New Coach: Candidates and Qualifications

Evansville announced two new assistant coaches today.

The interesting thing here is that the press release url is entitled "three to coaching staff" and the release says that the final assistant coaching spots will be announced soon.

Todd Lickliter was reported to be a candidate for assistant coach at Evansville. So, there may be more than dirt to these rumors about Lickliter in the running at Detroit.

Just a thought as I now start to grow a little impatient:
None of the names that have been mentioned really excite me too much - I feel that I could be convinced that some of them would be good for the program, but nothing jumps out to me except they are not BA or JJ or anything we already have (which I feel is a great thing). I keep thinking that there has to be someone they're involved with that will make me say "Wow!" One name that is available that I haven't heard mentioned, and is young, has a year of high level head coaching experience, and lost their previous gig through no fault of their own is Dave Padgett, ex Louisville coach. Probably not a fit, and I'm not sure exactly how I feel about him,  but a possibly intriguing name none the less

While we wait (and wait and wait) for news from Vowels...

A reminder on dates, which Commish has also posted about...
- March 2: UD Season ends with HL tourney Loss
- March 26: Bacari Fired (a date we controlled)
- April 2: NCAA tourney ends (a known date)
- April 5: Recruiting Period Re-Opens and contact with recruits permitted (a known date)
- April 11: Signing Period starts for Recruits (a known date)

Of the 50 head coach openings this year...(yes I'm a nerd so I did some number crunching and googling)
- 46 of the 50 head coach openings have now been filled
- We were the 43rd opening to be announced on Mar 26. Why did we wait 24 days AFTER the end of the UD season? It's a good question that the AD should answer at some point.
- By the time we announced on Mar 26, 21 schools had already hired new head coaches (and thus got a leg up on putting together their staffs, determining recruiting strategies, etc)
- 7 schools had Head Coach openings AFTER we fired Barcari on 3/26. Of those, 6 have already named new Head Coaches with the only bogey being Florida Int'l who remains with us in the Final Four of naming a head coach
- 43 schools had new Head Coach named in time for the start of Recruiting Period on Apr 5

In my googling of all these openings, I read article after article that told me several things:
- schools often talked about moving with speed to address the head coach opening (we see that in the stats and speed to fill the spot)
- new coaches immediately got to work hiring assistants
- new coaches/staffs immediately got to work on recruits and transfers. (Xavier just announced their 3 transfer today I believe)

Putting together the timeline and where we are at, plus the departures of Corey and Josh seeming to be imminent (the opposite of building up our roster), our lack of timing and punctuality in this entire process is a legitimate negative and detriment to building this program. As I piece together the dates, and what nearly every other program has done, the behavior of UD and AD Vowels is clearly an outlier. Which is not a good thing. Could the ends ultimately justify the means? That's what we have to hope, but I know hope ain't much of a strategy and we won't know that for at least 18 months from now (start of season 2 for the new TBD Head Coach).

Thanks for compiling that, TTH. It adds a lot of context to the search.

It will be awhile before we know if the head coach search/choice is successful, but based on what we know now we are at a disadvantage and behind our competition. Now, if we end up hiring a great coach who comes in quickly, is able to hire a great staff and add some productive recruits, we will forget the anxiety that this long process has caused us. Right now, it is hard to drum up any optimism based on something other than hope.

I seem to recall that our recruitment of HS players from Michigan improved greatly when Ernie arrived at Calihan Hall. In Rays first years, the reliance was on JUCOs and 4 yr transfers. In Ernies 2 yr tenure, we brought in Jaleel Hogan, Aaron Foster Smith and Paris Bass.

Out of all the names I have heard through the press (not speculated by message board posters) as candidates for the head coaching job, I think I like Lou Dawkins the best. Not a perfect candidate, (I keep thinking there's gotta be someone we don't know about, who's just so spectacular and checks all the boxes that we should hire immediately), but I think he is my realistic best choice. Granted we have no way of really knowing how he would do, but I would go with him based on my limited knowledge of him and the other publicized candidates

I don't think we will get a perfect fit. But LaFleur was a 10-yr assistant to Jim Calhoun at U Conn and was the recruiting coordinator at Providence for Ed Cooley's turnaround there. At UNLV, he started working with a roster of 4 returning players and helped turn it to 20 wins in the second year. He had shown interest in this job 2 years ago when we hired Bacari. And UNLV does have 2 Michigan players on its roster. These positives must be weighed against the absence of HC experience and the lack of apparent local ties. If he is the new HC, then he will have to hire good assistants.

I like the fact mentioned by hsscout1 that he would bring a fresh set of eyes to our situation. His experience at Providence would be important since it is a small, private college.