Topic: What Hamrick would be well-served to recall as he makes this hire

[_sturt_]

Marshall fans love flashy, edgy, some would even say cocky head basketball coaches.

Why no outpouring of disappointment indicative of the love held for the Point Pleasant native and Billy Donovan disciple who just left us?

Easy.

No flash.

Think about it.

Bob Zuefalato won games here, but we got bored with him... as opposed to his predecessor, Little Stu, who in a period of just a couple of years as our coach endeared himself for the ages to us. Prior to Aberdeen, there was the ho-hum Bob Daniels. (Fwiw, I barely remember Carl Tacy, but Carl, we hardly knew ye anyhow.)

We replaced Coach Z with a guy who with his staff wore white tuxedos and green bow ties for the WVU game... nuff-said. Then, "welcomed" the cerebral Dana Altman to Huntington for a year... welcomed him so well, he was on the first plane back to the wheat fields. Then we had the Dwight Freeman years, right? Ugh. Let's not go there.

Replaced him with a hot young coach with not much of a resume but who everyone just knew would be a huge success... and for a change, people were right. Didn't enjoy huge success while he was here, but it sure was enough to get Florida interested, and he's been there, regularly competing for national championships ever since.

Then Greg White made his way back to Huntington. Though disappointed by Donovan's sudden departure, many of the Faithful were satisfied that we'd exchanged a ladder-climbing guy for a guy who was "one of us," and so we were fairly stoked... in fact, we were so stoked... we wanted so very badly for him to succeed... we waited and waited to see the program turn the corner, but it was not to be.

Enter Ron Jirsa. No flash. Could beat WVU, which was great, but otherwise it felt like we were just stuck in perpetual stagnant mud, going nowhere.

Enter Donnie Jones. Another homecoming, but better than the White hire, this guy was actually coming off of a national championship in which he had played a major part in constructing the roster. But... once again... no flash. We liked him. We thought the program was going places under his direction. Many of us even gave him the benefit of a doubt that a cupcake schedule for a little while might be beneficial to propel us back to having a "winning season expectation." But as he waved goodbye, few of us were terribly upset about it.

It's not that hiring a flashy coach is a must for us to be successful. That's not what I'm saying. What I'm saying is, Marshall fans more so than the average college basketball fan, desire to see a guy who wears passion on his sleeve... who, you can tell if we won or if we lost after any given game by his demeanor... hates to lose, loves to win.

Hamrick's last basketball hire was Lon Kruger. Successful, yes. Does not remotely fit the profile I've just illuminated, however. On the other hand, the last hire, period, completely fits the profile I've just illuminated. Find Doc Holliday's separated identical twin at-birth, and you have yourself a guy who will thrill the masses. Whether he will necessarily be successful is another question... and given the choice, sure, we prefer successful over flash, but at this point, if you have Option A and Option B, and both have similar resumes, but A has the more extroverted personality, it's a slam dunk for A.

Let's see what happens.

[marshallmark]

If he wins, Marshall fans won't care if the coach is catatonic. 

[_sturt_]

The standard, though, is higher for a guy who lacks flash. We'll put up with passionate coaches a lot longer than we'll put up with the cerebral types. I'm not saying it's right or that it makes sense, and also, I'm not saying there are not individual fans who are exceptions to this generalization... but, overall, it's just how the Faithful are. Bottom-line, if you have a decidedly more successful guy, hire him regardless of the flash (I think we agree)... but if you have two guys with equal credentials, you're smart, Mike, to go with the one who seems more passionate.

[Porkopolis]

Yet another reason why Bobby Lutz makes sense.  Qualified and passionate.

[wvmafia]

I agree, but for different reasoning.

I think that we first and foremost have to hire a good basketball coach.  But after narrowing it down to the 5 best basketball coaches, I think Hamrick has to take into account "flash" and "charisma".  Too much progress was made in re-energizing the basketball fanbase in the last few years to not hire a cocky, charismatic coach that will keep up the momentum.  Let's be honest, we are going to need a personality to keep the train moving forward fan-wise, because we are probably going to take a step back on the court.  JMO

[dhw24]

I think that it is interesting how we, as fans, get caught up in the "He needs to hire a guy that WE like." When in all reality, that's really (and i'm going to get crucified for this) not what his job is. I said this when he hired Holliday, it's not going to be particularly popular at first because its not who "we" wanted. But Doc immediately began to endear himself to the fans with his passion and confidence. He's arrogant he exudes confidence and we love that. But Ham's most important priority is to the institution, the players, and the program. He needs to hire a guy that is the best for the program. Now, more times than not a guy who comes in and endears himself to the fanbase will end up being loved provided he wins games. We get caught up in wanting the "excitement." We want a guy who's going to come in and talk big game to get everyone razzed up. And its interesting because every fanbase generally has a stereotype or perception of what kind of coach fits them. For example, WVU fans like John Beilein. But they have endeared themselves to Bob Huggins (drinking references aside). They wanted him for his pedigree and his success, but they have been endeared to him because he embodies what they are about. Hard working, an everyman, blue-collar, and his team's style represents them to a "T." Pastilong wasn't worried about that when he hired him though, he just hired the best coach available.

