GT Hoops Assistant Coaches Hot List

dtm1997

dtm1997

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Here's a first crack at potential assistant coaches. Some of these are going to be unrealistic (Charlton Young), some of these were ideas DaBiz gave to me.

We need to fill 2 spots that will combine to coach wings & guards, postionally, and offense & defense, from a game plan perspective, as well as potentially backfilling the Director, Recruiting & Compliance that Swartz managed.

My list is stream of consciousness. We can organize them later. I don't think we should hire Mark Price or Noodles Neal and I'm not adding them to the list. Start throwing out ideas everyone...

  • Charlton Young (we'd have to drop a huge bag so he could keep dropping bags)
  • Jonas Hayes (seems highly likely he's gonna stick with UGA or pursue other opportunities)
  • Julian Swartz (could make a lot of sense to elevate him permanently)
  • Cliff Warren (can we entice him back from UMass)
  • Sharman White (next step forward from Georgia State, though State fans will tell you it's a step down)
  • Cabral Huff (might make sense to roll the dice with 2 spots open or give him a crack at the non-bench role)
  • Jesse McMillan (Norcross HS head coach, see Cabral Huff rationale above)
  • Winston Neal (former GT walk-on, current JuCo head coach at Columbia State, has run HoopSeen events)
  • Kyle Perry (was recently head coach of USC Upstate & former GT walk-on, not sure he makes sense or not)
  • Chris Williams (Head Coach of Game Elite, AAU program of Ashton Hagans, danger here is if you're viewed as "taking a side" in the local AAU game)
  • BJ Elder (currently coaching HS & AAU ball, but could make sense to put him in a non-recruiting role)
  • Amir Abdur Rahim (seems to have a good gig at Texas A&M after a quick spin under BG at GT; CY-esque)
  • Ricky Moore (former UConn assistant with Georgia ties)
That's all I've got right now. Let's kick off the speculation.
 
tatertot1

tatertot1

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It all comes down to who can recruit at GT I say move Swartz up fills a vacancy right there and hire somebody that can recruit and has ties to GT like B.j.elder as long as the coach can recruit I'm for him grab Chris Bosh if we can,I'm sure he can recruit!
 

lauraee

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dtm1997 said:
Here's a first crack at potential assistant coaches. Some of these are going to be unrealistic (Charlton Young), some of these were ideas DaBiz gave to me.

We need to fill 2 spots that will combine to coach wings & guards, postionally, and offense & defense, from a game plan perspective, as well as potentially backfilling the Director, Recruiting & Compliance that Swartz managed.

My list is stream of consciousness. We can organize them later. I don't think we should hire Mark Price or Noodles Neal and I'm not adding them to the list. Start throwing out ideas everyone...

  • Charlton Young (we'd have to drop a huge bag so he could keep dropping bags)
  • Jonas Hayes (seems highly likely he's gonna stick with UGA or pursue other opportunities)
  • Julian Swartz (could make a lot of sense to elevate him permanently)
  • Cliff Warren (can we entice him back from UMass)
  • Sharman White (next step forward from Georgia State, though State fans will tell you it's a step down)
  • Cabral Huff (might make sense to roll the dice with 2 spots open or give him a crack at the non-bench role)
  • Jesse McMillan (Norcross HS head coach, see Cabral Huff rationale above)
  • Winston Neal (former GT walk-on, current JuCo head coach at Columbia State, has run HoopSeen events)
  • Kyle Perry (was recently head coach of USC Upstate & former GT walk-on, not sure he makes sense or not)
  • Chris Williams (Head Coach of Game Elite, AAU program of Ashton Hagans, danger here is if you're viewed as "taking a side" in the local AAU game)
  • BJ Elder (currently coaching HS & AAU ball, but could make sense to put him in a non-recruiting role)
  • Amir Abdur Rahim (seems to have a good gig at Texas A&M after a quick spin under BG at GT; CY-esque)
  • Ricky Moore (former UConn assistant with Georgia ties)
That's all I've got right now. Let's kick off the speculation.
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I'd like bj elder please.
 
dtm1997

dtm1997

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Silk3 said:
Was Swartz a grad assistant?
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Swartz has been a grad assistant elsewhere, but, for us, he was Director of Recruiting & Compliance. When DLaB was suspended & subsequently resigned, Swartz was elevated to interim assistant coach so he can hit the road and he's done a nice job developing relationships so far, including being the lead recruiter for Marcus Watson.

