LMU Head Coaching Candidates

[lionspride]

Just to give the board perspective on the time frame of Husak making a decision, the last time it took one month. Aggers was released on March 9, 2005 and Tention was accepted on April 5, 2005. If I recall correctly Brian Priebe was named interim head coach and Priebe was considered to be one of the candidates that Husak was considering.

[smc4]

Thank you greendoberman great insight.

[ironlions]

We should put Eric Mussleman on our list. He is a former NBA coach who has been on the prowl on the West Coast for a college job. He is wanted by the USF fans but they are dealing with the legal issues with Evans dismissal. Not to mention a fan base in a uproar about AD.

[upstonehouse]

Hey Lions fans... tough news about Tention. I can see both sides of the argument, but on the whole I think that with such a young team and with some good recruits coming in, Rodney deserved at least another year.

Anyway, in terms of a new coaching search... I would look at what other WCC schools have done as an indicator: UP took Reveno from Stanford. SCU took Keating from UCLA. San Diego took Grier from Gonzaga. And I think it's safe to say that all three of those programs appear to be headed in the right direction.

The only outlier was Pepperdine taking Walberg from a JuCo, and we all know how that turned out.

Honestly, I would not expect a big name like Musselman or Lavin or Montgomery or whoever. And I wouldn't expect someone with no D1 experience at all like Dunlap.

What I dould expect is an up-and-coming assistant coach at a major program who has ties to the area with a good solid recruiting network.

So my best guess would be to scope out the staffs at UCLA, USC, Arizona, Arizona State, Stanford, and maybe Washington State.

Donny Daniels from UCLA? He's a great recruiter and has head coaching experience.

Gib Arnold from USC maybe? Seems like someone who fits the bill.

Or Mark Phelps from ASU (could bring former asst. Dedrique Taylor with him)? He's an east coast guy, but he's was a lead recruiter in the ACC under Sendek for a while, so he's not new to the game.

Doug Oliver from Stanford? He's got head coaching experience.


I'm not saying that any of these guys would be the best candidate, but just judging by recent history in the WCC, a name from this list is probably a heck of a lot more likely than Lavin or Dunlap or Montgomery or whoever else.

Musselman is an interesting case because clearly he wants to get into college coaching, but he's also a Bay Area guy and (as far as I know) has no D1 coaching experience at all.

Anyway, good luck on the search... I hope you guys get someone good!

My dream scenerio (truly)... in two or three years, LMU and Portland shake off the dust of a decade of last place/seventh place finishes and finish one and two in the WCC, with UP as the champs, of course.

[fanblade]

upstonehouse. Looks like Donny Daniels is interested in LMU.

www.insidesocal.com/ucla/2008/03/daniels-and-lmu.html

[zagsfanforlife]

if Daniels is really actually interested in the vacancy, Husak would be an idiot to not strongly consider him. Oh wait... Husak already is an idiot.
However, Daniels is one of the best recruiters in all of college basketball. When an assisant at Utah he was able to recruit Andre Miller out of Los Angeles, and nab Keith Van Horn as well. At UCLA he continues to recruit the top tier talent. He has worked under two great coaches (Ben Howland and Rick Majerus), and has also had head coaching experience at Cal State Fullerton. Daniels I think would be a perfect fit.

[lionspride]

zagsfanforlife said:

if Daniels is really actually interested in the vacancy, Husak would be an idiot to not strongly consider him. Oh wait... Husak already is an idiot.
However, Daniels is one of the best recruiters in all of college basketball. When an assisant at Utah he was able to recruit Andre Miller out of Los Angeles, and nab Keith Van Horn as well. At UCLA he continues to recruit the top tier talent. He has worked under two great coaches (Ben Howland and Rick Majerus), and has also had head coaching experience at Cal State Fullerton. Daniels I think would be a perfect fit.

I will have to lean on saying NO to Donny Daniels. NOT PROVEN D1 head coach. His head coaching record over three years at Cal-State Fullerton is 20-64 or .238% winning percentage. I don't think his recruiting abilities at UCLA will transfer to LMU. He is selling a Rolls Royce at UCLA to prospective student athletes. At LMU, he will have to sell a Toyota Camry (like the one Husak drives) to prospective student athletes. So, bottom line if he could not recruit at Cal-State Fullerton and win, I don't think he can win at LMU.

If you have a different viewpoint, explain why he will translate in the LMU environment. I want to hear some prospectives.

I think Husak better have a "search" net that covers the entire nation, not just SoCal and the West.

