It's been often said on this site, what if football coaches from Kent State and EMU respectively could do better with Candle's recruits than what Candle has done since his tenure as head coach at UT ?

Well I often wonder how Wright State's Scott Nagy could do as head coach for UT basketball ? Nagy before arriving at WSU, coached the Jackrabbits of S. Dakota St (SDS), accumulating a won and lost record of 167-98. At WSU, he has a won and lost record of 130-62. with at least 2 NCAA appearances in the Big dance, most recently last year's team. Granted, it maybe easier to win the Horizon title than the MAC.

One thing Nagy has done real well is the development of big men, while he has been with the Raiders. When he came from SDS, he brought with him big man 6-8, 235 Louden Love (presently playing as a pro overseas). Following him was Scott Basile, 6-9, 225 (who transfer to VA Tech after leading the Raiders in points score last year).

This year's team features 3 big men, starter AJ Brown (soph 6-9, 230 Fenwick HS, south of Dayton), ave.9.8 pts/3.4 RB's per game. He was not recruited by UT, but by OU from the MAC. Ohio 1st team All State selection from Chillicothe, 2 years ago, Brandon Noel, 6-8, 235, now a RS Freshmen. He is coming off the bench ave. 9.2 its, 6.2 RB's. He was not recruited by UT. Another big man is a transfer from Evansville, Blake Sisley, 6-9, 230, ave. 5.8 pts, 0.6 RB's. He was recruited by Ball State as well other mid majors in Indiana. He was not recruited by UT. Nagy and his staff have a keen eye in finding and developing talent.

Coach K did recruit and develop both Boothe and Knapke. Both players I believe are playing pro ball overseas. But he has a tough time in recruiting that big man to go along with this year's team, either through a transfer or bringing in that big freshman. He will have to compensate all season when facing more bigger aggressive teams. Kudos for coach K in having a deeper bench this year.








I will give credit to Coach K, who he recruited both Boothe and Knapke, but has not landed anyone with the size those 2 possessed. He has offered other big men in the region, but they have shun the Rockets. The Rockets will have to compensate with no big men when facing big aggressive teams. Plus factor, is the deep bench which can only get better.

Repeated myself in the last post towards the end, thought my remarks went astray.

That's it, you've turned me - I will be renouncing my UT fandom and becoming a WSU fanatic since WSU is so awesome and great and amazing and wonderful and dreamy and...

And Nagy can recruit big men and develop. Wonder why Coach K can't, any ideas MidnightBlueGold ?

TK has recruited big men, but most have been busts. The 6-11 kid who transferred out (Carcoana) is averaging 1.7 ppg at his new school.

Quite honestly I think TK would prefer a bunch of 6-6 wing forwards as his big guys.

(11-23-2022 09:19 PM)Springboromark Wrote:  And Nagy can recruit big men and develop. Wonder why Coach K can't, any ideas MidnightBlueGold ?

Who cares about TK anymore! I'm a Raiders fan now!

(11-23-2022 10:24 PM)MidnightBlueGold Wrote:  

(11-23-2022 09:19 PM)Springboromark Wrote:  And Nagy can recruit big men and develop. Wonder why Coach K can't, any ideas MidnightBlueGold ?

Who cares about TK anymore! I'm a Raiders fan now!

WSU! WSU! WSU!

Springboro, do you do this on purpose? lol Don't you think all the Write State related info would be better suited on a...White State sports message board, no? Just based on engagement of these threads, Right State is not very popular here.

(11-23-2022 10:27 PM)utpotts Wrote:  

(11-23-2022 10:24 PM)MidnightBlueGold Wrote:  

(11-23-2022 09:19 PM)Springboromark Wrote:  And Nagy can recruit big men and develop. Wonder why Coach K can't, any ideas MidnightBlueGold ?

Who cares about TK anymore! I'm a Raiders fan now!

WSU! WSU! WSU!

I'm going to change my name to GreenAndGold

Go Raiders!

You guys just don't see it, I am talking about if Coach Nagy was the head coach at UT, do you think the Rockets would have won a MAC title by now ? Anyway you look at it, he recruits big men well and have won against UT handily in my recent memory.

How about the EMU football coach or Kent Football coach, coaching at UT. Do you think they could have won a title since 2017 ?

(11-23-2022 11:01 PM)Springboromark Wrote:  You guys just don't see it, I am talking about if Coach Nagy was the head coach at UT, do you think the Rockets would have won a MAC title by now ? Anyway you look at it, he recruits big men well and have won against UT handily in my recent memory.

How about the EMU football coach or Kent Football coach, coaching at UT. Do you think they could have won a title since 2017 ?

Yes and yes

Nathan Booth, Luke Knapke, Edu (a lot of folks had him pegged as an NBA player pre-injury), all quality big man recruits. Throw in Shumate, a non-traditional, but effective big and that’s 10-12 years of solid-to-excellent bigs.

(11-23-2022 11:01 PM)Springboromark Wrote:  You guys just don't see it, I am talking about if Coach Nagy was the head coach at UT, do you think the Rockets would have won a MAC title by now ? Anyway you look at it, he recruits big men well and have won against UT handily in my recent memory.

