Thoughts on Houston Hiring Dickey

[moodymadmen]

Here is a segment from a Houston Chronicle article by Richard Justice which pinpoints Dickey's strengths and what he/Houston needs to do going forward...found it interesting how it relates to SMU and 4 years of the Doh era. Surprisingly, neither Justice or Dickey advocate attempting to establish a recruiting pipeline to Senegal or California while completely neglecting home
Just replace UH with SMU, Houston with Dallas, Hofheinz with Moody, Sumlin with Jones and you catch the drift...

"He's an excellent recruiter. He has signed 25 future NBA players, and he noted, “I can identify talent.”

UH recruiting must begin with the local kids. There's an amazing amount of high school talent within 30 miles of Hofheinz. UH must re-establish itself among high school coaches and parents.

Our city is UH's greatest asset. UH may not have a great arena or a rabid fan base, but UH does have Houston, its restaurants, professional sports franchises and plenty more.

“There are so many great players here,” Dickey said, “and it's time for some of those players to stay home.”

Dickey cited UH football coach Kevin Sumlin a couple of times Thursday after accepting the job, and that's a good place to start. Sumlin has many of the same disadvantages that UH's basketball coach will have, but he recruits, wins and never complains."

[EastStang]

When we hired Tubbs, our hope was to open up a pipeline to DISD schools. That didn't happen and we cut Tubbs tenure short (controversially short I might add). That of course fouled the waters further with the DISD. So, in comes Doh who apparently has made some overtures to the DISD coaches and local AAU guys, and has not cracked the code. So, he recruits where he can get players. Do you think that Doh doesn't want Dallas guys? Or just that when rebuffed, he's worked to build bridges in more hospitable places. I am not going to savage Doh for lack of Dallas recruiting, when the pool was yellow before he jumped in. I suspect Doh and Steve O thought that Doh would have success because of his pedigree in recruiting Dallas. Didn't happen. I will add my two cents, while it would be great to recruit Dallas, the fact is that we probably have a better rep outside of Dallas right now as far as hoops is concerned. Everyone in Dallas knows we stink and have for a long time. But kids in DC, Detroit, Chicago, L.A., only know that Doh was a former UNC coach and player who was a teammate of MJ and he's been on ESPN as an analyst. My view is that if we get a winning program here, DFW players will start to come.

[CalallenStang]

Doh has tried going after Dallas area guys such as Quincy Acy and Nolan Dennis, but is constantly out-recruited by the bigger programs that also recruit DFW area talent. When we start winning (and we're a point guard away from an 18 or 19 win season), the DFW players will start paying more notice to SMU.

It wouldn't hurt to get bigger crowds in Moody as well. Our attendance really hurts us when we recruit locally.

[PonyDoh]

The last two posts were very good

[Hoop Fan]

we might be one player away from an 18-19 win season, but only because our schedule sucks beyond belief. You guys really think we are an unidentified freshman point guard away from being good? please. We are every bit as much in rebuild mode now as we were when Doh took over. See you in three years.

[CalallenStang]

we might be one player away from an 18-19 win season, but only because our schedule sucks beyond belief. You guys really think we are an unidentified freshman point guard away from being good? please. We are every bit as much in rebuild mode now as we were when Doh took over. See you in three years.

Yes. What was missing from our offense this year? A distributor. D-Will was a nice slasher guard but is really more of a 2 than a 1. Same with McCoy for next year (hope he's back healthy). Dia showed signs of being a good inside presence this year. Nyk can really shoot...I'd play him as a 3 despite his size. The guys we have coming in are going to be tremendous upgrades in talent.

Consider this lineup:

PG ??? /Walker/Barbre
SG P. McCoy/Patsevich/Walker/Haynes
SF Nyakundi/Haynes/Otis
PF Smith/Vilde/Nyukundi/Otis
C Dia/Vilde/Luttman

The missing piece is a CUSA caliber true point guard.

