Jeff Capel to AZ?

Blake Griffin is an amazing player, but looking at their roster OU very well could have been one of those 4/5 seeded, 1st/2nd round exiting teams that have one star player but can't seem to get anyone else playing well enough to win consistently.
 
Let's put it this way. Some UK fans were not inclined to like Tubby no matter what he did. Some personal characteristics can't be changed...
 
Bob, I suspected that is what you meant. Some said the same of Indiana fans and Mike Davis. It is rumored that is why Kelvin Sampson was foisted on Hoosier nation. The then university president, himself a man of color, hated blogs suggesting such thoughts, so hired Sampson as one of then few established winning minority coaches. Davis missed the tourney and even NIT two years running, and that was when IU had one of the the longest running streaks of NCAAs at 20 years or so . Davis getting run out of town had nothing to do with his skin tone, but I can't speak to Lexington. It is further south....... I'd take Capel at Texas or Indiana in a New York minute, even were he polka dotted! Of that much I'm sure. I like that dude's demeanor a lot.
 
"I thought Texas was going to be better than OU. That didn't happen. Barnes deserves some blame" ____________________________________________________________________________________________________ Blame is always easy to direct. It was apparant to all that without a PG we were going to struggle offensively all year. I suspect any expectations for the year should have been held until we saw a few games considering we lost our floor leader. With our PG problems we needed Atchley, Mason, and James to improve from last year. For half the year they seemed lost without Augustin. I'm not sure Barnes is any more at fault than us for expecting sweet 16 at least. In the end, we were a few missed FT's and a questionable call from makingthe sweet 16 anyway thru Duke in Greensboro. Not sure Barnes can be blamed there either. Also not sure Capels sooners would have faired any better vs Duke in greensboro.... For those who have seen Lucas play at Fla, how improved is our PG position for next year.
 
How does an administration allow themselves to get that far in discussions and then get turned down? The USC coach just turned down the Arizona job. That's flat out embarrassing.
 
I think Lon Krueger would be a better fit than Capel. He already recruits the West Coast, and has ties to the Midwest and the south. Plus, he's established.
 
Don't get me wrong, Bevo's Buddy. I was trying to think of a job more pressure packed than being the head coach at Kentucky, and the only thing I came up with was being manager of the New York Yankees.

In the long run, Arizona doesn't even begin to compare to Kentucky, but in that first year, it's going to be brutal. They haven't missed the NCAA tournament in like 27 years. Kentucky went to the NIT last season, and at the least are going to feel grateful the next coach isn't Gillispie --- just like Gillispie got a honeymoon period because he wasn't Tubby Smith.

Arizona is still going to be looking for the next Lute Olson. Their expectations haven't been adequately crushed, yet. And of courses this boobery of a hiring process isn't helping in terms of getting the right person. You'd think after having a year to figure this out, they'd have a better plan than the one they've seemingly implemented.
 
Arizona just got turned down by Tim Floyd. Compare Kruger's coaching record to Floyd's.

Whatever standard Arizona had when this process started, they're going to have a new standard now.

Didn't he make a Final Four with Florida, and an Elite Eight with KSU? This is off the top of my head, so I could be wrong on either account. As a side note, Kruger turned down the Texas job which eventually went to Penders. It's unbelievable to me now that things like Kruger not leaving Kansas State, and John Cooper not leaving Arizona State, for Texas, happened at one time.
 
Tim Floyd's teams averaged 20 wins/year over 8 years at his last two college stops, Iowa State and USC. Those two programs have a lot less history than Illinois and UNLV. He's made the Tournament 6 times and advanced to the Sweet Sixteen twice. But, no, his record isn't significantly different than Kruger's.

Yes, Kruger took his KSU team (with Mitch Richmond, I think) in 1988 to the Elite Eight. His '94 Florida team made it to the Final Four. To me, that's ancient history, though, and not all that relevant.

The difference (and the basis of the discussion) is that Tim Floyd can actually recruit and Lon Kruger can't. That's my assertion and the reason why Floyd is much more the type of guy I would imagine Arizona going for than Lon Kruger.
 
If Florida going to the Final Four and KSU going to the elite 8 is ancient history then shouldn't UNLV's history be ancient? Same time period.

Either way, I think he would be a good hire. JMO
 
If you can't see the difference between a Program's overall history and a coach's recent W-L record, then I don't think there's much more of a basis for us to discuss. To use UT Football as the example, enduring the Mackovic years did not take away from the fact that UT was a tradition-rich program. Going 4-7 and losing to UCLA by the score of 66-3 gets Mackovic, as the coach, canned even though he won the Conference the year before and went to the Fiesta. And nobody had a problem with him getting fired.

But, UNLV's history was never the point, anyway. I do not consider Kruger to be a particular winner based on a thoroughly average track record. 9 years and two jobs are, in my opinion, a very reasonable period of time to measure one's track record of success or lack thereof.

I'm not trying to be a jerk and picking an argument. You're free be a fan of Kruger or whomever. But these discussions are supposed to be for, well, discussion.
 
According to Dodds, Penders was the first and only coach offered the Texas job after Kaiser Bob was relieved of his command. I recall the interview process and Kruger openly lobbied for the job, but was never offered, although he interviewed before Penders. The six member search committee at Texas wanted someone with charisma and Lon "Unibrow" Kruger's plodding offensive philosophy apparently just didn't fit the bill.
 
That's fair, Third Coast. I remembered it differently, but you seem more certain than I am. It could be what I'm recalling is the typical "I'm removing myself from consideration for this job" that coaches give when they know they're not going to be the one hired, although I did think Kruger had pulled his name out before Penders was given serious consideration.

Speaking of Penders, I probably should have put this up here before, but I happened to catch an interview with him on one of the local radio stations here in Houston a few months back. I think he had passed some kind of milestone in wins or something, and the interviewer was asking him who or what he credited for the success of his career.

To my surprise, he responded by thanking Deloss Dodds and the University of Texas. He said that without Dodds, there's no assurances he would have had an opportunity to coach at a big time school. Without that chance, he couldn't have had the success he'd had in coaching.

Whatever my opinion of Penders --- and it's decidedly a very mixed bag --- I thought that was pretty cool. It came across as a very genuine, off the cuff comment.
 
I don't think you're trying to be a jerk. And, I'm actually not a fan of Krueger. I just think he would be a good fit.

As for your debate, if you can't see that argueing for a programs entire history, but only taking a brief part of a coaches history is ridiculous, than there is nothing to debate.

If we get to pick and choose then I'll ignore the Tarkanian era at UNLV and take Krueger's entire coaching history.

UNLV (w/o Tark): 8 NCAA tournament appearances, 1 sweat 16 (that Krueger took them to)

Krueger: 11 NCAA appearances, 3 sweat 16, 1 elite 8, and 1 Final 4
 
What Kruger doesn't have is a series of good seasons. When his teams peaked, they immediately dropped back. IIRC, it's only been in the last three years that he has strung three 20-win seasons at one school.
 
Wow, now you're just being intentionally obtuse. The line that you quoted, if you bother to gather context, was in reference to Tim Floyd and why Arizona would go after a guy with his record. If you want to argue that line, then argue that line in its proper context. Argue, for example, that Iowa State and USC were, in fact, better jobs than Illinois and UNLV.


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