This Willard talk is ABSURD. Iona has always been an easy place to recruit to and win relative to the other MAAC schools. Ruland was morbidly obese and disgusting to even look at yet he seemed to be in the MAAC championship game every few years and almost always had a decent team. Jimmy V did well there before him.
Willard might be the guy down the road, but get real. We are in a tougher spot right now than when we hired Norm six year ago IMO. We are not a year removed from the NCAA's and a few years removed from an Elite 8. We are on the cusp of becoming FOREVER irrelevant!
I see it in two tiers. Either Repole and the big spenders attaching their names to this process won't settle for a second rate product and get a Billy Donovan or a Rick Pitino....or we grab Fran McAffrey on the "second tier." That is it. If we don't have the $ to pay Billy or Rick and we do not make Fran McAffrey our #1 priority, we are just foolish.
The guy has coached three f'ing teams to the NCAA's within two years of being hired there with less wins than STJ has had this year or last. THREE!
He coached ten years in the Big East to boot.
He has recruited well in NY and is a NE/Philly guy--so we could be competitive there as well--he employs a system that top NYC kids would absolutely love to play in, he has developed NBA talent from kids that weren't even in the top 200 (Hasbrouck and the SF this year), he has WON in the NCAA tournament twice, and he has dominated his conference play against like opponents.
If no Billy Donovan or Rick Pitino, this HAS to be our man. Look no further. We screw this up and we are A-10--and honestly I don't even think we'd be a great A-10 team.