Seems reasonable.
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Y tho
Nick, this is spot on.
I am not saying Steele is the answer but he should have pretty good insights and contacts on the Ohio and Indiana recruiting area which have been where the bulk of Miami’s talent has come from over the years.
What is true is that Steele got a lot of talent to X. The 2022 class is 2nd ranked in the Big East. Considering the competition and who he is recruiting against that is pretty darn impressive for Xavier.
Yes, his record was not as good as Mack or Miller. However, that Big East schedule is no cake walk.
Patrick Ewing and Georgetown went 0-19 this year. We are talking basketball royalty there with what should be countless advantages compared to X.
Hiring a coach is an inexact science at our level. You either have to find the up and comer asst. coach with no track record, hire a head coach at a smaller school who has been successful or go for someone who has been a head coach at Power 5 and looking to rehabilitate.
I don’t envy Sayler.
He missed on Owens (up and comer asst). He hit gold with Megan Duffy (up and comer asst). He missed on Cleve Wright (head coach smaller school). He appears to have missed on Hendrix (head coach smaller school).
Three benefits of Steele are he is still young, been a HC in a real power conference and should know the recruiting landscape. I don’t see we have had that combination before.
Yes, I wish he had coached X to a .750 winning pct and 4 NCAA appearances. However, if he did that he would not be available.“His” team is also in the semis of the NIT.
Any Miami AD is rolling the dice. No way around it.
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Yet none of Steeles recruits are from Ohio.
HARD PASS
Idiotfan, you know more about hoops than me as I am mainly just a disgruntled fan trying to become a gruntled fan. Have you ever coached before? Given your background, I would imagine yes? Just curious.
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I’m just curious why people think Steele is a good hire for us
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To Dave Saylor:
Call Herb Sendek immediately. He has put a ton of good coaches out there who have gone on to be successful.
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Andy, did you see my video? I found something from a number of years ago where Herb was in a Burger King commercial.
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Andy, getting Herb out of Santa Clara back to the Oxford winters would be a great sales call
I am not arguing for Steele but I think he is certainly a legit candidate to consider for the reasons given above. Winning 45% of your Big East games “ain’t great” but it trumps beating 40% of the MAC. He averaged about 18 wins a season while playing in a tough conference, yet clearly didn’t win enough to stay on at XU. That is a concern obviously but if he won a couple more games a season and went to an NCAA or two we wouldn’t be having this conversation.
He does get great marks for recruiting and by all accounts is well respected by his players. I took a look at his last four years’ roster and it is true that there were only a couple Ohio kids, but he did always seem to have couple kids from Indiana (his native State and college), as well as a couple from Kentucky. Both states are obviously in the sweet spot for Miami recruiting.
I think Steele is an intriguing hire, but I am not close to Miami’s program nor profess any knowledge of the candidates (including Steele) that are available to fill the job. So, I am not advocating for him but wouldn’t mind if he got the job as I think it is a pretty decent bet.
Idiot fan: who is your preferred candidate?
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HARD PASS?
Do you know how many commits Ohio State got the last 4 years?
FOUR. 1 per year and they presumably have the pick of the litter in the state.
Have you considered that it might be better to sign a 4-star from out of state than a 3-star in state?
Steele got commits from 8 4-stars in 4 years.
The fact that he signed no one does not mean he does not have the contacts and knowledge about the Ohio basketball scene.
He lives here. He coached at X for 13 years. He was GA at Ohio State. He has never coached anywhere else than Ohio and Indiana.
I dare say he knows more about Ohio HS BB than 99.5% of other head and asst coaches in D1.
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Good post.
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Xavier Basketball Practice Facility is the Kohlhepp Family Auxiliary Gym. Here’s the link to it.
What’s Miami’s basketball practice facility?
The John D Millett Memorial Sub-Basement.
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And it does exist…I have played down there many years ago. Kinda spooky.
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We used to play tennis down there. It was actually sorta cool. Kind of looked like an atomic bomb shelter
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So if Steele is such a great recruiter, why has the program been mediocre for 4 years? Is he that bad of a game day coach?
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People are throwing out the “never made the tournament” and “never had a winning conference record” facts, but those are both misleading.
They had NIT caliber teams all four years and three of those were NCAA bubble teams. Their 2020 team was considered basically 50/50 to make the tournament when it got cancelled. If the 2020 postseason doesn’t get cancelled and he happens to pull out two or three additional close games to make the tournament 3/4 years, does he suddenly become a much better coach?
Their conference records were 9-9, 8-10, 6-7, 8-11. They were basically a consistent .500 team. It’s fair for Xavier to say that they expect better, but it’s not like he stunk up the place. He had a better record at Xavier than John Groce had at Illinois.
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RedHawk 11: we get it that you think Steele is a bad choice…not sure if he is a bad gameday Coach but that all depends who you are comparing him to. I dare say he is a better gameday Coach than Jack based on results.
He is obviously a very good recruiter and knows our market. Maybe he’s not the best choice but he sure seems like a solid option.
Who is your candidate that checks all the boxes better?
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I also prefer Tom Crean: a proven winner with statue ties!