Jamie Dixon staying at Pitt

I’m looking for tourney appearances myself.

I know Ernie would have made the tourney next year. You know it, I know it.

Ummm, I know no such thing. I think that’s a pretty ridiculous statement to make, given the team’s recent history, Ernie’s noted lack of ability to develop players, and the sheer number of returning players from this year’s team.

Uh, did you watch any games the last two years? That team was lost on both ends of the court. Why in the world would you want to open your slick new arena with that mess on the court? If he didn’t fix it last year, or this year, what makes you think next year would be different?

Ha! For every Kansas win, there was an Illinois loss, or a Kansas loss, or any other number of uncompetitive losses. These big wins seem much fewer and farther between when the Ducks can’t even be competitive in 1/2 their games.

To run the offense.

Fundamental basketball teach you he will.

But he’s gone from a 73% winning percentage when he was at UK and prior, to 71% now… the sky is falling!

True, and I wouldn’t mind worrying about the coach getting offers that entice him away. Oregon will do what it needs to do to make Oregon attractive.

I don’t want to worry about the coach leaving for retirement, or having in the back of my mind a question about him not getting the job done because of his age.

Oregon’s MBB is not a retirement home for coaches.

intermittent greatness in a sea of mediocrity.

Rec’d for truth.

As cougfan said, I don’t mind going through this because a coach is looking for a better job. That means he’s done some successful things at Oregon and raised the standard. I can accept that. I don’t want to go through this again because a coach is on the decline.

As for why an older coach might decline, no, I don’t have specific examples. I’ve never personally talked to any 18 year old kids that said to me I didn’t go there because “X” coach was too old. I was speaking more hypothetically.

Recruiting is a hard job. It’s not easy keeping up on AAU, high school programs, flying all around the country meeting parents and going to summer leagues. It’s not a 9-5, stress free, easy type of job. As a matter of fact one of the reasons NBA coaches don’t succeed at the college level is not because their X’s and O’s are terrible, it’s because they have to recruit, and it’s tough.

Look at some of the great coaches of all time. Now, I don’t think they retired (or in some cases got fired) because they couldn’t keep up with the game, I’m guessing it got tough at a certain age to keep up with the grind of recruiting:

Coaches and when they left (or how old they are)
Bob Knight 62
Dean Smith 66
Lute Olsen 72 (spent his last two years coaching under uncertainty about his health)
Coach K 63 (left one year because of exhaustion at age 48)
Jim Calhoun 66 (sat out part of this year due to health reasons)
Eddie Sutton 70
Tubby Smith 59

That means we have anywhere from 3-13 years of potential Tubby Smith, if he keeps up with some of the greats on this list, and I am sure most of these greats weren’t trying to rebuild a program, rebuild a recruiting pipeline, and had waaaaay better names amongst 18 year old kids in the later years of their career.

Finally, I will agree with you that Tubby would be a tremendous upgrade for the program. I for one would not be shouting Fire Tubby if he became the next coach. As I said:

I’m almost positive that Oregon will be in a better place 3-4 years later.

But personally, I’d rather go after a guy who’s a bit younger and who is looking to take the program to the next level because, yes, he MIGHT be looking to move on to better things. Not because he MIGHT be looking for one last big paycheck before he heads into the CBS studio to do broadcasting… er… I mean retirement. I’m not saying Tubby can’t, I’m just saying I’d prefer something else.

P.S. That moss you speak of, might make a coach a little more complacent too. I don’t want a complacent recruiter.