Author: Coach Z (Page 5 of 38)

The Pac-10 continues with it’s bizarre hirings of head coaches. First Oregon State hired Craig Robinson away from Brown after two seasons (including only one winning one) and now Stanford has hired Johnny Dawkins from Duke.

Guys like Herb Sendek and Ben Howland must be licking their chops. Dakwins has been an assistant at Duke for 11 years and has never been a head coach. Those 12 inches on the bench make a world of difference. Yes, Duke has similar academic standards to Stanford. Albeit, Stanford doesn’t make the exceptions that Duke does. In fact, Dawkins would not have been admitted to Stanford. But that’s not relevant to the hiring. What is relevant is that he has been invisible on the road recruiting and has never called a time out in his life. Talk about learning under fire.

With all of the top candidates out there this hire is amazing. Well, at least I have to give AD Bob Bowlsby credit for not using a search firm. However, I do think he had made a big mistake. Time will tell.

You are not going to believe what the leading scorer at Buffalo posted on his facebook account. Read the following:
The junior guard, who averaged 13.4 points per game, posted a message on Facebook last week that looked like this:

“I am paying anybody who have read the book `there are no children here’ by Alex Kotlowitz $30-40 which in some classes you have to read at UB (even more money if you have to read the book a little more!!) to write a 3-4 page paper, on a couple questions which was assigned.”

No wonder he was begging for help.

Another student found the ad and told the school’s student newspaper, the Spectrum.

Suspended, he should be expelled for being so blatantly dumb. Come on guy!

Former Indiana Head Coach Kelvin Sampson appears to be headed for an assistant position with Scott Skiles and the Milwaukee Bucks. I think it is a great move for him. His ego is such he will become a very good NBA coach. More importantly, now the NCAA can go after someone else’s phone records. Mark my words Sampson will be a head coach in the NBA in less than 5 years.

Glad to see him land on his feet.

Stanford Still Looking: AD Bob Bowlsby was in Philly this week to offer the job to Larry Brown. Brown rejected him as he wants a job that will not keep him from relocating and also give him a chance at a national championship. Can you understand why Jay Wright’s name has been mentioned as a future coach in the NBA.

Others on the list are Doug Wojcik. He has done a solid job at Tulsa, but certainly has underachieved by that program’s standards over the years. Oh, he did win the CBI. I know what is that?

Larry Krystowiak, who was just fired by the Bucks, is the latest name to be thrown out there.

My money is on Wojcik. The former assistant at Michigan State has one of the hardest working guys in the business pulling for him, Tom Izzo.

I’m through watching my last press conference where a freshman basketball player announces he is going to the NBA. What a charade! At least in Kansas State’s case they were honest in their presentation. Kudos to Coach Frank Martin and Michael Beasley for not thinking we’re all idiots. Martin, for his part, knows he has the best player in college and knows Beasley could make millions. He clearly stated this is a no brainer. Thanks, coach! Beasley didn’t use any lines about playing at the next level and admitted it was about money. Thanks, Micheal. The real problem lies in the whole one-year rule imposed by the NBA. Gene Wojiewski said it best in his article.

My only question is why are we limiting players to begin with? Isn’t this America? Captialism is what we were built on!!

Former Missouri head coach Quin Snyder is out of the limelight, but happy living another basketball dream. There is a great story on his year coaching the Austin Toreros in the D League.
I coached against him in his last year at Missouri. After the game he looked like death warmed over. I am happy he has found his way back to the game. He is not truly how the media portrayed him. I always found him to be very outgoing and sincere. Then again the media decides how they view someone and then they run with it. Sometimes it’s fair and sometimes not. In this case it was not fair how he was treated at Missouri.

The media always liked to talk about how he brought the program down at Missouri and the probation. They seemed to forget the scandals under previous head coach, Norm Stewart. And they don’t seem to be lighting the world on fire with their new head coach.