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So I guess the question is, who will be our Phil Bennett?

Exactly! We are the laughingstock of the conference.

I’m very surprised that Coach Lanier is allegedly our prime candidate. Very surprised.

GHammond wrote:So I guess the question is, who will be our Phil Bennett?

Bennett was a top defensive coordinator. Seems like hiring Mark Adams at TT (last year) would’ve been like a Bennett hire. Not sure what great defensive coaches are available now. Hodge at UNT isn’t in that national consideration.

Lanier was a rather hot prospect in 2001 when he hired at Siena from UT. Lanier is known as a strong recruiter, more so than his Georgia State predecessor, Ron Hunter, who’s got a better head coaching record.

I am not super excited about the hire, but Mike Cavan 2.,0 is taking this way too far.

The guy was the top assistant for Tennessee a couple of years ago, and helped to build that program with Rick Barnes. If you take him from Tennessee, everyone would be saying "he got his first head coach gig too early at Sienna, but he was a lead recruiter at Texas, Florida, and Tennessee, and is now the top assistant at Tennessee. He is in a bigger spot on the Tennessee staff than Jank ever was under Self. I like the potential of this hire."

His numbers at Georgia State don't blow you away, especially compared to his predecessor, But if you look deeper, he completely changed the style of play to build a team based more on defense, his conference record was about the same as Hunter, and the reason his non-conference record wasn't as good is because he played a much stronger schedule. And his team this year would have had a much better record without the covid pauses and injuries.

Again, I'm not blown away by this hire, but the Mike Cavan comparison is not a good one.

I am shocked that we are thinking of coaches like Lanier or Golden. Do we no longer want to return to being a top bball school? or is the admin (rgt and lil rickey) happy to drop down to a sunbelt quality program.

Larry Brown was fired a few month’s earlier from Charlotte. Did SMU pay up quite a bit to land him plus Jank and Maligi? Fill Moody which was under construction?

Hope for the best with SMU and expect the worst

I think Rob Lanier will do a great job….I too was thrown out of my seats and haven’t had a season ticket since…but after watching his press conference I may go buy a season ticket.