How about the EMU football coach or Kent Football coach, coaching at UT. Do you think they could have won a title since 2017 ?

Those sucky Rockets would have won 10 MAC championships in a row with the All-Star Nagy as Head Coach! The football team would have also won 10 MAC Championships in a row with Wright State's head football coach! Yea, I know WSU doesn't have a football team, but WSU is so amazing that their imaginary football team is better than the Rockets real football team!

Springboro, it's all very hypothetical. Nagy is a good coach who teaches solid fundamentals and develops players. TK does the same but their styles are a bit different. Nagy runs a bit slower style with more emphasis on post play and recruits for it. TK has generally had 1 true post with a lot of action going through him but in recent years has been fine goign w small ball (it's given us 2 straight MAC titles). We all know the argument that March basketball slows down and gets more physical which makes it tougher on smaller more finesse type teams to succeed. I somewhat agree. Wright St usually does well in March.

In terms of recruiting bigs you've got a few things to consider. TK does make offers but has had more success getting top guard/wing targets to sign than our preferred bigs. He likes skilled bigs and rarely offers guys who have the size and athleticism but lack skill. TBH most of the bigs we offer are suburban or small town white guys with lots of offers from small private D1 mid majors or schools like Wright St who play slower big friendly styles. We often see UT big offers consider us but choose elsewhere. Remember, Boothe was overweight in HS and thus under-recruited, Knapke was considered a talented project, Taylor a transfer, Edu lightly recruited as an off the radar foreign player. All MAC schools struggle to find good bigs. You usually need to compromise by getting a strong but slightly too short (like Simmons), or too slow (like OU's WIlson), a guy with a defect (like Miami's Mirambeaux who is very good but super heavy) or a project like St Francis grad Hornbeak who starts for Kent.

Next year's class looks good in terms of quality, but lacks a true big. I think we'll see at least 1 transfer out (probably Wilson who can't break the rotation and will have 2 more swingmen types joining the competition for PT in Lewis and Thomas). I think we'll sign a big guy, but the interest may be in someone who can come in and score-perhaps a transfer. All of our current and returning bigs-Jacobi, Simmons, Edu, Lorentsson- are limited scorers. The Swede can shoot but isn't an overall scorer like Shumate or Milner. They say ACL's are a 2 year recovery to 100% so there's a chance Edu may have a jump in production as his coordination, feel and confidence get closer to full strength, but I think we need frontcourt guy in 23-24 who can get buckets and that might mean another talented but undersized guy in reality.

(11-24-2022 05:08 PM)pono Wrote:  Springboro, it's all very hypothetical. Nagy is a good coach who teaches solid fundamentals and develops players. TK does the same but their styles are a bit different. Nagy runs a bit slower style with more emphasis on post play and recruits for it. TK has generally had 1 true post with a lot of action going through him but in recent years has been fine goign w small ball (it's given us 2 straight MAC titles). We all know the argument that March basketball slows down and gets more physical which makes it tougher on smaller more finesse type teams to succeed. I somewhat agree. Wright St usually does well in March.

In terms of recruiting bigs you've got a few things to consider. TK does make offers but has had more success getting top guard/wing targets to sign than our preferred bigs. He likes skilled bigs and rarely offers guys who have the size and athleticism but lack skill. TBH most of the bigs we offer are suburban or small town white guys with lots of offers from small private D1 mid majors or schools like Wright St who play slower big friendly styles. We often see UT big offers consider us but choose elsewhere. Remember, Boothe was overweight in HS and thus under-recruited, Knapke was considered a talented project, Taylor a transfer, Edu lightly recruited as an off the radar foreign player. All MAC schools struggle to find good bigs. You usually need to compromise by getting a strong but slightly too short (like Simmons), or too slow (like OU's WIlson), a guy with a defect (like Miami's Mirambeaux who is very good but super heavy) or a project like St Francis grad Hornbeak who starts for Kent.

Next year's class looks good in terms of quality, but lacks a true big. I think we'll see at least 1 transfer out (probably Wilson who can't break the rotation and will have 2 more swingmen types joining the competition for PT in Lewis and Thomas). I think we'll sign a big guy, but the interest may be in someone who can come in and score-perhaps a transfer. All of our current and returning bigs-Jacobi, Simmons, Edu, Lorentsson- are limited scorers. The Swede can shoot but isn't an overall scorer like Shumate or Milner. They say ACL's are a 2 year recovery to 100% so there's a chance Edu may have a jump in production as his coordination, feel and confidence get closer to full strength, but I think we need frontcourt guy in 23-24 who can get buckets and that might mean another talented but undersized guy in reality.

It appears that the past few years TK has been looking for Centers who can spread the floor and shoot the 3, has passing skills to find the open shooters from inside the post and has the agility to play D against the ball screen on the perimeter. Thats a tough recipe to fill on the mid major level. Thats a tough recipe to fill in the NBA! Thus the popularity of "small ball" the past few years in the NBA. In the MAC when you find a player that can do all those things they are somewhat undersized.

Folks on this thread are my breed No hard feelings Springboro. You have a unique set of perspective and info. And id take any joe blow who puts out good kids, with decent grades, no criminal record and a trip to the dance.