*** COACHING SEARCH THREAD: Thursday, June 4 ***

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If they hire Dana Altman, I'll lose every bit of respect I have had for Pollard. This guys team are always SAWFT! I'll puke if they hire him.

TJ is real interesting. He has ties with current players and just might be the best guy for the 2015-2016 team, but a lot of question marks with him. At this point I guess I have to ride with Pollard and think he's going to be a good coach, but I know a ton of criticism is coming if he falls down. I'm a little iffy about him.

Tim Floyd- cheater and still doesn't win post ISU?..... No thanks. Move on.

Nick Nurse- I have NO idea. Was great for Energy, but different league.

Archie Miller- Why?...

Hornacek- a lot like Fred. I think he can be a good coach, but not a great coach.

The candidates I have heard about I haven't been overly impressed. We need to get on the line with Larry Brown, Jim Calhoun, and Greg Marshall and ask them if they are interested in a National Championship. Brown and Calhoun have their share of championships, this would just add to the collection. But telling Greg Marshall about this start studded team would get him real excited. Problem is he seems loyal to the Shockers. It is definitely worth the phone call! We can't screw this up. 5 years from now I don't want to be looking back at this and saying we could have done more. Jamie, I'm counting on you, don't let me down. Make every effort possible!

Hiring Larry Brown just ensures that ISU has to go through this same nightmare in a few years.

And there is zero chance that Jim Calhoun comes out of retirement. He walked away from a UConn team that won the national title the first year after he left so it's pretty clear that the allure of a contender isn't enough to keep him working. And on a side note, he is a monumental East Coast jacka$$ who would bristle every midwest ISU fan like you cannot imagine.

Marshall wouldn't leave WSU for the fertile recruiting grounds and untold riches of Texas. He isn't leaving to go to ISU. My guess is that he continues to build his resume until an elite Kentucky/Duke/Carolina job opens.
 
I don't think I have to decide between the two.

Also, if we bring in someone who's philosophy was "don't care if we score 50 so long as we hold them to 40" like you described, with the team we have now, it would go down in history as one of the worst decisions ever made in a basketball hiring. Like if someone was hired to coach the current Cleveland Cavaliers, and they decided the key to success was running the offense through Kendrick Perkins. This is not a team built to play grind ball. This is a team built to run.

You are aware that most good coaches can adapt to what their players capabilities are, right? I don't think a coach that has a fundamental belief that defense and running the clock down is a bad thing. Some of this year's players might have benefited from a little more structure in the offense. When forced by good teams to play half court offense they usually didn't fare well. AT ALL. Team's need to be able to win different styles of games. Not everyone is going to let you just run wild and rain threes.
 
I think this was a Leath mandate. Makes no sense to me to waste all that $$$ when the best guy for the job is already on your staff.

How do you actually know he's the best guy for the job? From an employer perspective, it's pretty much naive and shortsighted to only interview one person for a job. You NEVER do that.

The past few weeks have been so up and down, but if nothing else the number of arm chair employers on here is hilarious. Leath is absolutely correct in this. You want to interview multiple people to get the best candidate. Interviewing only one person when multiple have shown interest and are all capable of doing the job, and calling it quits after just 1 would be incredibly shortsighted. Yes, I know that it is what happened with Hoiberg, but even then I don't agree he shouldn't have interviewed anybody else.

And if nothing else, if JP truly believes that TJ is the best, it will only affirm that he truly IS the best.
 
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First of all, I want Altman.....but if we can not get a coach of his stature at that high level, then I prefer Otzelberger over these mid and low major coaches. If I am Otzelberger and am picked over for one of these guys it is apparent that I will never be the Head Coach at Iowa State unless I leave. And he will leave. None of these guys are Fred. Prohm does not even have any experience at all at a Power 5 Conference school. I would take Bryce Drew over Prohm. Makes a lot more sense. His team thumped Murray State last season 93-58. Ouch.
 
None of these guys are Fred. Prohm does not even have any experience at all at a Power 5 Conference school. I would take Bryce Drew over Prohm. Makes a lot more sense. His team thumped Murray State last season 93-58. Ouch.

Well by your logic, maybe we should just hire Jared Haase because his team beat Iowa State and must be better than Hoiberg automatically.
 
Well by your logic, maybe we should just hire Jared Haase because his team beat Iowa State and must be better than Hoiberg automatically.

