UAF: New coach news

[northernGNAChoopfan]

Ostanik hires former UAA great Tobin Karlberg to be his lead assistant in Fairbanks. Tobin spent last season as an assistant at Lewis and Clark St (NAIA).

I like this!

[Anchorage]

Ostanik hires former UAA great Tobin Karlberg to be his lead assistant in Fairbanks. Tobin spent last season as an assistant at Lewis and Clark St (NAIA).

[northernGNAChoopfan]

Happy we have a coach with so much experience in Alaska and success throughout. I wasn't excited initially because of the history of when Ostanik left last time, but I'm open to the possibility that he learned a lot from that experience and will not repeat it. I think he's got a step up in the recruiting department than somebody new to Alaska, as he runs a lot of high school basketball camps around the state (I think the Alaska Basketball Academy runs the biggest camps in the state) and has for a long time. So at least in terms of Alaska athletes, he may put a lot more pressure on UAA in terms of getting Alaskans to choose Fairbanks over Anchorage. But in order to sustain that, he's got to develop those kids, find them playing time, and make it an experience that speaks to kids year after year.

But yes, you all are right, it's REALLY LATE in the game for recruiting and he's got a lot of roster spots to fill as most of the guys with playing time from this past season and eligibility left departed shortly after Sparling departed... I'll be eager to see how the roster fills out!

[tsull]

He is a good fit at UAF and I predict that he'll be successful up there. The first order of business if you're coaching in Fairbanks will be the recruiting hurdle. How to convince enough good players that Fairbanks is where they want to be.

Great information, thanks. I think you could sell some players on Fairbanks and Alaska. It's a beautiful state, Fairbanks is a nice city, and the college is well respected. I get it, players think 2 to 4 years anywhere is a lifetime. But if they look at it as an experience, somewhere to get an education and play ball, that's good. A friend of mine from Oregon moved up to Alaska several years ago just on a whim, she loves it and has never left.

On the basketball side of things one can look at playing time. Personally, I think there's not a lot of worse things in sports than sitting on a bench and not being able to compete at game time. This coach seems to understand the lay of the land up there and I'm guessing he can sell it.

[gratefuldad]

He is a good fit at UAF and I predict that he'll be successful up there. The first order of business if you're coaching in Fairbanks will be the recruiting hurdle. How to convince enough good players that Fairbanks is where they want to be.

[Anchorage]

It’s funny, I ran into a long time coach in Alaska basketball and he told me Friday about UAF “that is Frank’s job, everyone knows he is getting it”. So I guess it hasn’t been that big of a mystery.

Frank has a lot of roster slots to fill and it’s late in the game recruiting wise. UAA just finished up their class, probably most schools in the GNAC are done and he will just be getting started. Hopefully he has already started.

[gratefuldad]

UAF goes all in on Coach Ostanik after pressuring him out of the same job back in 2007.

https://x.com/NanooksMBB/status/1797674610772840662

[northernGNAChoopfan]

Looks like the job announcement was taken down, so maybe there is a hire and an announcement of that hire coming...

[northernGNAChoopfan]

Is UAF going to make a hire sometime soon?

Geez, I hope so. It's almost June! Gratefuldad, who's the finalist this week?

[tsull]

Is UAF going to make a hire sometime soon?

[tsull]

UAA lead assistant coach Ryan Orton is a finalist for the UAF job.

That would be a good hire, in my opinion. Ryan Orton has a pretty good resume and has been a head coach.

[gratefuldad]

UAA lead assistant coach Ryan Orton is a finalist for the UAF job.

[tsull]

This is exactly what Frank resigned about last time - players were into drugs, stealing computers on campus, and there were rumors about gangs. I know Frank runs a very disciplined program at Monroe, but he had exactly the same sorts of problems as Sparling did at UAF with the team getting into trouble. This is why I suggested he would need to own up to what part in that he played and what he would do differently this time around. Monroe Catholic is NOT UAF either - Frank does what he wants at Monroe; that won't be the case at UAF. I'm not crazy about this idea; I just don't see either UAF or Frank settling on something they can agree upon.

There are some decent high school coaches in Fairbanks who also played for UAF, have a more modern sense of the game, as Anchorage was alluding to, and don't have this baggage of having had teams that got in trouble before that led to the program spiraling into the dumpster. And Fairbanks is not the end of the earth; plenty of people live here and enjoy the location and climate; finding someone who can enjoy living here and raising a family is not that god awful difficult. There are a few months of the year that are cold and dark, but most geographies come with a few tradeoffs. They just need to find someone who likes this size of a place, enjoys what Interior Alaska has to offer, and knows basketball and can follow the rules.

