Who to replace Hopkins?

[Sibelius Hindemith]

Sure, just not seeing it presented as an issue there

They are unranked for the first time in a decade.

Aren't they ranked #23? 4th best record among top 25 schools but only one win vs a ranked opponent (Kentucky). Worst losses were Santa Clara and Washington.

[D-train]

Sure, just not seeing it presented as an issue there

They are unranked for the first time in a decade.

Aren't they ranked #23? 4th best record among top 25 schools but only one win vs a ranked opponent (Kentucky). Worst losses were Santa Clara and Washington.

Any team losing to Hopkins should be banned from the top 25 for five seasons minimum. That proves right there that they are having a sub par season. No proof that it is NIL related though. Could be though.

[Michael K.]

Just lost to a 17 loss USC team. Does it really matter who replaces him? Just fucking replace him!

[Donn Beach]

He's 61 now, never going to have to pay for a drink the rest of his life there. He got a DUI a couple years ago. I think he retires in Spokane. Here's an article on the one job he considered taking but turned them down, Oregon. He's from the area, it's his alma mater. Knight was pushing hard for it.

Gonzaga head coach Mark Few has turned them all down when they came calling about a potential job: Indiana, Arizona, UCLA, Virginia and Michigan. There were others that also had swings and misses, but only one school truly made him even contemplate leaving Spokane.

It was back in March of 2009 and Gonzaga had just been knocked out of the NCAA Tournament by eventual national champion North Carolina in the Sweet 16. Few knew the call originating from his good friend Pat Kilkenny, who also happened to be Oregon’s interim athletic director at the time, was inevitable.

They had never discussed the job in the past, despite the fact that Few had graduated from Oregon back in 1987. But Ducks head coach Ernie Kent had just completed a season with a 2-16 league record, and Kilkenny — with the help of Nike boss and Oregon booster Phil Knight — was going to make a run at the guy who had begun to turn Gonzaga into a West Coast powerhouse

I’m not going to say I thought it was a given, but I had a high confidence level for a lot of reasons,” Kilkenny told me. “He went to Oregon, his mom and dad lived there, we’re in the Pac-10 at the time, Phil Knight, Nike. Pretty darn compelling argument. I thought he’d say, ‘Yeah, let’s do it.’”

It was a little contentious for the two hours,” Kilkenny remembered. “I believed strongly Mark would be making a huge mistake not leaving a place that didn’t have the resources that Oregon could avail him. Mark said, ‘Oregon’s never gonna get it done, I’m at a better place.’ The conversation was polarizing.”

“We’re so happy,” Few said looking back at the decision. “This is what fits the Few family so well. The Northwest lifestyle, fly fishing, getting out to the lake — [it] is almost a spiritual experience for part of the summer. One of the coolest things when you stay at a place as long as I have, it’s about the relationships you develop. Those guys come back and they are your guys. If you start bouncing around, you don’t have your guys anymore

https://www.google.com/amp/s/watchstadi ... -2021/amp/

[Michael K.]

What was Pete Carroll doing in 2009?

Few may not leave Gonzaga, but posting a job he turned down in 2009 as proof makes little sense to me. The entire premise of this post was how the game has changed. If you don’t think change has happened since 2009?

I don’t think there is any chance Few comes here. But comparing it to turning down Oregon 15 years ago?

[Donn Beach]

The article is from three years ago. The point of the article is of all the offers he's had over the years, that's the only one that he bothered to consider. He's response there about loving where he lives, not regretting his decision, that's from three years ago.

The article seemed a little odd to me, but digging a little more. Jeff Goodman seems a pretty big name in basketball coverage, Goodman and Few have done podcasts together so he has the access.

[Donn Beach]

Sorry if I'm overdoing this but it's gotten interesting for me. Okay here's a Goodman podcast from a month ago where he's concerned about the days of Gonzaga being an elite program are over. What he points to is losing Tom Lloyd to Arizona.

https://youtu.be/Cxk1RmRjkdU?si=bvsD1zfHtKnYTWzj

Sorry for posting a long wiki paste but it seemed incredible to me. You guys are probably a lot more familiar with Lloyd than I was

Lloyd soon became Gonzaga's key international recruiter. He began to develop a niche as an international recruiter early in his tenure on Few's staff. In Borzello's story, Few recalled that one area where he wanted Lloyd to develop was recruiting, telling him that in order to become an assistant at a top program, he needed a niche. Few told Borzello,
He loved traveling over in Europe. And I told him, hey, if you want to make it in this business, you gotta develop a niche, you gotta have something different than somebody else. There's so many guys in this business, you have to separate yourself. So he kind of figured out like, "Hey, I can figure out how to do this European thing and see if I can establish a network and trust, you know, some real expertise over there." And he's done that.

Among the international players that Lloyd has played a role in recruiting are former Bulldogs Mario Kasun (Croatia), Ronny Turiaf (France), J.P. Batista (Brazil), Abdullahi Kuso (Nigeria), Robert Sacre (Canada), Kelly Olynyk (Canada), Elias Harris (Germany), Kevin Pangos (Canada), Przemek Karnowski (Poland), Domantas Sabonis (Lithuania), Rui Hachimura (Japan), Killian Tillie (France), Filip Petrušev (Serbia), Joël Ayayi (France), Martynas Arlauskas (Lithuania), Pavel Zakharov (Russia), and Oumar Ballo (Mali). Lloyd has also been integral in developing NBA players for Gonzaga like Turiaf, Adam Morrison, Jeremy Pargo, Austin Daye, Sacre, Olynyk, Kyle Wiltjer, Sabonis, Zach Collins, Hachimura, and Brandon Clarke.

Lloyd had previously turned down numerous interview requests for head-coaching positions during his Gonzaga tenure. He was contractually guaranteed of becoming the Bulldogs' next head coach upon Few's departure. Gonzaga athletic director Mike Roth said, "Tommy has it in writing from me and the [university] president that says, as long as he's here, when Mark retires, it's your job. He's got a document. I've got a document. The president's got a document. Our general counsel has a document. It's his job." However, in 2021, Lloyd left Gonzaga for the head-coaching position at the University of Arizona.

[Michael K.]

The game has changed in three years as well. NIL is huge. You have football head coaches going to the NFL for Coordinator jobs. This is being explained as a way to get away from the new set up. Imagine being in the NFL if damn near every player was a FA every year? That is basically what college is becoming. The coaches will now have more control over their roster in the Pros!

Again, I am not saying Few is leaving, and certainly not saying he is leaving to come here. But nothing from the past can be used to explain right now.

This article is a few weeks old. And while it pertains to college football, I am not sure it isn't relevant in hoops too.

https://www.cbssports.com/college-footb ... -in-sight/

Coaches are more frequently making lateral moves and taking lesser job titles, sometimes leaving millions of dollars on the table either to escape college football or take less-stressful roles.

[Donn Beach]

I believe it impacts basketball programs like it does football. I just think it be a little strange for Few to go from being a supporter of NIL to blaming it for whatever issues he might be facing. Though there is the issue of NIL reform, that is a federal law I guess.

From when he testified to congress about NIL

Few was emphatic that “all athletes deserve to use their own name, image or likeness in commercial endorsements and on social media” and then removed any further doubt on where he stood by stating “I am very much in favor of them profiting as much as they can from this” and that “this absolutely needs to happen right now.”

[Sibelius Hindemith]

I wonder if his opinion on that has changed at all. I think most rational minds would agree that there needs to be some regulation on the NIL payouts as well as transfer portal.