[jacket3ree]

This will be interesting, which is more than one can say about the past several years of Stanford Basketball. I don't have any names, just a few observations and a question.

Muir is supposedly a basketball guy. His Wikipedia page lists him as a "basketball player". You would think this is in his wheelhouse. He was AD at Georgetown (once as basketball school as there ever was; what the hell happened?) from 2005 - 2009. He inherited a team in some flux after the Craig Esherick era ended and John Thompson III was in his second year. They did OK during Muir's four or five years there, making three tournaments and a Final Four.  Muir left for Delaware and Thompson III stayed until being dumped in 2017 when Patrick Ewing took over a dumpster fire and proceeded to throw gasoline on it. From what I remember and see, it is hard to pin blame for Georgetown's demise on Muir. Hey they had three good tournament showings and a Final Four when he arrived compared to five straight seasons without an NCAA appearance right before he showed up. Haase was not a bad hire on paper. I think Muir will, as someone said earlier, fire someone good on paper. (NB: meant to say "hire", but will leave as is because I bet this happens all over again. He'll go for long-term stability and it will backfire. I'd take a blaze bright and leave stepping stone coach any day of the week.)

There are no home runs or slam dunks. Bill Walsh's return to the Stanford sideline was the home run hire of all time. To be fair, had we found out that Walsh wanted the job but Leland went in a different direction (he really should have hired Shaw), he would have been crucified no matter what Shaw did.  Bill Walsh was a .500 coach and drove the program into a ditch before stepping aside.

If I'm Muir, I have a short list already and my first two calls are to Jay Wright and Tony Bennett. Not with job offers, but for feedback. (And maybe they will pull a Walsh and ask for the job.) Jay Wright ran exactly the program Stanford wants. He's been broadcasting games. Who does he see out there that might be off the radar, or on the radar and Stanford needs to interview?  Tony Bennett moved from the Pac12 to ACC, very successfully.  What advice can he give?  Does he have a great assistant coach ready to run an ACC team?  Are you really thinking of retiring?

Stanford is probably looking for someone who won't chafe under the recruiting restrictions, is OK working where his players (professional or otherwise) are expected to go to school, can recruit nationally, and can get more out of the sum of the parts than others might, to be nationally competitive.  Should this be a west coast guy, an east coast guy, or does it matter?  Stanford recruits nationally, but are we selling ourselves as a west coast school forced to play in the ACC, or as an ACC team from exotic California?  Are we going to be grabbing more kids from say Hampton Roads with visions of a familiar conference, but with palm trees on campus?

[jacket3ree]

This will be interesting, which is more than one can say about the past several years of Stanford Basketball. I don't have any names, just a few observations and a question.

Muir is supposedly a basketball guy. His Wikipedia page lists him as a "basketball player". You would think this is in his wheelhouse. He was AD at Georgetown (once as basketball school as there ever was; what the hell happened?) from 2005 - 2009. He inherited a team in some flux after the Craig Esherick era ended and John Thompson III was in his second year. They did OK during Muir's four or five years there, making three tournaments and a Final Four.  Muir left for Delaware and Thompson III stayed until being dumped in 2017 when Patrick Ewing took over a dumpster fire and proceeded to throw gasoline on it. From what I remember and see, it is hard to pin blame for Georgetown's demise on Muir. Hey they had three good tournament showings and a Final Four when he arrived compared to five straight seasons without an NCAA appearance right before he showed up. Haase was not a bad hire on paper. I think Muir will, as someone said earlier, fire someone good on paper. (NB: meant to say "hire", but will leave as is because I bet this happens all over again. He'll go for long-term stability and it will backfire. I'd take a blaze bright and leave stepping stone coach any day of the week.)

There are no home runs or slam dunks. Bill Walsh's return to the Stanford sideline was the home run hire of all time. To be fair, had we found out that Walsh wanted the job but Leland went in a different direction (he really should have hired Shaw), he would have been crucified no matter what Shaw did.  Bill Walsh was a .500 coach and drove the program into a ditch before stepping aside.

If I'm Muir, I have a short list already and my first two calls are to Jay Wright and Tony Bennett. Not with job offers, but for feedback. (And maybe they will pull a Walsh and ask for the job.) Jay Wright ran exactly the program Stanford wants. He's been broadcasting games. Who does he see out there that might be off the radar, or on the radar and Stanford needs to interview?  Tony Bennett moved from the Pac12 to ACC, very successfully.  What advice can he give?  Does he have a great assistant coach ready to run an ACC team?  Are you really thinking of retiring?

Stanford is probably looking for someone who won't chafe under the recruiting restrictions, is OK working where his players (professional or otherwise) are expected to go to school, can recruit nationally, and can get more out of the sum of the parts than others might, to be nationally competitive.  Should this be a west coast guy, an east coast guy, or does it matter?  Stanford recruits nationally, but are we selling ourselves as a west coast school forced to play in the ACC, or as an ACC team from exotic California?  Are we going to be grabbing more kids from say Hampton Roads with visions of a familiar conference, but with palm trees on campus?