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Dennis Gates of Cleveland St a MBB Coaching Prospect?

Harrisburg Dave

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Dec 29, 2016
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Ben Jones of StateCollege.com has an interesting observation in his report on the Nebraska game.

He notes that a Nebraska assistant is the brother of Dennis Gates, the coach at Cleveland State. Sandy B was pictured talking to the brother after the game. It seems that Gates and Sandy were both at Cal about 15 years ago. It is possible they were talking about old times. Or, it could be she might have been inquiring about Gates for other reasons. We will see.
 
Ben Jones of StateCollege.com has an interesting observation in his report on the Nebraska game.

He notes that a Nebraska assistant is the brother of Dennis Gates, the coach at Cleveland State. Sandy B was pictured talking to the brother after the game. It seems that Gates and Sandy were both at Cal about 15 years ago. It is possible they were talking about old times. Or, it could be she might have been inquiring about Gates for other reasons. We will see.
Sounds like an up-and-comer, though some coaches from the Horizon League haven't worked out in the Big Ten, as Iowa can attest. Is Ferry out of the running?
 
Sounds like an up-and-comer, though some coaches from the Horizon League haven't worked out in the Big Ten, as Iowa can attest. Is Ferry out of the running?

That recent loss to the awful Nebraska team may have finished Ferry as a contender for the job. On the other hand Ferry would be a cheap and easy selection for a basketball program that nobody at Penn State seems to give a damn about. Make it 40/60 he stays.
 
Ferry never had a chance. B&B plus Holleran want to white wash the program of Chambers. They don’t care if the current roster bails on them. They have the transfer portal.
 
Ben Jones of StateCollege.com has an interesting observation in his report on the Nebraska game.

He notes that a Nebraska assistant is the brother of Dennis Gates, the coach at Cleveland State. Sandy B was pictured talking to the brother after the game. It seems that Gates and Sandy were both at Cal about 15 years ago. It is possible they were talking about old times. Or, it could be she might have been inquiring about Gates for other reasons. We will see.
Probably a little of both. Wouldn't be surprised if he was someone that they would contact to at least gauge interest. I would assume the same guys like Mike Rhoades and Earl Grant
 
I follow HL basketball pretty closely and Gates would be a strong choice. He took over a decimated roster 2 years ago and did much better than expected - shared coach of the year honors last year. This year Cleveland State was picked to finish 7th and they are tied for the conference lead. Definitely quickly working some wonders at the mid-major level. Don't know how that translates at the P5 level but he has experience as an assistant at that level at least.
 
I’d definitely pass on him at this point...no ties to our natural recruiting area, and winning a bunch of games against some bad Horizon teams over one season isn’t enough for me to bring him on at a B1G program. There are much better options.
 
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Gates has extensive experience in the ACC and has coached in the west as well. Some well-respected mentors. Was featured in a campus leadership video while at FSU. Gates grew up in inner city Chicago and used a combination of athletics and academics to get out and thrive. No, he doesn't come from a natural PSU recruiting territory, but Penn State really doesn't have a natural recruiting territory in basketball outside of recent success in Philly, and I don't see any strong head coaching candidates with Philly backgrounds. Hire an assistant for that.

Not saying Dennis Gates should be our number one candidate, but I'd sure give him a close look.
 
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I dont know if his body of work is good enough yet to be a P5 coach. I would give him a interview but i think he would have to blow me away to give him the job right now.
 
That recent loss to the awful Nebraska team may have finished Ferry as a contender for the job. On the other hand Ferry would be a cheap and easy selection for a basketball program that nobody at Penn State seems to give a damn about. Make it 40/60 he stays.

+1. Except I think I'll go 60/40 he stays for the exact reasons you listed.
 
Gates has extensive experience in the ACC and has coached in the west as well. Some well-respected mentors. Was featured in a campus leadership video while at FSU. Gates grew up in inner city Chicago and used a combination of athletics and academics to get out and thrive. No, he doesn't come from a natural PSU recruiting territory, but Penn State really doesn't have a natural recruiting territory in basketball outside of recent success in Philly, and I don't see any strong head coaching candidates with Philly backgrounds. Hire an assistant for that.

Not saying Dennis Gates should be our number one candidate, but I'd sure give him a close look.
Almost ten years coaching under Leonard Hamilton is certainly an attractive resume item. He's a fantastic, fantastic coach to learn under.
 
I dont know if his body of work is good enough yet to be a P5 coach. I would give him a interview but i think he would have to blow me away to give him the job right now.

This is Penn State. He doesn't have to blow anyone away. All he has to do is show up.
 
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This is Penn State. He doesn't have to blow anyone away. All he has to do is show up.

