For a break in the Buzz talk, what a group of coaches in the Final Four, one of them is going to be a first-time champion, and they're a good example of how there's no one way to go about this deal in college basketball.

Duke:

Scheyer - The classic "hire from within." I hate this kind of hire, Scheyer had never coached anywhere but Duke, and only coached under one head coach, but there's no question it's worked for Duke where it didn't for so many others. But while Scheyer is definitely an apple from the Duke tree, he has changed the program significantly.

Roster construction: Absolute recruiting star power. Of their top five players in minutes, three are true freshmen that were ranked in the national top 20 (Flagg #1, Maluach #4, Knueppel #18.) The fourth, Proctor, was #23 two years ago. The fifth, James, was a high end portal pickup from Tulane. Another star freshman is one of their top bench guys, Evans, national #13.

This is an almost mid 2010's Calipari level of young super team.

Houston:

Sampson: An example of a school more or less falling into a coach they normally couldn't have gotten. Not only did Sampson have some NCAA baggage from Indiana, but he had been out of the college game for almost six years. He happened to be an assistant on the Rockets, and Houston was able to bring him back to the college game and the rest is history.

Roster construction: As you'd expect with a veteran coach like Sampson and a school that isn't a traditional basketball power, this roster has a mix of everything. High profile transfer pickups (Cryer, Uzan), under the radar transfers (Wilson) home grown under-the-rader veteran players (Sharp, Roberts), and high-end-but-not-super-elite recruits (Arceneaux (#31) , Tugler (#69)

Florida:

Golden: The "up and comer." Golden has the magic mix I look for in coaches, he had demonstrated some success as a head coach in a lower-level league, but also learned under some good coaches at the high-major level, in this case Auburn.

Roster construction: Recruit-to-fit. This roster doesn't have a lot of stars on it. In fact, the home-grown players are mostly under-the-radar recruits. (Haugh (#185), Condon (#214), Aberdeen (#187). And the transfers weren't the highest of the high level (Martin (FAU), Clayton (Iona), Handlogten (Marshall), Richard (Belmont), Chinyelu (Washington State) were all rated as 4* transfers.) Now obviously these are good players, but I think it's safe to say that Golden knows what he's looking for more than just chasing stars.

Auburn:

Pearl: Another coach that ran afoul of the NCAA. In this case, it was a minor infraction, but ultimately Pearl lied to the NCAA about it which is the ultimate no-no. Just don't cooperate and don't tell them anything. But as a result, in 2014, Auburn was willing to roll the dice, and ends up with a coach they would not have been able to get under different circumstances.

Roster construction: Like Houston, there's a good mix here. They haven't completely ditched high school recruiting, there are some home-grown players (Pettiford (#29), Howard (#62)) but it's mostly players acquired through the portal. Some were lower-level players (Broome (Morehead State), Johnson (DII Alabama-Huntsville), they also have some higher profile but not super-elite transfers (Miles Kelly (Georgia Tech). Denver Jones (Florida International), and then a risky pickup. Chad Baker-Mazara was kicked out of San Diego State for academics, but went to a juco and then ends up at Auburn.

Fun write up Bob!

Good write up. Interesting that three of the four have known "baggage" or have had issues this season.

What's the problem with hire from within like Scheyer when it's been under one of the greatest basketball coaches ever? I would be more comfortable with that, considering who he came up under. In this case, with Coach K hand picking him, I would trust him more than any AD picking the next coach.

Maybe our next coach should be Jewish.

Was Sampson's big infraction sending text messages to recruits?

Seriously - That's it !?

There's three reasons I don't like it:

First and foremost, it almost never works. For every one of these that works, there's like ten that don't. The new coach is basically a poor man's version of the old coach. Sometimes the cracks show right away, and sometimes it takes a couple of years, but they're almost never up to the job. Especially if they've never learned under any other coaches and DOUBLE especially if they're the coach's kid. They know the one way of doing things, and they're usually not as good at is at the last guy. See: Hubert Davis, Mark Adams, Sean Sutton, Adrian Autry, any time Harbaugh leaves a football job, etc. It's only slightly better than the "bring back a former player with no coaching experience" move.

Second, I just don't like the idea of a coach handpicking his replacement without a search. Now obviously Duke is a private university, they can do whatever they want, but I actually think "head coaches in waiting" should be illegal at public universities. Like I think Houston just handing the reigns over to Kellen Sampson at some point is crazy. Maybe it was a requirement to keep Kelvin, but it's ridiculous. (Although to his credit, he has coached at other places not under his father.) Why would you limit a search to one guy and not see who's out there, compare resumes, talk to them about their vision for a program, etc.

Third, and this is related to the second one, it messes up the pipeline of great head coaches. You should want your assistant coaches to go out and become head coaches at the lower levels and work their way up. That's how you find out who the best coaches really are. It's a trial-by-fire kind of deal where the cream rises to the top. But when you have premiere programs handpicking assistant coaches with no head coaching experience then it sort of messes up the career paths for the next generation of great coaches. Just in the last few years we've seen several high profile jobs go to guys with no head coaching experience at all.

AggieEyes said:

---

Was Sampson's big infraction sending text messages to recruits?

Seriously - That's it !?

---

Technically yes, but no not really. He'd already gotten an investigation and barred from off-campus recruiting and calling recruits for some stuff he did at Oklahoma. He then broke the restrictions the NCAA placed on him to contact recruits at Indiana.

Like with Pearl's NCAA situation, it's less about what he actually did and more about knowingly breaking restrictions the NCAA had already placed on him for what he did previously.

Amazing....4 coaches that don't wear a 3 piece suit to coach their games....how
in the world did they make the Final Four??

What are 4 coaches who will never take a gig at TAMU, for $1,000 Alex?

That isn't a $1000 question, it is a $100 question.

You know we're not getting a coach with baggage, amirite? That would be the biggest "un A&M" thing to do.

How much player NIL did each of those schools fanbases back their coaches with?

_lefraud_ said:

---

Maybe our next coach should be Jewish.

---

Or Italian