"It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye."
--Antoine de Saint-Exupery
"Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold."
--Yeats
“True, we [lawyers] build no bridges. We raise no towers. We construct no engines. We paint no pictures - unless as amateurs for our own principal amusement. There is little of all that we do which the eye of man can see. But we smooth out difficulties; we relieve stress; we correct mistakes; we take up other men's burdens and by our efforts we make possible the peaceful life of men in a peaceful state.”
--John W. Davis, founder of Davis Polk & Wardwell
A friend on the AAU circuit said he doubts Pope wants the job. His goal is to get to the ACC or SEC, and taking the BYU job does not advance that, and likely sets it back. Calipari has been promoting Pope for various jobs back east. The Qualtrics guy apparently is throwing a lot of money into this, so who knows.
Qualtrics is a tech company from Utah county. The founder and CEO recently sold it for $8 Billion
Their users conference in Salt Lake earlier this year featured Barak Obama, Oprah Winfrey, Ashton Kutcher, Richard Branson and many others.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
he is also the guy who bought the cancer patch on the Jazz jerseys and appears with the players in the "5 for 5" (or whatever they are) promo spots during the Jazz games.
So you're saying BYU has a big time booster who will open his wallet for this hire? I think they get Pope either way, but we'll see. Even with money, they are fairly limited in that there aren't many LDS options.
Buffalo Coach Nate Oats to Alabama.
“It only ends once. Anything that happens before that is just progress.”
Well, because he thought it was good sport. Because some men aren't looking for anything logical, like money. They can't be bought, bullied, reasoned, or negotiated with. Some men just want to watch the world burn.
SF coach Kyle Smith's deal at WSU is reportedly for 6 years, so he'll be given every opportunity to rebuild that program. Then again, if he does he'll probably be snagged by someone else.
“It only ends once. Anything that happens before that is just progress.”
Well, because he thought it was good sport. Because some men aren't looking for anything logical, like money. They can't be bought, bullied, reasoned, or negotiated with. Some men just want to watch the world burn.
No discussion about UNLV's new coach turnover?! Marvin Menzies was fired and replaced with T.J. Otzelberger, who had been the head coach for the South Dakota State Jackrabbits. I'm old enough to remember that UNLV used to be the proudest basketball program in the state.
Former Nevada and Georgia coach Mark Fox emerging as the guy at Cal.
“It only ends once. Anything that happens before that is just progress.”
Well, because he thought it was good sport. Because some men aren't looking for anything logical, like money. They can't be bought, bullied, reasoned, or negotiated with. Some men just want to watch the world burn.
"It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye."
--Antoine de Saint-Exupery
"Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold."
--Yeats
“True, we [lawyers] build no bridges. We raise no towers. We construct no engines. We paint no pictures - unless as amateurs for our own principal amusement. There is little of all that we do which the eye of man can see. But we smooth out difficulties; we relieve stress; we correct mistakes; we take up other men's burdens and by our efforts we make possible the peaceful life of men in a peaceful state.”
--John W. Davis, founder of Davis Polk & Wardwell
I will say for the 50th time that we should do this with Kyle:
http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/2...pari-life-deal
"It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye."
--Antoine de Saint-Exupery
"Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold."
--Yeats
“True, we [lawyers] build no bridges. We raise no towers. We construct no engines. We paint no pictures - unless as amateurs for our own principal amusement. There is little of all that we do which the eye of man can see. But we smooth out difficulties; we relieve stress; we correct mistakes; we take up other men's burdens and by our efforts we make possible the peaceful life of men in a peaceful state.”
--John W. Davis, founder of Davis Polk & Wardwell
Jamie Dixon to UCLA appears to be official. Rather underwhelming considering the names that were being thrown around. I assume UCLA at least called Chris Beard and Tony Bennett to gauge interest. Texas A&M just hired a far more accomplished coach than UCLA. This is UCLA's second consecutive meh hire as well.
Dixon is solid like Alford was. Dixon was fine at Pitt and good at TCU. He might have great success at UCLA. It is, after all, one of the easiest places to win. All it will take is one great recruiting class and one great season for people to say "UCLA's back!" But this could also be another Alford experiment, and UCLA shouldn't have to do those.
Dixon's resume seems a little more advanced than Alford's was when he was hired. I remember when Alford was hired how it was pretty underwhelming for UCLA. He had only coached at a couple of small schools, Iowa, and New Mexico prior to UCLA. Dixon's experience and success in the Big East/ACC and Big 12 is a more impressive that some success in the MW.
Dixon took Pitt to the NCAA's 9 out of 10 years, and went to the Sweet 16 twice and Elite 8 once. His TCU success is mediocre, NCAA's once and NIT twice.
