Action starting early with Steve Alford fired at UCLA

Early candidates at UCLA are Fred Hoiberg, Jamie Dixon and Earl Watson.

Will they go for an interim or hire right away? Pool is larger if they wait.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

(12-31-2018 05:18 PM)Jjoey52 Wrote:  Will they go for an interim or hire right away? Pool is larger if they wait.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Interim for now.

They'd best loosen the pursestrings or lube the bitcoin wallet or whatever, because while the $2.6 million that Alford got per year isn't chicken feed, it's not going to be near enough to land Dixon or Billy Donovan or the Mayor.

Gut guess: They get turned down by their top two choices and end up with Musselman over at Nevada.

https://basketball.realgm.com/wiretap/25...Head-Coach

UCLA apparently targeting Tony Bennett as it prepares to begin head coaching search.

Bennett is making $3 million at Virginia. Alford was making $2.6 million at UCLA. I would guess that UCLA, at minimum, would need to double his salary to be closer in line with Coack K/Calipari/Holtmann, who are all making $7 million or more. For reference, UCLA increased the salary for Chip Kelly to over $4 million per year, from Jim Mora's $3.5 annual salary. I would think they would need to make a higher increase in order to seriously convince Bennett to leave his situation at Virginia.

Somehow I don't see Bennett's style of play going over big in LaLaLand.

Too bad we didn’t get Lavar Ball offspring playing for Bennett.

UCLA Hs gotten by far years being cheap, looks like they re gong to have to pony up now.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

(02-15-2019 09:51 AM)GoldenWarrior11 Wrote:  https://basketball.realgm.com/wiretap/25...Head-Coach

UCLA apparently targeting Tony Bennett as it prepares to begin head coaching search.

Bennett is making $3 million at Virginia. Alford was making $2.6 million at UCLA. I would guess that UCLA, at minimum, would need to double his salary to be closer in line with Coack K/Calipari/Holtmann, who are all making $7 million or more. For reference, UCLA increased the salary for Chip Kelly to over $4 million per year, from Jim Mora's $3.5 annual salary. I would think they would need to make a higher increase in order to seriously convince Bennett to leave his situation at Virginia.

No one really knows who they are looking at. The decision, much like the decision to hire Chip Kelly, is being handled by a select committee. The football committee had Troy Aikman and Casey Wasserman as key members. The basketball committee has Bob Myers (GM for the Warriors and played at UCLA) and Casey Wasserman as key members.

The UCLA AD, Chianti Dan Guerrero, is not making the sole decision. He may be on the way out. He has made a number of bad hires in basketball and football. Wasserman helped built the Wasserman Football Center, which cost $75 million and was built entirely with donations, $10 million from Wasserman. Wasserman helped pay the buyout for Mora and I think did the same with Alford.

Bennett's name has come up and it does not seem like a great fit, but you never know. Money is not a problem. Another name that keeps coming up is Luke Walton. Walton was an assistant coach with the Warriors under Bob Myers. The Lakers are 28-29 and may not make the playoffs.

Walton has a $7.2 million dollar home in Manhattan Beach, about 18 miles from Westwood. He is under contract for at least another two years at $5 million per year. Since neither Magic or LeBron were involved in his hiring, they have no loyalty to him. He is likely gone after this season, although owner Jeannie Buss does like him.

The fact that Walton has a home in Southern California makes him an attractive candidate. He will not suffer from "sticker shock" when he buys a home. He knows the traffic. In the morning from Manhattan Beach, it is a two hour drive to Westwood. He played in the Pac-12. He played in the Pac-12, he played for Lute Olsen and Phil Jackson, his father is possibly the greatest player in UCLA basketball history. He has three NBA Championship rings and I think his hiring would be well received.

Miles is almost certainly out the door at Nebraska. This was supposed to be their year and they might not even make the NIT.

I don't see how Chambers could stay at Penn State after this season.

(02-16-2019 02:25 AM)SoCalBobcat78 Wrote:  

(02-15-2019 09:51 AM)GoldenWarrior11 Wrote:  https://basketball.realgm.com/wiretap/25...Head-Coach

UCLA apparently targeting Tony Bennett as it prepares to begin head coaching search.

