IF Steele, ideas about assistants?

[Caveat]

Yep, we need the recruiter, and we still really have no idea who Steele is as a HC. This feels like devastation at the moment, but I pray we do the Xavier thing.

We had no idea what Mack and Miller would be like as head coaches either -- you put your trust in the fact that Steele was given the blessing of the "Associate Head Coach" title and that he's had years to show off his basketball IQ to those involved with the program.

Plus, when you've got guys like James Farr and Matt Stainbrook stumping for you, that has to mean something. Those guys were both absolute grinders, and if they say Steele has "it," I don't need anything more by way of proof or evidence.

[Muskie]

Just a notice that Rick Carter was at several games and did some podcast-y type things during this past season. But In Steele (or the next coach), we must trust.

Rick is working on some sort of APP or software that helps track athletes grades (or something like that). I believe that is why he left the DePaul staff to work on it full time.

[xudash]

We had no idea what Mack and Miller would be like as head coaches either -- you put your trust in the fact that Steele was given the blessing of the "Associate Head Coach" title and that he's had years to show off his basketball IQ to those involved with the program.

Plus, when you've got guys like James Farr and Matt Stainbrook stumping for you, that has to mean something. Those guys were both absolute grinders, and if they say Steele has "it," I don't need anything more by way of proof or evidence.

Given where we are with all this at this particular moment, I find information like this to be very valuable. Yes, it's two guys' opinions, but consider who they are and how close they were to the situation as players. Most of us think the world of James and Matt anyway.

If a substantial number of current and past players chime in with their support of Steele, that has to mean something. At the end of the day, it's about a coaches ability to attract talent and then get that talent to play cohesively as a team.

[UCGRAD4X]

even if it's not Brian, we need somebody who can develop our bigs. Pegues is a bigger loss than Murray in my mind.

Amen to that.! But first we actually need to get some bigs. Developing Walter might be a challenge and it probably won't help much if at all next year and probably not much even the year after. Not sure Tyrique's problem is development so much (although it can't hurt) as getting on the court and staying strong, healthy and productive for longer stretches.

Given where we are with all this at this particular moment, I find information like this to be very valuable. Yes, it's two guys' opinions, but consider who they are and how close they were to the situation as players. Most of us think the world of James and Matt anyway.

If a substantial number of current and past players chime in with their support of Steele, that has to mean something. At the end of the day, it's about a coaches ability to attract talent and then get that talent to play cohesively as a team.

...and get your best players and seniors to play like they belong there and win like a higher seed!

[Burkitt's07]

What about Aaron Williams? He helped out our bigs a few years ago. Saw him at the Depaul game with his family and he seems like a super nice guy.

[XUOFM]

Of course Steele needs to be able to put his own staff together, but I am wondering if we can use some of the money we "save" from not paying Mack North of 2 million to whatever would be Steele's starting salary (this might be around 1 million?) to really up our asst. coaches salaries? This could let us seduce...wait, wrong school... bring in a couple of well respected asst. coaches while allowing some money left over to get an AAU coach for recruiting purposes.

Of course I have no idea who these names would be!

[D-West & PO-Z]

Of course Steele needs to be able to put his own staff together, but I am wondering if we can use some of the money we "save" from not paying Mack North of 2 million to whatever would be Steele's starting salary (this might be around 1 million?) to really up our asst. coaches salaries? This could let us seduce...wait, wrong school... bring in a couple of well respected asst. coaches while allowing some money left over to get an AAU coach for recruiting purposes.

Of course I have no idea who these names would be!

They might be able to do this to some extent but they also have to plan for the new coaches salary to rise as well if, as we all hope, he is doing a good job. That would mean the assistants would rise some too. So you cant start too crazy high with the new assistants either.

[Muskie]

Assuming it is Steele, one of the jobs will likely go to Jeremy Growe. That leaves two openings.

[paulxu]

Lionel Chalmers was coming to Wofford to be an assistant, and then mysteriously left after a couple weeks.
I think he's with an NBA team as a coach, maybe in Florida.

He might be a good assistant for Steele.

[JTG]

You need 2 assistants who are ace recruiters, and a guy to work with the bigs. So Steele has to replace himself, first, and that is a tall order. He caused big-time havoc to IU, Purdue, and Butler in Indiana. It would be nice if he could lure Howard from Nova, but probably won't happen. Not sure I'd be on board with an AAU coach. Lots of issues there.