College basketball coaching carousel

OK, Penn State is the exception but as a rule hoops is more important inthe Big Ten than in the Pac-12 (and for all of UCLA's history, there have been tons of empty seats at Pauley for more than a decade, and its transplanted games this year didn't draw very well at all).

The Pac-12 has USC, ASU, WSU and Colorado, and hoops are not especially important at either of those schools. And yes, I'm aware that Altman makes more money at Oregon than Nebraska paid its former coach. The guess here is Nebraska's new coach, of it's serious about winning, will get Altman money, or close to it.

 

Do you have reason to believe Nebraska is now serious about winning in basketball? The money's been there for years. The administrators, starting with Tom Osborne, haven't done anything to move past Nebraska's reputation as a football school.

Arizona State is investing more in basketball than Northwestern. Southern Cal has invested a lot of money for years, paying out salaries and building amenities that are above what Wisconsin's put up, albeit without the success. The Big Ten is a better basketball conference overall, but it's not a rout. As recently as 2008, the Pac-10 was far better.

 

Isn't Nebraska finally building a new basketball arena?

I was there a couple of years ago and was stunned at how shitty their current place is. I'd characterize the architectural style as "70s Warsaw Pact".

 

At a mid-major and when a big school starts calling, you HAVE to go. HAVE TO. Even for Todd Lickliter, who was probably at 50/50 fault for his awful three years at Iowa. Some was infrastructure, half was his insistence on playing "12-seed basketball" in the Big Ten.

Yet, don't feel too bad for him. I believe he is getting 800k a year from Iowa for one more season.

Lickliter had two Sweet Sixteens at Butler. Still, do we think he could have recruited and coached to move deeper into the tournament? That's still a major leap.

 

I was at Lincoln a couple years ago at their football facility, and I could only describe it as HOLY FUCK.

Absolutely incredible.

 

The new arena in Lincoln is going to be off campus, right?

Nebraska's been playing hoops in a building named after a football coach since the mid-70s. That should tell you where basketball ranks on the priority list there.

But if they are going to have a new arena maybe Altman would go there. He's gotten to coach in a new building at K-State, Creighton and now Oregon. ;D

 

Maybe Altman just wants to look at his home floor and not have a seizure.

 

Altman was recruiting a juco kid from out here this year. Spent about 45 minutes sitting and talking with the school president during the game, gladhanding donors, etc....very personable.

 

The Vikings should have hired him six years ago. They'd be playing in some new dome in Wayzata by now.

 

Here's the question: Where does Illinois fall in the pecking order?

Obviously not Kentucky/Duke/UNC/Kansas/Indiana. Behind that, it's a fairly open discussion.

I'll say this: I like the recruiting base relative to its Big 10 rivals and in general.

 

All factors included, OSU probably has to be the Big Ten's top hoops job. At least theoretically they have the Ohio talent base to themselves, although they have to fight off Cincy, UK, and the Indiana schools (including ND).

But Ohio is a pretty talent-rich state and OSU is at least on the radar screen for pretty much anybody in-state.

IU of course has the great tradition but it's taken a beating the last decade since Bobby left.

Purdue could be a consistent power but they continually have to battle IU for the in-state kids as well as ND, plus Illinois for the Chicago-area kids.

Michigan and Michigan State tend to cancel each other out. If one is up, the other is usually down. The state's prep talent base has taken a huge dive in recent years so there really isn't enough local talent to keep two teams in national contention. I would guess over the next several years the up-down trend will continue. The interesting time will come because Izzo and Beilein are pretty likely to retire within a few years of each other.

Illinois probably ranks pretty equal to both Michigan teams as far as job-level right now. If somebody came in there and really laid claim to Chicago they could build a juggernaut.

Wisconsin stays good because Ryan keeps getting guys for his system and they run it to perfection. Plus he snaps a fast guard out of Chicago once in a while.

Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, Penn State, Northwestern -- ehhhhh. Iowa tends to get good when they get a coach who can start bringing guys out of Chicago.

 

You just named a lot of Big 10 schools that are good as long as they land kids from Chicago. It's nice to be the state school from the state that include Chicago...

That's my point about Illinois. Wisconsin's been better, but I'd rather have the Illinois job.