Ohboyohboyohboy

i'm giddy with excitement to watch another branch from Krzyzewski's coaching tree fail miserably. (ala Tommy Amaker, Quin Syder, Bob Bender, Chuck Swenson and David Henderson)

but uh oh, Gottlieb thinks one of those Duke assistants could end up in a purple tie:

"What is most interesting is what this hire means for Duke assistants down the road. With the distinct possibility of Northwestern and Illinois coming open in the next two years, the ability for Steve Wojciechowski and Chris Collins to get one of those jobs may be linked to Dawkins' success at Stanford.

While Mike Brey has been a solid torchbearer for the past two years at Notre Dame as a former Duke assistant, the Irish play nothing like the boys in Durham. And while his zone defense and set offense has made the Irish a possible Big East title contender next season, it does not exactly say "Duke" in terms of style what-so-ever.

In stark contrast to Brey, Quin Snyder (Missouri) and Tommy Amaker (Michigan), as well as Dave Henderson (Delaware) and Tim O'Toole (Fairfield) to a lesser extent, tried the "Duke" system and lost their jobs. Dawkins has the face and pedigree to get it done in the recruiting world, but can he coach? The answer to that question may be the key to Collins and Wojo's futures respectively."

Athletic Director formally introduced

considering his boys were wearing football jerseys while the girls wore mini-cheerleader outfits, maybe Jim Phillips needs a little refresher on Title IX.

Rebounding help? I doubt it

NU added two more recruits this week. and i don't have high hopes. primarily because Bill Carmody has at no time shown me the ability to recruit an impact player. and let's take a closer look at these commitments...

Davide Curletti - last summer he "fell off the recruiting radar," which usually isn't a good sign. plus, when the coach is talking about a recent signee and says, "he's one of those guys who..." it is a bit alarming when the second thing mentioned is "misses," as in, when he shoots.

Luka Mirkovic - at this point the Northwestern athletic department probably has platinum status on Jat Airways. we've had some not-awful players in the last decade from eastern europe, but no one overly impressive. and although Mirkovic is 6-11, the scant 225lbs probably won't help him much inside against Wisconsin and Michigan State. i'm not saying he's the second coming of Vince Scott, but i remain skeptical that he's the answer to our inside woes.

but maybe i shouldn't be skeptical. according to Carmody, "This addresses the problem up front." oh, that was easy. i can just picture him finishing this sentence, making the wiping his hands clean motion and walking away from the microphone.

More displeasure with NU hoops from alumni in the media

generally i find Dan Shanoff annoying. he has a tendency to judge sports with a sense of "instant history" instead of allowing more thought and time determine where current events/teams/players rank among those from previous generations. and he confusingly is more of a Florida (his wife's alma mater) sports fan than Northwestern. but in his interview with Lake The Posts, he does a pretty good job of capturing what we all want:

"And I admit I have not done enough to rip the basketball program for not being more successful, when it is frustratingly clear that even the worst programs can be made reasonably successful in short order with the right coach, right recruiting and right system. I was in Welsh-Ryan for the 1994 NIT game against DePaul, sitting behind the basket with the rest of the students, and Kevin Rankin's dunk off the opening tip remains the loudest I have ever heard Northwestern fans be. All I'm asking for is one Selection Sunday that matters, one bracket I can frame, one trip to the Bubble. I'm quite sure that the year we finally make the NCAA Tournament, we will lose in the first round in the 12:10 Thursday game, but I'll take it."

Might as well start early

get ready for another early-season beatdown by a bottom-third ACC team on national television. at least this will allow us to fire up the Carmody-bashing early and often.

Worlds colliding

so on Friday i talked about Craig Robinson and i talked about people turning down the Oregon State job. now this is happening. if I'm Craig Robinson, i don't think i take that job. just seems like the program is such a mess and the rest of the league is so good, it could be a real struggle. if he wins 23 games in four seasons at OSU, maybe he gets fired and we never hear of him again, while if he continues to succeed at Brown he will certainly have more offers coming his way. then again, it might not be so easy to turn down a BCS school's money after only two years as a head coach.

So much for that idea

i know many of you thought Mike Montgomery would be a great fit for Northwestern. well, our fellow nerds on the west coast beat us to it. i imagine the Stanford band will have some fun with that.

meanwhile i hope this isn't an indication on just how hard it will be to get a new coach at a BCS bottom-feeder. St Mary's and San Diego have both turned down Oregon State.

Round and round we go

it's time again for the annual coaching carousel, which NU unfortunately won't be a part of this year. most of these hires/fires don't impact Northwestern directly, except of course for the young up-and-comers and hot assistants who are swooped up by other programs while we extend the excruciatingly long timeline to get our program turned around.

one of the more interesting story lines to me is that Craig Robinson is apparently one of the candidates for the job at Providence College. Robinson, of course, is a former NU assistant who this season led Brown to sweeps of both Penn and Princeton and a six point victory at Welsh-Ryan.

Robinson appears to have some of the Princeton basketball magic that somehow has eluded our man Bill Carmody. one of the things that struck me in Alexander Wolff's profile of John Thompson III was how Carril and JT3 seemed to have "it." the article did include that in 1998 Carmody coached Princeton to a #8 ranking and a 27-2 record (the 5th seeded Tigers lost to Michigan State in the second round), but it also mentions that Carmody didn't leave Thompson with much of a roster. (poor recruiting, anyone?) i finished that article with the impression that the other two Princeton coaches have a little something extra in terms of basketball acumen and the ability to get the most out of their players. something that BC seems to be missing at Northwestern.