From my perspective, we should be a solid #3 on this list.  I would rank Illinois #1 getting Underwood was  total shock since he only spent one year at Ok St.  This guy is a great coach and they should be able to keep him for years to come at Illinois.
Indiana at #2 Archie has been very good at Dayton, and certainly overachieved.  The IU job is important enough that they should be able to keep him for many years to come, provided he puts them into the Final Four often enough to please their delusional alums.  I could have seen Archie taking a West Coast job, were it not for having to coach against his brother Sean in the "Conference of Champions" Pac 12

Duquesne at #3.  Without a doubt coming from where we were to hiring Dambrot was an incredible feat for Duquesne.  What separates this hire from the VCU and Quinnipiac hires is that barring the unforeseen I expect Dambrot to coach Duquesne until he retires.  Could he find quick success and take one shot at a Power 5 job? Certainly, but I like our chances to keep him provided we keep our promises of support, and things start to look good after a couple of years of building.  The connection with the glory years of winning basketball at Duquesne was like icing on the cake.

Quinnipiac #4:  Being able to pull in Dunleavy from Nova is quite and accomplishment for our old "friend" Greg Amodio.  Apparently Q-PAC and opening the wallet for him to spend some $$.  A couple of potential negatives could be the Dunleavy hasn't been a head coach, and you take a chance when hiring the assistant coach as to how the success of working under Jay Wright will translate to Q-Pac, who has no history of basketball success, and plays in a one bid league.  I believe Dunleavy sees this as a stepping stone job and if he makes some waves, he will be gone in short order to a more prestigious program, perhaps one in the Big East. 

VCU #5.  Hiring a good coach at VCU doesn't take much skill or creativity when your last three coaches all left for Power 5 jobs paying big $$$$.  Add to that a coaching tree that made it possible to hire a ready made head coach as easy as plucking an apple from a tree.   Although Will Wade was a definite drop-off from Shaka, the VCU program should continue to be a high level A-10 program, just not a Final Four team as it was under Smart.  He was a once-in-a-lifetime coach for VCU.

 

That's our world today; one or two guys in the media create a narrative and the rest follow like lambs because it's easy and they are too lazy to do any research.  Once a perception is created in the media; it is very hard to stem the tide!

Simms wrote:

levon1975 wrote:

From my perspective, we should be a solid #3 on this list.  I would rank Illinois #1 getting Underwood was  total shock since he only spent one year at Ok St.  This guy is a great coach and they should be able to keep him for years to come at Illinois.
Indiana at #2 Archie has been very good at Dayton, and certainly overachieved.  The IU job is important enough that they should be able to keep him for many years to come, provided he puts them into the Final Four often enough to please their delusional alums.  I could have seen Archie taking a West Coast job, were it not for having to coach against his brother Sean in the "Conference of Champions" Pac 12

Duquesne at #3.  Without a doubt coming from where we were to hiring Dambrot was an incredible feat for Duquesne.  What separates this hire from the VCU and Quinnipiac hires is that barring the unforeseen I expect Dambrot to coach Duquesne until he retires.  Could he find quick success and take one shot at a Power 5 job? Certainly, but I like our chances to keep him provided we keep our promises of support, and things start to look good after a couple of years of building.  The connection with the glory years of winning basketball at Duquesne was like icing on the cake.

Quinnipiac #4:  Being able to pull in Dunleavy from Nova is quite and accomplishment for our old "friend" Greg Amodio.  Apparently Q-PAC and opening the wallet for him to spend some $$.  A couple of potential negatives could be the Dunleavy hasn't been a head coach, and you take a chance when hiring the assistant coach as to how the success of working under Jay Wright will translate to Q-Pac, who has no history of basketball success, and plays in a one bid league.  I believe Dunleavy sees this as a stepping stone job and if he makes some waves, he will be gone in short order to a more prestigious program, perhaps one in the Big East. 

VCU #5.  Hiring a good coach at VCU doesn't take much skill or creativity when your last three coaches all left for Power 5 jobs paying big $$$$.  Add to that a coaching tree that made it possible to hire a ready made head coach as easy as plucking an apple from a tree.   Although Will Wade was a definite drop-off from Shaka, the VCU program should continue to be a high level A-10 program, just not a Final Four team as it was under Smart.  He was a once-in-a-lifetime coach for VCU.

 

I actually think Mike Rhodes is going to be a much better coach than Will Wade.  I also suspect he might stick at VCU for good, but you never know with all the dollars that teams throw around.

I definitely think Dambrot should be ahead of Dunleavy since Baker is a question mark.  Pat Chambers was a Jay Wright coaching tree guy and he has struggled to make PSU relevant.  
 

That's the thing about Dunleavy. How do you even know he is a good hire or not? Just because a small school in a low D1 conference got a guy from Nova, doesn't mean they will automatically have success, he has no track record. This list should be compiled on overall resume of the coach from the past as a head coach. Based on that metric, Dambrot should at least be three on this list.

Duquesne at #3.  What separates this hire from the VCU and Quinnipiac hires is that barring the unforeseen I expect Dambrot to coach Duquesne until he retires.  Could he find quick success and take one shot at a Power 5 job? Certainly, but I like our chances to keep him provided we keep our promises of support, and things start to look good after a couple of years of building.  The connection with the glory years of winning basketball at Duquesne was like icing on the cake.




Dambrot will retire from DU...or return to Akron and retire from there.  He is very loyal and family driven.  AND...he is no spring chicken....many programs look for younger guys with energy and passion.  They often fail to look at guys like KD.  One other BIG thing...KD's issue at CMU will be a problem for may public schools.  The schools that have shown interest in KD in the past have all been private schools like Dayton and DU.  He really got lucky to get a second chance at Akron.  That was because he was an alumni, his mother retired as a professor there and LeBron was on his side.  And that second chance came as an opportunity as an assistant coach.  He never forgets that and he will speak of his second chance often.  I see him retiring from DU as a coach and returning to Akron as an AD sometime down the road.  Akron and DU are his 2 loves...and he is no longer chasing the golden ring of the coaching profession.  IMO  The A10 gives him an opportunity to compete on the big stage, he gets to resurrect his fathers school and Pittsburgh is a like home to him.  Things are good for him now...he will not leave.  DU made an incredible hire.

You must have misread my comments or I did a poor job of explaining myself.  
1.Older coaches are seldom sought after by the Purdues and Virginias of the world...probably not even the Creightons.  Dambrot will only be attractive if he turns around DU and he would likely be 62 or older at that time.  His age would work against him taking a major P5 job.

2. If he returns to Akron...it will be as an AD after he quits coaching.  Probably a long shot....but he loves Akron and they love him.  Depends on when he gives up coaching.

3.  His problem may be in the past but the issue that caused his problem is something being used by many today against people they don't like (I will try and stay out of politics...so we will leave it at that).  With protesters using small slights to cause trouble on campuses I think school administrators may take his past into consideration.  I hope you are right and it is not an issue....it shouldn't be.  But then again...who thought that chicken on campuses would cause a debate or free speech on campuses.  It is a different world we live in today and his issue could be a problem.  For me...it is not.   But I love him and think he is a great guy as well as a great coach. 

I am just trying to point our reasons why I don't think he will leave DU. The biggest reason is that he wants to be there and it gives him a chance to compete on the big stage as well as resurrect his father's school.

Last edited by Dsnyder15 (4/20/2017 1:07 pm)