MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[Next Man Up]

* As I said before, nothing here is meant as an indictment of Coach Figueroa. There is no reason to suspect he is not a good man, and he certainly has an enviable record.
Rather, our (scores of NCC basketball people) collective angst is directed at the school Administration as it's widely felt they disrespected the accomplishments, loyalty, and dedication a 12 year student-athlete and staff member has given the College without returning those qualities in not appointing him to the position he had earned and deserved. Almost as bad as Vince being denied is the fact that the Administration seems to have no idea of how mad they have made so many NCC family members and furthermore, that they don't seem to care one bit. The results of their actions might be rather disastrous, especially in the short term.

Well, here is the first sign the arranged marriage of Coach Figueroa and Coach Kmiec may be headed toward the Mike Ditka/Buddy Ryan level of interesting. Then again, the way that one ended wasn't all bad for fans!

Although not preceded by a long courtship, I think the Figueroa-Kmiec marriage has a very good chance for success if a third party can refrain from attempting to turn the relationship into a Ménage 'a trios, by sticking her nose in the newlyweds business. Hopefully they will be left alone to do what they've been trained for.

[USee]

I have no dog in this fight but the idea you can't be a first time head coach in a power conference is not based in reality. Certainly NCC doesn't win a football Championship without first time HC Jeff Thorne at the helm. Wheaton named Jesse Scott to his first HC role, replacing Mike Swider, and had a top 10 team (ultimate results tbd). Vince Kehres was a first time HC and won the title 2x, going to the championship game 5 of his first 6 years. Lance Leipold was an assistant at UWW and then a coordinator at Nebraska-Omaha before getting his first HC gig and promptly winning 6 of the next 8 national titles.

Greg would know better but I'm pretty sure Bosko was assistant at NPU for 8+ years before becoming HC for the first time and winning a few Natty's. Heck Dennie Bridges was an assistant at IWU before getting his first college HC job. That turned out ok.

You don't need HC experience to be a nationally prominent program in D3. What you DO need is institutional alignment for any coach to be successful.

I absolutely don't think you HAVE to have HC experience to succeed. If VK was judged to have been the best option then I'd have said let's go. The comment was made with NMU's insisting that VK was owed the job in mind. I think he had the weakest resume of those 3 that I mentioned. Doesn't mean he would fail.

Isn't the "weakest" resume the guy without HC experience though? So, while you aren't saying that directly, that's the direct implication. That's always the case until someone gives someone a shot, such as the examples I cited.

[Next Man Up]

Top 30?  There are a lot of great D3 locations, North Central has had great success the last couple decades mainly due to Todd Raridon. 

I say Top 30 but I could live with Top 50.

I do think the coach is key with basically every Division III job, so credit to Coach Raridon.

If Carnegie Mellon had Coach Edwards, for example, they would be a Top 30 job.  Washington University was 0-0 before Edwards arrived and athletics was not valued under the previous Chancellor so the most of the programs were mired in mediocrity.

If I were making a list, I would add location and the overall success of the athletic department and with that, North Central is hard to beat.

Location (Naperville has often been ranked by several different publications as one of the top places to live in the USA), athletic success, and academics. NCC's overall academic score is often higher than several institutions who are frequently thought of as being very good D3 academic institutions. And no, I am not ridiculously referring to institutions like WashU, Carnegie-Mellon, Amherst etc.

[Next Man Up]

I have no dog in this fight but the idea you can't be a first time head coach in a power conference is not based in reality. Certainly NCC doesn't win a football Championship without first time HC Jeff Thorne at the helm. Wheaton named Jesse Scott to his first HC role, replacing Mike Swider, and had a top 10 team (ultimate results tbd). Vince Kehres was a first time HC and won the title 2x, going to the championship game 5 of his first 6 years. Lance Leipold was an assistant at UWW and then a coordinator at Nebraska-Omaha before getting his first HC gig and promptly winning 6 of the next 8 national titles.

