I thought I would move this to a new thread since the one it's on isn't really very appropriate. We all (I think) know that ACs Ian Caskill and Kachine Alexander have left the JMU coaching staff. No idea where either of them went or who is on the radar for their replacements. I know some have expressed that they would like to see Nikki Newman return. I have wondered if Kayla Cooper-Williams might be promoted. And DNR sports' Shane Mettlen indicated that he thought Maddie Green was in line for some kind of staff position. It's probably too early to know anything, but other programs are hiring now, so no telling......

Green might be a GA to start with or get one of the Dir. of Basketball Ops positions. I don't know how many players go straight from playing to an assistant coach position. I assume it's been done before, but admittedly just don't rightly know. It seems this offseason is a big one in terms of resetting. Losing several key contributors and now a couple key coaches while transitioning to a new conference. Hopefully the program gets back on track after a down year last year.

Shane Mettlen's tweet made it sound like we or a team could land coaches from JMU and JMU or other SunBelt team receive their coaches. Hope that made sense lol. Basically a switching of coaches between the Sun Belt schools.

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Do we think it’s Karen Barefoot? Former ODU head coach (most recently HC at UNCW)?

She would be a good assistant coach

(04-18-2022 08:36 PM)dukes13 Wrote:  Do we think it’s Karen Barefoot? Former ODU head coach (most recently HC at UNCW)?

She would be a good assistant coach

When Barefoot was an assistance at ODU, they made the Sweet 16. Losing to UConn, who won the NC.

(04-18-2022 07:29 PM)hburg Wrote:  Shane Mettlen's tweet made it sound like we or a team could land coaches from JMU and JMU or other SunBelt team receive their coaches. Hope that made sense lol. Basically a switching of coaches between the Sun Belt schools.

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Shane actually wrote a really nice article about it that I would recommend checking out.
There were a few things that stood out to me.
-He is looking for a coach in the south (Sun Belt area). Someone that can recruit the south better and also knows the Sun Belt teams. He had mentioned specifically that he would like to recruit better down there and a lot of times they just don't know about JMU down there which should definitely change now that we are going to be playing more often down there.
-Coach O said that he wanted a coach with experience. Specifically someone that can bring different ideas than his own. Someone who will disagree with him and butt heads a little. Honestly, I loved this. It's easy to assemble a staff of people with similar philosophies, but takes something extra to bring in people that are not going to say yes to everything the coach says. I didn't take that as an indictment to the previous staff. Just more of an admission that Coach O admits he doesn't know it all and still wants to grow and improve in all ways. Good for him.
Certainly makes me hopeful that Coach O isn't going down without a fight. I'm rooting for him.

How does Sean still have his job

(04-18-2022 09:51 PM)DaBigBlue Wrote:  

(04-18-2022 08:36 PM)dukes13 Wrote:  Do we think it’s Karen Barefoot? Former ODU head coach (most recently HC at UNCW)?

She would be a good assistant coach

When Barefoot was an assistance at ODU, they made the Sweet 16. Losing to UConn, who won the NC.

Are you even serious? Karen Barefoot ran the ODU program into the ground and under the ground. It took Nikki McCray three years to resurrect it, but then she got a better offer. Meanwhile, Barefoot got fired, and look what she did to UNCW. She just got fired from there after a winless season. And don't suggest Tina Martin either.

(04-19-2022 08:28 AM)dukesfan4010 Wrote:  How does Sean still have his job

The strangeness that has been Covid these last few years.
To be fair to Coach O, JMU probably would have finally won back the CAA postseason in 2020. And if not, they had a really strong case to make the NCAA tournament, but the season was cut short. That wasn't his fault.
These last two years have been incredibly strange. A season without fans and this past season without a chance at a postseason.
I have absolutely been one to call out Coach this season and even at one point called for his firing, but it really isn't fair. Had this been a regular season, then perhaps. But it was not.
None of us know what was happening behind the scenes or what was or wasn't being said. What we do know (because it was reported) is that not having the opportunity to win the CAA affected them. And when a team has nothing to play for, it's very difficult to get them to play at their best.
There is no doubt we should expect more from JMU women's bball and Coach O. But that being said, it just wasn't fair to fire him due to everything I mentioned above. Next year? It doesn't matter than it's JMU's first year in a new conference. The WBB team has to be excellent for Coach O to keep his job. No more reprieves.

Well there it is, snatched an assistant from Troy.

He seems to check a lot of boxes of what Coach O wanted from an assistant. He comes from a winning program, can recruit Georgia and Florida (seven players on Troy's roster this season were from those two states), and knows the Sun Belt. Apparently he is also good at scouting opponents, as he works as an advanced scout for the Connecticut Suns in the WNBA.

"Harrow currently serves as an advanced scout for the Connecticut Sun of the WNBA. He helps head coach Curt Miller and the coaching staff prepare for games against the Las Vegas Aces and Los Angeles Sparks. During the 2021 regular season, the Sun went undefeated against these two teams, which contributed to Connecticut finishing the regular season as champions and secure the number one seed heading into the WNBA playoffs."

https://jmusports.com/news/2022/4/19/wom...staff.aspx

(04-19-2022 12:44 PM)AssyrianDuke Wrote:  He seems to check a lot of boxes of what Coach O wanted from an assistant. He comes from a winning program, can recruit Georgia and Florida (seven players on Troy's roster this season were from those two states), and knows the Sun Belt. Apparently he is also good at scouting opponents, as he works as an advanced scout for the Connecticut Suns in the WNBA.