Bennett is making $3 million at Virginia. Alford was making $2.6 million at UCLA. I would guess that UCLA, at minimum, would need to double his salary to be closer in line with Coack K/Calipari/Holtmann, who are all making $7 million or more. For reference, UCLA increased the salary for Chip Kelly to over $4 million per year, from Jim Mora's $3.5 annual salary. I would think they would need to make a higher increase in order to seriously convince Bennett to leave his situation at Virginia.

No one really knows who they are looking at. The decision, much like the decision to hire Chip Kelly, is being handled by a select committee. The football committee had Troy Aikman and Casey Wasserman as key members. The basketball committee has Bob Myers (GM for the Warriors and played at UCLA) and Casey Wasserman as key members.

The UCLA AD, Chianti Dan Guerrero, is not making the sole decision. He may be on the way out. He has made a number of bad hires in basketball and football. Wasserman helped built the Wasserman Football Center, which cost $75 million and was built entirely with donations, $10 million from Wasserman. Wasserman helped pay the buyout for Mora and I think did the same with Alford.

Bennett's name has come up and it does not seem like a great fit, but you never know. Money is not a problem. Another name that keeps coming up is Luke Walton. Walton was an assistant coach with the Warriors under Bob Myers. The Lakers are 28-29 and may not make the playoffs.

Walton has a $7.2 million dollar home in Manhattan Beach, about 18 miles from Westwood. He is under contract for at least another two years at $5 million per year. Since neither Magic or LeBron were involved in his hiring, they have no loyalty to him. He is likely gone after this season, although owner Jeannie Buss does like him.

The fact that Walton has a home in Southern California makes him an attractive candidate. He will not suffer from "sticker shock" when he buys a home. He knows the traffic. In the morning from Manhattan Beach, it is a two hour drive to Westwood. He played in the Pac-12. He played in the Pac-12, he played for Lute Olsen and Phil Jackson, his father is possibly the greatest player in UCLA basketball history. He has three NBA Championship rings and I think his hiring would be well received.

You know you're in trouble when "knows the local traffic" is important enough to be mentioned as a reason to hire a new coach.

I was seriously wondering why UCLA didn’t make Coach Calipari @ Kentucky an offer, but the FBI investigation may have something to do with that. Not offering Tom Izzo the job is even stranger though

Ohio University has officially announced that it's moving on from Saul Phillips. IMO it's an attractive mid-major job.

Texas A&M will be open, as Billy Kennedy won't be back next year. Favorites for that job have to be Buzz Williams and Kelvin Sampson, IMO.

Phil Cunningham is out at Troy University.

(03-13-2019 11:22 AM)GoldenWarrior11 Wrote:  Texas A&M will be open, as Billy Kennedy won't be back next year. Favorites for that job have to be Buzz Williams and Kelvin Sampson, IMO.

Buzz Williams has Virginia Tech's program in a solid upward trajectory. I doubt he would leave that to start over at TAMU.

(03-13-2019 01:20 PM)Shannon Panther Wrote:  

(03-13-2019 11:22 AM)GoldenWarrior11 Wrote:  Texas A&M will be open, as Billy Kennedy won't be back next year. Favorites for that job have to be Buzz Williams and Kelvin Sampson, IMO.

Buzz Williams has Virginia Tech's program in a solid upward trajectory. I doubt he would leave that to start over at TAMU.

Buzz did well here as asst to Billy Gillespie and he was able to recruit well here too. Plus he’ll get a sizeable pay raise (which goes a lot further in TX thanks to no state income tax) so I wouldn’t discount him

(03-13-2019 01:20 PM)Shannon Panther Wrote:  

(03-13-2019 11:22 AM)GoldenWarrior11 Wrote:  Texas A&M will be open, as Billy Kennedy won't be back next year. Favorites for that job have to be Buzz Williams and Kelvin Sampson, IMO.

Buzz Williams has Virginia Tech's program in a solid upward trajectory. I doubt he would leave that to start over at TAMU.

How much of a rebuild is it? A&M was in the Sweet 16 last year. Besides, it is much easier to build a program in hoops than it is in football-- all it takes is 1-2 recruiting classes and you could do in in year 1 or year 2 (as opposed to the typical 3-4 years in football).