Assistant Coaches

It’s a quiet snowy day so I thought I would toss this one out there:
What are your feelings on the assistant coaches we have?

Like Coach Q (despite lack of recruiting success thus far), not at all impressed with Braica and Casey.

Would love to see a Danny Hurley on the staff.

Braica was awful at St.Francis and he didnt get any better with time.Danny Hurley should be considered for head coach

We could do better, we we could be doing worse

It's so hard to critique the assistant coaches because on an outside perspective how do you really know what they do. If you want to judge them based upon their resumes I guess you can but what do we know what they do in game, on the recruiting trail, and so forth.

I know my high school basketball coach, Coach Wiz, who is retired now but he is one of the all time winningest coaches in the state of NJ. He has known Coach Braica for a long time and had some very nice things to say about him. I wish that would have played a larger role in the recruitment of Dan Werner(Florida) but he had absolutely no interest in us.

perhaps someone would like to take the liberty of posting each assistant coach's resume and past experience and we can compare them to other assistants around the big east?

braica is a professional boyfriend.  q came with great clippings...but i don't see much.  the two aau guys are apparently earning their keep.

What we need is an older  assistant who was once a head coach, such as the assistants who sit next to Calhoun and others. Someone who knows his x's and o's, and who can offer in game advice and adjustments as the game flows. Someone who has seen it all, and can help shore up Norm's shortcomings in that area. It takes courage to do that because a lesser man might worry about being overshadowed, but it makes such good sense I am surprised the administration has not insisted upon it.                                                                   

What we need is an older  assistant who was once a head coach, such as the assistants who sit next to Calhoun and others. Someone who knows his x's and o's, and who can offer in game advice and adjustments as the game flows. Someone who has seen it all, and can help shore up Norm's shortcomings in that area. It takes courage to do that because a lesser man might worry about being overshadowed, but it makes such good sense I am surprised the administration has not insisted upon it.                                                                   

what type of background does UConn's assistant coaches have?

I believe he is former head coach at Holy Cross.

I believe he is former head coach at Holy Cross.

Associate Head Coach George Blaney

George Blaney is in his eighth season as a member of the Connecticut basketball staff in the 2008-09 season. He was named the Associate Head Coach in July of 2007.

Blaney brings to the Connecticut staff more than 30 years of coaching experience. He was an All-New England college basketball standout at Holy Cross, scoring 1,012 points in his college career and leading the Crusaders to back-to-back 20-win seasons before graduating in 1961. Blaney was a fourth round selection of the New York Knicks in the 1961 NBA Draft and played during the 1961-62 season with the Knicks.

In the summer of 2003, Blaney was inducted as a member of the New England Basketball Hall of Fame.

Blaney began his coaching career as head coach at Hudson Catholic High School in Jersey City, NJ in 1965. He moved into the college coaching ranks two years later when he was named head coach at Stonehill (MA) College. After two seasons at Stonehill, Blaney spent three years as head coach at Dartmouth College before returning to his alma mater and coaching the Holy Cross program for the next 22 years.

While directing the Holy Cross program, Blaney led the Crusaders to three NCAA tournament berths, five invitations to the NIT, and a 357-276 overall record. Holy Cross posted seven 20-win seasons during Blaney’s tenure as head coach.

In 1994, George Blaney joined the BIG EAST Conference and spent three seasons as head coach at Seton Hall. He departed the college coaching ranks to become Vice President of Basketball Operations for the International Basketball League in 1998. He remained in that post for two years before joining the University of Rhode Island as an assistant coach during the 2000-2001 season.

In 30 seasons as a collegiate head coach, Blaney posted an impressive overall record of 459-382.

During his coaching career, Blaney spent 12 years on the Board of Directors of the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) and served as the organization’s president in 1993-94. He has earned numerous honors including the 1996 Bob Cousy Humanitarian Award; 1994 Eastern Basketball Magazine’s Man of the Year; 1990 Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Coach of the Year; 1982 inductee into the Holy Cross Hall of Fame; 1981 inductee into the Hudson County Hall of Fame; 1980 U.S. Olympic Festival coach; 1977 Eastern Coach of the Year; and 1976 Hugh Greer Memorial New England Coach of the Year.

Born November 12, 1939, Blaney and his wife, Maryellen, have two daughters and three sons, along with five grandchildren.

What we need is an older  assistant who was once a head coach, such as the assistants who sit next to Calhoun and others. Someone who knows his x's and o's, and who can offer in game advice and adjustments as the game flows. Someone who has seen it all, and can help shore up Norm's shortcomings in that area. It takes courage to do that because a lesser man might worry about being overshadowed, but it makes such good sense I am surprised the administration has not insisted upon it.                                                                   

That surprises me as well; if there is a coaching change, and the new coach is a younger guy, I hope that mistake isn't made again.  Of course, you have to think about the dynamic between an older coach as an assistant and a younger coach as a head guy - that can be a friction-filled relationship.  Who are the assistants for the less established teams/ coaches - Cincy, DePaul, Rutgers, Seton Hall, So. Fla, Providence?

