While I would prefer an aggressive "swing for the fences" choice such as Dennis Gates, either Musselman or Mack would be preferable to DeCuire. A 44 year old (the comparisons to Shaka are lol given the age difference alone) who's never been a college head coach, never been a top assistant on a Final Four team, no NBA background -- nothing against him personally, but it's just a "give-up and be mediocre" choice.

Plus Musselhead was hated by Dampier, so he's got that going for him.

Musselman has interviewed twice - he's as likely as any...

Trying to keep score here. Who has had 2 interviews? TD, Musselman, Mack, Turner? Howland? Are there others that I am missing?

BUMP;842303709 said:

---

While I would prefer an aggressive "swing for the fences" choice such as Dennis Gates, either Musselman or Mack would be preferable to DeCuire. A 44 year old (the comparisons to Shaka are lol given the age difference alone) who's never been a college head coach, never been a top assistant on a Final Four team, no NBA background -- nothing against him personally, but it's just a "give-up and be mediocre" choice.

Plus Musselhead was hated by Dampier, so he's got that going for him.

---

I thought Gates was a very good player and obviously a true student-athlete. I'm not surprised to see him have success coaching but how is he your "swing for the fences" choice when every knock you have on DeCuire (except age) applies equally to Gates? And please don't say Gates has NBA experience. He was a coaching intern babysitting his former AAU buddies Darius Miles and Quentin Richardson on the 27 win Clippers team for one season right after graduating from Cal.

AbominableSnowman;842303741 said:

---

I thought Gates was a very good player and obviously a true student-athlete. I'm not surprised to see him have success coaching but how is he your "swing for the fences" choice when every knock you have on DeCuire (except age) applies equally to Gates? And please don't say Gates has NBA experience. He was a coaching intern babysitting his former AAU buddies Darius Miles and Quentin Richardson on the 27 win Clippers team for one season right after graduating from Cal.

---

Um, yeah, Dennis Gates = "swing for the fences"?!?

I didn't even think Dennis Gates was a "very good player". I mean, don't you have to get, maybe, all-conference or something to warrant that "very good" designation? This was a guy who was reknowned for his defense because it was so good only relative to his non-existent offensive game (which never stopped him from jacking up 3 pt attempts like it was his God-given right).

Gates graduated from Cal faster than I did, with better grades and also played decent intercollegiate basketball (though I did get a single-double on three separate occasions in intramural ball), so I got to hand it to him for that, but c'mon.

Big C_Cal;842303800 said:

---

Um, yeah, Dennis Gates = "swing for the fences"?!?

---

Well he didn't say make contact...

BUMP;842303709 said:

---

While I would prefer an aggressive "swing for the fences" choice such as Dennis Gates, either Musselman or Mack would be preferable to DeCuire. A 44 year old (the comparisons to Shaka are lol given the age difference alone) who's never been a college head coach, never been a top assistant on a Final Four team, no NBA background -- nothing against him personally, but it's just a "give-up and be mediocre" choice.

Plus Musselhead was hated by Dampier, so he's got that going for him.

---

Musselman is the least desirable candidate mentioned in my opinion.

bluesaxe;842303835 said:

---

Musselman is the least desirable candidate mentioned in my opinion.

---

For me, that would be Howland by a long shot, followed by Pasternack.

We were going to have Monty for the next two years--Monty thinks we should have DeCuire instead. I agree. I really think we should give DeCuire a shot with an incentive laden contract and low buyout. I am pretty sure Musselman (and Turner and whatever "hot" Big West there is at that time) will be available in two to three years if it doesn't work out. Plus, this freshman class will be ready to move on. Our best opportunity to win now, with these players, is almost certainly with Travis DeCuire. If we are not winning with DeCuire, everyone will understand why he was let go. No hard feelings. If we are winning with DeCuire, then we hit a home run.

Stop making sense.

Based on Kevin Ollie's first contract at UCONN, we could and should offer a one year deal. Calhoun built UCONN and recommended Ollie but they still covered their asses by only giving him a year deal