Greg would know better but I'm pretty sure Bosko was assistant at NPU for 8+ years before becoming HC for the first time and winning a few Natty's. Heck Dennie Bridges was an assistant at IWU before getting his first college HC job. That turned out ok.

You don't need HC experience to be a nationally prominent program in D3. What you DO need is institutional alignment for any coach to be successful.

I absolutely don't think you HAVE to have HC experience to succeed. If VK was judged to have been the best option then I'd have said let's go. The comment was made with NMU's insisting that VK was owed the job in mind. I think he had the weakest resume of those 3 that I mentioned. Doesn't mean he would fail.

Isn't the "weakest" resume the guy without HC experience though? So, while you aren't saying that directly, that's the direct implication. That's always the case until someone gives someone a shot, such as the examples I cited.

USee,
Just asking. Is it possible that you meant " Isn't the "weakest" résumé always the guy without HC experience?

Robert,
What you're forgetting is that Vince never had a chance to be judged the best. Jessica Brown and Sue Kane-Hammond had a preconceived idea of what they wanted. And Jim Miller whose opinion should have mattered most, was effectively double, possibly triple, teamed and rendered mute. Additionally, Vince should not have gotten the job just/only because he was a 12 year member of the NCC basketball family and an 8 year employee.
I think you'll recall that I also said he had the training required as he had 12 years of daily learning the intricacies of coaching basketball under one of the most successful and best coaches in the history of D3 basketball. It wasn't like he was learning from a guy who lost twice as many games as he won.

How are you gonna get HC experience if nobody will make you a HC just because you haven't been one before?

This entire quagmire could have been avoided if Vince had been given the job on an interim basis for a year or two.

[itsnotmeitsyou]

* As I said before, nothing here is meant as an indictment of Coach Figueroa. There is no reason to suspect he is not a good man, and he certainly has an enviable record.
Rather, our (scores of NCC basketball people) collective angst is directed at the school Administration as it's widely felt they disrespected the accomplishments, loyalty, and dedication a 12 year student-athlete and staff member has given the College without returning those qualities in not appointing him to the position he had earned and deserved. Almost as bad as Vince being denied is the fact that the Administration seems to have no idea of how mad they have made so many NCC family members and furthermore, that they don't seem to care one bit. The results of their actions might be rather disastrous, especially in the short term.

Taking the dysfunctionality of the admin out of things and looking strictly at the VK situation: I am completely fine with how things played out. Just bc VK has been with the program for a long time and is liked/loved by players/etc doesn't mean he's the best person for the job/should be given the job. I think it's pretty clear that Figueroa and Kelly both had much better resumes for a position like NCC's.

I'd like to think the current AD would have conducted the process the same way if he actually had been given the authority to, not just picked VK bc he was the easy, feel good story. Thank Vince for his work, tell him to go get some HC experience and be successful at a lower level D3 school and we will see you in the future.

FWIW - the former NCC players I had talked with all thought the final candidate list was weaker than they'd hoped it would be, with VK being the weakest of them all.

FWIW pt 2 - A friend of mine's son was recruited by Figueroa pretty heavily this past season. He said that he is a great guy, absolutely loves him.

I have no dog in this fight but the idea you can't be a first time head coach in a power conference is not based in reality. Certainly NCC doesn't win a football Championship without first time HC Jeff Thorne at the helm. Wheaton named Jesse Scott to his first HC role, replacing Mike Swider, and had a top 10 team (ultimate results tbd). Vince Kehres was a first time HC and won the title 2x, going to the championship game 5 of his first 6 years. Lance Leipold was an assistant at UWW and then a coordinator at Nebraska-Omaha before getting his first HC gig and promptly winning 6 of the next 8 national titles.

Greg would know better but I'm pretty sure Bosko was assistant at NPU for 8+ years before becoming HC for the first time and winning a few Natty's. Heck Dennie Bridges was an assistant at IWU before getting his first college HC job. That turned out ok.

