Should a MVC Head Coach Have Coaching Experience?

[Ace Dad]

One if the raging debates we gave had on various basketball blogs concerns if a D1 coach needs Head Coaching or Coaching experience before he takes the job. I believe he should have been an Assistant at the D1 level and a Head Coach at any college level--D2, D3, NAIA, or JUCO. Others say: "no, depends on who it is." the Wall Street Journal uses Iowa State's Fred Hoiberg to talk to this issue:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001...


Should a MVC Head Coach have previous college coaching experience, or no?

[Snaggletooth]

The link to the article was broken, but I found it here FWIW.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704030704576069573395568508.html?KEYWORDS=hoiberg

Here is my superficial take:

Hoiberg - looks like a successfull head coach

Phelps - looks like a high school coach

UNI, MSU coaches - looks like a successfull head coach

ISU-R (Jank) - Jank looks like a used car salesman

EU (Simmons) - improved version, looks like a company CEO

Bradley (Les) - looks like a Eddy Haskall trouble maker

ISU-B (Lansing) - looks like a successfull head coach

SIU Coach - looks like a guy in over his head

CU McDermott - his action speak that he can't handle the stress of the BCS job and decided to do an Altman (and there is nothing wrong with that).

On a serious note - Hoiberg has bring some credentials that fit him well in taking over the IA St job and will likely help overcome some obstacles. State hero, NBA management ties, plus he has got "game".

[Aargh]

Hiring an Assistant is a gamble. Some are great. Some not so great.

Hiring a coach with a proven record at a lower level is usually going to get a more reliable result. The problem is that the bidding for those guys goes up pretty fast and there are a lot of Valley schools that can't afford the salaries that a coach successful at a lower level can attract. Tad Boyle from Asst. at WSU to HC at Northern Colorado to HC at Colorado is certainly pulling down a salary few if any MVC schools could pay.

Valley schools are almost forced to hire assistants and take the gamble. It doesn't always work and then the league suffers as a team (or several) go through the years it takes to recover from a bad hire.

[MSUBear42]

If MSU just hired previous head coaches, we would not be where we are today.

[Husker Dog]

The link to the article was broken, but I found it here FWIW.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704030704576069573395568508.html?KEYWORDS=hoiberg

Here is my superficial take:

Hoiberg - looks like a successfull head coach

Phelps - looks like a high school coach

UNI, MSU coaches - looks like a successfull head coach

ISU-R (Jank) - Jank looks like a used car salesman

EU (Simmons) - improved version, looks like a company CEO



Bradley (Les) - looks like a Eddy Haskall trouble maker

ISU-B (Lansing) - looks like a successfull head coach

SIU Coach - looks like a guy in over his head

CU McDermott - his action speak that he can't handle the stress of the BCS job and decided to do an Altman (and there is nothing wrong with that).

On a serious note - Hoiberg has bring some credentials that fit him well in taking over the IA St job and will likely help overcome some obstacles. State hero, NBA management ties, plus he has got "game".

snag,

I agree with your take on all of these coaches.... the one thing with fred hoiberg, is he has surrounded himself with a LARGE staff.... I watched Ejim play in summer leauge alot and I wasn't that impressed with him or any of the ISU players. Fred has done a wonderful job with every player and let them play their own game with in the offense for ISU. He can feel the game being a great player himself, which ALOT of head coaches can't do.
Calling timeouts at the wrong time or lack there of
substition patterns
being a positive figure in the building to have your school excited to be there.

Great Coaches were Great Players!!

[shockem]

Frank Martin, KSU
Tad Boyle, Colorado

Depends on the experience/abilities of the assistant coach

[unipanther99]

Depends on the experience/abilities of the assistant coach

Excellent point. One of the first things Hoiberg did at Iowa State was to go out and get Bobby Lutz, long time Charlotte head coach, to be one of his assistants.

[Aargh]

Frank Martin, KSU
Tad Boyle, Colorado

Depends on the experience/abilities of the assistant coach

Boyle had a very good run at Northern Colorado before he got the job at Colorado. He was hired from the Assistant ranks by Northern Colorado which was a provisional D1 school with an RPI around 340 when he took the job. He took them to 20+ wins in about 3 seasons, so he had a track record as a HC when he got the Colorado job.

The jury is still out on how good or successful Marin will be as a college coach. KSU seems to be imploding right now.

[Snaggletooth]

The link to the article was broken, but I found it here FWIW.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704030704576069573395568508.html?KEYWORDS=hoiberg

Here is my superficial take:

Hoiberg - looks like a successfull head coach

Phelps - looks like a high school coach

UNI, MSU coaches - looks like a successfull head coach

ISU-R (Jank) - Jank looks like a used car salesman

EU (Simmons) - improved version, looks like a company CEO



Bradley (Les) - looks like a Eddy Haskall trouble maker

ISU-B (Lansing) - looks like a successfull head coach

SIU Coach - looks like a guy in over his head

CU McDermott - his action speak that he can't handle the stress of the BCS job and decided to do an Altman (and there is nothing wrong with that).

On a serious note - Hoiberg has bring some credentials that fit him well in taking over the IA St job and will likely help overcome some obstacles. State hero, NBA management ties, plus he has got "game".

snag,

I agree with your take on all of these coaches.... the one thing with fred hoiberg, is he has surrounded himself with a LARGE staff.... I watched Ejim play in summer leauge alot and I wasn't that impressed with him or any of the ISU players. Fred has done a wonderful job with every player and let them play their own game with in the offense for ISU. He can feel the game being a great player himself, which ALOT of head coaches can't do.
Calling timeouts at the wrong time or lack there of
substition patterns
being a positive figure in the building to have your school excited to be there.

Great Coaches were Great Players!!

That is a very good point. Smart leaders will surround themselves (or build a team) with good people.

[squirrel]

Agreed on the assistants being a key party to success. Just a few thoughts on Jim Les...

When hired, he was forced to take on Al Biancalana and Howard Moore as assistants (they were retained from the Molinari regime). So he wasn't exactly able to surround himself with the staff of his choice.

Eventually Howard Moore (Wisconsin) and Biancalana (Yorkville HS) left for different career paths, and both are now at UIC.

Prior to the 2006 season, Chuck Buescher was brought on as associate head coach, and there was an instantaneous difference in the quality of play. He stayed through 2007, a season where BU actually overachieved and was a strong at-large candidate. Lennox Forrester also left to take over at SIUE after that season.

So, he was basically allowed the opportunity to rebuild his entire staff. He hired Merfeld and promoted Eric Buescher (a failed HS coach) as associate head coach, and Merfeld was probably never given much of a voice in the program.

This past season, he hired Platt (probably the most experienced DI guy he's ever had) and promoted Kyle Vogt to assistant.

So I think there is a lot of validity to quality assistants being key, but you don't want to have to rely on them either.