I think WE want that "flash" that you mention because we relate the arrogance and the confidence to the football program because we were able to be arrogant because of the success. I think the people that can go back to Huck's day have that feeling about the basketball program. He brought a certain charm to the program with the tux incident and the winning.

I say all this to say be careful what you wish for. A guy with flash and arrogance can become revered very quickly if he is not successful. So there is no in-between. We are either going to love him or hate him and run him out of town. While I agree that Hamrick needs to understand what the fanbase wants and what their perception of what we need is, we need to understand that his job is to take those opinions with a grain of salt and hire someone who best fits what the program needs. And if that guy is successful then we'll love him no matter what. But in any case, some coaches are always going to be loved more than others. It's just the way of the world.

I think we feel the need for that "pizazz" and "sparkle" because we know we need it to not only win, but to be noticed on the national stage, again I call this the football hangover, because there are a lot of successful mid-majors but we had something unique because of our high-flying high octane offense and it got us more attention than others. And now we are relating that to basketball and we want not only to win in our league, but to do it with flash.  Just one observers long-winded opinion.

Fire away, i'm sure there's some disagreements!  ;D

[IM4DHERD]

Not sure I agree...people like a winner.  Not sure we ran Zuffelato out of town on a rail, but people wanted more.  The "flashy" guys were all winners, except for Aberdeen...Can't base an assumption on one anomaly.

Years Coach Won Lost Pct.
2007- Donnie Jones 31 31 .500
2003-07 Ron Jirsa 43 74 .368
1996-03 Greg White 115 84 .578
1994-96 Billy Donovan 35 20 .636
1990-94 Dwight Freeman 44 69 .389
1989-90 Dana Altman 15 13 .536
1983-89 Rick Huckabay 129 59 .686
1979-83 Bob Zuffelato 71 41 .634
1977-79 Stu Aberdeen 25 31 .446
1972-77 Bob Daniels 71 62 .534
1971-72 Carl Tacy 23 4 .852
1969-71 Stewart Way 25 24 .510
1963-69 Ellis Johnson 68 80 .459
1955-63 Jule Rivlin 100 88 .532
1935-55 Cam Henderson 362 160 .693
1931-35 Tom Dandalet 43 35 .551
1927-31 Johnny Stuart 46 27 .630
1926-27 Bill Strickling 7 9 .438
1925-26 Charles Tallman 10 7 .588
1924-25 Russ Meredith 12 6 .667
1923-24 Bill Strickling 8 7 .533
1922-23 J.E.R. Barnes 1 3 .250
1921-22 Herbert Cramer 5 4 .556
1920-21 Kemper Shelton 6 9 .400
1918-19 Archer Reilly 2 5 .286
1908-14 Boyd Chambers 16 16 .500
1906-08 L.B. Crotty 5 1 .833

[MARSHALL77]

If he wins, Marshall fans won't care if the coach is catatonic. 

That opens the door for Dave Odom for sure.

[_sturt_]

Input from the gallery... he knows who he is but shall remain anonymous and in a zone of his own...

I understand what you are saying, but I don't think its Flash that we need. I think its more of a coach that's demanding. Huck and Donavan demanded wins and when you lost your rear was chewed out and you was made to work harder in practice. That was the same with Chaump, Donnan, and Pruett on the football side. In recent years with Freeman, Jirsa and I think I can now safely say Jones also it was "Just a Job". It was great when you won and basically "OOOH Well" if you lost. I never did see any of those 3 get fired up on the bench.

Altman and White had passion but both also had the personality of a stump. I loved the way Altmam coached and his game plan, still do as I watch Creighton, it was to bad his wife hated the area. I really think he could have done the same things here as he did with the Blue Jays. Which leads me to Greg White, I don't really think anyone could have succeed after the taste of winning with Donavan. White's 99-00 team that went 21-9 would have beat this years team by 10 or more. Even though White had a respectable record at Marshall at 115-84 most including me was glad he was gone.

My pick if I were going to hire would be Bobby Lutz. Not because he has pazazz or anything, the man just flat out knows how to coach. He took Charlotte to the post season 8 out of 12 years he was there, won 2 CUSA titles and was in the title game 4 times. He also has a winning record against Memphis and UAB.

Whoever Hamrick hires, I just hope they know how to coach the game.