Coaching Carousel 3 - Burn It All Down Edition

JDjacket

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Pretty sure MGH was a top 75 kid, possibly higher.

Okogie was highly respected in-state, but was off the national radar, as he was the 3rd wheel on a really high end CP3 squad. They were able to close him before he continued his rise. At minimum, he was a Rivals 150 kid & Dan McDonald viewed Okogie as pretty underrated.

ETA: Double checked - MGH was only Top 75 on ESPN. Was top 100 elsewhere.

Ok thanks for that info. So they were higher rated than I thought. I guess my point stands that I'm hoping the good of them coming here was less a result of Chad dollar and more the result of something else. Picturing a bizzaro world where they both went to Georgia is unnerving.
 

dtm1997

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Ok thanks for that info. So they were higher rated than I thought. I guess my point stands that I'm hoping the good of them coming here was less a result of Chad dollar and more the result of something else. Picturing a bizzaro world where they both went to Georgia is unnerving.
Dollar helped deliver them, but as much as BG seemed MIA on the recruiting trail, he was supposedly in to see MGH at 6AM when recruiting opened after he arrived at GT and I saw him watching Okogie in almost every game.
 

RamblinRed

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For FL Gator and NBA player Mike Miller has agreed to join Penny Hardaway's staff in Memphis.
This makes his current staff former Memphis player (and Penny Teammate)- Tony Madlock - who spent the last 4 yrs at Ole Miss and Miller who played 7 seasons with the Memphis Grizzlies and like Penny has an AAU program composed mostly of kids from the Memphis area.

i suspect the third asst will be a former HC, guess we will see. Hard to see much of anyone other than Memphis getting much talent from that area. They have 2 guys with direct ties to local AAU programs and all 3 have extensive Memphis backgrounds.

we will certainly get to see how much you can win with memphis kids.
 

lauraee

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For FL Gator and NBA player Mike Miller has agreed to join Penny Hardaway's staff in Memphis.
This makes his current staff former Memphis player (and Penny Teammate)- Tony Madlock - who spent the last 4 yrs at Ole Miss and Miller who played 7 seasons with the Memphis Grizzlies and like Penny has an AAU program composed mostly of kids from the Memphis area.

i suspect the third asst will be a former HC, guess we will see. Hard to see much of anyone other than Memphis getting much talent from that area. They have 2 guys with direct ties to local AAU programs and all 3 have extensive Memphis backgrounds.

we will certainly get to see how much you can win with memphis kids.
I'll be surprised if penny is successful.
 

kg01

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I won’t be. Not based on anything other than I think he will do well.

I think he'll have a lot of on-paper talent for sure. May be a lot like Avery Johnson at Bama. Will have juuuust enough success to not be on the hot seat but won't really make much of a real dent.

I get that Memphis has a decent amount of talent but I'm not sure you're winning at a high level with 99% of your team being from that city/area. Miller on staff with the other Memphis-centric guy smells like an over-rating of this whole Memphis thing.
 

Peacone36

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I think he'll have a lot of on-paper talent for sure. May be a lot like Avery Johnson at Bama. Will have juuuust enough success to not be on the hot seat but won't really make much of a real dent.

I get that Memphis has a decent amount of talent but I'm not sure you're winning at a high level with 99% of your team being from that city/area. Miller on staff with the other Memphis-centric guy smells like an over-rating of this whole Memphis thing.

I would agree with this. I’ll be interested in how they schedule. You can almost see them as a damn 23 win bubble team. First four type program...
 

kg01

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I would agree with this. I’ll be interested in how they schedule. You can almost see them as a damn 23 win bubble team. First four type program...

The scheduling point is an interesting one considering this has basically been a huge pep rally in SW TN. I wouldn't be surprised to see them with a schedule similar to Georgetown's schedule under Ewing. Line up a bunch of tomato cans for them to knock down.

To Ewing's credit, his team ended up playing fairly well after that initial cake walk. I'd be shocked if MEM doesn't try to line up some early success to keep the rally going so they could indeed end up being a bubble team as a result.
 

kg01

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Given a choice between cherry picking Atlanta talent or Memphis talent, I'll take cherry picking Atlanta talent all day.

I agree but, even so, I couldn't see a consistent winner being built exclusively on Atlanta talent and ATL talent >>>>> MEM talent IMHO.
 

RamblinRed

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One other Memphis note. There is still talk that Penny wants to hire Larry Brown for the last asst spot, but that the AD is so far not allowing him to.
 

mstranahan

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So..... we're thinking Penny will schedule teams like Texas Rio Grande, NC A&T, Wofford, Bethune Cookman, Florida A&M, North Texas, Grambling, Wright State, Coppin State and Yale?
 

RamblinRed

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IMO the biggest issue with memphis talent isn't that there isn't enough talent to win consistently. I'ts all the ego and surrounding nonsense that makes the situation near toxic imo.

Bingo.
Alot of people in Memphis believe they should have a say in the program.
I've heard from a colleague who is a Memphis alum that Pastner did not enjoy having to deal with all the people who wanted their hands in the program, and some of the nuts (players and others) who were on his teams. As a first time HC, and a really young one, he didn't have alot of control over that.
 
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