I attended the meeting today. Very good talk from Coach. Doesn't expect to have much of a dropoff. Offensively, less of a reliance on three point shots. Expects percentage to be in the 36-40% range (of total shots). Ako playing very fast. Expects more drives to the bucket. Really high on TCU transfer for next year. Says they are recruiting OKG - Our Kinda Guy - to try to keep them at Rice all of their career. On the grad transfers, he says they can fill it up as long as they stay healthy. He says he is a victim of his own zeal to play a harder schedule. It was his and Rhodes' idea to play tough schedule in year 4. He just didn't expect it to be his year one. He thought Gumby and Lott didn't have good advise, they transferred for athletic reasons and didn't consider the value of the degree.

I have been to Coach Pera’s luncheon. He says all the right things and is impressive but he has to back up his words with wins. I would expect not as many wins as last year because of difficulty of the schedule but I think if he can have a similar record in Conference USA it will be a successful year.

(10-20-2017 11:59 PM)jhruzek Wrote:  I attended the meeting today. Very good talk from Coach. Doesn't expect to have much of a dropoff. Offensively, less of a reliance on three point shots. Expects percentage to be in the 36-40% range (of total shots). Ako playing very fast. Expects more drives to the bucket. Really high on TCU transfer for next year. Says they are recruiting OKG - Our Kinda Guy - to try to keep them at Rice all of their career. On the grad transfers, he says they can fill it up as long as they stay healthy. He says he is a victim of his own zeal to play a harder schedule. It was his and Rhodes' idea to play tough schedule in year 4. He just didn't expect it to be his year one. He thought Gumby and Lott didn't have good advise, they transferred for athletic reasons and didn't consider the value of the degree.

(10-21-2017 08:49 PM)OldOwl Wrote:  I have been to Coach Pera’s luncheon. He says all the right things and is impressive but he has to back up his words with wins. I would expect not as many wins as last year because of difficulty of the schedule but I think if he can have a similar record in Conference USA it will be a successful year.

(10-20-2017 11:59 PM)jhruzek Wrote:  I attended the meeting today. Very good talk from Coach. Doesn't expect to have much of a dropoff. Offensively, less of a reliance on three point shots. Expects percentage to be in the 36-40% range (of total shots). Ako playing very fast. Expects more drives to the bucket. Really high on TCU transfer for next year. Says they are recruiting OKG - Our Kinda Guy - to try to keep them at Rice all of their career. On the grad transfers, he says they can fill it up as long as they stay healthy. He says he is a victim of his own zeal to play a harder schedule. It was his and Rhodes' idea to play tough schedule in year 4. He just didn't expect it to be his year one. He thought Gumby and Lott didn't have good advise, they transferred for athletic reasons and didn't consider the value of the degree.

Ultimately, he'll be judged for his teams' results on the court. If anything else is the running theme of his tenure, then it would be an embarrassing controversy, like Braun's (not saying it's likely with Pera; that's just the only other possibility). Since he's never been a HC, there's no baseline. All I would expect at this point is that he says the right things as that's pretty much all JK had to go on in hiring him. While Pera did have good recommendations from his time as an assistant, there are still enough differences in responsibility that hiring him is a gamble compared to hiring an established coach. That said, we can't afford an established coach that we would want, so it's a gamble worth taking.

Anyone that James Harden thinks as highly of as Coach Pera is worth our support.

Pera was a head coach at the high school level and won state championships in both California and Pennsylvania.

(10-22-2017 01:17 PM)mrbig Wrote:  Pera was a head coach at the high school level and won state championships in both California and Pennsylvania.

There's a big difference between coaching high school and college. Todd Dodge won championships at Southlake Carroll and went .140 at UNT. Things change when coaches have to go out and get players rather than just manage the students that happen to be in your neighborhood.

(10-22-2017 01:52 PM)franklyconfused Wrote:  

(10-22-2017 01:17 PM)mrbig Wrote:  Pera was a head coach at the high school level and won state championships in both California and Pennsylvania.

There's a big difference between coaching high school and college. Todd Dodge won championships at Southlake Carroll and went .140 at UNT. Things change when coaches have to go out and get players rather than just manage the students that happen to be in your neighborhood.

I am not disagreeing that he has not been proven at the D1 college level. But his recruiting already seems pretty decent and he has shown in 2 states that he can win with the talent in the neighborhood. I look at his resume and it looks a little bit like Wallyne Graham’s resume, only Graham was head coach at JUCO’s and not an assistant head coach at D1.

There's no question that he can coach.
There is a tremendously larger issue for him and for Rice MBB in general, regardless of who is coaching. It's whether or not there are enough outstanding players out there that actually have any interest at all in having an academic experience.
This has been my suspicion -- that this was behind our recent mass defections -- and JK's recent interview corroborated this.

(10-22-2017 01:52 PM)franklyconfused Wrote:  

(10-22-2017 01:17 PM)mrbig Wrote:  Pera was a head coach at the high school level and won state championships in both California and Pennsylvania.

There's a big difference between coaching high school and college. Todd Dodge won championships at Southlake Carroll and went .140 at UNT. Things change when coaches have to go out and get players rather than just manage the students that happen to be in your neighborhood.

There was a lot more to it than that. The whole Southlake junior football program, from like fourth grade up, was set up to funnel players into the Carroll system. Same offense, same defenses, same terminology, same drills (to extent possible). Getting to the varsity Dragons was just a finishing program for all that went before.

(10-22-2017 02:01 PM)Barney Wrote:  There's no question that he can coach.
There is a tremendously larger issue for him and for Rice MBB in general, regardless of who is coaching. It's whether or not there are enough outstanding players out there that actually have any interest at all in having an academic experience.
This has been my suspicion -- that this was behind our recent mass defections -- and JK's recent interview corroborated this.

which is why many posters back the idea of supporting Olympic sports, or a "Denver" model, as the likelihood a getting a real student is much higher. WBB has apparently marketed the education aspect quite well. VB should be in the same path
Dont get me wrong, I hope/think that a coach who actually cares for his players can build a competitive MBB program, but the " one and done" clearly illustrates the problem

Scott told us our main recruiting competitors are the Ivy League schools. He said the big difference in the people we are recruiting is the parents. They're interested in academics and not what they can get under the table. (My words, not his)