Heard it's looking like Pecora/Grasso/Matt A/ Mitch Richmond. Lip not letting Slice go without a fight.
Yikes!! I know this isn't the popular opinion around here but I haven't taken the leap of mullin faith yet. Being that he has never coached a game in his life I, like a lot of national college basketball pundits, told myself that his staff hires would be the ultimate deciding factor in grading this hire. Mullin needs to surround himself with proven recruiters and guys with good head coaching experience. Mitch Richmond is a hall of famer, great, but still never coached and is a question mark. Pecora is an under 500 career guy and I'm sure I need not explain why this isn't the "good head coaching experience" I feel we need. Grasso and matt a are good hires. A lot of potential but let's not kid ourselves they aren't proven at the level slice is. Slice is good friends with mullin, people have said he wants to come home, with the stars aligned like this if we would strike out I'd be very disappointed and in my mind it would set up the new regime with a lot more questions than answers. Slice is a top recruiter in the country! He's the guy that changes this staff from "well, there's potential, they could be good" to excellent right out of the gate. With this recruiting class being of the utmost importance for the future of this program, and the new hc, his absence would be troubling to me.
Yeah, you make some interesting points, and some that are maybe a bit misplaced. Sure, Slice is the man, we want Slice, et c. Mullin not having HC experience & waiting to see the staff before assessing with some sort of finality the Mullin hire before any games are played? That's unwise.
Lavin was a long time veteran coach. Mullin has already gone out & offered tons of local kids, & he'll get some of them. He just started recruiting, inexperienced, all that. He has done more recruiting than Lavin in the last 2-3 years. I mean, how many offers did Lavin even extend to kids outside of the 2015 class? This is an example of Mullin knowing a lot more about basketball than Lavin, and applying it, w/o head coaching exp.
Questioning Mitch Rich, absolute basketball god, is also kinda shaky. Every coach got his start somewhere. When you are Chris Mullin or Larry Bird or Wayne Gretzky the rules are different for you. Jason Kidd. Steve Kerr. Kerr was not even in the same sentence as MUllin as a pro and he had pro teams lining up to offer him jobs. If Mitch Rich wants his start here, & Mullin likes it, then that's that. We're lucky to get him. What kid or dad would not be absolutely floored that Mitch Rich of Run TMC is coming to watch their kid, mentor their kid, and such?
Mitch Rich is a great get if we get him. Pecora is garbage & that's that. Worrying about him being here is very premature. Suggesting that Mullin needs a Tom Pecora to manage a game? Come on, man. FN Lavin would be a better bench coach than Pecora. I am sure that if we don't get Slice, we will get the very best people available. The staff is huge, huge hires, but to sit here a week after the Mullin hire and be like, 'Mullin's staff won't be good enough....
Probably Matt & Mullin have a very good idea of what to do if no Slice, & probably we are counting Slice out prematurely too. Let's see how it plays out. But yo, if Matt rolls up on a HS gym to see a kid, or to his home, with Mullin & Mitch Rich, you think ppl are gonna say 'wait! No Rohrrsen? WTF?'