Hop's Not Going Anywhere...

[Townie72]

He's a great coach who could have his pick of jobs.

I see it from Nebraska's side. And because of his ties to the State and to the conference, he might consider it. Whereas, a similar school In another conference might not even have a shot at the guy.

Still, it's probably standard procedure to publish lists of targets and possibilities that include the hottest coaches. It shows the boosters and fans that they are at least considering the best possible candidates. It makes it look like the headhunters are doing the job.

But publishing a list of "possibilities" is a long, long from signing the guy.

It's hard to tell if the "list" is real or whether it's just a PR ploy.

Georgetowns's initial list of candidates they were interested in turned out to be pure nonsense. Their "targets" turned out to be either not interested in the job or used the GU interest to leverage their compensation packages up.

I don't know what is going to happen at SU. But, I'm pretty sure that those who don't see this as a problem because we are a "Top 10 program" are much more optimistic than they should be.

 

[PhatOrange]

I see why you believe SU is a top 10 job and i think it's reasonable if others agree. I was asked to name 10 jobs I thought were better so I took a crack.

I try to look at the job's attractiveness from a prospective candidate's viewpoint. I don't know if I want to replace a legend unless he's crapped the bed sufficiently the past 3-5 years. Fan support is a double-edged sword - helps recruiting but can also significantly reduce my timeline to make changes.

The Dome is great. I don't think facilities move the needle as much in hoops recruiting as they do for football.

From a prospective candidate's viewpoint why would the following be viewed as better than Syracuse?

Kansas
Michigan
Villanova
Michigan St.
Indiana
Louisville

Also, facilities; practice facility, weight rooms, trainers, student housing ...etc..of course it all matters. It's how you can recruit better. Recruits mention the Melo Center. Facilities move the needle far more than some city having 'culture' as some other posters suggests tips the scale. culture lol.

 

[ForCuseSake]

From a prospective candidate's viewpoint why would the following be viewed as better than Syracuse?

Kansas
Michigan
Villanova
Michigan St.
Indiana
Louisville

Also, facilities; practice facility, weight rooms, trainers, student housing ...etc..of course it all matters. It's how you can recruit better. Recruits mention the Melo Center. Facilities move the needle far more than some city having 'culture' as some other posters suggests tips the scale. culture lol.

I didn't say facilities don't matter; I don't believe they're as important in recruiting elite hoops talent as many of those kids believe they're one or two and done. But let's say we agree with how important facilities are - do you think there's a significant difference among the schools you listed above and SU? I don't. I'll agree that the Melo Center, despite being 10 years old, is probably in the top 3 among those six schools. I just don't see much of a drop off in facilities (although admittedly, I'm no expert).

Let me take a crack at answering your first question as i think a mixture of the following characteristics is what a prospective candidate might use to view SU less favorably than the other six schools. SU may be better than one or more of those 6 schools at a few of these traits but I think on the whole the SU job could be viewed as less attractive.

1.) Salary - Five of those schools (Kansas, Michigan, MSU, Louisville and Nova) pay top 10 salaries (According to USA Today), Indiana comes in at #13. JB's hometown discount came in at #32. I'm not saying SU won't pay for an elite coach to replace JB. If I'm comparing SU to this group as a prospective candidate, I see 6 schools that pay coaches in the top 15 of all jobs and one (despite having a HOF coach) that doesn't.

2.) Prior success under different coaches - Most of those schools have had multiple coaches succeed in different eras and obviously more recent coaching changes. SU has JB for 43+ years (I know Roy Danforth wen to a FF before he left). I think that would make a prospective candidate wonder how much of it was JB and how much would the community support a new guy after supporting one man for so long. As others have pointed out, this could be viewed as a positive by a candidate (the vocal subset who want to move on from JB ASAP); I'm more conservative.

3.) Climate - I don't know how much this moves the needle among the 6 schools above (certainly not much for Michigan, MSU, Nova and Indiana) but living in Syracuse's climate may not appeal to coaching candidates established in a different climate. It's more an issue for spouses and families. A coaching candidate may love the SU job but his wife and/or kids might not be used to living with that much snow. And that would make it less appealing than some of the other options (Louisville for certain).

I'm sure there are other characteristics that are equally, if not more, important than the 3 above. Those are the 3 characteristics that I think could make the SU job less attractive among prospective candidates.