Quote from: John Gleich on June 30, 2016, 06:06:34 PM

Having a big man close to the basket is oftentimes the highest percentage shot. But NOT having a big man allows certain drives and backdoor cuts that can also be high percentage that often aren't available when there's somebody on the block. That's what Point has used the last several years and they've managed to counteract many of the bigger inside players with versatile defenders who are long and quick instead of just big.

Any big man with a pulse is likely to be viewed as a scholarship player at least at the D2 level. 

UWSP for years has been successful with undersized guys in the post who were just warriors defensively and on the boards.  D3 and the WIAC in general tend to be guard oriented.

Last really good big guy in the WIAC for my taste was Skemp for UWP ... and he was simply a matchup nightmare for the conference.  Dustin Mitchell was another but even he was an athletic forward more than a true big man.

UWSP had guys like Beamish, Rortveldt, Hurd, Krull ... guys who were very skilled but undersized in the true sense of a post player.

an assistant coach ... my mistake.

D3 UWW alum TJ Otzelberger was named head coach at South Dakota State yesterday.

Otzelberger was nearly named the UWM coach last week before UWM chancellor over-ruled the AD and search committee due to a lack of minority hiring in the athletic department.

Otzelberger moves onto the Jackrabbits of SDSU after being an assistant coach at Iowa State for all but 2 years since 2007.

http://www.gojacks.com/news/2016/4/14/mens-basketball-otzelberger-named-jackrabbit-head-coach.aspx

http://www.wtmj.com/sports/college/exclusive-uwm-had-milwaukee-native-tj-otzelberger-tabbed-but-hired-lavall-jackson

Quote from: gordonmann on March 31, 2016, 04:15:10 PM
I saw the same thing and my response was, "Why would you announce the five finalists?"

How does it serve any of the parties involved to do that publicly?

For the school that does it, there's a momentary ego boost ("Look how many good candidates want to work for us!"). And in some really high profile cases, like head coach at Kentucky, you probably need to do it to manage the process lest the media cyclone carry it off into weird directions.  But was anyone really clamoring to know who the finalists for the Loras job were, outside of the individuals who applied and wanted to know the status of their individual application? If you want to show how desirable your job is, couldn't you do that by issuing something more general like, "we had X applicants including Y from current head coaches Z from people with experience in the IIAC...on NCAA tournament teams...at winning programs...etc."

If I'm a candidate for one of these jobs, I HATE this type of announcement. It's a signal to my current employer that I'm looking to move on. It's a signal to potential recruits that they should probably think about going elsewhere before sending that acceptance letter in. It's a signal to recruits who've already committed that they are playing for someone who really wanted to be somewhere else. It's a signal to my current players that I'm not really committed which is problematic unless I'm ultra honest with them about potentially moving on to another job throughout the recruiting process.

And, again, unless it's a really high profile job, how much does it help to be able to say that you were publicly recognized as a finalist for job you didn't get? Does it really improve your chances at getting a job at the next opening that becomes available?

I suspect there are very few assistant coaches who do not want to be a head coach.  I think it is a basic and reasonable assumption and it is just part of the deal.  If I'm a player coming to a school to play for an assistant coach who's my main recruiter ... it is not beyond the realm of possibility that he might leave - and in some ways you want to play for a guy who's wanted as a head coach elsewhere.

The basketball coaching fraternity is a very close-knit tight gossipy group.  Everyone knows what everyone is doing.  Other coaches know who is/are applying for jobs.  Coaches know which coaches have friendships/connections to other coaches.  If the UWSP assistant is applying at Loras then you know that Semling knows about this ... if he doesn't, you know is going to find out about it.

Quote from: tomt4525 on March 30, 2016, 07:44:43 AM

Quote from: wcbsas on March 30, 2016, 07:32:41 AM

Quote from: sac on March 29, 2016, 08:02:11 PM

Without having past rosters to back things up, its difficult to know exactly how many more Wisconsin kids are leaving to go play elsewhere.  But, Wisconsin kids on rosters from just the schools mentioned here.........

