Who will be Maryland's next coach?

[jarman86]

Saw this article in the Post. Who will be Maryland’s next men’s basketball coach? Here are five good candidates. - The Washington Post

Did not know AD Evans is contracting the search out. Agree that it is kind of BS to assign that responsibility to someone else cause what are you getting paid for? 

Don't know most of the names he throws out there cause I don't follow men's basketball outside of Navy and Maryland, but he lists Andy Enfield, Ed Cooley, Ryan Odom and LeVelle Moton.

[Finisher]

Sounds like Seton Hall's Kevin Willard is the guy. He's 1-5 in the NCAA tourney overall after getting bounced in the first round yesterday. Doesn't inspire a ton of confidence but will probably have us competitive.

Definitely weird Evans had to outsource the search, which is apparently what Maryland has done.

[Sports Guy]

What a horrible hire.

[Jagwar]

On 3/20/2022 at 5:09 PM, Sports Guy said:

What a horrible hire.

I'm thinking it's Turgeon 2.0

[Sports Guy]

1 hour ago, Jagwar said:

I'm thinking it's Turgeon 2.0

Yep. An uninspiring move.  Not a bad coach by any means but ceiling only so high.  Similar hire to what Turgeon was.

[Hallas]

9 hours ago, Sports Guy said:

Yep. An uninspiring move.  Not a bad coach by any means but ceiling only so high.  Similar hire to what Turgeon was.

Who do you think would have made a better candidate?  Feel like all the better candidates signed monster extensions (with monster buyouts) the second there was even the whiff of interest on Maryland's side, or had prohibitive buyouts to begin with.  Enfield, Pearl, and Oats all fit this bill.  Maybe Pitino?  But maybe he's happy going off into the sunset in Iona?  He's already coached in the big time and he's old.  He doesn't have much to prove coming to Maryland unless he's absolutely hell-bent on fixing his reputation at a P6 school.

 

I really wanted Enfield or Pearl, for the record, but they clearly weren't leaving once their extensions became public.  And I think Willard is okay - I feel better about him than I did about Turgeon (though us having Sean Miller pulled out from under the rug left a bad taste in my mouth.)

[Sports Guy]

There are a lot of younger coaches at smaller schools.  Or perhaps top assistants at higher end programs like Lloyd was at Gonzaga.

 

[Hallas]

19 minutes ago, Sports Guy said:

There are a lot of younger coaches at smaller schools.  Or perhaps top assistants at higher end programs like Lloyd was at Gonzaga.

 

 

I think that the assistant route is really risky unless it's an assistant groomed by the outgoing head coach.

 

As far as younger mid-major guys, I am not really all that enthused by anyone right now.  Kim English is way too green.  Juan Dixon can't win in the MEAC.  Mark Pope isn't young.  I liked Darian Devries but he has had less success than Willard has had and they're the same age.  Were we thinking about Shaheen Holloway?  Sure, but he wouldn't have been on anyone's radar before last weekend, and he looks like a frontrunner for the now-vacant Seton Hall job.  I think that the crop of great mid-major coaches really got picked over in the past couple years.

At 46 Willard can coach for another 20-25 years and really grow into the role for another 15.