You don't need HC experience to be a nationally prominent program in D3. What you DO need is institutional alignment for any coach to be successful.

Recalling my SAT preparation back when I was a "Ute", I think it's fair to say that the CCIW is to D3 basketball what the ACC is to D1 basketball. From 1988 to 2020, there were 60 HC's hired in men's basketball in the ACC. Of those ONLY 6 had no previous HC experience (and they were hired by teams that were at or on their way to the bottom of the league). In the last 12-14 months, UNC, Duke, & UofL all went with first timers.

What I said previously is that: 1) it's time to acknowledge this is a trend; 2) HC experience is critical for success.

Is "experience" the only factor? No. The vast majority of the examples you named or would find elsewhere did not have success until several years in to their tenure. It takes a while to "figure it out"... some never do. The last NCC asst. promoted to the "big chair" never did.

"Institutional Alignment" is also important; however there isn't much of that at NCC. Heck, during the most recent search for the Womens head coach 4yrs ago, the AD told a male applicant: "we can't always hire the person we want sometimes". That was under the previous Asst VP Student Affairs & Athletics. Sounds like there is even less "alignment" now.

No job is perfect. Every program in every conference at every level has its Pro's and Con's. I'm sure there is some grad school thesis project out there (and if there isn't there should be!) that asks the question of head coaching experience as a predictor of future competitive success. I think reasonable people would correctly hypothesize there will be a statistically significant correlation. I know one thing, when it comes time for my lobotomy, give me the doc who has done it before and not some newly minted Resident who has been a "loyal and devoted assistant that everyone likes".

[Next Man Up]

First of all, congrats to Anthony Figueroa, who aside from being one of my best friends is an excellent basketball coach and will do well at North Central. I completely disagree that the candidate pool was not strong especially considering the pool of candidates for other CCIW job openings. Anthonys record at the JUCO (83-25 the last four years) was phenomenal and he has done nothing but win at a high level at Parkland. Vince is a excellent coach (68-26 the last four years) and I think was much more deserving of an opportunity to be a head coach than some guys that were hired at other CCIW schools. I also challenge anyone to find a coach who took a team from zero wins to over 20 wins in a three year period, that has also won multiple CCIW championships and been to a final four ( 70-39 the last four years). The candidate pool was really strong. There were several  successful head coaches that applied and were not finalist.  I have the utmost respect for Jim Miller but without going into further details much of what Mark said is spot on. I truly believe he had no say in this decision. There were just some things done throughout this search that were completely unprofessional and just not the way you do things when conducting a coaching search.Having spoke to several others involved , they all agree. Someone said there is a lot going on at North Central within the athletic department and that is an understatement to say the least.
I always have had the philosophy that if a program is winning and there is an assistant coach there that has been influential in the success then that person should be first in line for the job. However in this situation I was torn between one of best friends
and one of my former players who I recruited to North Central. Throughout this process it was clear the administration, not Jim Miller had an agenda and certain criteria that they wanted in the next coach, luckily that agenda landed them a great coach. I just hope the North Central alumni and supporters give Anthony a fair shot and appreciate all the hard work he has put in throughout his career to get to this point and know he not only deserves this opportunity but he EARNED it. I have 100% confidence that he will keep North Central at or near the top of the CCIW as long as he is there. Anthony along with Vince will make a great staff because both are extremely smart, hard working and flat out good dudes.

There are almost too many good points made here than you can count.

Neither Anthony Figueroa nor Vince Kmiec is the culprit here. Rather you have someone who refused to even consider the qualifications of a certain candidate or candidates, and another person widely regarded as being out at NCC in the near future.

And, there is even more behind the scenes craziness and intrigue woven into this whole process that was never introduced into the conversation. If you're not deeply embedded in the situation it's not surprising that you might question this statement, but a few of us know the entire true story due to the vantage point from which we have been able to observe the sequence of events as they began unfolding well before Todd Raridon signed his letter of resignation or possibly even thought of doing so. At this point suffice it to say that once the ball started bouncing, there was never much doubt as to where it would land. 