As to Tsull's thoughs: Question for the Alaskans: Would it be better for UAF to get a high quality/super coach for 3 or 4 years, who doesn't acclimate to the remoteness and climate and leaves; or is it better to get a seasoned veteran solid (but not great) coach from the state, who is not going to be freaked out by the weather and sticks around?

I think it's better to build some consistency into the program. And I'm not sure this has to be a dichotomy between those two choices. I can't speak to what Anchorage is speaking to; UAA has had the same coach for 20 years, their problem is not consistency within the program, so I think the UAF admin should decide based on our very different circumstances.

I don't know the program that well, but I wouldn't hire a prep coach. There are awesome D2/D3/JC head coaches and assistant coaches out there looking for jobs. There are recent guys who were probably wrongly fired looking to get back in the game. It's not like the engineering field where there's more demand than supply. Almost in any college sport, there are more coaches looking for jobs than there are jobs. You're not going to find many lifers in D2 or small colleges, it's just the way it is. I thought the NNU coach, Rush, would stay in his spot; he took the A.D. job at NNU. Shaw tripled his salary taking an assistant job at WSU (last week took the associate coach position at Stanford); Pribble left St. Martin's for Seattle U. assistant job, now head coach at Idaho; WWU coach is an exception to the rule.

IMO, find the best person out there and don't worry about that culture/fit/likes the town/State/region/weather stuff. You'll never find that perfect fit.

[northernGNAChoopfan]

He won’t have the issues with his players that plagued the program under Sparling, he won’t tolerate it.

This is exactly what Frank resigned about last time - players were into drugs, stealing computers on campus, and there were rumors about gangs. I know Frank runs a very disciplined program at Monroe, but he had exactly the same sorts of problems as Sparling did at UAF with the team getting into trouble. This is why I suggested he would need to own up to what part in that he played and what he would do differently this time around. Monroe Catholic is NOT UAF either - Frank does what he wants at Monroe; that won't be the case at UAF. I'm not crazy about this idea; I just don't see either UAF or Frank settling on something they can agree upon.

There are some decent high school coaches in Fairbanks who also played for UAF, have a more modern sense of the game, as Anchorage was alluding to, and don't have this baggage of having had teams that got in trouble before that led to the program spiraling into the dumpster. And Fairbanks is not the end of the earth; plenty of people live here and enjoy the location and climate; finding someone who can enjoy living here and raising a family is not that god awful difficult. There are a few months of the year that are cold and dark, but most geographies come with a few tradeoffs. They just need to find someone who likes this size of a place, enjoys what Interior Alaska has to offer, and knows basketball and can follow the rules.

As to Tsull's thoughs: Question for the Alaskans: Would it be better for UAF to get a high quality/super coach for 3 or 4 years, who doesn't acclimate to the remoteness and climate and leaves; or is it better to get a seasoned veteran solid (but not great) coach from the state, who is not going to be freaked out by the weather and sticks around?

I think it's better to build some consistency into the program. And I'm not sure this has to be a dichotomy between those two choices. I can't speak to what Anchorage is speaking to; UAA has had the same coach for 20 years, their problem is not consistency within the program, so I think the UAF admin should decide based on our very different circumstances.

[tsull]

For me? I’m tired of the old coaches and the old coach ways. I personally would like to see some fresh coaching blood up here at both schools. I think Alaska needs it. The coaching overall in the state at all levels is very stale. Guys that have been around a long time or guys that came up under them and think the same way. I feel like at all levels we are 15 to 20 years behind most of the lower 48 in the way we play and think about basketball.

Great reply. I've been guilty as have others of hiring and wondering how long a coach will stay, or if he knows a school's culture, place, etc. Yes, those are important things, what's most important is winning and being competitive without breaking rules. Yes, it helps that a coach knows he's going to a small school with limited resources and a small fan base (WOU), and that they should recruit some local players and build a community program, since D2 is not UCLA or Duke. But counting on a coach staying or leaving? I wouldn't worry about it. WOU hired two great coaches back-to-back in Brady Bergeson from Sac State, and alumnus Jim Shaw. Each stayed four years, and while I wish each would've stayed longer, they did their jobs well and moved on. If UAF could get a great coach for 3 years, that's good.

There's a lot of great coaches in the industry at all levels, who just want a shot at being a head coach. Do a national search and see who lands.