"Harrow currently serves as an advanced scout for the Connecticut Sun of the WNBA. He helps head coach Curt Miller and the coaching staff prepare for games against the Las Vegas Aces and Los Angeles Sparks. During the 2021 regular season, the Sun went undefeated against these two teams, which contributed to Connecticut finishing the regular season as champions and secure the number one seed heading into the WNBA playoffs."

https://jmusports.com/news/2022/4/19/wom...staff.aspx

Shane Mettlen mentioned yesterday that something was about to happen that could turn into an instant rivalry. Perhaps this is what he was referring to?

Troy has been the best team in the Sun Belt for several years now, so this is big. I consider them to be our #1 rivals in the western division and overall. Appy State is probably that in the east.

(04-19-2022 01:24 PM)orange-to-purple Wrote:  Troy has been the best team in the Sun Belt for several years now, so this is big. I consider them to be our #1 rivals in the western division and overall. Appy State is probably that in the east.

One thing that is pretty cool about switching conferences is learning about these programs I haven't been exposed to. I had no idea what kind of juggernaut Troy is in the Sun Belt. Now I am getting the importance of this hire. I'm getting more and more impressed over this move.
I could see them being a rival in the same way as Drexel was for us. I never really hated Drexel, but I respected them and wanted to win.
As for the east, I think it'll easily be ODU as our rival. It looks like they had a good season this year and if that's any indication, we'll be battling them for 1st place in the east, with App State and Ga State as top 4.

Yeah hard to imagine any SBC rival topping ODU in hoops. Football seems like a lot more potential for App, Marshall, maybe Coastal to trump them if ODU is up and down or even consistently bad while App/Coastal/JMU/Marshall are consistently strong, but even if that's the case ODU will still be the new Richmond we despise and can't wait to stomp every year while App is the new NDSU. In men's or women's basketball though I don't see any rival topping the butterflies.

Going to be an interesting season as I have no idea about any of the SBC WBB teams. Will be fun to see some new teams at the AUBC this season. Wondering if the Dukes will play any of the old CAA teams or usual VA teams as OOC games in the coming years.

Brian

(04-19-2022 03:16 PM)ParentofJMUMRDs Wrote:  Going to be an interesting season as I have no idea about any of the SBC WBB teams. Will be fun to see some new teams at the AUBC this season. Wondering if the Dukes will play any of the old CAA teams or usual VA teams as OOC games in the coming years.

Brian

I really wish we didn't have to deal with them for a while after taking advantage of us and their treatment of our athletes. If we did, most likely it would be teams not too far. WM seems like the most likely. It would also be okay if they traveled to us and not the other way around. The CAA schools out of driving distance we most likely will not see again for a long time (if ever).

(04-19-2022 12:44 PM)AssyrianDuke Wrote:  He seems to check a lot of boxes of what Coach O wanted from an assistant. He comes from a winning program, can recruit Georgia and Florida (seven players on Troy's roster this season were from those two states), and knows the Sun Belt. Apparently he is also good at scouting opponents, as he works as an advanced scout for the Connecticut Suns in the WNBA.

"Harrow currently serves as an advanced scout for the Connecticut Sun of the WNBA. He helps head coach Curt Miller and the coaching staff prepare for games against the Las Vegas Aces and Los Angeles Sparks. During the 2021 regular season, the Sun went undefeated against these two teams, which contributed to Connecticut finishing the regular season as champions and secure the number one seed heading into the WNBA playoffs."

https://jmusports.com/news/2022/4/19/wom...staff.aspx

This hire is impressive. Kudos to all who made it happen!

Now, could we hire Nikki Newman away from Radford? That would make the coaching changes a real plus-plus.

(04-19-2022 08:28 AM)dukesfan4010 Wrote:  How does Sean still have his job

Reading the tea leaves, my only guess is $. Rather than pay to have Coach O go away to then have to hire another head coach and pay them an even greater salary, they can bring in this guy at 2.5x-4x less than what they would have to pay a HC. Coach Harrow likely gets a title bump, a probable juicy pay bump, and handed the reigns to the clipboard. Let him handle Xs and Os and Coach O can be rah rah guy and handle the media/fan responsibilities. I do like how they led the country in rebounding 4 straight years -- get back to dominating the glass like the glory days, which seem so far away now.

If we have another disappointing season (by JMU's standards), then we are in the market for a coach a year from now. I do think it's sad that we are choosing not to pay a 1-year buyout, but this is probably next-best stop-gap solution.

I hope Harrow can help with the fundamentals. Sean seems like a really good guy who has recruited high caliber players like Kiki and Jamia. However, his biggest problem is he hasn’t always gotten the most development out of his players. Some may flash their first year and barely progress.

One of the most frustrating moments of recent JMU history was being up by 20 to #4 Maryland and losing it to not being able to break a full court press. As a recruiter and as a person who can relate to his players, Sean is great. However, the X’s and O’s seem to escape him.

I really hope Harrow helps right the ship and it isn’t a repeat of our hope when Rowe brought in Oppenheimer and our team was even worse. I guess on the bright side is that he’s shown to be a great assistant at this level in this conference which is key.