And imagine that , he did it in year one. Go figure. At Iowa of all places
We knew that last spring.
Just got rubbed in our faces.
This time, it wasnt Buckners fault.
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Takes two to tango. I've been told he didn't have any interest in the job and was set on taking over Iowa.
I wanted him above everyone else, but we've got a coach for the next couple years at least.
Hope is not optimism, which expects things to turn out well, but something rooted in the conviction that there is good worth working for. - Seamus Heaney, Irish poet and likely Hoosier basketball fan.
POTFB
Im sure thats the story... From the Indiana side.
Dolson just didnt have the charisma to bring it home.
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Im sure thats the story... From the Indiana side.
Dolson just didnt have the charisma to bring it home.
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The story from the Indiana side is that they knew they wanted CDD from the moment they saw WVU in the Bahamas.
McCollum is from Iowa. Wife is an Iowa grad. Grew up an Iowa fan. He wasn't going to come here from the moment the McCaffrey seat got hot in Iowa City.
Hope is not optimism, which expects things to turn out well, but something rooted in the conviction that there is good worth working for. - Seamus Heaney, Irish poet and likely Hoosier basketball fan.
POTFB
Aside from Tucker DeVries, only two of CDD’s West Virginia players went on to play for high-major programs:
- Amani Hansberry — followed Chester Frazier from Illinois to West Virginia, then again to Virginia Tech.
- Jonathan Powell — transferred to North Carolina, where he averaged 16 minutes and 4 points per game.
So which other player from that West Virginia roster, with remaining eligibility, did you expect DeVries to bring with him?
@hooky I don't know how much of a factor "going home" is for most coaches/professionals. Certainly a factor for some, but I think most people are going to pick what they think is the best professional opportunity. I would guess that 1) he either thought Iowa was the better job (fewer cooks in the Kitchen, maybe), which would be disheartening and concerning, or 2) he didn't want to deal with the BS at IU, between admin, boosters, fans, etc....
It may be that he loves Iowa City, but I think in most cases, folks pick what they think is the best overall opportunity for them. Certainly didn't work in our favor with Dusty! Or Brad.
For what its worth... not much, I know... On the old site, I was championing McCollum since early on in Woodson's last season. As soon as the Louisville game happened, I floated McCollum's name, and then consistently backed the idea of doing whatever it took to get him, after that.
One of the things I mentioned, probably three quarters of the way through the season or so, was that Dolson's approach with McCollum would determine if IU had a chance to get him, or not. I watched a McCollum interview where he was asked about coaching at bigger schools, the interview process, etc... He said basically that he had been approached by bigger schools, interviewed with a handful... and basically he would never consider any situation, regardless of the school, the budget, the tradition, if they didn't trust him to bring his own coaches, bring his own ideas, and run his own program. He's a young version of Cignetti, I'm convinced of it.
Had Dolson approached McCollum's people with... "We're going to have an opening, we love what you're doing, would you have any interest in talking about the Indiana job? We'd love for Indiana to become whatever Coach McCollum can lead it to be, and he'll have all the resources and full backing of the Administration and athletic department to do it." He would have been interested, I'm sure. Also, its pretty well known Coach DeVries was their top choice, and had we not gotten on him as early as we did, he likely would have been hired at Iowa. So I have to think the combo of approaching McCollum as the THE number 1, would have led to DeVries at Iowa, and that threat eliminated. Dolson would have gotten McCollum, I'm sure.
I'm not giving up on DeVries being successful at IU, yet. I think he can be. But damn it... I posted this on the NCAA tourney thread last night... hearing McCollum basically call Todd Golden a bitch, in a live in game interview, then proceeding to beat him... with the guys and budget he has versus what Golden has... Damn it...
https://twitter.com/rygi13/status/2035894359854358786?s=61&t=1KiTJ7EYgX-uQgf4Wkb9sg
i like ryan, but this is a comical misread of the iu situation.
amani hansberry was going wherever chester frazier went...and frazier was never, ever coming to iu.
the only other player worth anything with eligibility that i'd have wanted was jonathan powell who played just 40% of minutes for a coach about to fired. also think there may have been some bad blood with powell and iu with the gabe cupps situation. they played aau together.
now, if he could have brought javon small, sure, i'd get the anger. but he couldn't.
the amazing thing about that last play by iowa was that its literally a 5th grade press break play that my rec league team used to run in chicago for 15 years and florida completely fell for it. fland, golden...all of them with brainless coverage.
@iunorth I remember that you were a big supporter of McCollum, and he was a name I'd have been excited about, certainly more than CDD. Competing for and winning championships is the most impressive thing, and predicted success for Cig, as well as McCollum. I remember there was a lot of push back against McCollum for his pace of play. Funny, I haven't heard a single Iowa fan complaining about pace of play!
@iureactionary I think a much more apt comparison would be who DeVries took with him to WVU... THAT comparison has a little bit more teeth to it. Seems like Tucker might have been the only one to go from Drake to WVU... maybe a coach or two. Certainly not the entire staff, and a bunch of players, like McCollum has done for his last 2 step up jobs.
Aside from Tucker DeVries, only two of CDD’s West Virginia players went on to play for high-major programs:
- Amani Hansberry — followed Chester Frazier from Illinois to West Virginia, then again to Virginia Tech.
- Jonathan Powell — transferred to North Carolina, where he averaged 16 minutes and 4 points per game.
So which other player from that West Virginia roster, with remaining eligibility, did you expect DeVries to bring with him?
Those two.
@kkott Pace of play was the central complaint, as well as many/most posters not believing he could replicate the success at the high major level. To be fair, I would say he didn't dominate the B10, year one. And he has played one of the slowest paces in the country. Visually, I actually don't enjoy watching Stirtz dribble around for entire possessions, probing and such. But if you look at McCollum's history, the teams he had in D2 that were dominant, were mostly high scoring teams. I very strongly suspect he alters things like pace, with the dudes he has on his roster, and he realized Stirtz was a generational type guy, and altered things to allow him to control the pace and the offense. I doubt Iowa will ever become a Miami OH chuck and run type program, under McCollum. But they'll speed up as he gets bigger, faster, and better athletes, I'm sure.
Maybe Dolson didn't want to have to manage another Cignetti personality? I haven't given up on DeVries, yet. Lets see what this portal season brings. But I do think we missed out on a 15-20 year, statue caliber coach, with McCollum.
@iunorth I remember that you were a big supporter of McCollum, and he was a name I'd have been excited about, certainly more than CDD. Competing for and winning championships is the most impressive thing, and predicted success for Cig, as well as McCollum. I remember there was a lot of push back against McCollum for his pace of play. Funny, I haven't heard a single Iowa fan complaining about pace of play!
I was really intrigued by McCollum too. I don't recall that I had a (realistic) top choice, based on what info I was privy to, which wasn't really much beyond what most of the public was able to learn. Certainly his DII record was really impressive, but after only one year at DI, I thought it was fair to question whether a jump up to Indiana might be too much, too soon. And his success at Drake and Iowa have been with players he brought from NWMSU (wow!), so now, I think the questions will be similar to what Cignetti faced after his first year here, can he reload and afford/identify talent to sustain in the B1G? So far, I would say probably, but I also recognize that this is the same team that lost to Penn State 3 weeks ago and lost even worse to Maryland a few weeks prior to that and only finished one game better than us and had some worse losses than us and a few more good wins than us.