Post
by Pyperkub » Tue Jan 08, 2019 2:36 pm
yeah, nobody talking about UCLA firing Steve Alford, and what will happen with one of the top programs historically. I have a lot of thoughts, but haven't put them down here yet.
Alford's firing was required however, he had lost the team, they weren't listening or responding and actually regressing/getting worse, rather than better or even staying the course. Murry Bartow (son of legendary UCLA assistant/head coach Gene Bartow) has taken over, and had the best schedule imaginable for a mid-season replacement - home games against 2 of the more mediocre teams in the Pac12, with Stanford also down their best player. However, the team looked like it may actually reach the potential of the talent, which it certainly wasn't under Alford this year - aggressively pressing and forcing turnovers and getting easy buckets. This team has elite 8 (or higher) talent, but was 7-6. Firing Alford was necessary, with the team still having the talent to dominate a down, but wide open Pac 12, and get to the tourney and hopefully make the kind of run that the talent on the roster would warrant.
This weekend will be interesting with one of the tougher pac-12 2 game road swings, @Oregon, @Oregon St. One of Alford's biggest shortcomings was a dire lack of focus on the road, only getting one Pac-12 road sweep that I can remember during his 5 year tenure (there may actually have been 2 during for the Lonzo ball squad, but I think it was only 1).
As to who may be the next UCLA head coach - I have to say that I absolutely loved the way Bill Walton refused to regurgitate the ESPN talking points when Dave Pasche asked him about it during the telecast last week and said, why not get Barack Obama? Walton is a national treasure IMHO. There's nothing quite like watching a game he's calling (though I definitely understand if people get put off by him).
Here's my take on the coaching search:
At this time, the UCLA job is not a good enough job to just get who they want, at least, not like the big 4 (Kansas, Kentucky, Duke, UNC). If it was, the list would probably start with Jay Wright, Mark Few and John Beilein. Here's the list of people they will want to interview but probably not get that far:
1. Jay Wright
2. Mark Few
3. John Beilein
4. Dana Altman
IMHO the realistic list of people they will interview is something like this:
1. Fred Hoiberg
2. Eric Musselman
3. Earl Watson
4. Gregg Marshall
5. Murry Bartow, if he makes a huge run.
these are the NBA Wild Card interviews:
1. Becky Hammon (would be very interesting)
2. Luke Walton
3. Billy Donovan
There are three ways to not tell the truth: lies, damned lies, and statistics.