Nova, Nova, Nova!
LivingLarge said:
I am thinking that Jenkns, Booth, and Ochefu have never set foot in a country club. Brunson may have been in a few.
Brunson's a good young man by all accounts, but if not for a strange sequence of events involving his former NBA player father, he would have been in the non-country club part of Philly. I'm glad that it worked out for him.
LivingLarge said:
I am thinking that Jenkns, Booth, and Ochefu have never set foot in a country club. Brunson may have been in a few.
Fair enough. I just meant the campus in general, in the very nice 'burbs and all.
Not to get too parochial, but it's an interesting dynamic, this love-hate relationship between Villanova basketball and Philadelphia. For decades, particularly under Rollie Massimino, there was resentment that 'Nova never recruited in the city and was seen as undermining the Big Five. Wright has worked hard to address those ill feelings; even so, you're probably still more likely to find players with Philly rec centers on their resume at Temple, St. Joe's or La Salle.
Nova has owned the entire Baltimore/DC recruiting region last several years. Nearly the entire team has roots in the northeast... DC/PA/NJ/NY. Cool that it's such a talent rich area and Jay has his picks. He's made a lot of in roads with HS and AAU coaches. Plus it's now a program that anchors itself on 3-4 year players. Kids who aren't projected to be NBA players but who give themselves a shot at the NBA if they develop at Nova.
Jay has apparently turned down overtures to other schools and maybe pro teams will make a run at him. But he and his family are Nova folks and he's said many times he won't mess with a good thing.
Big East and Bizarro Big East have won 4 of last 6. not too shabby.
Wright would not leave Villanova to go to a dysfunctional mess like the Knicks. Plus, he's not in Jackson's equally dysfunctional coaching tree.
He's got a great gig. I can't seeing him go to a team, NBA or NCAA, that needs to be rescued.
Robert_Casotto said:
Big East and Bizarro Big East have won 4 of last 6. not too shabby.
But football money! I mean, football money! Can't win in basketball without football money!
LivingLarge said:
Wright would not leave Villanova to go to a dysfunctional mess like the Knicks. Plus, he's not in Jackson's equally dysfunctional coaching tree.
He's got a great gig. I can't seeing him go to a team, NBA or NCAA, that needs to be rescued.
Brad Stevens had a pretty good gig, too, before leaving to try to help revive a storied NBA franchise. Every situation is different, though; either way, I wouldn't bet the house on anything that any coach might decide to do.
Never know what goes on in people's minds. But Jay has seen decisions made by his mentor, Rollie Massimino, toying with better gigs, and the litany of successful college coaches moving to the next level and failed - Calipari, Pitino, Carlessimo, etc. that it feels like the odds of him leaving Nova is not great.
Agree that football money drives college sports and most schools' basketball programs... and that has an impact on on-court success. But Nova just completely disproved on Monday night. Perhaps schools within the Big East are uniquely positioned than other non-football schools because their deal with Fox puts members on a much better basketball budget (even basketball programs those in power conferences).
yellowgato said:
Never know what goes on in people's minds. But Jay has seen decisions made by his mentor, Rollie Massimino, toying with better gigs, and the litany of successful college coaches moving to the next level and failed - Calipari, Pitino, Carlessimo, etc. that it feels like the odds of him leaving Nova is not great.
Agree that football money drives college sports and most schools' basketball programs... and that has an impact on on-court success. But Nova just completely disproved on Monday night. Perhaps schools within the Big East are uniquely positioned than other non-football schools because their deal with Fox puts members on a much better basketball budget (even basketball programs those in power conferences).
Football money is plentiful and important, but so much of it goes back into building a cooler weight room/recruiting facility/study building for...the football team. As you said, Big East schools get significant revenue and they, along with schools like Gonzaga, Wichita State and VCU, have shown that there is another way.
There's a real danger for schools chasing the allure of football money grab in the whole power conference (re)alignment. As these conferences get bigger there's still the split between the have's and have-not's. The experience of Boston College which once had a thriving sports program lingering in the bottom of the ACC for years (they hit rock bottom this year going winless in conference in both basketball and football). Rutgers in the Big Ten this year was just as dismal (at least they won one game each in bball and football in their conference).
Often it takes years to climb out from that bottom rung and requires huge investments to be competitive in recruiting. And where there's protracted misery in results, the whole dynamic of generating revenue inverts as games are played to lightly filled stadiums/arenas and alumni feel less incentivised to donate. UConn is another example.
yellowgato said:
There's a real danger for schools chasing the allure of football money grab in the whole power conference (re)alignment. As these conferences get bigger there's still the split between the have's and have-not's. The experience of Boston College which once had a thriving sports program lingering in the bottom of the ACC for years (they hit rock bottom this year going winless in conference in both basketball and football). Rutgers in the Big Ten this year was just as dismal (at least they won one game each in bball and football in their conference).
Often it takes years to climb out from that bottom rung and requires huge investments to be competitive in recruiting. And where there's protracted misery in results, the whole dynamic of generating revenue inverts as games are played to lightly filled stadiums/arenas and alumni feel less incentivised to donate. UConn is another example.
I agree. Say Rutgers and BC doubled their football money going to the Big Ten and ACC, respectively. It's hard for any AD or school to turn that down, but now you're competing at a higher level, so you need to use all of that extra money just to tread water in the new conference. And where they generated excitement by competing with similar schools like Louisville and Pitt at the top of the Big East, now they've all moved "up" into leagues led by programs who are on a different revenue planet like Michigan, Ohio State and Florida State.
Jay has a good gig at 'Nova. He makes a lot of money, he has ties to the school (his wife was a cheerleader there) and he has free reign over the program. Other schools have tried to lure him away in the past - Kentucky made a run at him and so have the Sixers, but he genuinely seems to like being a college coach. When he made his run in 2009 there was a lot of speculation that he would leave on a high note but he chose to stay.
While there are no guarantees in life, I'd be a hefty amount that he'll stay at Nova for a while. He's got a good core of kids coming back and a pretty solid class coming in next year. If you've ever been to their campus it is very nice, he lives in a beautiful house and he's on top of 'Nova's" world right now. The Davis was built on campus primarily for use by the men's and women's basketball teams and is a first class facility. Heck he's even gotten some Philly residents to like the program again.
Throw in the fact that all this national exposure gives them, a great academic reputation in the northeast (which is finally growing nationally) and I'm sure the school would do anything they can to keep him.
Please avoid thread drift. People here are speculating about Jay Wright's possible future coaching a professional basketball team. References to the Knicks and Sixers have no place here.
That's such a great way to put it. Thanks.