[USee]

* As I said before, nothing here is meant as an indictment of Coach Figueroa. There is no reason to suspect he is not a good man, and he certainly has an enviable record.
Rather, our (scores of NCC basketball people) collective angst is directed at the school Administration as it's widely felt they disrespected the accomplishments, loyalty, and dedication a 12 year student-athlete and staff member has given the College without returning those qualities in not appointing him to the position he had earned and deserved. Almost as bad as Vince being denied is the fact that the Administration seems to have no idea of how mad they have made so many NCC family members and furthermore, that they don't seem to care one bit. The results of their actions might be rather disastrous, especially in the short term.

Taking the dysfunctionality of the admin out of things and looking strictly at the VK situation: I am completely fine with how things played out. Just bc VK has been with the program for a long time and is liked/loved by players/etc doesn't mean he's the best person for the job/should be given the job. I think it's pretty clear that Figueroa and Kelly both had much better resumes for a position like NCC's.

I'd like to think the current AD would have conducted the process the same way if he actually had been given the authority to, not just picked VK bc he was the easy, feel good story. Thank Vince for his work, tell him to go get some HC experience and be successful at a lower level D3 school and we will see you in the future.

FWIW - the former NCC players I had talked with all thought the final candidate list was weaker than they'd hoped it would be, with VK being the weakest of them all.

FWIW pt 2 - A friend of mine's son was recruited by Figueroa pretty heavily this past season. He said that he is a great guy, absolutely loves him.

I have no dog in this fight but the idea you can't be a first time head coach in a power conference is not based in reality. Certainly NCC doesn't win a football Championship without first time HC Jeff Thorne at the helm. Wheaton named Jesse Scott to his first HC role, replacing Mike Swider, and had a top 10 team (ultimate results tbd). Vince Kehres was a first time HC and won the title 2x, going to the championship game 5 of his first 6 years. Lance Leipold was an assistant at UWW and then a coordinator at Nebraska-Omaha before getting his first HC gig and promptly winning 6 of the next 8 national titles.

Greg would know better but I'm pretty sure Bosko was assistant at NPU for 8+ years before becoming HC for the first time and winning a few Natty's. Heck Dennie Bridges was an assistant at IWU before getting his first college HC job. That turned out ok.

You don't need HC experience to be a nationally prominent program in D3. What you DO need is institutional alignment for any coach to be successful.

Recalling my SAT preparation back when I was a "Ute", I think it's fair to say that the CCIW is to D3 basketball what the ACC is to D1 basketball. From 1988 to 2020, there were 60 HC's hired in men's basketball in the ACC. Of those ONLY 6 had no previous HC experience (and they were hired by teams that were at or on their way to the bottom of the league). In the last 12-14 months, UNC, Duke, & UofL all went with first timers.

What I said previously is that: 1) it's time to acknowledge this is a trend; 2) HC experience is critical for success.

Is "experience" the only factor? No. The vast majority of the examples you named or would find elsewhere did not have success until several years in to their tenure. It takes a while to "figure it out"... some never do. The last NCC asst. promoted to the "big chair" never did.

"Institutional Alignment" is also important; however there isn't much of that at NCC. Heck, during the most recent search for the Womens head coach 4yrs ago, the AD told a male applicant: "we can't always hire the person we want sometimes". That was under the previous Asst VP Student Affairs & Athletics. Sounds like there is even less "alignment" now.

No job is perfect. Every program in every conference at every level has its Pro's and Con's. I'm sure there is some grad school thesis project out there (and if there isn't there should be!) that asks the question of head coaching experience as a predictor of future competitive success. I think reasonable people would correctly hypothesize there will be a statistically significant correlation. I know one thing, when it comes time for my lobotomy, give me the doc who has done it before and not some newly minted Resident who has been a "loyal and devoted assistant that everyone likes".