“To me there is no dishonor in being wrong and learning. There is dishonor in willful ignorance and there is dishonor in disrespect.” James Hatch, former Navy Seal and current Yale student.
Like I said, a solid hire. If UCLA is one of the top 5 programs in college basketball (as is often the claim with Kentucky, UNC, Kansas, and Duke), they should be able to hit home runs with their hires. The feel I'm getting from college basketball Twitter is "Eh, this might work. Could have been worse."
"It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye."
--Antoine de Saint-Exupery
"Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold."
--Yeats
“True, we [lawyers] build no bridges. We raise no towers. We construct no engines. We paint no pictures - unless as amateurs for our own principal amusement. There is little of all that we do which the eye of man can see. But we smooth out difficulties; we relieve stress; we correct mistakes; we take up other men's burdens and by our efforts we make possible the peaceful life of men in a peaceful state.”
--John W. Davis, founder of Davis Polk & Wardwell
https://twitter.com/latbbolch/status/1113487786357575680Latest I've heard on Jamie Dixon: He's trying to negotiate his $8-million buyout down to $1 million. Barring that, UCLA will have to come up with the money. Have also been told that Mick Cronin is getting antsy and the next 24 hours could be critical to keeping him in the mix.
UCLA reality check
https://www.usatoday.com/story/sport...ch/3365640002/
From Jon Wilner's Hotline e-mail:
The UCLA search: What's another week, or month?
UCLA has been in the market for a basketball coach for 98 days.
For all the missteps the the Bruins have made and the criticism they've endured — for all the embarrassment the search has brought to the university — the goal remains attainable: Find the right coach.
Doesn’t matter if it takes 98 more days, they must get it right.
The Hotline has pondered three aspects of the search more than any others:
• No question is more fascinating than UCLA’s threshold for acceptable candidates on the twin fronts of NCAA compliance and personal conduct.
John Calipari has vacated two Final Fours. Jamie Dixon’s assistant at TCU was fired after being caught up in the FBI corruption case. The Bruins pursued both -- Dixon has not been implicated, to be fair -- yet some coaches reportedly didn’t clear the bar.
Without insight provided by those running the search, conclusions are difficult to draw. But it's riveting to watch a major search unfold in the era of exposed corruption and not detect a hint of selective morality.
If you're OK with vacated Final Fours, what aren't you OK with?
• The finances of the Calipari pursuit make little sense: Why would UCLA offer him what’s effectively a pay cut to move from Lexington to Westwood?
It makes such little sense, in fact, that I wonder if something went awry somewhere along the information flow.
• UCLA athletic director Dan Guerrero, senior associate Josh Rebholz and search mover/shaker Casey Wasserman were surely aware of Dixon’s $8 million buyout before discussions turned serious; they had to anticipate the possibility that TCU would refuse to negotiate a lower amount.
All of which makes me wonder if the Bruins were prepared to handle the $8 million until something went wrong at the last minute.
Yet even then, the athletic department receives $11 million annually from Under Armour. Was that revenue source unavailable?
Was there no way to conjure what would amount to $1.6 million annually (if you spread that $8 million over a five-year contract)?
• I’m also curious about the timing of the search as it involves two coaches in the Final Four: Virginia’s Tony Bennett and Texas Tech’s Chris Beard.
Maybe the Bruins had reason to believe, through back channels, that neither coach would be interested, so they moved on Dixon last week.
But if they locked on Dixon simply because they wanted to wrap things up, before attempting a hard play for Bennett or Beard, well, that’s inexcusable. You’ve waited three months and aren’t willing to wait one more week?
Again, it's baffling -- so supremely baffling that, as with the Calipari offer and the Dixon buyout, you wonder if there's more to the story.
And yet, there’s precedent for fallback hires working out quite well, not only in the Pac-12 but in Los Angeles specifically.
Three or four years from now, we just might look back on the search and conclude the Bruins stumbled into a fabulous hire -- that the whiff on Dixon was the best thing that could have happened to them.
That doesn't make sense, but a nonsensical outcome actually makes perfect sense given the course of events over the past 98 days. -- Jon Wilner
"It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye."
--Antoine de Saint-Exupery
"Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold."
--Yeats
“True, we [lawyers] build no bridges. We raise no towers. We construct no engines. We paint no pictures - unless as amateurs for our own principal amusement. There is little of all that we do which the eye of man can see. But we smooth out difficulties; we relieve stress; we correct mistakes; we take up other men's burdens and by our efforts we make possible the peaceful life of men in a peaceful state.”
--John W. Davis, founder of Davis Polk & Wardwell