OT: D1

[Fightingscot82]

RMU extends Andy Toole, one of the nicest guys in D1 basketball. He was making roughly $400k in 2022 (latest info available) and his wife is in charge of campus recruiting for the Dicks Sporting Goods headquarters, so money isn't exactly the #1 driver for him.

[Chuck Norris]

RMU extends Andy Toole, one of the nicest guys in D1 basketball. He was making roughly $400k in 2022 (latest info available) and his wife is in charge of campus recruiting for the Dicks Sporting Goods headquarters, so money isn't exactly the #1 driver for him.

That’s some seriously good money for what, by D1 basketball coach standards, is probably as low pressure a job as one could get. This year alone probably buys him a few years of goodwill if things go south a bit. I’d say he’s winning at life.

[Columbuseer]

That couldn't be any more boring of a hire.

The WVU boards aren't real thrilled with old Ross.

Hodge won 80% of games, where 64% is considered elite.

[Ship69]

Accurate. See the post I just added into this thread.

I kind of get a kick out of people who are dragging the ACC about how they have kind of fallen off the last 3-5 years in basketball. Follow the money. The SEC used to be a laughingstock in basketball but is now clearly the best conference. The B1G used to be good, but not as good at the top half as it is now. A bunch high-end guys playing in either of those two leagues transferred from ACC schools. Comparatively speaking, Pitt's roster is filled with mid-major transfers.

The SEC and B1G are filled with massive universities, with massive sized fan bases, and massive alumni networks. The footprint and profile of most schools in the ACC is smaller engineering and medical schools in metropolitan areas. Duke is a blueblood program, but it's a small university. Clemson is a very, very large university with a lot of money in the NIL coffers. Their basketball program used to stink, but they are arguably a Top-3 ACC program now that they can pay players. None of this stuff is a coincidence. And until this can get better managed (hopefully) through codifying the House settlement (hopefully in April), it'll continue to be what it is.

The B1G simply is not recruiting as well as it should. They actually had a pretty good tournament with winning all eight of their first-round games and getting several teams to the final eight, but it never seemed they had a team with enough overall talent to go all the way. I think they only lost one game in which they were favored, and Purdue gave Houston all it wanted. With the money, great fan bases, and big-time arenas in that league, there is really no reason they shouldn't be recruiting better. With the addition of the USC and UCLA, they now have Calif., Chicago, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Philly, the Delmarva area and NYC in their recruiting footprint. You certainly ought to be able to get some ball players out of there. Illinois fans have watched Chicago prospects go to Kansas, Kentucky, the ACC and South for years. A classic was probably Jon Scheyer, current coach of Duke, who was heavily recruited out of Glenbrook (HS I attended when I lived in Illinois). Scheyer's high school coach was Dave Weber, brother of Bruce Weber — the Illinois coach at the time — and Illinois still couldn't get him. It's frustrating for a state as basketball-mad as Illinois.

[IUP24]

The B1G simply is not recruiting as well as it should. They actually had a pretty good tournament with winning all eight of their first-round games and getting several teams to the final eight, but it never seemed they had a team with enough overall talent to go all the way. I think they only lost one game in which they were favored, and Purdue gave Houston all it wanted. With the money, great fan bases, and big-time arenas in that league, there is really no reason they shouldn't be recruiting better. With the addition of the USC and UCLA, they now have Calif., Chicago, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Philly, the Delmarva area and NYC in their recruiting footprint. You certainly ought to be able to get some ball players out of there. Illinois fans have watched Chicago prospects go to Kansas, Kentucky, the ACC and South for years. A classic was probably Jon Scheyer, current coach of Duke, who was heavily recruited out of Glenbrook (HS I attended when I lived in Illinois). Scheyer's high school coach was Dave Weber, brother of Bruce Weber — the Illinois coach at the time — and Illinois still couldn't get him. It's frustrating for a state as basketball-mad as Illinois.

I'm not understanding your post.

I said that the SEC and B1G are the two best basketball conferences because they have all the money. For as basketball rich as the ACC has always been, their players are transferring out of their schools to go to the SEC and B1G for truckloads of cash. There's no reason for B1G or SEC schools to excel in "recruiting" high school players when they can just have their pick of the litter from ACC and Big 12 schools that enter the portal looking for more money.

[Topper_Hopper]

Jaland Lowe to Kentucky.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

Jaland Lowe to Kentucky.

Lucky him

[Chuck Norris]

It took awhile but we finally got a compelling night of action on Saturday and tonight looks like it should be a very competitive championship game. Incidentally this is the championship game I had in my bracket, with Houston cutting the nets down. Sadly, I did so poorly in the early rounds that even if the Cougars get it done, the best I can do in my group is second place lol.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

Bobby Huggins has apparently done an initial interview with Cleveland State.

[IUPalum]

Bobby Huggins has apparently done an initial interview with Cleveland State.

Fantastic, NCAA needs Huggy Bear back.