UAB has a pretty young team and seems poised to have a good year this year. Conference USA basketball is certainly a much higher level than the Ohio Valley Conference. So yes, maybe we should consider him.......has he applied?
 
UAB has a pretty young team and seems poised to have a good year this year. Conference USA basketball is certainly a much higher level than the Ohio Valley Conference. So yes, maybe we should consider him.......has he applied?

No thank you. He had his team working hard, I'll give him that, but he just won't be able to shake that Jayhawk smell.
 
The more I read about Prohm, the more I'm convinced that he and TJ could do something special at Iowa State for many years to come.
 
The more I read about Prohm, the more I'm convinced that he and TJ could do something special at Iowa State for many years to come.

Once again, TJ will be gone as we will have effectively told him that he has no shot at a Head Coaching Job at Iowa State if he remains as an Assistant. Sorry, but that should be readily apparent.

If you are making the new hire as coach conditional on retaining Otzelberger then you are really kidding yourself. The selection of the new coach has to be made independent of whomever his assistants might be.
 
What is going to come out of all of this? If we have no Dana Altman then we have no splash hire. Frankly, NONE of these low and mid majors as well Otzelberger himself are a "splash hire".

IF Leath was wanting a splash hire, and these are the only guys being considered then Leath is going to be disappointed.
 
ONce again, a conditional hire.

I will make a prediction. IF Otzelberger is not chosen to be the Head Coach and Iowa State chooses a min-major coach, it is entirely possible that Otzelberger leaves sooner rather than later.

And you can not blame him. So many people overlooking his talents and not wishing to promote him.......and then say that it is imperative that we retain HIM to have success with some low-major coach. Otz may stay the one year and do all he can to help the team he knows and help recruited to have success. He is under contract. But I would bet that in a year or so he is definitely gone if one of these low-major coaches gets the job. We would be sending him a message that the job can never be his if he stays.

This is so complicated. I think that you're right. There's so much out there (rumor or not) on TJ that I don't know that he'll settle for being just a lead recruiter any more, if they hire a mid-major coach. However, if we're saving money on the next hire (compared to what we would have been paying Fred) , one would hope a substantial raise to name TJ associate again would help keep him here. Especially if he loves it here, and him and his wife couldn't wait to come back home , like he claimed.
In fact, maybe we should test that claim (or check with Romar- jk)
 
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Back to when people were talking about style of play, the reason why Fred was able to get all of the great transfers and our 4 year guys was because of the offensive system. Iowa State can't afford to get stuck back in a rut of playing slow, grind it out, average basketball. The new coach needs to have a style of play that attracts recruits to Ames.
 
This is so complicated. I think that you're right. There's so much out there (rumor or not) on TJ that I don't know that he'll settle for being just a lead recruiter any more, if they hire a mid-major coach. However, if we're saving money on the next hire (compared to what we would have been paying Fred) , one would hope a substantial raise to name TJ associate again would help keep him here. Especially if he loves it here, and him and his wife couldn't wait to come back home , like he claimed.

But once again......We would be telling Otzelberger we will take a low-major coach.....let's say it is Ohio Valley Conference Murray State Coach Steve Prohm.....over him. The message is pretty clear. You can be one of the best Assistants in the Country. You can be one of the best at your job. But we will NEVER consider you for a Head Coaching job unless you leave and get a Head Coaching job.

When Fred was hired that was 5 years ago. Otzelberger was 32 years old. And Fred was ........Fred Hoiberg.....the Mayor. WHY do you think that Otzelberger left a couple years ago?? It was to get some additional experience at another Power 5 Conference school. It was to prove to everyone that he could recruit players anywhere, regardless of location. Plus his wife had some ties to the Pacific Northwest at that time.

Now move forward 5 years. Otzelberger is now 37 years old. He is at the point where he wants to make a move to become a head coach. He does not want to be a lifetime assistant. Especially to guys who are about his age that are not named Fred Hoiberg, and that have resumes as unimpressive as these low and mid major coaches. Their resumes are no better than his.

Otzelberger will move on if he does not get the Iowa State job. Count on it.
 
I need someone to help me out here. What is the fascination with TJ? The only thing he has done is prove he can recruit some decent talent. No one is confusing with a top 20 recruiter in the country or he would have been poached by a more historical program. If he leaves after a year, so what? Proehm is great recruiter and Underwood has proven he could get it done at both KSU and SFA.

Why do posters on this site continue to prop up TJ?

He has never been a head coach, which is a much bigger challenge.
 
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