When I need advice about building a successful college basketball program, I always consult Dan Dalyrmple.
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Sure, but if you’re used to $1.3 million a year and suddenly take a $900K pay cut, that can be a tough pill to swallow.
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Dan is one of the great people I’ve ever known. Full stop. Back long before there was a performance center at Yeager, he single handedly turned a neglected wing of Withrow into a varsity level weight room. This was in ‘95 or so. He always treated everyone with class and was darn good at his job. Plus he was an associate AD if I remember correctly. Imo, his opinion absolutely holds weight.
Ps, I think football and hockey players helped him move all the stuff after he built it. Heavy weights, machines and racks. I would like to think players today would chip in like that.
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I agree, but still strange days when 400k a year is considered chump change.
So why do baseball players making $10 mil a year over 3 year contract (and how can you even spend that kind of money?) hold out for $15 mil a year?) Mostly ego I would submit.
Does Steele have a big ego? I dunno but he may think if he bides his time he can nab a job with more money at a program in better shape…who knows?
He hasn’t been involved in college athletics for almost two decades. He wasn’t involved with basketball administration. It’s kind of like saying, “my doctor says I have a concussion and should sit out for a few weeks, but my friend who is a great human being and is now retired but was an athletic trainer two decades ago says I was just dazed and I’m fine. So I’m going to listen to the retired guy.”
Two decades is huge in college athletics. He was hardly involved with basketball. He’s a great person, but that doesn’t make him an expert on running a college basketball program in 2022.
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He knows Jermaine well, that is what he is basing his opinion on. Dan D is a beloved football coach for those of us who are old enough to have watched him or got to know him when he was here. We would value his opinion.
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Not suggesting he’s the end all be all. However, he knows more about how athletics run than a bum like I do. Ps, I remember him saying once that of all our programs, men’s hoops had the most potential to make money due to less program overhead than other programs. And, it was the fastest program to improve as you could do it almost overnight with a few new recruits and staff. Granted this was way before football money went crazy and hockey was was national champ runner up but it stuck with me.
The ultimate goal is to win.
If you do that the fundraising becomes a whole lot easier.
Again, everyone just keeps saying that he’s a highly regarded football coach. Great. I agree. That doesn’t mean he knows how to run a basketball program. Give me more than he’s highly regarded and I’ll concede, but his opinion on basketball means about as much as anyone’s on here. Y’all have the exact same amount of experience running a college basketball program as him.
Being a great human didn’t qualify you to a head coach or give your opinion on the topic any additional weight.
Nobody has given any reason that Henderson should be the guy beyond he’s been at Miami and is a great person.
I’d like to add, this is a statement that comes from someone who was involved in football. He’s made the assumption his sport is harder to manage than basketball. If basketball was so easy to turn around, you’d see change at the top of the MAC consistently. Yet the top teams have essentially remained the same. Compare that to football. It’s impossible to repeat in the MAC. There’s just no data to back that up.
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Experience. Passion. He wants to be here. He won’t be looking to leave after his first successful season. Those would be my ADDITIONAL reasons for hiring Jermaine.
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Not when money is no object
Jive, you may be right here. I have no horse in the race. But nice to see some passion about hoops again. Even if it ends up being short lived and we have a home and home with Earlham or that microbrewery we played earlier this year. Or dare I say, SPAULDING!!!
Experience:
- Cooper spent 3 years as a D1 head coach, including leading Tennessee State to their first winning record since 1996 and a win over a top 10 team
- Prior was at Auburn for 5 years
- 2 years at Oregon prior
- 5 seasons at USC prior
- Assistant at Fayetteville State for 2 years prior
- Played at Wichita State prior
That’s assistant experience at 3 huge programs that had success while he was there, plus head coaching experience. Henderson has been at Miami, Missouri State, Cleveland State, and Kansas State with limited success. Experience is so overvalued during searches that it’s almost a trope. It also shows a bias and ignores the trend we’re seeing in football: Fleck, Lewis, McVey, and all the other young, driven coaches who are turning things upside down.
Passion:
- You really want to tell me no coach has passion for their career? To win? They’re some of the most competitive people on the planet.
Won’t leave right away:
- So what? We’re a midmajor. It happens everywhere. Everyone is so obsessed with finding Coles 2.0 that they’ll pass over any hungry up and comer (sounds like passion to me)
Don Treadwell was experienced and passionate about Miami. He also stripped the S&C program and had the players do jumping jacks instead because he thought lifting would tire out the players. Those two qualities don’t make you a good coach.
I’m not saying Henderson can’t be successful, but the reasons listed don’t make anyone a successful head coach.
What offense will he run?
What defense will he run?
What pace of play will he want?
How will that make us competitive inside and outside of the MAC?
Who has he out-recruited?
What diamonds in the rough has he found?
Who would be on his staff?
What would his scheduling philosophy be?
How is he going to engage alum? (this is probably the easy one)
How is he going to engage students?
These are important questions for coaching success and it’s scary that the only endorsement is about how he’s a good guy that’s liked by people who know him.
I guess we are done here…been fun speculating with all you guys!
This line of reasoning is tiring. Just because you did not see or know about the great things that both Dan D and Jermaine H accomplished at Miami does not mean much to those of us who did. I believe at the time that he was here Coach D was the strength and conditioning coach for both football and basketball and thus worked closely with the basketball program. At some point we added more people in that department, I don’t remember exactly when that was. Dan D, in virtually everybody’s opinion from that era, was just as important to our basketball and football success as anybody in the athletic department. He is pretty much another Miami legend. Hall of Fame guy. Much more than just a football assistant. Your comments about him not being qualified to give an opinion about this just make you look uninformed. He was involved with the program when it was bigtime and Jermaine was a big part of it.
You have also said nobody gave good reasons why Jermaine would make a good coach for us right now. I did take some time to list reasons by addressing his coaching ability and his personal traits which made him perfect for this job.
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He worked with every team when he ran strength and conditioning. Well, I should say he had assistants who he delegated programs to, but was always around and knew every athlete by name. And he showed up at events from time to time. Funny story if you don’t know anything about him: Coach D has a heart of gold but was one of the most physically imposing people I had ever met in my life. Dude was in his 40s but still just a giant. Maybe 6’7” and 350 plus. Anyhow, he used to stand on the leg press and make a guy on my team leg press him. Which he could do! But was always funny to watch. I miss those days.
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Q, usually I think you give objective reasons for your opinions, but this was deliberately done in an unfair way. You gave Jermaine’s assistant coaching stats but left out the 9 or 10 year run when Miami was at the top of the MAC before Cole’s health started going downhill. Even in those 5 years ( which were the worst 5 years of his long stint at Miami) you will notice his Kenpom was better and his MAC record was better than Grunk’s. If you showed his actual real record as a longtime Miami assistant, it would be far, far better.
You should be and normally are much better than that. You just cherrypicked the records to make his stats look worse and I guess to win an argument.
That’s still true today.
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