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MBB Head Coach Hire

My educated assumption here is that Dr Wood is trying to find a big splash hire (thinking former NBA star or NBA coach) in the next two weeks. If he comes up empty then Orr will be working hard at the Final Four to shrink the candidate pool and then try to hire the week after the national title game.
 
The program needs a hard reset and rebranding.

If we want donors and sponsorship, there has to be a level of excitement that people are buying.
 
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Hornet25 said:
The program needs a hard reset and rebranding.

If we want donors and sponsorship, there has to be a level of excitement that people are buying.
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Spot on. Wood/Orr need to bring in somebody who wins, and wins now. The local ties would be a nice bonus but we had a long run with a coaching staff that checked that box and never finished better than a tie for 3rd in the conference standings and finished in the bottom of the conference more often than not. I'm not sure what value the "local ties" truly has.

If the NIL money materializes and some of it goes to MBB, the new HC will have money to bring in some quality talent off the free market to make an impact. Maybe some of the Sac area talent finds its way home with a cash incentive.
 
Not sure who they could bring in that would win now. Enough NIL money for men’s basketball to make a difference is not going to suddenly materialize. Hiring a former NBA player has not been a successful formula. See Patrick Ewing, Jerry Stackhouse, and Reggie Theus as recent examples. I like a local tie as it is going to take someone willing to roll up their sleeves and do the hard work to build success. Not someone looking for a quick hit and then move on.
 
Like I said earlier in this thread, I'm not a fan of going the gimmick hire route but this program isn't really in a place to rule that option out. By win now I mean near or above 500 record and a win or two in Boise in year 1 and being a serious contender in the BSC (or whatever one and done conference we end up in) by year 2 and no later than year 3 with the new HC being poached immediately after bringing this program some hardware and/or notability.
 
Coaches being poached isn't something that can be avoided unless they hire people with limited options or someone with modest ambitions.

Key is to raise the profile of the position so that you can easily replace a coach who leaves with someone of similar or greater ability.

Once the program's profile is raised, then you may get a good coach who wins and wants to stay.

This is about timing too. Conference realignment is happening now. Schools are being evaluated on the historical results and/or their commitment to future success. A short term rental for a high profile coach may be needed to stay on these bigger conference's radar. It may not be important to some fans that the school moves to another conference, but this is the path that the school has chosen. If they want to succeed on this path, it's win and win now.
 
Everyone in the Athletic Department wants to talk the survey and Spring Football. I think we are honestly picking last here, so President Wood is continuing to try to hit a home run -- I think we are still at the "dream hire" stage.
 
Not surprised at the gimmick hire, but he has local ties so I guess that's a win. Or are those not the local ties people want? We'll see how he fills out his staff. At least this will sell tickets in year 1.
 
This is definitely style over substance. He has no relevant coaching experience. Not a fan of this hire. He lobbied hard for the job four years ago and Sac State would not go near him. He lobbied hard for his alma mater, Arizona, and they would not consider him. Because he has no experience. The only thing that has changed is we have a new college President. Remember how it worked out when the Kings hired Divac with no experience. Maybe he can donate his entire salary to the NIL collective and convince some of his former teammates to donate.
 
I just hope this doesn't go the way UOP went when they picked up a former NBA star as HC. Well, Damon Stoudamire DID stay five years, but the program stagnated that entire time before he bolted to the Celtics before hooking on with GA Tech. I could easily see Bibby pulling this....
 
Bibby's dad played in the NBA and coached for 9 seasons at USC. Mike Bibby, son of a PAC 12 college coach, played 14 years as a high IQ PG in the NBA. Then he won 5 State championships in 6 years as a high school coach. I wouldn’t say NO experience. He's got quite the pedigree.

He knows basketball. It's really about his ability to recruit. His name alone will likely draw some talent.
 
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FWIW lots of noise on the twitters about the hire. People seem to like it but my take is that it's just Kings nostalgia. Does this noise draw in some NIL money so that we can pay some good players to come here? Do we see some marquee matchups in Golden 1 with Bibby at the helm?
 
To add support to a guy playing in the NBA knowing the game, Steve Kerr went from player, to GM. Then to head coach of the Warriors. No previous coaching experience.

JJ Redick went from NBA player, to broadcast, Lakers HC and he's doing fine. No other coaching experience.

Penny Hardaway doing fine at Memphis with no previous coaching experience.

Bibby is a flasy hire, but not an irresponsible one.

We all knew an NBA guy was going to get this gig, didn't we? No surprise.
 
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