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Best Coaching Staff Ever at RU??

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RURahh

All-American
Sep 21, 2013
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I was initially pretty nuetral on Pike as a hire but got more bullish after he snatched Hobbs away. Didn't know much about Jay Young, seemed like a loyal guy who followed Pike when he couldn't get the head gig at Stonybrook but I was ohh so wrong, he is a huge difference maker

Add Brandon Knight who may likely be the best recruiter on the staff and a second great mentor for our guards and that may be the single greatest assistant coaching hire RU has ever made. Finally, finding a way to keep Shoes on the staff was a smart and creative move that has already paid dividends

Yes, I am posting this 2 weeks ahead of a Seton Hall Wisconsin blip up in our schedule, but this staff got it done, grabbing a CJ Getty and Candido Sa to make us competitive this year and has significantly improved EJ's recruits and we are looking at the post season for the first time in a decade

While we will be lucky to get 6 more wins this year after a 9-1 start, I think our recruiting ceiling is as high as any Rutgers team I have seen in 25 years, and this staff has shown it's ability to coach and develop players...

I feel good about predicting that RU will be dancing in the next 3 years with players that none of us even know right now

The only staff I can compare this to was Schiano staff of 2012 when Tim forced GS to take Wanny's assistant's and we had our best recruiting class ever, but that was all short term and they were never able to prove if they had true coaching talent...

Can anyone name a better staff than we have right now??
 
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LC-88

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Apr 24, 2010
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As a non-basketball guy, I'd agree from a coaching perspective. The two best staffs that I remember were Wentzel's first one with Van Gundy, and Tom Young's. Bannon and his staff were the best recruiters.

We need to start thinking about how to fund Pike and staff's raise so we can keep them.

As much as I hate UConn, I want them to start winning so they will never have a reason to hire Pike away from Rutgers.
 
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jellyman_rivals307848

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LC-88 said:
As a non-basketball guy, I'd agree from a coaching perspective. The two best staffs that I remember were Wentzel's first one with Van Gundy, and Tom Young's. Bannon and his staff were the best recruiters.

We need to start thinking about how to fund Pike and staff's raise so we can keep them.

As much as I hate UConn, I want them to start winning so they will never have a reason to hire Pike away from Rutgers.
Click to expand...

Wenzel in his 1st year (1988-89) had both Van Gundy and Eddie Jordan as assistants. I know Jordan's name as a coach is n ow anathema. But Jordan and Van Gundy both became NBA HEAD coaches, which kind of makes that a ridiculous set of assistants, no?
 
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RUtix4me

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Jan 18, 2015
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Didn't we once have a staff take us to the final four? That did not happen by magic. 10-games in to early to crown this execellent staff as the new emporer.
 
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rufeelinit

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May 16, 2010
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Certainly the most highly regarded staff we have had in a while. Both Knight and Hobbs had solid reputations and RU paid a competitive salary to get them here. I thought it was a the perfect compliment to selecting Pike who deserves credit for being open to such a move particularly with Knight who I don't think he had any significant prior relationship with. Clearly in FB Ash went a different way. In game coaching thus far seems significantly better but EJ really set the bar low. Let's see how competitive we are when we start playing the big boys.

On recruiting, the jury is still out. RU is a tough sell and it still feels like the Shoes Show through this initial transition period. Nice to have kept him around as well. Pike put a lot of time and effort into Alvarado and that did not work out. You would not think Knight would not need a lot of time to start paying dividends but selling RU is different than selling Pitt. Hopefully the new facility helps with the sell and Pike proves he can close.
 
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RAA-1

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Jan 28, 2004
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The early 1970's staff had to recruit playing in the Barn. That staff lead by HC Dick Lloyd also had Dick Vitale and John McFadden who together recruited the Freshman class that went on to go undefeated in their senior year and play in the 1976 Final Four.

Dickie V went on to eventually be named the HC of the Detroit Pistons and later became the legendary (and annoying) broadcaster.
 
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250andCounting

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May 1, 2016
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The staff prior to the Lloyd one wasn't so bad either. HC Bill Foster, Dick Lloyd and Jm Valvano.

Foster left RU to take the HC job at Utah and later became the HC at Duke where he was named the Coach of the Year in 1978.
 
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hinson32

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Jul 29, 2005
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CVS had the best staff in the 2000's. law and Mitchell became head coaches, they made a final four and four sweet 16s and recruited over 10 MCD AA.
 
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250andCounting

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May 1, 2016
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Since this is the MBB board we can assume the OP was talking about this sport and not WBB, soccer, baseball, crew, wrestling, fencing, etc.
 
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RURahh

All-American
Sep 21, 2013
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i was initially referring to the 2 big $$ sports- mens basketball and football

While people have bought up that we had great COACHing staffs in the 70's and early 90's, not sure what kind of recruiting ever came from that. After 1976, we certainly didn't build a dynasty with future recruiting classes. My OP was definitely forward looking, in that I think recruiting under this staff (assuming Knight and Hobbs both stay) will prove to be better than anything we have seen before, but we will be judged against playing in the best league in college basketball as opposed to the days of the Atlantic 10
 
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RUinFla

All-Conference
Aug 2, 2001
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Have to temper our expectations some. If RU is near .500 this season and grabs an NIT bid next season, our assistants will be in play for some D1 HC slots.
We can live with that.
TL
 
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