All "Gripes" with Greg McDermott

[Cyhart]

I was in the fence about his hiring, mainly because of recruiting. Not because I didn't think he couldn't coach. But now with the yearly attrition and lack of improvement I don't know what's wrong but it didn't work it's time to say goodbye IMO.

Question, does anyone know what it will cost to buy mac out?

2.5 million if it happened this year.
$500k less if it happens next year.

[LakeHavasu]

I think we will see a turn around on mac's attitude next year. He has nothing to loose. If he doesn't get it right, he is gone. If he does, then he may have the beginning of a solid coaching run. I think he stops codeling these kids and starts coaching. i don't know if it is too late, but better late than never.

In short, i think Mac grows a pair over the summer. As for the transfers, kids want to be part of a winning program. I think that is what Ham was being pushed to be on. bYU is the second best team in the conference.

[dbronco7sc]

How many #1 players have there been from Iowa? For every great player from Iowa, which isn't many, I can probably name about 25-50 from New York, California, Florida, or Texas.

Really?

You realize that there is only one #1 recruit for mens basketball every year.

So, I'll give you the benefit of the doubt and go with the low side (25). You'll have to go back 101 years to find 25 for each of those states. And that's assuming no other state has had any during that time period.

Yeah... population wise... the ones you listed ought to have more than us obviously. But good luck naming 25 to 50. (now that I think about it... you must mean 25 to 50 from those 4 combined)

Still... based on our population alone... 1 in the last 50 years is welllllllll above average.

And obviously we recuit Texas (WJ), Florida (Taylor), California (Brackins, McIntosh) so clearly they're all in New York. Maybe we shoulda kept Morgan then (Stinson, Clark, Blalock?...)

[marothisu]

Really?

You realize that there is only one #1 recruit for mens basketball every year.

So, I'll give you the benefit of the doubt and go with the low side (25). You'll have to go back 101 years to find 25 for each of those states. And that's assuming no other state has had any during that time period.

Yeah... population wise... the ones you listed ought to have more than us obviously. But good luck naming 25 to 50. (now that I think about it... you must mean 25 to 50 from those 4 combined)

Still... based on our population alone... 1 in the last 50 years is welllllllll above average.

And obviously we recuit Texas (WJ), Florida (Taylor), California (Brackins, McIntosh) so clearly they're all in New York. Maybe we shoulda kept Morgan then (Stinson, Clark, Blalock?...)

Let me state it another way...as much as everyone on here would love to think so, there haven't been many great players who went to HS in Iowa. The "great" players from Iowa don't even compare to the great players of somewhere like NY. Abdul-Jabbar, Dr. J, Bernard King, Tiny Archibald, etc vs. Kirk Hinrich and Raef LaFrentz

That wasn't even really the main point though. The main point was back before that. When GMac was hired he said he was going to very heavily recruit Iowa, to which I had a beer. We recruit other places than Iowa because of our assistants and their ties to other areas. Example being Craig Brackins and TJ O...he's the main reason Brackins ever came or considered ISU.

And yes, I was angry when Morgan was fired even though we "underachived" his last season which still turned out better than GMac's best year so far here.

[Tre4ISU]

Also if you are going to throw the Harrison Barnes rock at Mac, make sure you are throwing Collison and Heinrichs rocks at someone. Also make sure there is a Lafrentz one in there too.

[Ficklone02]

I think we will see a turn around on mac's attitude next year. He has nothing to loose. If he doesn't get it right, he is gone. If he does, then he may have the beginning of a solid coaching run. I think he stops codeling these kids and starts coaching. i don't know if it is too late, but better late than never.

I think you might be right that he takes a stand here this year and really emphasizes more toughness. If he can accomplish that along with better guard play (we should have more talent at those positions) maybe it will work out. Problem being, its just so puzzling to see the continual exit of players.

[Clonedogg]

Thanks Cyhart for the info.

I would love nothing more than to have mac turn it around. What's turning it around defined as this coming yr, above 500, nit, ncaa?

[deadeyededric]

I thought it was a bad hire at the time. JP jumped the gun when he hired him cause he was scared iowa was gonna get him. I hated the fact he had never one a conference title in the regular season. He couldn't get past the first round NCAA either. I wasn't blown away with his records. the 22-11 type in the MVC. Iowa State was still a great job and I always felt we could have done much better. The only thing I was happy with was that he has done a decent job recruiting, but if you can't develop players and half of them leave anyway it really dosen't matter.

[Clonedogg]

Iowa State was still a great job and I always felt we could have done much better.

how many people passed on the job when we hired Morgan? He was our 3rd or 4th choice.

[deadeyededric]

how many people passed on the job when we hired Morgan? He was our 3rd or 4th choice.

BVD was the AD don't forget.

[IlikeTornados]

I was not thrilled at all about hiring Mac.... and now I am not thrilled about Mac still being our coach.

[cyclones500]

Wasn't the #1 player in high school this year from Iowa?

That's one of the crushers for me, in retrospect. There were 2 things I liked about the GM hire at the time:
1. If he had success at ISU, he wouldn't immediately bolt for greener pastures.

2. He would have at least a partial foothold in recruiting close to home, so when a rare blue-chipper came along in-state, he'd want to go to ISU over Iowa --- let alone losing him out of state.

By the time H-Barnes made his decision, the continual losing was going to out-flank everything else. He's the biggest Iowa prospect, nationally, in a quarter-century or so — with extreme ISU/Ames ties — and Roy got him. Sometimes I wish he had just said "Iowa State is not in the equation."

[cdekovic]

I recall when GMac was hired that Hawkeye fans were like "Oh Crap, sure wish we would have dumped Alford and picked up GMac". Then when the Hawks hired Lickliter, Cyclone fans were like "Huh, shouldn't have to worry too much about this guy". Well Mac is 2-2 against the Hawks and Lickliter was 1-2 against the Cyclones as the Hawkeye coach. I would have expected that going to Carver/Hawkeye next year would likely produce the same results if Lickliter stayed...home team wins. If we go into Carver next year and lay an egg considering that EIU will have a new coach/players/system, etc. that will be the final piece of the puzzle for me.

[CycloneErik]

I recall when GMac was hired that Hawkeye fans were like "Oh Crap, sure wish we would have dumped Alford and picked up GMac". Then when the Hawks hired Lickliter, Cyclone fans were like "Huh, shouldn't have to worry too much about this guy". Well Mac is 2-2 against the Hawks and Lickliter was 1-2 against the Cyclones as the Hawkeye coach. I would have expected that going to Carver/Hawkeye next year would likely produce the same results if Lickliter stayed...home team wins. If we go into Carver next year and lay an egg considering that EIU will have a new coach/players/system, etc. that will be the final piece of the puzzle for me.

Historically, we have laid a lot of eggs in Iowa City, across most every coach.

I'm puzzled, too. I expected that Mac could retain players and create an extremely cohesive team atmosphere. That obviously hasn't happened, and there seems to be a clear disconnect between players and coaches.

I'm quite nervous about how next year can go. With the prospect of 3-4ish JUCO guys, we're almost going a scorched-earth route right now. If next season doesn't result in a tournament of some sort, and it really needs to be the NCAAs, then we have to look for a new coach. That new coach comes into massive turnover waiting to happen, where we have a small # of sophomores/juniors, a bunch of 1-year remaining JUCO transfers, and at least 3 to replace (Diante, Dendy, and JVB) on very short notice.

This actually could be quite a scary prospect.

[Cyclonepride]

Still trying to figure out why people are still talking about the comment regarding recruiting the state of Iowa. How many kids has Mac signed from the state?