It’s totally unclear whether Sanchez will be gone after this season or not. What is clear is that there are quite a few candidates who could possibly fill our positions. I was wondering who is making moves in lower D-I conference that we might be able to snatch up, so I took a look at a few names. It’s still pre conference tourney, so hard to tell, but here’s a start prior to conference tourney season.
Griff Aldirch - Longwood - Big South Currently 21-6
Longwood went D-I in 2004 as an independent and then was affiliated with the Big South since 2012. They have never been to the NCAA tournament since going D-I. Their best record prior to Griff was a 17 win season. The three years prior to Griff coming on board they went 10-23, 6-24, 7-26.
In Griff’s first three years Longwood went 16-18, 15-17, 12-17, and are currently 21-6, having locked up their division. If they win their conference tournament, he may be a good candidate somewhere else. Bonus - they are in Virginia, so in our recruiting territory.
His salary is $150k and he is 47 years old.
Ill be adding to this as i have time to research more candidates.
I am a little confused. Do we want a coach that has not been to the NCAA tournament or one that has been to the dance and won a few NCAA tournament games?
I want one that has been there at least once. I am tired of rolling the dice. I am really wanting an older guy that has proven he can get it done more so than the younger HC. More than anything though we need a person with previous successful HC experience that preferably has seen some post season success, im just leaning to older guy with proven track record. Ideally with a S16 on the resume.
I’m personally not sure. Experience is a must as a head coach. No matter what we do, this one has to be a winner. We cannot whiff on another head coach here. We just can’t.
I agree. If a change is going to be made, I want a coach that has post season success. One season of success is not enough.
Based on who Mike Hill has hired so far, none of them had post season success. I believe, Will Healy is the only one with previous D1 Head Coaching experience.
I’m all about the progression curve. If Prosser can dance and make some noise, he looks great. Same for Aldrich. I’m not saying take some nobody, but it might not be realistic to find someone who has won a bunch. And getting an older guy who might have lost an edge in recruiting or a step on the sideline has its downsides too.
Look at Sean McVay, young guy, high energy, not only says all the right things, sets goals, but follows through. Getting a lower level division coach who can turn a bad team around and get to the big dance is what I’d personally be looking for. That’s why I think you look to conferences like the Big South, ASUN, etc., and find someone who has turned around a program in a four year period or less (duh!) and has laced up their dancing shoes. If they are geographically close and charismatic, all the better.
Bonus points for being a Boy Scout, since that seems to be the #1 requirement from this persons future boss.
Older guy that is outta the game - I am not interested in.
Older guy that is on a staff somewhere should still have recruiting rolling. I want a guy that walks into a recruits home and says I F’n win, Ive done it at a high level. We might not be able to afford it - but I want that to be something we take a shot at.
Recruiting is my biggest concern with bringing a younger guy up. They often take a bit to figure out talent level in new league and they don’t have the connections to work the portal.
I want to take as much risk out of this hire as possible. Proven winner, with success and connections.
I’m no expert, but my impression is that most of the recruiting is done by the assistant coaches. Make the right hire for head coach, give him a budget to pick some quality recruiters and assistants off elsewhere plus whatever pipeline he has, and you can make it work. I still think coming in and saying “you can be the first group at Charlotte to make the NCAA tournament since 2005. I am going to coach this team to the Big Dance. Do you want to be a part of that?” has a much more appealing sound to someone who wants to compete at a high level than “The beauty is in the struggle” and shit like that.
A tournament appearance is nice but I’ll settle for one that has shown he is capable of running the show.
I’ll cut a low major coach some slack if he has dominated his conference for a few years but gotten knocked out in the conference tournament. We are in theory moving to a conference where at large bids are possible.
I think he still has some tread left on the tires, but not enough for me. He would be a decent stop gap to keep successful momentum going, but not a program builder. Too old.
If it’s going to be an older coach, I think the name has to resonate. Phil Martelli doesn’t do that in my mind. I’d rather have a prior coach than Phil as there would be some other intangibles related to that hire.
To me you either go for a “name” coach that’s done it and has some tread left or you go young, hungry, and proven out in a lower conference. I don’t want the old guy a lot of kids haven’t really heard of.
Prosser’s record before Winthrop was not very good. I honestly don’t know anything about him other than who his father was and his record from Wikipedia. That would seem like a risky hire to me but I know we can’t really get a sure thing. For coaches who have won at a lower level I like Bob Richey or Mark Byington at JMU. Or a retread like Archie Miller or Chris Mack. We may not be able to get any of those but I would hope we would start with candidates like that and make them tell us no.
Just read up a little on Aldrich and he does sound interesting. I’m just not sure how what he has done at Longwood would translate. Wikipedia says he is a member of the Omicron Delta Kappa honors society. I don’t know what that is but it sounds bad.
I don’t believe any of the names so far on this post are better than what we have in place, or would excite our fan base. Wish they did, but they do not.