UCLA fires Steve Alford

Russ Smith

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This has been rumored since the Liberty loss and apparently they were negotiating the buyout all day yesterday.

Tons of rumors out there but right now it appears Tyus Edney will be the interim coach. So many rumors on who else might be on staff including names like Larry Brown who was just fired overseas and apparently has indicated an interest in helping as an assistant for a few months at UCLA.

Nobody thinks Edney is the permanent guy just interim and it's very unlikely any interim guy will be the guy they ultimately hire.

At one point it looked like Murry Bartow might be named interim but it now sounds like he'll be gone too.
 
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Russ Smith

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They named Murry Bartow the interim HC not Edney. Both had been rumored, Edney seemed to have more momentum so it's interesting that it was Bartow
 

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Fred Hoiberg, Jamie Dixon and Earl Watson are early names
 
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Russ Smith

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Meanwhile, Ben Howland is back in the top 20

Firing Howland was the right move, hiring Alford was not.

Dixon seems to like it at TCU, Watson is the choice of the ex players but not really the alums who pushed UCLA to fire Alford. The reason Hoiberg is a hot name is his agent works for the agency owned by Casey Wasserman, one of the big boosters at UCLA. Wasserman is more football than hoops, he was the guy who brought in Chip Kelly, but just that connection has Hoiberg on the A list.
 

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Firing Howland was the right move, hiring Alford was not.

Dixon seems to like it at TCU, Watson is the choice of the ex players but not really the alums who pushed UCLA to fire Alford. The reason Hoiberg is a hot name is his agent works for the agency owned by Casey Wasserman, one of the big boosters at UCLA. Wasserman is more football than hoops, he was the guy who brought in Chip Kelly, but just that connection has Hoiberg on the A list.

Who do you want?
 
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Russ Smith

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Who do you want?

not really sure. I keep flipping but I really like Chris Beard(Texas Tech), I like Keatts at NC State, I am intrigued by Nate Oats at Buffalo although he's a big risk with so little experience at D1 as the HC.

Obviously Donovan, Tony Bennett etc would all be great hires I just don't see them coming to UCLA.
 

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not really sure. I keep flipping but I really like Chris Beard(Texas Tech), I like Keatts at NC State, I am intrigued by Nate Oats at Buffalo although he's a big risk with so little experience at D1 as the HC.

Obviously Donovan, Tony Bennett etc would all be great hires I just don't see them coming to UCLA.
What about Big Earl? Some writer suggested UCLA go after Hurley.
 
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Russ Smith

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What about Big Earl? Some writer suggested UCLA go after Hurley.

the ex player lobby is clearly for Earl Watson. I just don't think he has enough experience and didn't show much of anything as an actual coach while at Phoenix.

My biggest fear from this search is they throw in the towel early and hire either Watson or Hoiberg as path of least resistance. There's this claim out there that Bennett and Beard would be bad fits because UCLA fans want up tempo. It wasn't the tempo(for me and most I know) that was the issue with Howland, it was the control freak personality that was driving away kids like Moser and Stanback so early, and pushing a kid like Malcolm Lee to turn pro knowing there was both an NBA lockout looming, and he had a knee injury. I have inside knowledge that had they not fired Ben when they did, not only was Norman Powell going to transfer, but both Wear twins were actively considering leaving as grad transfers. As bad a hire as Alford was, they had to replace Ben they just picked the wrong guy.

If Bennett or Beard were interested I'd be thrilled to see better defense. I doubt Bennett has any interest though.
 

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Shout out to the UCLA boosters lobbying for Rick Pitino.
 

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UCLA hiring Pitino would probably be the greatest thing ever to see what certain NCAA hallway monitors would say.

At the same time - he's easily the best coach they can get and would kill it there.
 
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Russ Smith

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Shout out to the UCLA boosters lobbying for Rick Pitino.


That's the big argument on the board right now it's kind of funny. People are actually citing his autobiography as some "proof" that maybe he didn't do anythign wrong. Many of them the same ones insisting Arizona should have fired miller. I have pointed out repeatedly that if Louisville decided to fire him and they did, and they defended against his first civil suit, and they did, clearly they had VERY strong reasons to think he was lying to them. I actually found a story that says Louisville asked Pitino to admit to essentially a list of 53 items in their defense against his civil suit(wanting money).

Among those 53 were that Dawkins visited Louisville 9 days before he was arrested by the FBi, Pitino's lawyer responded that Rick would issue a statement that did NOT admit to that, that said Pitino did NOT know Dawkins was an agent, that if Dawkins was on campus, Pitino didn't know and wasn't covering it up. It was the absolutely definiion of lawyering up. He insisted he'd known Dawkins mildly for years, he recruited a kid off Dawkins AAU program(Dorian's pride) and that Dawkins had talked to him in the past about other kids. So when Dawkins asked him about Brian Bowen it wasn't a surprise. Pitino says he had no idea who Bowen was(?) so he asked an assistant, texting Padgett who responded he's the #1 uncommitted recruit in the country yes we want him if we can get him. So Pitino then told them es we want him. Spent weeks telling people I can't believe it, least effort ever to get a top prospect, we spent no money traveling to see him, he came to see us on his own dime. Said it was Gatto initially who asked him but that Dawkins had come up too.

My answer has been teh same all along, if he knew UCLA should not touch him, if he didn't know, UCLA should not touch him because it's the coaches job to know what the hell is going on. When the top uncommitted recruit in the country falls into your lap like that an experienced coach HAS to be thinking what is goign on. Pitino admits he asked Bowen and his dad that exact question and their answer was we really liked MSU and Arizona but players we though were going pro(Bridges, Trier and Alkins) stayed, so here we are. And that was enough for Pitino. He said he was surprised Adidas was talking to him about a kid who played for a Nike program but in the end he believed the story.

