(02-06-2021 08:35 AM)eastisbest Wrote:  

(02-06-2021 07:08 AM)Lester Wrote:  

(02-05-2021 01:40 AM)UTfanBGalum Wrote:  I recall an interview back in the Nichols-MacDonald-Conroy glory days of Rocket basketball. Conroy was asked what was behind the team success. He said they learned that making coachability-character a higher priority during recruiting than stats/apparent talent was a key for them. There was a band of players to choose from that they had a chance to sign. So instead of always picking/concentrating on who seemed like the most talented near the top of the band, they picked the ones who seemed more coachable and therefore could develop more as time went by.

The only problem with this approach is that, given the limited information a coach gets during recruiting, it is pretty subjective deciding who is going to be coachable or has high character. The kid's high school coach is unlikely to talk down his own player in this regard. That is where implicit bias can creep in, as it may have with Nichols, who seemed to see white kids as more coachable.

Yep, "implicit bias" is a hard measure.

It could surely work the other way then, yes? Kid/family sees a person, makes judgements based on what they see, having limited information and all, they decide they do not want to play for that coach. Is there a record somewhere of not "white" kids that wanted to come to the University of Toledo to play for Coach Nichols, that didn't get to?

A good friend of mine was recruited hard by BG. Toledo came into the picture late, primarily because the high school coach he played for had quite the disdain for Nichols and never tried to hide it (which was later rectified). My buddy mentioned the recruiting by Nichols was a great experience and he was tempted to head to Toledo. In the end, he stayed with his early commitment to BG, had a HoF career with them, and has never had a bad thing to say about Nichols or UT. UT nearly benefited later on when his younger brother (also recruited hard by Toledo) ended up at a Big Ten school. Once there, he immediately became dissatisfied with the coach and looked to transfer to Toledo - because it meant being closer to home and his older brother thought UT would be a better fit for him than BG. In the end, he stayed at the Big10 school where he scored over 1,200 points in 3 seasons there. Interestingly, he was not turned off from UT or Nichols even after the experience Nichols went through with one of his former HS teammates who was 1st team all-state in high school and ended up at Toledo - after some problems with his recruitment by Iowa. He had one season at UT and was in Nichol's doghouse nearly the entirety of that season and spent most of his time on the bench. That happened 2 years before he graduated from HS.

I think Nichols had a reputation of going after only white players - stemming initially from HS coaching days at Central Catholic - and later when he had to deal with a couple of players at UT recruited by his predecessor (Eddie Melvin) that had some issues with following rules and attending class (others on this board are much more familiar with that situation than me).

I'm sure there are other stories that could provide a different view. The only knowledge I have was from someone that dealt directly with Nichols 2 different times during the recruiting process and he indicated Nichols was not at all like his purported reputation. Take it FWIW.

(02-06-2021 04:02 AM)pono Wrote:  

(02-05-2021 11:08 AM)IamN2daRockets! Wrote:  I think this team shows how really important shooting is to winning. Sounds basic but the game is putting the ball in the hole. If you can shoot you can play. Learn D but get shooters. Good shooters are more and more difficult to find in this dunk-a-holic world.

I loved the Ted Williams, Tim Selgo's of the world. Those teams could shoot. Recruit great shooters and they still have to be tough to win. That's the magic combination!!!! Easy to identify but tough to find.

I think TK realizes that ball movement, court awareness, and shooting can win a lot of games at UT. He's just settling in on the formula: position-less motion ball with great shooters and team helping D.

in a sense you are describing a modern version of the coach nichols teams.

Absolutely. Very glad in happened. A little sorry it tool TK so long.

I brought back the comments from the Nichols days about character because I noticed the 2nd most winning UT coach - TK - was quoted as saying he "wants to focus on skill and character going forward in the recruiting decisions." I just thought it interesting they both decided that was a priority. Like TK referenced Saunders as high character, back in the day Rudley was described in that realm quite a bit too, among others.