Recruiting.. ? What about Coaching?

[WorldStang]

All I read about on this board is how SMU has to hire someone who can recruit the area... and/or bring in top talent from elsewhere. While I agree that we have to have someone that can recruit.. that's not been our problem with Dement.

I'm so so tired of the street ball that is coached at SMU. The teams of the past had all the talent they needed to get into the NCAA tourney.. and they lost because of poor coaching, no discipline on the court, no defense and just overall poor play. There's no question that the team of Sasser, Davis, Ross and Hancock could have put it together for a season.. but SMU failed because we could never run an offense.

PLEASE HIRE A COACH THAT BRINGS DISCIPLINE TO THIS TEAM AND ONE THAT CAN COACH FIRST.. RECRUIT SECOND.

[Stallion]

No the reasons those teams did not win is because we did not recruit even marginally effective big men-go look at who beat us(TCU, Tulsa and Fresno St) and how they beat us and the answer is pretty clear.

[Hoop Fan]

coaching is as much about motivation as it is Xs and Os. And neither motivation or strategy means squat if you don't have talent. I'm pretty sure Jameer Nelson makes Phil Martelli look great, not vice versa.

Coaches who can truly recruit are also the ones who are the good motivators, because people follow them. Its not a matter of style, any style can work. Everybody wants to hire the absolutely proven guy who can recruit, motivate and out strategize all their opponents. How many of those are there? I think Tubbs will certainly recruit and motivate, and I he might not outstrategize everybody, but he would hold his own in the huddle. Hire him.

[BigEasyPony]

I think the original point is an excellent one. Dement was an effective recruiter who was able to put some talent on the floor. He was never able to attract effeective big men in nine (9) years which is a joke, but with the talent he had they always seemed to underachieve. Part of that was strategy (Dement's teams never played good perimeter defense. Never.) and part of it was motivation (nearly all his teams would tank down the stretch). We want a coach who is competent at doing both. I think most of the names mentioned have demonstrated that they can. The drawback to Tubbs is that he has not demonstrated he can be a Head Coach at the collegiate level. Maybe he can and if he were to get the job, I sure as heck hope he is up the task. I imagine one of the reasons he left SMU was to get noticed at OU. Well, it will have paid off in his getting an interview for the SMU job. That never would have happened had he stayed here.

[Pony_Fan]

coaching is as much about motivation as it is Xs and Os. And neither motivation or strategy means squat if you don't have talent. I'm pretty sure Jameer Nelson makes Phil Martelli look great, not vice versa.

Coaches who can truly recruit are also the ones who are the good motivators, because people follow them. Its not a matter of style, any style can work. Everybody wants to hire the absolutely proven guy who can recruit, motivate and out strategize all their opponents. How many of those are there? I think Tubbs will certainly recruit and motivate, and I he might not outstrategize everybody, but he would hold his own in the huddle. Hire him.

Why are so convinced on Tubbs? He was here when Sasser was here and Hancock. My question is, did Dement not allow him any say in the matter. All I saw was an extension of street high school ball with no organization. I am afraid Tubbs might recruit these kids and we'd almost see the same thing. Can he REALLY coach?

[Hoop Fan]

PonyFan, maybe tell me who your choice would be and we could compare them. Its pretty hard to defend somebody against an imaginary field of great candidates. I've told you why I am convinced, its because I am convinced that he would recruit quality players and he would inspire and motivate the current team. Thats two of the three most important things you need in a coach. How can we go wrong if we hire a guy who recruits good players and they give him 100% all the time? As for the years as an assistant and your reference to Sasser and Hancock, what does it mean? The head coach sets the tone and the mood of the program, not the assistants. Nowhere else was that more true than SMU, because right or wrong, Dement was a control freak for most of his tenure here. Everybody knows it. Look at Lineburg. The guy showed something on the sideline the other night that I didn't know he was capable of. Being the head guy changes everything, and its very clear to me that Tubbs could be an absolute home run for SMU.

[EastStang]

What you need is a coach who can coach to the players he has in any given year. One year might require street ball, another year might require disciplined half court offenses. Look at the great coaches they adjust to their talent. Dean Smith had high powered teams and plodding teams and won with both, same with Gary Williams. Bobby Knight recruits players who will buy into his system or they're gone and he too has been successful. Princeton has driven opponants crazy for years with its plodding slow and methodical game. Given our recruiting limitations, I suspect the coach we hire will see a mixed bag of players, sometimes high octane kind of player, other times a more plodding type of player. I only saw two games this year and it appeared that we were trying to run a very disciplined offense with high octane players and no true center.

[TacoPony]

It's hard to judge if someone can coach unless they've been a head coach somewhere already. I don't know if Tubbs or Sutton etc can coach.. there's a risk you might have to take.

But I disagree with Stallion that lack of recruiting a big man is what Dement's biggest problem was. We have played weak defense and disorganized offense from day 1. It doesn't help to be lacking a good big man, but we still should've done better with all the guard talent.

[CoxSMU]

No the reasons those teams did not win is because we did not recruit even marginally effective big men-go look at who beat us(TCU, Tulsa and Fresno St) and how they beat us and the answer is pretty clear.

No, that is part of the reason, but no the whole reason. The more prevalent reason is that we had a coach, in Dement, that had no sort of Gameplan in effect for the most part. He also didn't have great half-time readjustments....

[DiamondM]

Ponyfan, It is indeed my understanding that Dement did not relinquish much if any control of the day to day coaching responsibilities to his assistants, Tubbs included. In fact, it is my understanding that before Tubbs left, he specifically requested that Dement let him handle the defense, and Dement flat out refused.

As for whether Tubbs can coach, well, obviously we don't know about his ability to be a head coach at the college level BUT we do know 2 things: (1) Tubbs has coached championship teams in Texas high school basketball, including players that have been successful at the college level - some of whom had more talent than we typically can recruit to come to SMU, and (2) if all we ever do is hire coaches with previous head coaching experience, we're going severely limit ourselves to the Dements of the world, which may or may not pan out -- just like an "inexperienced" coach may or may not pan out.

[Pony_Fan]

PonyFan, maybe tell me who your choice would be and we could compare them. Its pretty hard to defend somebody against an imaginary field of great candidates. I've told you why I am convinced, its because I am convinced that he would recruit quality players and he would inspire and motivate the current team. Thats two of the three most important things you need in a coach. How can we go wrong if we hire a guy who recruits good players and they give him 100% all the time? As for the years as an assistant and your reference to Sasser and Hancock, what does it mean? The head coach sets the tone and the mood of the program, not the assistants. Nowhere else was that more true than SMU, because right or wrong, Dement was a control freak for most of his tenure here. Everybody knows it. Look at Lineburg. The guy showed something on the sideline the other night that I didn't know he was capable of. Being the head guy changes everything, and its very clear to me that Tubbs could be an absolute home run for SMU.

I am just playing Devil's advocate. From a fan perspective, Dement seemed to control things for the most part. I don't know the inside story - and most wont unless they played on the team. I just wanted to hear your reasoning.

[EastStang]

I think it depends on who you get who has head coaching experience. There are solid guys who have been to the dance and know how to run a program out there. There are other guys who have been great assistant coaches their entire careers. Either way, we probably would be a stepping stone for a coach to a better job down the road.