Actually I think every example I have had immediate success.

NMU: yes that's what I meant.  Seems to me there isn't a right Vs wrong choice here.  Experienced can win and assistant promoted to HC can win.  And NCC wouldn't be the first place that an administrator grabbed the steering wheel to take the decision away from more experienced hands. That's not at all unique to NCC.  AF seems like a great choice and having VK on the bench with him gives them a great chance at continued success.

[Next Man Up]

New North Park Head Coach Smith is already getting on top of things, having today secured the first member of his coaching staff. I am sworn to secrecy pending an official announcement, but it's a name well known to CCIW fans. 

[Gregory Sager]

Greg would know better but I'm pretty sure Bosko was assistant at NPU for 8+ years before becoming HC for the first time and winning a few Natty's.

Bosko served as Dan McCarrell's primary assistant at North Park for ten years (1974-75 thru 1983-84) and played a big role in NPC's threepeat national championships. McCarrell took the head coaching job at D2 Mankato State (now Minnesota State) in the spring of '84, and Bosko was promoted to replace him.

The Vikings won their fourth national championship in his first season as a head coach (1984-85), and I can remember fans from other schools saying stuff about Bosko along the lines of, "Well, he won it with McCarrell's players," as if Bosko had had nothing to do with bringing those players to North Park and helping to mold them into a great team. Two years later, in his third year as a head coach, NPC won another national championship. That team was led by two All-Americans, Michael Starks (1987 CCIW Most Outstanding Player) and Mike Barach (1988 CCIW Most Outstanding Player); in 1986-87 Starks averaged 19.8 ppg and 9.1 rpg and Barach averaged 21.7 ppg. Both of them had been brought to Foster & Kedzie by Bosko after he had taken over as head coach. By that point, nobody was belittling Bosko's accomplishments anymore. (Oh, and by the way, that same school year the Vikings won the third of Bosko's four CCIW titles as NPC's head baseball coach.)

The point is this: Being a first-year head coach is often a lose-lose proposition. If you have a losing first season, then at best you're still on probation in the eyes of the public -- but there will nevertheless be people who are already condemning you. But if you have a winning first season, there will be people who will say the same thing opposing fans said about Bosko Djurickovic in 1985: "Well, he won with the previous coach's players, so he should only get a limited amount of credit for his team's success." And this lose-lose deal is magnified if, like Bosko, you've never been a head coach before.

[WUPHF]

I apologize for the non-CCIW posts, but just two years after Bosko was promoted, Washington University hired a 25-year old with zero college coaching experience.  Nancy Fahey led the Bears to 700+ wins over the course of her career.  But her experience as a head coach was not enough to make a go of the University of Illinois.

[north central]

Something I just cant understand is how coaches are evaluated and how and why certain people are perceived as good candidates or not for a certain job. For example with the NCC search, I think many people would have put Kennedy ahead of Vince as a candidate for that position. It baffles me as to why/ how someone like that is even under consideration for that position. Someone who has had 7 consecutive losing seasons as a coach and 4 consecutive losing seasons as a player and no experience as a head coach or even at the d3 level should not even be under consideration for a spot like that. With that background theres no way you could expect him to do anything but lose. VK on the other hand has had 7 consecutive winning seasons as a coach and 4 consecutive winning seasons as a player so how are those two even looked at as comparable or even in the same stratosphere as a potential head D3 coach, IF YOUR GOAL IS TO WIN BASKETBALL GAMES. Someone please explain that to me.

Greg would know better but I'm pretty sure Bosko was assistant at NPU for 8+ years before becoming HC for the first time and winning a few Natty's.

Bosko served as Dan McCarrell's primary assistant at North Park for ten years (1974-75 thru 1983-84) and played a big role in NPC's threepeat national championships. McCarrell took the head coaching job at D2 Mankato State (now Minnesota State) in the spring of '84, and Bosko was promoted to replace him.

