Darrell Walker

Welcome Coach Walker. I hope you have a long and very successful career at Little Rock, and I am behind you all the way. And I mean that sincerely.

That having been said, let's review what happened in the process. If Wikipedia's information is correct, Walker was a head coach in the NBA for three seasons, with an overall record of 56-113 (.331). That would have a way to go to get even to the mediocre level. He has been a head coach at the D2 level for two years, with an overall record of 45-18 (.714), which is very nice by any standard, and certainly deserves credit. He has not coached in any capacity at the D1 college level.

There is NO WAY anyone can convince me that Darrell Walker was the best candidate that applied for this job. Not even close. This was obviously a political pick. It may work out well; I hope it does. But Chasse Conque did not do any better as far as the process is concerned on this selection than he did on the last. 

Trojan fans may be pleased with the results, but I think they definitely have a fight to be peeved at the method.

Cutting off your nose to spite your face

One of the things I do not like (and there are many) about the over-emphasis in college basketball upon one short tournament is that it brings a totally perverted reasoning concerning the worth of coaches. "He didn't make the NCAA Tournament, and so we are firing him." Never mind that he won more games than anyone else around. Never mind that his peers regarded him as one of the best coaches they know. Never mind that his program is generally envied and copied in the business. He didn't make the NCAA tournament. 

That might possibly be a valid yardstick at a power conference school, since finishing in the top half of those leagues usually will get you to the Dance. But with teams at lower levels, to judge a coach on that standard - to FIRE a coach based on that standard (and it happens) is idiotic, at least.

Recruiting at the different levels

Assessing talent at the different levels is the same. If they can play, they can play, and the coach has to know if they can play.

But I would assume that the processes are different at the different levels because the available resources are different. Where there is only one assistant coach and he is also teaching classes, I would assume that the way the staff recruits is different than when there are three full-time assistants. Thus, it would seem to be a factor (certainly not the only factor) in evaluating a potential hire if he has been involved in recruiting at the D1 level, at least at some point.

Does the "at" make a difference?

Thankfully, the Trojans no longer have an "at" in the team name, but we labored under that burden for many years. So, I have long had a soft spot in my heart for those other "at" schools there who are in similar circumstances. For example, when UMBC made history as the first 16 seed to win, it was doubly enjoyable because of their unwieldy acronym. Go "at" schools!

An iffy proposition

Two of the coaches since I have been a Trojan fan are at the moment at least as far as this year's Elite Eight. One of them was hired by Peterson and one by Conque. Two of them were not quite as successful - one hired by Peterson and one by Conque. It is a small sample, but it serves to illustrate just how difficult it is to hire successful coaches on a consistent basis.

The big individual winner from the Tournament?

That title probably goes to Kansas State's Bruce Weber. He had been sitting on a seat that was getting uncomfortably warm, if not downright hot. Going to the Elite Eight presumably has bought him at least a couple of years, and probably some pop in recruiting.

My usual dilemma

Here we are at the Elite Eight, and I already am to the point that there are no teams left in the tournament that I follow. (I admire Michigan because of Beilein, but I do not really follow them.) Situation normal.

Cheering for overwhelming talent

You have a pickup game between the Boston Celtics and your local junior high team. Boston wins, of course, and the Celtics fans just go crazy.

Sounds absurd, doesn't it? But that is exactly what happens (although not quite that extreme) all the time. The Bruisers play the Anemics, and you would think the Bruisers just won the title against overwhelming odds, to hear their fans cheer. Sort of like the Roman coliseum.

Why is selecting the tournament field so difficult?

Every year there is whining galore as teams are left out of the NCAA field. With all the computer models we have these days, why leave it up to human judgment. Just pick out the model, or the composite of multiple models, and let it pick the field based upon a weighting of factors that has been approved by everyone ahead of time. Then, no one can complain.

Play or win?

In today's atmosphere of transfers, the question rises if players consider it more important to play or to be on a team that wins. If I am a benchwarmer on a conference champion, is that more important than playing a lot on a last-place team? Would the answer today be any different than it was in past generations? Interesting questions.

