, boosters, and beat writers have followed this guy more closely than anyone here.

I wasn't impressed with either GSU or Troy's hires. I think App did well, but they have more to lose. Lanier was not impressive at Siena, and it strikes me as GSU going for the "coach with a high rated son who plays basketball route" Admittedly, Vol fans love him, but that doesn't really mean much. Everyone loves the top assistant.

Troy, frankly, made the Cross hire too quick. They seemed settled from the beginning that they were going to hire a guy without a single NCAA Berth. despite having the best team in the Sun Belt for several years. It felt like Troy trying to prove that UTA made a mistake more than Troy going for the best fit for the program.

While this thread is interesting, I think it's pretty "on the surface."

This league has issues. Serious ones.

Our champion won the regular season and the tournament. They got a #14 seed.

What happened in the past is now irrelevant. There is a new criteria that has replaced the RPI. And, the NET was very very bad to the Sun Belt this year.

If we had used the RPI, Georgia State's RPI would have been 50 and could have been a 12 or 13 seed. Georgia Southern's RPI was 79.

But in the NET, it was 121 and 125 respectively.

If this league is going to be relevant in the new NET, we have to change the way we do business. We have to schedule better. With exception of UTA, our schedules are pathetic. We have to work harder to set up home and home series with solid mid-majors and not let our egos get in the way of where the series is going to start. Play them twice in the season, for crying out loud.

Play, at most, only one non D-1.

If you're going to play guarantee games, play them against teams you feel like you might have a chance to win.

Until we do that as a league, this league will continue to be a borderline mid major.

(04-10-2019 08:25 AM)BirdofParadise Wrote:  While this thread is interesting, I think it's pretty "on the surface."

This league has issues. Serious ones.

Our champion won the regular season and the tournament. They got a #14 seed.

What happened in the past is now irrelevant. There is a new criteria that has replaced the RPI. And, the NET was very very bad to the Sun Belt this year.

If we had used the RPI, Georgia State's RPI would have been 50 and could have been a 12 or 13 seed. Georgia Southern's RPI was 79.

But in the NET, it was 121 and 125 respectively.

If this league is going to be relevant in the new NET, we have to change the way we do business. We have to schedule better. With exception of UTA, our schedules are pathetic. We have to work harder to set up home and home series with solid mid-majors and not let our egos get in the way of where the series is going to start. Play them twice in the season, for crying out loud.

Play, at most, only one non D-1.

If you're going to play guarantee games, play them against teams you feel like you might have a chance to win.

Until we do that as a league, this league will continue to be a borderline mid major.

The problem is, many of the other mid-major leagues are trying to schedule the same way. So I'd have to imagine that's it's tough to get a schedule like UTA had a couple of years ago with teams like Texas, St. Mary's, Minnesota, and Arkansas on the schedule.

I never said it would be easy.

I don't think we are trying nearly hard enough.