1. Lavin - he has endeared himself to administration - not going to be him.
2. Players - there may have been a lack of effort at year's end, but no major problems, and our best bet is still everyone returning - not going to be them.
3. Assistant coach(es) - DING DING DING
Well, I don't know if there WILL be a fall guy or guys, but there should be. I assume Whitesell handles xs and os for us, and I did see improvement over course of the season? Which assistant is our disciplinarian?
Lavin did not pull the wool over the admin's and the fans eyes when he was hired and we were excited - none of us reasonably assumed he'd be great at xs and os or discipline, but we did expect he'd be great at recruiting and motivation. Arguably, he failed on both counts this season (though recruiting season is not over). However, based on comments from the players throughout the season and last night, it seems that there was a little too much individual play with guys trying to show off for NBA scouts and "get theirs" rather than the team bonding as brothers and working their butts off towards a common goal. The Europe experience was supposed to be that bonding experience, but since it failed, and based on what 2011's successful bonding experience was, I'm thinking that discipline is the key towards building team unity here. In 2011, Dunlap came in and shocked those guys like they've never been shcoked before with extremely difficult practices, no nonsense attitude, and the whole bat thing. He was the yang to Lavin's ying. I assume Lavin is the kind of coach who comes into a teenager's room and makes him feel special - that is how Lavin is good at recruiting, breaking a guy down and building him up does not seem to be Lavin's thing, so we need someone like that here. If Keady was an official assistant, I am sure he could do that VERY easily, but that's not what he seems to want or what we want.
Thus, we need a disciplinarian here. We need practices to be ridiculously hard. It's through that difficult experience that guys will bond and realize they are working towards something bigger than their individual goals. Who is supposed to be the team disciplinarian here?
Assuming Dunlap returning is not possible, I am not content with the assistant coach situation here. We need a different make up due to Lavin's strengths and weaknesses than we have had over the last 2 years. I don't really know enough about the assistants to argue who or how many should go, but I think this is the only place we can shake things up a bit. It could go a long way if the right assistant is brought on, IMO.