[zagsfanforlife]

he doubled the amount of wins in ithink his first or second year at fullerton. Before he got over there fullerton was under NCAA sanctions. They had tons of problems. You definately can not look at this as the primary factor not to hire him. He actually did a good job at fullerton considering the circumstances before he reached there.

[upstonehouse]

Yeah, I don't know a whole heck of a lot about Daniels' time at Fullerton, but I know that they did have problems with NCAA sanctions and that by his last season they had won more Big West games than they had in like 10 years or so.

Was he actually fired from there, or Howland convince him to join his staff? I honestly don't know the history of that.

Anyway, seems to me like Daniels would be a great recruiter. Don't know anything about his X's and O's and his attention to detail.

[lionspride]

The only thing I know about daniels is he is a solid recruiter (at UCLA) and that he was head coach at Cal-State Fullerton iwth the following

Overall Record by Season

Year Wins Losses Pct
02-03 10 19 0.345
01-02 5 22 0.185
00-01 5 23 0.179

So, he showed improvement but not enough in my eyes to hand over the keys to him for our program. Rodney could have put up 10 wins next year and doubled this year's win total, but that does not cut it. We need a nation wide search. Someone proven. Some with fire in the belly to rebuild and to prove himself all over again. Someone that will put people in the stands with a unique style of the game. Someone that will make our players practice hard.

[lmu]

And you have the crystal ball? Lionspride?

Didn't you say the team will be so successful that we will "get it done" in two years? Didn't you say the administration was lacking vision for not upgrading GP because it will not cope the growth of our fan attendance....due to the "forseeable" success? Didn't you say starting Deadwiler is the most ridiculous suggestion you've ever heard? And subsquently kneed down in front of dead3man admitting you were wrong?

If I recall correctly, you were among the first to write this team off, yeah finally something went your way. Bravo!

[lionspride]

gosh, lmu....you have been following my "ridiculous" posts. Yes, I did say Deadwiler should not be a starter at the beginning of the season. Deadwiler did better than I expected and I admitted that. But look at the stats. Deadwiler logged many more minutes this year. Deadwiler e averaged 28 minutes, 9.7 points, and 2.7 rebounds a game. However, he had 2.5 assist with 2.6 turnovers a game. A 1 to 1 ration of assist to turnover is terrible. However, Deadwiler atleast showed effort.

O.J., Tim, and Deadwiler were the only players Tention allowed to grow this year. It was a rotating door with the other players. It was a travesty that Ziri did not play more minutes. Knowing what RT knows now, he would have started Ziri over Deadwiler any day of the week. Tention thought we was going to have "gift" year from the administration to develop his young talent. Tention played the young guys over allowing the more senior players more time. Ziri numbers could have put those numbers to shame.

Anytime I am wrong, I admit my mistake. I am a man that way. lmu...Don't have sour grapes because Rodney is out. Bottom line his recruiting of guard after guard after guard, and constantly having different player rotations burned him in the end. Rodney should be used to rotations....this time it was him.

[lmu]

Amazingly, you missed my point again. Twist my meanings and spin them to your own advantage.

I wouldn't expect anything less, or more, from you.

[aacoach]

lmu said:

Amazingly, you missed my point again. Twist my meanings and spin them to your own advantage.

I wouldn't expect anything less, or more, from you.

LMU of course lionspride is not going to be reasonable and he always twist someone elses comments to fit his agenda.

If your gonna compare stats lionspride why don't you compare them all. When you do you will see the stats were not overall great. I think OJ would have the led the team in minutes if he could have stayed out of foul trouble. I also beleive we have a good core of players but now the question is will they stay or go. If I take what I read in the loyolan with respect to OJ's words is he feels like he been lied to. His coach is gone that he came to play for. During this time we need to get behind our basketball players, admin so these guys can go through this transition. By the way, JZ would not have started over Deadwiler and if you knew as much as you claim you do you would also know most teams scouting report was to keep the ball out of deadwiler's hands because he could kill you from the outside, midrange jumpers and has a first step to the basket that is killer. The problem is the team was learning how to play with each other this year and they didn't learn fast enough and a good Coach bit the dust because of it (not fair). Fanblade I read your post but I have to tell you lionspride is not in my fan book. By the way lionspride have you ever met all the players, talked to them and told them what you think of there games and where they should go to school and play basketball, you seem to claim yourself the EXPERT. Shoot if I was the President of the University I would send you your donation back because I like the positive approach versus the negative.

[fanblade]

Let's keep the discussion on LMU head coaching candidates and not who should have started last season or gotchas.