Regarding BJ Elder, I think he could have long term potential as a bench coach, but if he were to be hired, I think it'd be best for him to start off in a non-recruiting role, similar to the way Mario West did. I didn't include Rio because I think he probably needs another year in his current role, but I think he has massive potential as a recruiter at GT, given he's been there/done that, played for highly successful teams at GT, graduated from GT, & played in the NBA.
 

lauraee

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I'm not so sure about someone from aau. Id rather have an assistant coach along the lines of hardy or reveno. Really wish we had not lost LaBarrie.
 

GTbball2016

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I'm thinking we need a lights out recruiter, as UGa recruiting will only improve with Crean and Jonas (assuming he sticks around).
 
H-Wade

H-Wade

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alagold said:
This could be critical time now.It seems to me that Hewitt started turning to "blew-it" when started losing his coaches.
Click to expand...

I agree with this. Once he lost Warren and Keener (and Jack) things seemed to go wayyy downhill coaching-wise.
 

lv20gt

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With two openings I would say elevating Swartz is likely if they think he can handle the skills development at all. If not him then I wouldn't mind going after a highschool/AAU type of coach instead with some local ties. Would have to make sure it's someone who is well known and liked, or at least not disliked, because you wouldn't want to alienate programs which is the danger there.

Where we go with Swartz or a highschool/AAU level coach I think the other one really needs to be a former head coach who brings that side of things as well.


H-Wade said:
I agree with this. Once he lost Warren and Keener (and Jack) things seemed to go wayyy downhill coaching-wise.
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I always thought it had more to do with him never being able to get a good point guard situation again. A good PG can cover a lot of weaknesses and a bad one can expose a lot of them. Especially since I think the way Hewitt wanted to run things relied more on the PG situation. Now part of that was just not recruiting, or landing, enough, but we had a fair string of bad luck when it came to PGs after the Jack and Bynum years.
 
H-Wade

H-Wade

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lv20gt said:
I always thought it had more to do with him never being able to get a good point guard situation again. A good PG can cover a lot of weaknesses and a bad one can expose a lot of them. Especially since I think the way Hewitt wanted to run things relied more on the PG situation. Now part of that was just not recruiting, or landing, enough, but we had a fair string of bad luck when it came to PGs after the Jack and Bynum years.
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Yeah that's true that he had terrible luck with PGs starting with Austin Jackson going to the Yankees and Critt only staying for one year, but he still should have had a better backup plan - he is the head coach so he is responsible.

It's hard to say if it was all due to the PG play that made our offense run pretty well or if our assistants helped out with that too. All I know is once all three of those guys left the offense under Hewitt was UNWATCHABLE. The lovingly referred to "clogged toilet offense" or CTO as many like to call it.
 

lv20gt

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H-Wade said:
Yeah that's true that he had terrible luck with PGs starting with Austin Jackson going to the Yankees and Critt only staying for one year, but he still should have had a better backup plan - he is the head coach so he is responsible.

It's hard to say if it was all due to the PG play that made our offense run pretty well or if our assistants helped out with that too. All I know is once all three of those guys left the offense under Hewitt was UNWATCHABLE. The lovingly referred to "clogged toilet offense" or CTO as many like to call it.
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Oh, I'm not saying that Hewitt is absolved. It's still 100% on him for not recruiting enough PGs. Pastner is doing right by having Alverado, landing Devoe, and still going hard after high level PGs. You can always slide a Bynum off ball to SG. You can't really make do with taking Georges Hunt and trying to make him a PG. IMO after Jack the only real ACC quality PG we had was Crit. Miller might have been if not for his injuiry as he had a good freshman year but never seemed to recover, and Mfon had the raw talent to develop into one, but our PG situation has been so bad for so long. Hewitt always seemed to put so much responsibility on the PG that I am amazed in retrospect that we weren't getting a high level PG every year, and sometimes 2 if possible. Don't get me wrong, coaching, assistant and head, were issues in their own right but when looking at the rosters Hewitt got here I can't help but look at the PG position and think "how is this team even set up for success?". BG had the same issue fwiw, and I'm giddy at the thought of ALverado plus Devoe, and maybe another (wishful thinking).
 
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