SW Minnesota St   --3
St. Cloud St.         --2
Minnesota-Duluth  --5
Bemidji State         --4
Winona State         --4
Minn. State-Mankato--2
Concordia-St. Paul  --0
No. Michigan          --4
Michigan Tech        --6
Hillsdale                 --1
Lindenwood          --6

North Dakota State   --6
North Dakota            --0
South Dakota State  --0
South Dakota           --1
Neb. Omaha              --0

2016 High School Seniors going to Division 2 basketball programs:

Davis Larson Sheboygan North 6'5" G Hillsdale (DII)
Lucas Wendt Shoreland Lutheran 6'6" F Bemidji State (DII)
Max Keefe Germantown 6'6" WF Concordia - St. Paul (DII)
Brandon Myer Superior 6'6" WF Minnesota-Duluth (DII)
Jai'Vionne Green Wauwatosa East 6'4" WG Bemidji State (DII)
Logan Rohrscheib Eau Claire Regis 6'2" WG Minnesota-Duluth (DII)
Peyton Dibble Cameron 6'6" G/F Bemidji State (DII)
Isaac Appleby Eau Claire Memorial 6'3" PG Michigan Tech (DII)
Logan Bader Unity 6'6" F Bemidji State (DII)
Kaj Days Racine Park 6'7" PF Illinois Springfield (DII)
Harrison Cleary Oak Creek 6'2" G Minnesota-Crookston (DII)
Max Bawden Altoona 6'3" WG Minnesota-Duluth (DII)
Brant Schick Washburn 6'6" F Minnesota-Duluth (DII)
Zach Baumgartner Kewaunee 6'8" F Bemidji State (DII)

Spencer Treder Oconomowoc 6'10" C Winona State (DII)

I believe he is going to Winona as a walk-on ... correct?

Quote from: sac on March 29, 2016, 08:02:11 PM

Without having past rosters to back things up, its difficult to know exactly how many more Wisconsin kids are leaving to go play elsewhere.  But, Wisconsin kids on rosters from just the schools mentioned here.........

SW Minnesota St   --3
St. Cloud St.         --2
Minnesota-Duluth  --5
Bemidji State         --4
Winona State         --4
Minn. State-Mankato--2
Concordia-St. Paul  --0
No. Michigan          --4
Michigan Tech        --6
Hillsdale                 --1
Lindenwood          --6

North Dakota State   --6
North Dakota            --0
South Dakota State  --0
South Dakota           --1
Neb. Omaha              --0

2016 High School Seniors going to Division 2 basketball programs:

Davis Larson Sheboygan North 6'5" G Hillsdale (DII)
Lucas Wendt Shoreland Lutheran 6'6" F Bemidji State (DII)
Max Keefe Germantown 6'6" WF Concordia - St. Paul (DII)
Brandon Myer Superior 6'6" WF Minnesota-Duluth (DII)
Jai'Vionne Green Wauwatosa East 6'4" WG Bemidji State (DII)
Logan Rohrscheib Eau Claire Regis 6'2" WG Minnesota-Duluth (DII)
Peyton Dibble Cameron 6'6" G/F Bemidji State (DII)
Isaac Appleby Eau Claire Memorial 6'3" PG Michigan Tech (DII)
Logan Bader Unity 6'6" F Bemidji State (DII)
Kaj Days Racine Park 6'7" PF Illinois Springfield (DII)
Harrison Cleary Oak Creek 6'2" G Minnesota-Crookston (DII)
Max Bawden Altoona 6'3" WG Minnesota-Duluth (DII)
Brant Schick Washburn 6'6" F Minnesota-Duluth (DII)
Zach Baumgartner Kewaunee 6'8" F Bemidji State (DII)

Quote from: tomt4525 on March 29, 2016, 04:25:59 PM

Quote from: gordonmann on March 29, 2016, 04:11:40 PM
Interesting point. So more Wisconsin kids are playing D2 in Illinois or Minnesota then?

See, this is why I come into this room and a few others during the offseason. I usually learn something.

Definitely....schools like Southwest Minnesota St, St Cloud St, UM-Duluth, Bemidji St, Winona St, Minnesota State-Mankato, Concordia-St Paul, Northern Michigan, Hillsdale, Michigan Tech, LIndenwood(MO)--head coach has ties to Wisconsin....all these D2 schools are making Wisconsin a priority recruiting wise.