Then again - take out South Florida and DePaul - Stan Heath has been around a bit, and DePaul has like 7 fellas on the bench, including a former DePaul great who was added late (to groom him to coach used to be the rumor), and the coach's son- and add Marquette, for Buzz Williams has not.

totally agree with joed...I thought Norm should have had an older x's and o's guy, like Tex Winters is to Phil Jackson. Even Louie had Al Loboa[sp], the defensive guru guy who drove in from jersey everyday.

It’s a quiet snowy day so I thought I would toss this one out there:
What are your feelings on the assistant coaches we have?

Q is a good recruiter and the only member of this staff that could succeed somewhere. 

Braica is dumb as sh*t and nobody on this team knows anything about coaching at this level. 

Quote from: redstormhoopsfan on February 03, 2009, 11:39:30 AM

It’s a quiet snowy day so I thought I would toss this one out there:
What are your feelings on the assistant coaches we have?

Q is a good recruiter and the only member of this staff that could succeed somewhere. 

Braica is dumb as sh*t and nobody on this team knows anything about coaching at this level.

Marillac, can you tell me why you think Q is a good recruiter?

Quote from: Marillac on February 03, 2009, 05:56:39 PM

Quote from: redstormhoopsfan on February 03, 2009, 11:39:30 AM

It’s a quiet snowy day so I thought I would toss this one out there:
What are your feelings on the assistant coaches we have?

Q is a good recruiter and the only member of this staff that could succeed somewhere. 

Braica is dumb as sh*t and nobody on this team knows anything about coaching at this level.

Marillac, can you tell me why you think Q is a good recruiter?

He certainly came in with that reputation and was able to get Stinson to come to Ames for basketball or college. Although it's probably, along with UCLA, the easiest place in the country to recruit to, he was able to convince Sean May, Rashad McCants, and Ray Felton, to choose North Carolina.



http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/high_school/2009/01/31/2009-01-31_st_benedicts_dan_hurley_no_longer_eclips.html?page=0
Wayne Coffey did a tremendous job on Dan Hurley.

"He's in nobody's shadow. His footprints are his own footprints," Bob Sr. says. "There are 20,000 high schools in the country that play basketball, and over the last three or four years, his record matches any team in the country."

OK, how about those posters who know about AAU ball...

What about Young and Cross?
Besides their personal relationships hopefully helping to sign certain NYC kids, do they bring anything to the team as far as player development and teaching?

KOB and Choz, want to weigh in on this?

Coach briaca recruited paris, Calhoun,justin,Omari,dwight, and one more person I forget. His recruits can all play as y'all can see. 

Phil Wait - when he was on his honeymoon in the Canary Islands.  Braica is involved in all recruiting  - so he deserves credit for all the less than spectacular ones too.  Not that the initial list is anything to add to his reume for his next job unless he has plans to head to NJIT

Quote from: redstormhoopsfan on February 03, 2009, 11:39:30 AM

It’s a quiet snowy day so I thought I would toss this one out there:
What are your feelings on the assistant coaches we have?

Q is a good recruiter and the only member of this staff that could succeed somewhere. 

Braica is dumb as sh*t and nobody on this team knows anything about coaching at this level.

Can you tell me how you came to know this information(or what I'm really asking how you came to formulate this opinion)?

How many times have you talked to each coach?

In what capacity was your conversation?

Have you been to practices?

How many huddles have you been in?

How great is your hearing or lip reading to know what they tell players or Norm during the game?

I'm sure you have all relatively great answers to these questions. I on the other hand don't have much to prove or disprove what you said. I on the other hand have talked to both coaches on several occasions but I've never really dipped into x's and o's with either coach.

Quote from: Marco Baldi on February 03, 2009, 07:59:49 PM

Quote from: Marillac on February 03, 2009, 05:56:39 PM

Quote from: redstormhoopsfan on February 03, 2009, 11:39:30 AM

It’s a quiet snowy day so I thought I would toss this one out there:
What are your feelings on the assistant coaches we have?

Q is a good recruiter and the only member of this staff that could succeed somewhere. 

Braica is dumb as sh*t and nobody on this team knows anything about coaching at this level.

Marillac, can you tell me why you think Q is a good recruiter?

He certainly came in with that reputation and was able to get Stinson to come to Ames for basketball or college. Although it's probably, along with UCLA, the easiest place in the country to recruit to, he was able to convince Sean May, Rashad McCants, and Ray Felton, to choose North Carolina.



http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/high_school/2009/01/31/2009-01-31_st_benedicts_dan_hurley_no_longer_eclips.html?page=0
Wayne Coffey did a tremendous job on Dan Hurley.

"He's in nobody's shadow. His footprints are his own footprints," Bob Sr. says. "There are 20,000 high schools in the country that play basketball, and over the last three or four years, his record matches any team in the country."

No doubt Danny has done a good job with the wealth of talent he receives year in and year out. He comes from great pedigree and he has a great reputation of developing players.

In my high school years, my mother worked at a catholic school in Lakewood, NJ so I played a lot of playground ball and some organized ball there. I played with JR Smith a lot and the kid was freak athletically. I'm not sure I've met a person with a sicker vertical than him. Kid couldn't shoot a lick while he was at Lakewood HS(honestly he made Ced Jackson look like a great shooter). Any and every time he scored it was a drive and dunk but he went off to St. Benedicts and came back with some range and he definitely showed it off in the Mcdonalds All-American game. Kids around the block were in shock and how good he got after he went off to St. Benedicts.