In the words of Donald Trump, "What do you have to lose?"

Didn't seem like a splash hire to me but the Vol fans speak very highly of him. We do know those vol fans are good people.

(03-14-2022 10:33 PM)NoQuarterBrigade Wrote:  Someone on BYB posted this.
Volunteer fans react.

Vol Nation

Sounds encouraging. We’ll see where this goes

At least unlike Duke fans when we hired Mo they aren't celebrating us taking him off their hands. Doesn't mean he's gonna be good, plenty of great assistants flop, but I do like that it's someone on the younger side and still looking to ascend in their career. Also in this league you have to defend and it sounds like by everyone's account he's a great defensive coach. This ECU team was embarrassing defending and rebounding so hopefully that changes.

(03-14-2022 07:29 PM)mikeinoki Wrote:  

Fitting, we are the Space Balls of college basketball...

Great hire. Defense wins championships.

Never heard of eem. Doesn’t seem too impressive but with the CUSA’ers coming in, maybe ECU can go 500 in conference moving forward.

(03-14-2022 05:36 PM)pesik Wrote:  this quick of a hire.. this has been in the works

Agree.

(03-14-2022 05:50 PM)k-vegasbuc Wrote:  Wow, that happened real fast. I'm surprised Tenn even let us interview him right now with the NCAA tourny coming up. A lot of people are expecting Tenn to potentially make a deep run.

I don't know much about him but in looking at the website, they said he was in charge of their defense, Barnes even referred to him as their "defensive coordinator" had have consistently been top 10 in defensive efficiency rankings.

Obviously not a name hire but at least comes from a highly successful program these last few years.

This has literally never happened at UTK; No reason to start thinking it will happen now.

(03-15-2022 07:09 PM)Memphis Yankee Wrote:  

(03-14-2022 05:36 PM)pesik Wrote:  this quick of a hire.. this has been in the works

Agree.

Gilbert's son is a walk on at UT so he knows the coaching staff.

Even Wikipedia has absolutely nothing on him, hope it works out, would be fun to see ECU be successful.

Here’s his introductory press conference

ecu should have waited on the presser till after the tourney.. and put out some edited 3-4min video of why he is great guy and cant wait till he is at ecu

having an introductory presser where most of it is "my entire focus right now is tennesse" takes away from the whole thing as his 1st appearance as an "ecu coach"

wouldnt shock me if he puts frank haith on his staff, with so much experience under him and haith's familiarity with the aac(interesting note is that tulsa had a 4star commited that decommmited when haith was let go- that might follow https://n.rivals.com/content/prospects/2...son-270746 )
but that might be a PR nightmare amoung ECU fans

ecu will be running an identical scheme to tennesse.. so tenn in the tournament should give them a glimpse

(03-16-2022 11:26 PM)pesik Wrote:  ecu should have waited on the presser till after the tourney..and put out some editing 3-4min video of why he is great guy and cant wait till he is at ecu

having an introductory presser where most of it is "my entire focus right now is tennesse" takes away from the whole thing as his 1st appearance as an "ecu coach"

wouldnt shock me if he puts frank haith on his staff, with so much experience under him and haith's familiarity with the aac(interesting note is that tulsa had a 4star commited that decommmited when haith was let go- that might follow https://n.rivals.com/content/prospects/2...son-270746 )
but that might be a PR nightmare amoung ECU fans

ecu will be running an identical scheme to tennesse.. so tenn in the tournament should give them a glimpse

When I looked at his resume and saw that he worked with Frank I thought that might be a possibility. With a first time head coach it might be valuable to have someone you know and trust on the bench with head coaching experience.

I will certainly try to watch some of the Tenn game today. I went back and watched the first half of the Tenn-Texas A&M game yesterday and what stuck out to me, especially early in the game, was how relentless Tenn was on defense. They forced a lot of turnovers. That seems to be the common theme I've heard on Schwartz is how a great defensive coach he is. That would definitely be beneficial at ECU because I feel we struggled defensively and with rebounding which are hallmarks of good teams. That being said, for personal reasons I hope Tenn doesn't make a long run in the tourney so he can get to work because we need it.

(03-14-2022 07:30 PM)Pony94 Wrote:  

(03-14-2022 07:29 PM)mikeinoki Wrote:  

+1 billion

Damnit! Beat me to it...

May the Schwartz be with you!