I think you also have to add the fairly recent emergence of low- to mid- major D1 programs like NDSU, UND, SDSU, USD and Omaha all with connections back to Wisconsin.  These guys are taking their share of WI kids and when they take MN or IA kids the D2 programs in that state come to WI looking for players.

I'm just amazed at the number of D2 scholarship kids this year.

Quote from: tomt4525 on March 25, 2016, 10:15:27 AM
At the top of that list, Semling said he needs a transfer who can come in and be their leading scorer...a guy who has proved his worth somewhere else.

That seems like a very un-UWSP-like ... typically they are more of a home-grown program.

I wonder if the WIAC as a whole is undergoing a shift away from their traditional roster building scenario's and are starting to follow a more UWW philosophy? 

The top 20 of Mark Miller's 50 senior's list ... shows 6 D1 players, 10 D2 players and 4 uncommitted (#6 Antetokounmpo - Dominican and #8 Adams - Brown Deer) both likely prep school and/or JUCO as well as #19 Ben Rounds and #20 Caleb Wagner.

10 years ago the list of scholarship players was much smaller.

Quote from: palum on March 22, 2016, 12:13:32 PM

Quote from: wcbsas on March 22, 2016, 07:54:14 AM

Quote from: bleedpurple on March 20, 2016, 02:32:55 AM

Quote from: palum on March 19, 2016, 07:30:56 PM
A few years ago Pat Miller was mentioned in an article as a long shot to be on Barry Alvarez's short list to replace Bo at Wisconsin.   Any speculation from the WW posters is Pat Miller on UWM's short list.  Given the way Jeter was let go I would not want to work for an AD like Braun.

My understanding is D-I experience is high on Milwaukee's criteria list. However, if they choose to shift gears on that, Pat certainly would be a great choice for them. Hope he's not interested, but if he is, obviously I wish him all the best. 

TJ Otzelberger - former UWW player - current Iowa State assistant is extremely high on the list of potential candidates to replace Jeter at UWM.

A bigger question for UWM might be would a up and coming D-1 assistant want to take a chance on UWM.  Jeter left Wisconsin on a high note and his stay at UWM did not bolster his resume (granted some of that was out of his control).  The pay $400-500,000 is probably in the neighborhood of an assistant at a Power 5 conference school.  You are playing second fiddle to Marquette and to some extent Wisconsin in Milwaukee. 

It wouldn't surprise me that UWM will hire a D-2 or D-3 coach maybe not by choice.  If they do Miller has a lot of positives, he knows how to win, he knows the high school coaches in Wisconsin,  he has recruited Milwaukee SE Wisconsin and to some extent the Chicago area, he has experience in bringing transfers into his program (UWM gets a lot of Milwaukee kids as transfers).  The way I look at it his only negative is lack of D-1 experience.   

Collegiate head coaching jobs are few and far between especially if you do not have head coaching experience.  Greg Gard staying at UW is a rarity.  And he stayed only because Bo promised he would do everything he could to elevate GG to the head coaching job.

A guy like TJ Otzelberger will take this job rather quickly because his opportunity to get a job elsewhere is never assured.

Are things ideal at UWM?  Certainly not nor are they ideal at UWGB or Valpo or Western Ill or NDSU ...

I don't think mid-majors can nor should they intend to retain coaches long term - if they are successful (and the administration wants them to be) what you want to do is have a consistent succession plan in place ... much like North Dakota State which has four former coaches coaching elsewhere with each and every successive coach having been a former lead assistant at NDSU.

Quote from: badgerwarhawk on March 22, 2016, 09:44:58 AM

Quote from: wcbsas on March 22, 2016, 07:55:22 AM

Quote from: badgerwarhawk on March 20, 2016, 09:34:44 AM
UW-M's prior experience hiring a coach out of the WIAC ranks went pretty well for them.  Though I'm not sure if this AD has the same frame of mind.

Not sure I agree ... he was at UWM two years before leaving to go to UW.

He didn't accomplish much at UWM.