Penn State Head Basketball Coach Interview Questionnaire......

Please pick out which of these is a basketball:
81JXLctFDfL._AC_SL1500_.jpg
 
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Almost ten years coaching under Leonard Hamilton is certainly an attractive resume item. He's a fantastic, fantastic coach to learn under.
That's the whole problem with PSU basketball. Rather than landing an established Power 5 head coach, PSU either gets a head coach from a minor-major conference or some assistant from a Power 5 school. In that respect, PSU acts like schools in the A-10.
 
That's the whole problem with PSU basketball. Rather than landing an established Power 5 head coach, PSU either gets a head coach from a minor-major conference or some assistant from a Power 5 school. In that respect, PSU acts like schools in the A-10.

PSU is never going to hire " an established Power 5 head coach." Simple matter of economics. Someone with a lower level of accomplishment (read: salary) is going to have to win and put butts in seats before the purse strings are loosened.
 
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That's the whole problem with PSU basketball. Rather than landing an established Power 5 head coach, PSU either gets a head coach from a minor-major conference or some assistant from a Power 5 school. In that respect, PSU acts like schools in the A-10.
The problem with "Penn State should land an established Power 5 head coach" is that you would need to convince an established Power 5 head coach to leave their job for Penn State, which would be a worse job than the one they had before. Not many established coaches will do that, unless it's a Kevin Stallings sort of "leave before you're fired" situation.

Penn State aside, unless you're a blue blood (UCLA when it hired Mick Cronin from Cincinnati), or you're willing to throw a TON of money at someone (Buzz Williams, an asshole, going from VT to A&M), major conference to major conference moves are pretty rare in the modern landscape. It's significantly more common for a power conference school to hire a power conference first chair assistant or a mid-major head coach.
 
The problem with "Penn State should land an established Power 5 head coach" is that you would need to convince an established Power 5 head coach to leave their job for Penn State, which would be a worse job than the one they had before. Not many established coaches will do that, unless it's a Kevin Stallings sort of "leave before you're fired" situation.

Penn State aside, unless you're a blue blood (UCLA when it hired Mick Cronin from Cincinnati), or you're willing to throw a TON of money at someone (Buzz Williams, an asshole, going from VT to A&M), major conference to major conference moves are pretty rare in the modern landscape. It's significantly more common for a power conference school to hire a power conference first chair assistant or a mid-major head coach.
And that's exactly why PSU basketball is going to be on a perpetual treadmill. Under the current conditions, it has absolutely no chance to become a consistent winning program that goes to the tournament maybe every 3 out of 5 years. If that's the case, why even waste money on sending these teams halfway across the country to lose almost every single Big 10 road game? The results basically are predetermined.
 
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And that's exactly why PSU basketball is going to be on a perpetual treadmill. Under the current conditions, it has absolutely no chance to become a consistent winning program that goes to the tournament maybe every 3 out of 5 years. If that's the case, why even waste money on sending these teams halfway across the country to lose almost every single Big 10 road game? The results basically are predetermined.
You don't have to hire an established power conference head coach to make a good hire. Nate Oats at Alabama, Eric Musselman at Arkansas, and Dan Hurley at UConn were all hired away from successful mid-major programs, and have all been pretty good hires so far in their tenures.

But at the end of the day, you're talking about Penn State basketball becoming something that Penn State has never been before in its history. We laugh at places like Rutgers or Maryland who seem to perpetually think that they're just one good hire away from being a consistently good football program. But Penn State basketball is in the same spot. That doesn't mean it isn't worth trying to make a good coaching hire (and, in fact, Penn State basketball doesn't "waste money" as a sport that operates in the black), but it's also important to be realistic that a "consistent winning program that goes to the tournament every 3/5 years" would be an unprecedented level of success for Penn State basketball.
 
IYou don't have to hire an established power conference head coach to make a good hire. Nate Oats at Alabama, Eric Musselman at Arkansas, and Dan Hurley at UConn were all hired away from successful mid-major programs, and have all been pretty good hires so far in their tenures.

But at the end of the day, you're talking about Penn State basketball becoming something that Penn State has never been before in its history. We laugh at places like Rutgers or Maryland who seem to perpetually think that they're just one good hire away from being a consistently good football program. But Penn State basketball is in the same spot. That doesn't mean it isn't worth trying to make a good coaching hire (and, in fact, Penn State basketball doesn't "waste money" as a sport that operates in the black), but it's also important to be realistic that a "consistent winning program that goes to the tournament every 3/5 years" would be an unprecedented level of success for Penn State basketball.
I see Penn State becoming a good basketball program as a lot easier to do than than Rutgers becoming a good football program. To become consistently good in football, you need to attract a lot of top players in a variety of positions. In basketball, you can become successful with one or two consecutive really good recruiting classes. You just have to hire a coach a few of the top kids in the country want to play for..

