[quote="newsman13" post=279801]Of course coaching matters. There's a reason some teams win every year. Recruiting matters as well It turns mediocre coaches into geniuses.
My dispute is anointing Dan Hurley as the next coming of coach K and how we missed out on a great one. He may turn out that way. Truth be told, he didn't beat anyone in the top 20 at URI. The A10 was weak...only winning just over half its games. That leads to gaudy records by mediocre teams. Overall, Big East teams won about two thirds of their games. St John's dragged the conference down, otherwise it would have the best W-L record in the country. Hurley may do fairly well in the AAC, which won at a .577 clip. The conference isn't as strong as the BE, it goes without saying.
Would Hurley have been a Redmen savior? URI wasn't a world beater in the A10. His record wasn't as good as Fraschella at Manhattan. He averaged 20 wins a season including a gaudy 26-5 one year. Jarvis was a world beater at BU averaging 20 plus wins a season...and his record at UMASS got him to St John's. Who's to say Hurley would have done better here than those two. I doubt he'd out recruit them. I guess he'd reach the same high level or mediocrity. No world beating...no Villanova clone...ultimately, he'd eventually be vilified by the usual suspects on this board.
I'm not happy with the NBA "every man for himself" mentality our so-called "team" exhibits. We're not bringing in one and done five star talents, We're bringing in ordinary players (except Ponds) who have no loyalty to the school. I'm not sure Mullin can address this. I love the image Mullin and Richmond are bringing to the school. I'd love it better if we became an elite team. I don't see how that can happen when we'll be stuck playing six or seven guys again next season.[/quote]
how exactly could our record against big east opponents bring down the overall conference record?