When you add in the hooker stuff and the dancer who blackmailed him etc I want no part of him. Remember how Larry Brown got SMU on probation, he said at my age I decided the NCAA was wrong, so I helped a few kids. That's the same concern with Pitino IMO at his age with his history, what's to stop him just deciding I want to win an NC at UCLA and I don't care what the NCAA thinks.

Non starter for me and I'd say the majority of UCLA fans I know, but there's a pretty substantial lobby for him.

Side note as mentioned here before there actually is talk about Larry Brown, the current rumor is that he's agreed to work as an assistant if UCLA were to hire Watson.
 

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the ex player lobby is clearly for Earl Watson. I just don't think he has enough experience and didn't show much of anything as an actual coach while at Phoenix.

My biggest fear from this search is they throw in the towel early and hire either Watson or Hoiberg as path of least resistance. There's this claim out there that Bennett and Beard would be bad fits because UCLA fans want up tempo. It wasn't the tempo(for me and most I know) that was the issue with Howland, it was the control freak personality that was driving away kids like Moser and Stanback so early, and pushing a kid like Malcolm Lee to turn pro knowing there was both an NBA lockout looming, and he had a knee injury. I have inside knowledge that had they not fired Ben when they did, not only was Norman Powell going to transfer, but both Wear twins were actively considering leaving as grad transfers. As bad a hire as Alford was, they had to replace Ben they just picked the wrong guy.

If Bennett or Beard were interested I'd be thrilled to see better defense. I doubt Bennett has any interest though.

Interesting looking back - with Beard and Bennett both in the final four
 

Dback Jon

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Hearing Mick Cronin and Jamie Dixon are top names.

Dixon - Ben Howland disciple, former NAU Assistant (and left Pitt for his Alma Mater)

Cronin - has Cincy really done that much, and would he leave his Alma Mater?
 
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Russ Smith

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Hearing Mick Cronin and Jamie Dixon are top names.

Dixon - Ben Howland disciple, former NAU Assistant (and left Pitt for his Alma Mater)

Cronin - has Cincy really done that much, and would he leave his Alma Mater?


LA Times story says that. We're also being told on the fallback list is Randy Bennett and Shaka Smart. Dixon already turned the job dow so apparently he's either had a change of heart or UCLA is asking again.


If I had to predict I'd take a flier and say Smart. My guess is when UCLA looked hard at Beard they figured out he's the next Texas coach and it's just a matter of time before that happens, which meant Smart might be available. He has not done anywhere near as well at Texas as expected but they may be looking at it and saying he's the same guy we looked at a few years ago, with more experience.

I just don't buy they're going to hire Bennett. I like Cronin but he's got no West Coast ties, if you hire someone with no West Coast ties he better be a really easy guy to sell and that's more Smart than Cronin.
 
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Russ Smith

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Looks like Dixon unless something changes at the last minute.
 
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Russ Smith

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One interesting point on this that the WSJ reported today. With all the griping by ex UCLA players that Earl Watson should be hired, and several have suggested if he's not it's a racial thing, Watson is apparently currently a student at UCLA trying to earn his bachelors degree, which is something MOST D1 colleges require in order to be a basketball coach. That is if the WSJ story is true, Earl can't be the next UCLA coach until he gets his bachelor degree.

I remember back in 2015 he went back to school for that exact reason, but then he got sidetracked with some NBA team in Arizona and I guess never got the degree.

That also explains why Earl hasn't been doing any coaching in college since the Suns fired him, he can't until he gets his bachelors.
 
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Russ Smith

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I actually like Cronin, his teams beat up UCLA the last 2 times. But I'm not overly thrilled with him as the coaching hire I'm not sure his lack of West Coast recruiting experience will be interesting.

As mentioned on the UA board the other day, he and Miller hate each other so that's an interesting thing
 
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Russ Smith

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Does that go back to Xavier days?


Yes. Remember when Cronin and UC had a fight with Xavier and Mack a few years back Miller spoke up saying he was proud of the Xavier kids. People tried to say Miller was advocating fighting when he really meant Xavier didn't back down. But it was reported that Cronin had some "typical Sean Miller" comments about it and it was pretty well accepted around Cincinnati they didn't like each other.

There's a video of Miller in like 2010 saying he wasn't going to make excuses for losing because ARizona was young, and then said when I was at Xavier there was another coach in town who did that, made excuses, everyone believed he meant Cronin because of the rivalry with Xavier.

I guess hate is a strong word but I think it's apparent they don't like each other.

I think he's a good coach but like Miller I think his style tends to wear on players and his teams might peak in the regular season because he's so demanding. I also think it's going to be tough to keep kids at UCLA with his style, even player friendly coaches like Alford had trouble with that. I really hope Cody Riley sticks I think Cronin has done wonders with kids like that but my guess is Riley thinks I'm very old for my class I'm not an NBA guy I should just turn pro and get paid to play overseas somewhere. Hope he sticks it out though I think he's Cronin's type of player
 
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Russ Smith

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Good point made during the Warriors game last night as rookie Cincinnati guard Jacob Evans got his most extended PT. People assuming the UCLA search committee just blindly fell into Cronin might be wrong. He clearly wasn't the first choice, but remember, Bob Myers was on the search committee, and Bob Myers picked Jacob Evans in the last draft. ANd as Jim Barnett said last night if you talk to anybody in the Warriors organization about Evans they will say 2 things, very hard worker, and very well coached in college. Barnett's an Oregon grad and he said I don't follow college much and I don't follow Cronin but my guess is Myers is much more familiar with Cronin than people think because of the scouting they did on Evans.
 

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