The Vikings won their fourth national championship in his first season as a head coach (1984-85), and I can remember fans from other schools saying stuff about Bosko along the lines of, "Well, he won it with McCarrell's players," as if Bosko had had nothing to do with bringing those players to North Park and helping to mold them into a great team. Two years later, in his third year as a head coach, NPC won another national championship. That team was led by two All-Americans, Michael Starks (1987 CCIW Most Outstanding Player) and Mike Barach (1988 CCIW Most Outstanding Player); in 1986-87 Starks averaged 19.8 ppg and 9.1 rpg and Barach averaged 21.7 ppg. Both of them had been brought to Foster & Kedzie by Bosko after he had taken over as head coach. By that point, nobody was belittling Bosko's accomplishments anymore. (Oh, and by the way, that same school year the Vikings won the third of Bosko's four CCIW titles as NPC's head baseball coach.)

The point is this: Being a first-year head coach is often a lose-lose proposition. If you have a losing first season, then at best you're still on probation in the eyes of the public -- but there will nevertheless be people who are already condemning you. But if you have a winning first season, there will be people who will say the same thing opposing fans said about Bosko Djurickovic in 1985: "Well, he won with the previous coach's players, so he should only get a limited amount of credit for his team's success." And this lose-lose deal is magnified if, like Bosko, you've never been a head coach before.

Greg I agree this can happen but knowledgeable people would know that if your the assistant and the lead recruiter then they are just as much your players as the former head coaches players. so anyone making that remark would be completely off base.

[USee]

Something I just cant understand is how coaches are evaluated and how and why certain people are perceived as good candidates or not for a certain job. For example with the NCC search, I think many people would have put Kennedy ahead of Vince as a candidate for that position. It baffles me as to why/ how someone like that is even under consideration for that position. Someone who has had 7 consecutive losing seasons as a coach and 4 consecutive losing seasons as a player and no experience as a head coach or even at the d3 level should not even be under consideration for a spot like that. With that background there's no way you could expect him to do anything but lose. VK on the other hand has had 7 consecutive winning seasons as a coach and 4 consecutive winning seasons as a player so how are those two even looked at as comparable or even in the same stratosphere as a potential head D3 coach, IF YOUR GOAL IS TO WIN BASKETBALL GAMES. Someone please explain that to me.

Goals might not be to win basketball games? When you get administrators, who are removed from the day to day and have little to no relationships with current players/coaches, the goalposts can move dramatically.

[Gregory Sager]

Greg would know better but I'm pretty sure Bosko was assistant at NPU for 8+ years before becoming HC for the first time and winning a few Natty's.

Bosko served as Dan McCarrell's primary assistant at North Park for ten years (1974-75 thru 1983-84) and played a big role in NPC's threepeat national championships. McCarrell took the head coaching job at D2 Mankato State (now Minnesota State) in the spring of '84, and Bosko was promoted to replace him.

The Vikings won their fourth national championship in his first season as a head coach (1984-85), and I can remember fans from other schools saying stuff about Bosko along the lines of, "Well, he won it with McCarrell's players," as if Bosko had had nothing to do with bringing those players to North Park and helping to mold them into a great team. Two years later, in his third year as a head coach, NPC won another national championship. That team was led by two All-Americans, Michael Starks (1987 CCIW Most Outstanding Player) and Mike Barach (1988 CCIW Most Outstanding Player); in 1986-87 Starks averaged 19.8 ppg and 9.1 rpg and Barach averaged 21.7 ppg. Both of them had been brought to Foster & Kedzie by Bosko after he had taken over as head coach. By that point, nobody was belittling Bosko's accomplishments anymore. (Oh, and by the way, that same school year the Vikings won the third of Bosko's four CCIW titles as NPC's head baseball coach.)

