Revisiting what was written 4 years ago, it still applies today (mostly).
Four years ago, Richard Pitino’s departure was negotiated, and Mark Coyle needed to hire a new coach to lead his men’s basketball program. He hired Ben Johnson and after just four seasons, Coyle is faced with making that same hiring decision again.
We wrote here about what are the key things we should be looking for when hiring a new coach. This friendly advice was ignored and here we are again, needing to find someone to revitalize Gopher basketball and ignite The Barn.
To be frank, these keys were not remotely followed. Presumably, Coyle was laser focused on attracting someone with local ties to the program, both an emotional tie and having actually been a part of the program as a player/coach. That trumped finding the “right” person for the job. He did this with the women’s program as well and it achieved similar results.
It might be time to revisit what really matters (and what doesn’t) if you want to hire a successful basketball coach in the Big Ten.
Some of this is going to be a straight copy/paste from the 2021 article but that is also the timeframe when the landscape of college athletics changed dramatically, so there are other things to consider.
1 – Find a coach who has a system.
To be more specific, find a coach who has an understanding of and a plan for possessions. How do they value their offensive possessions and how do they limit their opponents possessions.
Having talented kids matters at this level, but teams that have a specific system are often able to play above their collective talent level. Minnesota has not been able to compete in the game of acquiring the most talented roster, and that is not likely to change. You HAVE to do more with less, at least initially. That starts with having a system.
I assure you, this does NOT have to be a slow-paced system that takes basketball back 30 years (think Wisconsin under Bo Ryan..but that worked). Roy Williams had a system that was very much up-tempo. But he absolutely had a plan, had rules incorporated into this offense and they were executing a system, not just running and gunning.
Josh Schertz has had a very specific offensive system for years at the D2 level before taking it to Indiana State and now St. Louis. His offense takes easy twos and a lot of good looks from three. His overall tempo is good, his team’s efficiency is incredible and he has been wildly successful. Find a guy like this.
This also applies to the defensive end. Some coaches prioritize a pressure defense that generates turnovers (reducing the number of possessions your opponent has and often turning into efficient points for your offense). Some coaches, think Tom Izzo, place tremendous emphasis on defensive rebounding to limit opponent possessions to just one shot. And over time you see that Michigan State is consistently one of the best defensive rebounding teams in the country. Because it is a part of their defensive identity, it is taught and executed (more on this later).
At the collegiate level, this matters! Have a system that has been consistently executives over the course of this coach’s career.
(I expand on this more in the 2021 article and I highly encourage you to read it)
2 – Recruit to that system.
Talent does matter, but once you have a coach who knows what he is running, he needs to be able to recruit to that.
If your system demands making a lot of threes (see Coach Schertz above) then you better recruit kids who can make threes. If your system demands players who take high-percentage shots, then you better recruit kids who take good shots and have a high basketball IQ.
There are two dangers here. The first is that there are some things you can teach and somethings you cannot. Identify what you are able to teach and what attributes have to be innate to the player.
Secondly, don’t try to fit a square peg into a round hole. Back to the Coach Schertz shooting example. If you can get a 5-star player who is an athletic wing who can slash to the basket, while shooting 22% from three…you might want to think about this. Obviously you take a 5-star player, this was an extreme example. But don’t try to make the wrong guy fit, or be flexible with your system to some degree.
Recruiting always matters. It works best when you bring in the “right” kind of player to fit what you are running.
3 – Teach and execute the system.
You need a coach who can teach their system. This is often demonstrated by seeing consistency over time.
Back to my Izzo and Michigan State example, you can look and see over time that his teams routinely excel at defensive rebounding. He doesn’t just have a rebounding philosophy and hope he can recruit guys like Draymond Green every year. No, this is ingrained in their program. Izzo preaches it, he emphasizes it, he teaches it, and if you don’t execute it, you won’t be playing much. The Spartans have been in the top 50 in defensive rebounding percentage 19 times since 1997. That isn’t just hoping, that is teaching.
The same can be said of Roy Williams and his offensive philosophy. I was at a coaching clinic when he was teaching us a bit about what they do on offense. They don’t call set plays, but they have a number of specific rules. If the ball gets passed up the right wing, the other four players know where to go. Maybe that wing can wait for a ball screen to go back to the middle, again, everybody knows how to read and react to that. All told, they had something like 15 different actions that could be run from when they gained possession and it was taught to his guys well enough that they knew what to do based on the prior action.
Have a specific system, recruit to it and be able to teach it. In 2021, this is where I stopped. But with the prevalence of the portal and NIL, I’m adding a 4th key.
4 – Demonstrated ability to navigate NIL and the transfer portal.
This “key” is new. Navigating the portal and building up NIL collectives has become vitabl over the last four seasons. Once again, Minnesota does not have the same resources as the rest of the Big Ten. But money is not always the only thing that matters.
This may be harder to define than the first three things, but it is vital. After year one, I would have given Ben Johnson a lot of credit for navigating the transfer portal and bringing in a collection of talent that played well together and achieved more than any of us would have anticipated. But since the first year, it was a disaster.
If it comes down to just money, we will lose this arms race. But finding kids who focus on other factors, building great relationships, creating a culture that kids want to remain a part of, all matter. I would argue that in the world of football, PJ Fleck is doing more with less than anybody else in the country, largely because of culture and relationships.
Secondary things that matter.
Has the coach been a proven winner?
Does he have experience as a head coach?
Has he demonstrated the ability to recruit?
These things are also important. I have a system for my 5th/6th grade girls team and it is successful. This does not make me qualified for the Gopher job (but I’m open to hearing what the offer would be, we are 6-1).
LASTLY – It doesn’t matter where they are from.
Find the best candidate you believe will start winning basketball games.
You may have already seen local media posting lists of who they think are on the list (maybe even the short list) of candidates and it will be filled with names of people who are somehow tied to the state of Minnesota or the university.
THIS DOES NOT MATTER.
Those lists are lazy. If the best candidate is also from Minnesota, AWESOME. That’s a win-win. But if Coyle is interviewing a candidate who he wouldn’t be considering if they had grown up in Idaho, then don’t interview him because he grew up in Minnesota.
I have nothing against Niko Medved, Brian Dutcher, Tim Miles or any other name that you will hear because they are one of us. In fact, Craig Smith was on my personal shortlist four years ago. Maybe one of them is the right person for the job. My point is, that prioritizing where they are from is not relevant to this job.
I’m sure that one or two of those names will get a phone call or even an interview. I believe there are many more qualified coaches out there, but I wouldn’t rule them out.
The obvious follow-up question is, who are names that Coyle should be considering? And that list is coming next. Shockingly, Coyle isn’t asking for my opinion. I’m happy to give it, and will, but the hope is that he deviates from the plan he had last time. I firmly believe it isn’t necessarily about the name, he should be looking for certain attributes that equate to winning.