The hire of Dinkins does a number of important things for us.
Gets is in touch with the local high school and AAU contacts. We’ve always lagged here and this is the only way to get the needed recognition outside of winning.
Fresh ideas from the high school level. A winners mentality as a coach and player. This reconnects is to our alum and former players.
Bringing an all-time great back that cam preach our history and knows what we can be. He has heard many thoughts and concerns from former players.
I’d argue that this hire couldn’t have been any better because there’s no one else as in touch with the local scene and our program.
Yeah. Dink came here just after the wissell debacle. He could have laughed/brushed us off, but he didn’t. He came here and became a star who helped get us into The Dance, whose #4 is retired, and a shot at and some games in the nba. Love seeing him come home to help us get back up where we belong.
Apart from witnessing his phenomenal play in the late 1980’s, I’ve watched Byron Dinkins coach HS basketball since his first season (2009-10) at Northside Christian in Charlotte. He recruited and reshaped a team that was previously a non-contender into a perennial NCISAA tourney finalist. Let me restate this. In his 6 seasons as Head Coach at Northside, Dinkins’ teams played in EVERY state final and won 3 times. Including his final 2 seasons as HC at Carmel Christian School, his teams have played in every state final and won 4 titles. I’ve watched a lot of his games, and I can tell you that his players would run through a wall of fire if he asked them.
I’ll admit that I’m drinking the Koolaid here, but let’s imagine that Ron Sanchez reels off three 20+ win seasons in the next 4 years and someone like VT or Auburn decides to throw a six-figure salary at him…we could possibly have one of the most heralded player in Niner history to replace Sanchez???
VT or Auburn is going to throw a 6 figure salary at him. If that happens, I think we’ll keep him, because even our assistants make 6 figures. Haha. I know what you mean. Just messing with you.
For those not in the shoutbox, this means Dinkins can not go out and recruit/evaluate talent. His interactions are limited with prospective student athletes: day of for unofficials and a small window around officials (I think 5-7 days but can’t recall).
Still means we need our 3rd assistant, unless the Marcus Conrad person landed 3rd assistant spot. Which would be odd since he’s been here for weeks and hasn’t had a press release. Which leads me to we are still looking.
This definitely impacts things, such as Donovan Gregory… We can’t recruit Carmel for 2 years:
Which is interesting. If Gregory was a senior in 2018, he could come and play for Dinkins at Charlotte, but Dinkins would have to have a 1/2/3 assistant job.
