I don't give much credit to MBob because I still think he messed this up.
The HC hire is a D. The asst hires avg out to a B-.
MBob missed on every guy he wanted to hire and in a panic hired Pastner as he was the only one willing to take the job. Memphis wanted to get rid of him so bad they basically paid $1.7MM to get him another job (500K forgo buyout and $1.255MM payout to Memphis).
i think the assts make alot of sense as a group and bring a wide range of experiences and strengths, but at least 2 of them i would have chosen someone else. The amount of time taken to get the hires made (which i think is largely due to the admin being very involved and likely nixing a couple of candidates) was too long and could have a short term negative impact on recruiting.
I think recruiting will improve, hopefully the staff gels and ends up being greater than the sum of its parts. There is a fighting chance the program could get to middle of the pack, but i'm still not overly optimistic. Just not drinking the kool aid quite yet.
In another thread, you agreed that top tiered coaches were not going to any school not a "blue blood" in the P5 world:
Actually I thought the article was pretty good and quite true.
It is difficult to hire top coaches unless you are a blue blood. The sport has changed where it is in general better for them to stay where they are, then to take any non blue blood power 5 job.
That said, no one expected Gregg Marshall, Chris Mack, Archie Miller to come walking through our door. It's been widely reported that Mbob made a play for both Mack and A Miller...and both said "No thanks." I believe he approached Mack twice. To me, that's the only way MBob would have gotten an A+ to A- grade, was to land one of the "big fishes".
Knowing that, I think we all understood GT had 2 options:
1. Hire an up-and coming lower level coach that was good with X's and O's, surround him with good recruiting assistants.
2. Hire a stud recruiter to stock the cupboard and surround him with high level X's and O's assistants.
Among the coaches associated with the GT search, Bryce Drew and Jay Larranaga fit #1. Capel and Counzo Martin (later proven to be all Martin tying himself to GT than GT with genuine interest) fit #2. By all accounts (whether it's true or not), Drew was our top realistic candidate and Capel was a close #2. It's reported that MBob bungled both and Pastner entered the picture at the 11th hour and sought GT out for the job.
IMHO, Bryce Drew was always going to be the best GT could have gotten, and the "cleanest" coach in terms of no questionable history (see Capel's last years at Oklahoma, ditto Pastner). A proven head coach that won big, albeit on a lower level. That would have given MBob a solid B to B+, given how tightly the search had been run up until the Drew/Vandy poop in the face. Then we started hearing guys like Chris Holtman (who would have been a good plan B) and Pat Kelsey. It was going to be hard for MBob to rebound from that.
By default, there we no more realistic candidates that fit into category #1. Guys in that category were either happy where they are at, or already made their moves that late in the game.
Between Capel and Pastner (category #2), Pastner had the "cleaner" history and actually won big at Memphis. That he couldn't win the support of Memphis fans is what led him to GT door steps in the first place, it wasn't because of scandal or that he had a string of losing seasons (see: Capel). His problem was he wasn't John Calipari and he didn't win 30 games every year.
I said in another thread, GT was always going to get the imperfect coach. No way with our current roster, daunting challenges in the ACC, and awful record under CBG (2016 notwithstanding) we were going to land a top tier coach or up and comer...and that's probably why Drew went with Vandy.
Getting Pastner is MUCH better than getting another CBG. This is a guy with high upside, proven recruiter, and he's a machine that lives and breathes basketball. We don't get a guy with Pastner two years ago, of course, there's a reason why we got Pastner now as well. With the assistants now on board, and since they appear to either fill in Pastner's weaknesses or complement his strengths on a national level, we are SO much better now than we were with CBG.
To me, that's the key. How has MBob improved GT from where we were with the last coach. I can't give MBob an A+ to A-, because there was no way those elite non P5 coaches were walking through our door. He bungled the Drew negotiations (and possibly Capel...though that could have been a blessing in disguise) which means you can't give him a B+ for missing out on our top realistic target.
Given the parameters of what we had to work with, getting Pastner with a few dents and strengthening his weaknesses with the assitant hires has me a LOT more optimistic about the future of our bball program. There is a LOT of upside to the moves that were made.
Like
@GTHomer said earlier, it's hard to give any definitive grade right now as Pastner could crush it for GT and have us back to the Dance every year...or fall flat on his face. We won't know the direction for another 2+ years. But for me, given that there's actual optimism for our program after CBG, I can't help but say MBob certainly has GT bball moving closer to the right direction than where we were. From someone that's harsh on his own alma mater (just look have to read my posts in the Football Forum to see that), I'm optimistic about our bball team for the first time in a long time.