If you look at it completely from a W/L position I would tend to agree with you.  30-27 isn't exactly the kind of record that gets a coach into the hall of fame.  But looking at it from a broader perspective I'd have to disagree.  Ryan basically resurrected the UW-M program which had been a dog.  He finished with winning records both seasons something that hadn't been accomplished in over a decade.  Attendance increased significantly and the program became relevant again.  Maybe it didn't show up in wins but hiring Bo Ryan was one of the best things UW-M has done IMO.

Sure don't disagree but you could argue taking a chance on a D2 coach produce significantly better results as well.

Quote from: badgerwarhawk on March 20, 2016, 09:36:08 AM

Quote from: Greek Tragedy on March 20, 2016, 01:01:03 AM
How bad was the situation with Jeter? All I know is they fired him with one year left on his contract. Was there more to it?

Did you read the article?  If half of it is true it sounds like it was a miserable situation for Jeter.

Jeter has a 184-170 record over 11 years.  7 years with a winning record and five 20-win seasons.  NCAA twice including his first year.

Overall performance has been up and down with 2 losing records in the last four years.  Green Bay appears to have upgraded their situation there is nothing to indicate that much is going to change at UWM.  UWM should be better than they are ... one of the larger university's in the conference, close to excellent recruiting areas, a large enough arena.

The style of play in the Horizon is going to require someone who can attract extremely athletic guard-oriented talent. 

Time for a change.

Quote from: badgerwarhawk on March 20, 2016, 09:34:44 AM
UW-M's prior experience hiring a coach out of the WIAC ranks went pretty well for them.  Though I'm not sure if this AD has the same frame of mind.

Not sure I agree ... he was at UWM two years before leaving to go to UW.

He didn't accomplish much at UWM.

Quote from: bleedpurple on March 20, 2016, 02:32:55 AM

Quote from: palum on March 19, 2016, 07:30:56 PM
A few years ago Pat Miller was mentioned in an article as a long shot to be on Barry Alvarez's short list to replace Bo at Wisconsin.   Any speculation from the WW posters is Pat Miller on UWM's short list.  Given the way Jeter was let go I would not want to work for an AD like Braun.

My understanding is D-I experience is high on Milwaukee's criteria list. However, if they choose to shift gears on that, Pat certainly would be a great choice for them. Hope he's not interested, but if he is, obviously I wish him all the best. 

TJ Otzelberger - former UWW player - current Iowa State assistant is extremely high on the list of potential candidates to replace Jeter at UWM.

Quote from: John Gleich on February 18, 2016, 09:51:28 AM

Saturday
WW @ EC (last time EC wins 66-63)
ST @ PL (PL wins 66-62)
RF @ OSH (RF wins 76-75)
SP @ LX (SP wins 69-67)

4 way tie for regular season conference title?  Could happen.  What's the tie breaker then?

Quote from: badgerwarhawk on February 16, 2016, 05:29:50 PM
Recently in a conversation with Pat Miller he mentioned that he had been reviewing a list of the top 30 or so prospects in Wisconsin.  Of course the top 5-6 are going D1 but after that he mentioned that nearly all of the rest were "committing" to D2 schools.  Many of those are the type of player that played in our league in the past.  Now, for whatever reason, the lure of a partial scholarship is pulling them away.  Now a few of those players will end up back in our league but a significant majority will stick it out in Cookston, Winona, Duluth, wherever, etc. etc. 

He also mentioned that the prospect of how quickly they will see significant playing time is causing some of them to bypass our league.  Specifically he mentioned a recruit who opted to attend a small private school rather than a WIAC school because they told him he would play right away and it was likely he'd need to wait a year or two before seeing much playing time with us.  Some players simply prefer to play in a losing program if it means seeing the floor from year one rather than a winning one where they'd have to wait.   

Times change  I'd have to assume Pat's experience isn't too different than the rest of the staffs in the league.

Looking at Mark Miller's player ranking for this coming season:

Of the top 30 seniors ranked - 6 of the top 7 are committed to D1 schools with Antetokounmpo from Dominican uncommitted.  The remaining 23 are as follows:
* 10 uncommitted
* 11 committed to D2
* 2 committed to D3 (UWW and UofChicago)

The next 10 have 2 committed to D2 and the rest uncommitted