Still we will need an infusion

Whoever he is, our new coach will have some nice pieces returning around which to build. Pippins, Burns, Corcoran, Oliver Black, Reedus, Marcus, Bankston: all of them showed occasional flashes that looked like legit D1 talent. If the players that we have are made to play like they should, perhaps they can make somewhat of a statement even as things stand. All of them, however, were inconsistent. And even if they were consistent, we still need to have some additional pieces. From somewhere we need a bona fide point guard and an inside scoring presence.

Dixon at TCU

I can't say enough about the job that Coach Jamie Dixon has done even in the short time he has been at TCU. For some inexplicable reason, Pitt's support for him began waning and he understandably jumped at the chance to go to his alma mater. The trouble is that TCU is not exactly a basketball powerhouse, or even barely a basketball doormat. They have been to the Elite Eight exactly one time, and that was way back in 1968 (when I was in junior high). Before Dixon arrived, the last time they had even been to the NCAA tournament was in 1998. As recently as 2014 they were winless in conference play. In other words, they have been awful, and did not care that they were.

Dixon has been there two years, and they won over 20 games both years, were NIT champions last season, and went to the NCAA tournament this season, even with the loss mid-season of their star point guard.

TCU is in Texas, where basketball is an afterthought; but it is reasonable to assume that TCU is at least a program on the rise.

I like the dunk

The three-point shot is the current darling of the basketball world, and since it is over-valued by at least 50%, I can understand that. However, the shot I like is the dunk. What is the overall shooting percentage on dunks? Sure, players occasionally muff them, but even at that, they probably make 75%, possibly more. Maybe 90%. So why not just slam home the ball? That is one way to get your team shooting percentage way up in a hurry.

Why I follow Clemson

This tweet from commentator and former coach Seth Greenberg:

Best decision Clemson made last year was to keep Coach_Brownell. Guy can coach and runs a first class program the right way. Character and class.

And when Clemson completely shuts down the team of a sleezebag like Bruce Pearl, I really, really enjoy it.

Loyola success

It is really enjoyable to see an old friend like Porter Moser have some significant success. Thirty wins (so far), and a trip to the Sweet 16. For most any program that is a good season. And from all I could ever tell, Porter is one of the good guys in the coaching profession. He makes his kids play the right way, still thinks defense matters, still make them take good shots.

The Virginia loss

It was great fun to see a little guy (and an "At" school on top of that) beat one of the big boys in a #1 vs. #16 matchup. However, if it had to happen, I was sorry it had to be Virginia. First of all, Tony Bennett is, by all accounts, a very class act. Second, Virginia specializes in defense, and I love defense. But half a loaf is better than none, and we did finally get a #16 seed victory.

It is really tough to do both

Chasse hired a coach who was really good, but who did not want to stay. He hired a coach who wanted to stay, but who was not very good. Either of those is relatively easy. Doing both is really, really tough at our level.

If you are good, slow it down

Efficient offenses have every reason to slow down the pace of the game. If they are producing more points per possession than the opposition, then they want to have fewer total possessions. Teams that speed up the pace can afford more mistakes because they are going to have chances to make up for them. But the slow guys tell them, "We are betting that we get more out of our chances than you do, so we don't mind having less chances."

Where did we finish in attendance?

Hats off to Trojan fans! We had one of our worst years in history - bad enough to get the coach fired. And we still finished 3rd in the Sun Belt in average home attendance, behind only UL and Arlington. Way to hang in there!

I suspect that the numbers reflect less our good attendance as they do the bad attendance elsewhere. People in seats at sporting events is down all over, from the reports I have seen. That is one reason the Powers That Be in all sports are emphasizing offense, offense, offense - because they think that will bring in the people.

It was bound to happen

Finally I get a team that is a bona fide national champion candidate that hangs its hat on defense - that being Virginia. And what happens? Their 6th man, De'Andre Hunter (6th Man of the Year in the ACC) is out for the entire tournament. Ouch. Oh, well, maybe they can patch things together.

One advantage to playing at a slower pace, as Virginia does, is that you can get more minutes per game out of your players and still have them at peak efficiency. They had an 8-man rotation, and Hunter averaged 19.9 minutes per game. That comes out to 2.8 more minutes per game for the other rotation members. Plus maybe some of the guys farther down the bench can provide a few minutes here and there.