The challenge in the past for Penn State is they have not been willing to pony up a salary that would attract a Nate Oats, Eric Musselman, or Dan Hurley (and I'll add Jeff Capel to the list as well). None of those coaches are going to come to Penn State if all Penn State is willing to pay is a Pat Chambers' level salary. This hire will send a huge signal to the Penn State community on whether Penn State cares about fielding a competitive basketball team.
 
all the Pat bashers wanted a big time talent. They are not lining up. Penns Valley coached turned it down. Beiline likes Ferry.
 
And that's exactly why PSU basketball is going to be on a perpetual treadmill. Under the current conditions, it has absolutely no chance to become a consistent winning program that goes to the tournament maybe every 3 out of 5 years. If that's the case, why even waste money on sending these teams halfway across the country to lose almost every single Big 10 road game? The results basically are predetermined.
Because we don't "lose almost every single Big 10 road game"...my God, you'd think we're the Big Ten doormat over the past few years with the way people talk about the team. In the past 5+ years, we've been better than Nebraska, Northwestern, Rutgers, and Minnesota. If things had considered on the current trajectory, we certainly could have been about the 7th-8th best program in the conference, which means going to the tournament probably about half the time.
 
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No, he doesn't come from a natural PSU recruiting territory, but Penn State really doesn't have a natural recruiting territory in basketball outside of recent success in Philly, and I don't see any strong head coaching candidates with Philly backgrounds.
I'd say that our primary recruiting territory should be the I95 corridor from NYC to DC, and looking to pick up the "B" level recruiting in the state of Pennsylvania and places like NJ and upstate NY. We're not going to land McD's AA's from PA, but getting guys like Stevie Mitchell and Dereck Lively, with some of those Philly/NYC/DMV 3/4* kids would get us where I want us to be.

If we're looking for a mid-major coach that's a big of a reach, Matt Langel would be my preference over Gates due to his Philly connections.
 
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I'm going to take a pass on him, just because of how unproven he is, even at the mid-major level. I would like to see a longer snapshot of his ability, especially when he does not seem to have connections to either the Philly or DMV recruiting area.
 
I wish Penn State would go after Joe Crispin or John Beilein. Belein was a good coach and very well liked at WVU and also did a good job at Michigan. Saw where he was looking at BC. Think Crispin would do a good job and would have some support as well.
 
I wish Penn State would go after Joe Crispin or John Beilein. Belein was a good coach and very well liked at WVU and also did a good job at Michigan. Saw where he was looking at BC. Think Crispin would do a good job and would have some support as well.


I think Beilein made around $3.8 MM (all in) his last year at Michigan. Will PSU come close to that number?
 
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I wish Penn State would go after Joe Crispin or John Beilein. Belein was a good coach and very well liked at WVU and also did a good job at Michigan. Saw where he was looking at BC. Think Crispin would do a good job and would have some support as well.
Joe wouldn’t even be the best choice in the current Rowan Athletic Department. He’s not close to ready for a Big Ten job.
 
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If the job is posted, it's entirely possible they have the hire already in place.

That is very possible being by Pa law they have to at least advertise the job for two weeks and there is only two weeks left in the season.
 
I wish Penn State would go after Joe Crispin or John Beilein. Belein was a good coach and very well liked at WVU and also did a good job at Michigan. Saw where he was looking at BC. Think Crispin would do a good job and would have some support as well.
I dont think either make sense. Belein is old and now going to go into houses and recruit top kids after his cavs remark. Crispin is not ready.
 
I would be...let someone try that experiment in the MEAC or NEC or something like that, not the Big Ten (not to mention that she likely made way more than Chambers last year).
Definitely agree about the money part.

I never coached girls basketball but one of the girls at my school played for her at Temple. we got to go up and watch practice and a game before and I thought it was excellent. I think she has enough of a name that she could attract some good talent from that area.

She's not my first choice or my second or third for that matter but there's a lot worse candidates than her that people on this site have mentioned.
 
Joe wouldn’t even be the best choice in the current Rowan Athletic Department. He’s not close to ready for a Big Ten job.
Agreed - Crispin is extremely unqualified for a HC job in the B10 (or even a high-major, period... maybe even underqualified for many mid-majors, too).

If Sandy hires Joe Crispin, although he brings back fond memories, I will be done following the basketball program because their agenda will be painstakingly obvious.
 
I dont think either make sense. Belein is old and now going to go into houses and recruit top kids after his cavs remark. Crispin is not ready.
Beilein is a heck of a coach and would do some big things here if given the opportunity
 
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