[moodymadmen]

And whose job is it to get that all-important CUSA point guard??? Bash D-Will all you want for not being a distributor but what good is a distributor when you have noone to distribute to?? The fact is D-Will was our only player last year that could create offense and his own shot, with him leaving we should be scared to death regarding our offense next year. And I can understand the Tubbs argument if this is year 1 or 2, but we are going into year 5 of the Doh era and he hasn't even made a single dent into Dallas. Our great school and its location are being minimized, we might as well be located in Siberia with Doh's recruiting philosophy. Revisiting an article from espndallas.com here are some of Doh's comments:
Doherty said he wants to recruit Dallas players but that they might not always be the right fit for SMU. He boasted about three players he's excited about in his next recruiting class, none of which are from the area.
"It's very important because you want to recruit your backyard first," Doherty said. "But, you also have to recruit kids that fit."
If it's so important then recruit your backyard at least once in 5 years! I'm so sick and tired of hearing how Dallas players don't "fit" at SMU. Complete garbage.

[Hoop Fan]

just one more in the long line of ridiculous comments by Doherty. the idea that this guys skill is being the face of your program has become a real joke. As for next years squad, losing DWill is a big loss, I don't understand the subtle bashing either when he was one of the few guys we have had period over the past several years that comes to play EVERY night. We'll see if Patsy does. another thing, if Doh and Orsini have one bit of iota of confidence in this team and program, lets see them schedule an interesting game against North Texas next year. A chance for us to knock UNT off the perch it is building in DFW. I dare you SMU. Don't be scared, its an opportunity at this point.

[Hoop Fan]

if Williams and McCoy are such inadequate points guards or are flatly not points guards like everybody is suggesting, then that to me is Exhibit A about the guy who assembled this team. 4 years in the books and we are scouring for a point guard to be named later in the LATE signing period. If this was such a need, why wasn't it a priority in November? I swear Doherty is making it up as he goes.

[CA Mustang]

It wouldn't hurt to get bigger crowds in Moody as well. Our attendance really hurts us when we recruit locally.

Agreed. Doherty himself said SMU needs to average around 4,500 to bring in top players. But how will SMU get anywhere near that point when they can't break 14 wins? The schedule isn't full of top 25 schools, so what is supposed to get that many people interested in attending?

P.S. When was the last time SMU averaged 4,500 in attendance for basketball?

[CalallenStang]

It wouldn't hurt to get bigger crowds in Moody as well. Our attendance really hurts us when we recruit locally.

Agreed. Doherty himself said SMU needs to average around 4,500 to bring in top players. But how will SMU get anywhere near that point when they can't break 14 wins? The schedule isn't full of top 25 schools, so what is supposed to get that many people interested in attending?

P.S. When was the last time SMU averaged 4,500 in attendance for basketball?

It's the chicken and the egg

and I don't know the answer to your question.

[CalallenStang]

Hoop Fan - it's not a bash of D-Will or McCoy - it's just that their talents are more suited to the 2...and I agree that we should have a point guard right now...no excuse for Doherty on that one.

[RE Tycoon]

This team is a roster overhaul and a new coach away from 18-19 wins, plain and simple.

I'm not buying it, but let's assume for a second that the new kids are a significant upgrade in talent over the past 4 or 5 classes. What has Doherty shown, and be honest...what has he shown that gives you any hope he knows how to deploy talented players?

[RGV Pony]

What has Doherty shown, and be honest...what has he shown that gives you any hope he knows how to deploy talented players?

he hired the Reggies.

[CalallenStang]

This team is a roster overhaul and a new coach away from 18-19 wins, plain and simple.

I'm not buying it, but let's assume for a second that the new kids are a significant upgrade in talent over the past 4 or 5 classes. What has Doherty shown, and be honest...what has he shown that gives you any hope he knows how to deploy talented players?

Well, like RGV said, he hired the Reggies. Their work with Dia this year was great and really unlocked his talent. That's what's been missing in the other years.

And don't be mistaken, Smith/Vilde/Patsevich are a HUGE upgrade over classes like Luttman and Clinkscales (and I must have forgotten Clink in that rotation up top...oh well).

EDIT: And don't get me wrong, Luttman and Clinkscales work hard...but Luttman doesn't have D-1 talent. Clink has it, but is so raw that he can't really do much with it. Maybe he'll have a breakout year next year.