(03-14-2022 06:09 PM)pesik Wrote:  

(03-14-2022 05:52 PM)CLTPirate Wrote:  

(03-14-2022 05:36 PM)pesik Wrote:  this quick of a hire.. this has been in the works

Apparently, ECU felt they had to act now because South Carolina and Florida had interest in him.

0% chance he was getting hired by either .. tennesse hasnt been any where good enough to warrant assistants getting florida jobs .. the furthest theyve gone is 1 sweet 16 once in their 7 years there

also mike white leaving was a shocker 2 days ago...this hire is too fast to think it got in the works them...this has been back door for a long time

Well Tennessee did win the SEC for the first time in 43 years this season

(03-16-2022 03:43 PM)MemphisTigerFreak Wrote:  

(03-14-2022 05:50 PM)k-vegasbuc Wrote:  Wow, that happened real fast. I'm surprised Tenn even let us interview him right now with the NCAA tourny coming up. A lot of people are expecting Tenn to potentially make a deep run.

I don't know much about him but in looking at the website, they said he was in charge of their defense, Barnes even referred to him as their "defensive coordinator" had have consistently been top 10 in defensive efficiency rankings.

Obviously not a name hire but at least comes from a highly successful program these last few years.

This has literally never happened at UTK; No reason to start thinking it will happen now.

#snicker

Looks like Coach Schwartz has his first assistant coach, but there hasn't been a formal announcement.

Riley Davis - UT Arlington (Assistant Head Coach / Recruiting Coordinator)


Schwartz/Rick Barnes connection. Texas & Tennessee.

From the UT-Arlington site:
"Riley Davis was promoted to assistant head coach/recruiting coordinator in April of 2021 by head coach Greg Young following three seasons as an assistant coach with the program.

In his first season with UTA in 2018-19, Davis played an integral role in guiding a UTA team predicted to finish 2nd-to-last in the Sun Belt Conference Preseason Poll to a 2nd-place finish in the regular-season standings and a berth in the Sun Belt Tournament Final for the second-straight year.

In 2019-20, he helped UTA finish in the top-40 in the nation in four key statistical categories: assist-to-turnover ratio (16th, 1.3), 3-point percentage defense (20th, 29.6), fewest turnovers per game (29th, 11.2) and assists per game (35th, 14.9). The 29.6 percent rate for opponents from the 3-point line set a single-season program record for defensive performance by the Mavs, bettering the mark set in 2018-19 of 29.8.

In 2020-21 behind Davis, the Mavs once again wrapped up a year in the top 40 in the country in the following categories: blocks per game (21st, 4.8), steals per game (24th, 8.3), turnover margin (33rd, +2.8) and 3-pointers made per contest (37th, 9.0).

Davis served as the video coordinator and director of player development at Tennessee for two seasons before coming to UTA in April of 2018. Prior to his stint at Tennessee, Davis served in numerous collegiate coaching roles – primarily at Texas – while gaining experience in the NBA scouting ranks.

Davis’ seven total years at Texas were split into two separate stints: the first coming with two years as a volunteer student assistant (2009-11) and one year as a graduate assistant (2011-12). In those roles, he assisted in film exchange as well as all aspects of video coordination and internal operations.

After leaving Austin in 2012, Davis spent the 2012-13 season as an assistant coach at Sam Houston. He then spent one year as a regional advance scout for the NBA’s Charlotte Bobcats (now the Charlotte Hornets) in 2013-14. Davis returned to the Texas staff in 2014-15 to serve in the full-time role of special assistant/video coordinator before embarking to Tennessee along with head coach Rick Barnes.

Davis played basketball at Western Texas College in 2006-07 before transferring to Howard College, where he played the following season. At Howard, Davis received team awards for academic excellence and maintained a perfect 4.0 GPA.

After completing his junior-college eligibility, Davis served as a student assistant at Howard during the 2008-09 campaign. He coordinated travel, scheduling, scouting, assisted with recruiting and also coached the junior-varsity squad.

During his two seasons at Howard, the Hawks went a combined 49-12 while winning the Western Junior College Athletic Conference (WJCAC) title and advancing to the Region V NJCAA (National Junior College Athletic Association) Tournament both years.

Davis also helped recruit a signing class at Howard that later went on to win the 2010 NJCAA National Championship. A native of Seminole, Texas, Davis earned his bachelor’s degree in sociology from Texas in 2011."