The point is this: Being a first-year head coach is often a lose-lose proposition. If you have a losing first season, then at best you're still on probation in the eyes of the public -- but there will nevertheless be people who are already condemning you. But if you have a winning first season, there will be people who will say the same thing opposing fans said about Bosko Djurickovic in 1985: "Well, he won with the previous coach's players, so he should only get a limited amount of credit for his team's success." And this lose-lose deal is magnified if, like Bosko, you've never been a head coach before.

Greg I agree this can happen but knowledgeable people would know that if your the assistant and the lead recruiter then they are just as much your players as the former head coaches players. so anyone making that remark would be completely off base.

You'd be surprised. For one thing, a "lead recruiter" or "recruiting coordinator" among assistant coaches was not really a commonplace concept in college basketball back then, so it wasn't assumed by anybody that Bosko had taken the lead role in recruiting NPC's players. For another, Bosko -- as I mentioned in my previous post -- was also the head baseball coach at North Park during the latter period of Dan McCarrell's tenure as the head men's basketball coach of the Vikings. This used to be a common setup in the CCIW; for example, for many years Augustana head baseball coach Dave Langrock served as the assistant coach to Augie's head men's basketball coach Jim Borcherding, and Illinois Wesleyan head baseball coach Dennis Martel served as the assistant coach to IWU head men's basketball coach Dennie Bridges. But because of this, you'd often hear it said that the baseball coach (in this case, Bosko) had only a limited influence upon basketball recruiting, because he had his own recruiting for baseball to focus upon.

Of course, these were the assumptions of outsiders. I can't speak to how much of an influence Langrock had upon the great success that Augie men's basketball enjoyed during the Borcherding era, or Martel's impact upon Bridges' success at IWU. But I know how valuable Bosko was to North Park men's basketball during the McCarrell era, because I've heard Dan McCarrell say so himself.

[WUPHF]

For another, Bosko -- as I mentioned in my previous post -- was also the head baseball coach at North Park during the latter period of Dan McCarrell's tenure as the head men's basketball coach of the Vikings.

There was a time when the majority of athletes were multi-sport athletes and later became multi-sport coaches.

[kiko]

Something I just cant understand is how coaches are evaluated and how and why certain people are perceived as good candidates or not for a certain job. For example with the NCC search, I think many people would have put Kennedy ahead of Vince as a candidate for that position. It baffles me as to why/ how someone like that is even under consideration for that position. Someone who has had 7 consecutive losing seasons as a coach and 4 consecutive losing seasons as a player and no experience as a head coach or even at the d3 level should not even be under consideration for a spot like that. With that background theres no way you could expect him to do anything but lose. VK on the other hand has had 7 consecutive winning seasons as a coach and 4 consecutive winning seasons as a player so how are those two even looked at as comparable or even in the same stratosphere as a potential head D3 coach, IF YOUR GOAL IS TO WIN BASKETBALL GAMES. Someone please explain that to me.

Two thoughts on this.

First, you bring a guy like Kennedy into the interview process if you want your four finalists to all look very different from one another.  This is actually not a bad idea, as you can learn from individual candidates and can make an informed choice about what type of professional experience you may feel will best set your program up for success.  I have long thought that this is preferable to bringing in four candidates who all look really similar on paper.  He didn't get the offer, so clearly that trajectory was not what the hiring team felt was the best option.  No harm, no foul.  And potentially a useful exercise.

This, BTW, is one of the reasons why Todd Kelly was dead wrong with his righteous indignation a couple of years ago about the CalTech coach being part of the Augie consideration set when he was a finalist there.

Second, I am neither a Vince Kmiec fan nor a critic, but let's be honest here: he doesn't have seven consecutive winning seasons as a coach.  Todd Raridon does.  Vince played a part in that, for sure, but it is a stretch to credit these to the assistant -- especially when one of the main cogs on almost all of those teams shares DNA with the head coach.  And any committee that projects success as a coach from his success as a player would have no idea what they are doing.