A Sea Of Red

I thought it would be fun to start putting in names of coaches you think should be considered for our "soon to be opened" head coaching vacancy. Serious ones only, no RD references here

Let's look back at this in a few months and see who was right.

Travis Steele - Assistant Coach at Xavier. Monster recruiter, landed them the talent to reach the sweet 16 multiple times. Considered one of the best assistants out there. http://www.goxavier.com/sports/m-baskbl ... vis00.html

Mike Rhoades - Associate Head Coach at VCU - Knows the state very well. Head man at Randolph Macon prior to VCU. Again, one of the nations top recruiters http://www.vcuathletics.com/information ... oades_Mike

Korey McCray - Assistant coach at LSU - Great recruiter with strong experience in Atlanta area. Former assistant at UCLA. http://www.lsusports.net/ViewArticle.db ... =208312160

Liberty22 wrote:I thought it would be fun to start putting in names of coaches you think should be considered for our "soon to be opened" head coaching vacancy. Serious ones only, no RD references here

Let's look back at this in a few months and see who was right.

Travis Steele - Assistant Coach at Xavier. Monster recruiter, landed them the talent to reach the sweet 16 multiple times. Considered one of the best assistants out there. http://www.goxavier.com/sports/m-baskbl ... vis00.html

Mike Rhoades - Associate Head Coach at VCU - Knows the state very well. Head man at Randolph Macon prior to VCU. Again, one of the nations top recruiters http://www.vcuathletics.com/information ... oades_Mike

Korey McCray - Assistant coach at LSU - Great recruiter with strong experience in Atlanta area. Former assistant at UCLA. http://www.lsusports.net/ViewArticle.db ... =208312160

Rules are rules. Jeff Meyer

Would all of these guys fit "The Liberty Way"?

And I'm not convinced Layer is gone next year

I don't know any of their religious views but I'm sure a search committee could find out.

I'm with PH, not convinced he's gone.

BJWilliams wrote:http://www.gocards.com/sports/m-baskbl/ ... vin00.html

Local guy. Could be good.

He is a very good talent evaluator and developer (gotta be at a place like Hargrave). I think he would fit in well at Liberty philosophically as well (JMO)

Sources indicated to me today that Dale signed 5 year deal after the tournament... He's the coach and will be a while. Freeze this thread.

That isn't earth shattering news, it has been mentioned on here before. It makes it more challenging and expensive to do, but lets not pretend its impossible.

Sources indicate to me that BSK is a moron, we don't freeze him... (Sorry BSK, I couldn't resist)

We already knew he was given an extension.

I'm not convinced he's gone either. Jeff Barber isn't serious about winning.

However, I've put together a list of guys that I think could be great.

Jonathan Holmes - Assistant Head Coach at W&M

http://www.tribeathletics.com/ViewArtic ... EASON=2013

He's been at W&M for five years. He's from Indiana and oversees recruiting in the Mid-West. I believe he played for UNC for a couple of years. I like him because he's a SMART recruiter. Not so sure how he fits in with our Christian dynamic but I think he could be a great hire.


R-Jay Barsh HC at Southeastern University

http://www.seufire.com/profile.asp?playerID=300

Yes, I know this is a crazy long shot. But seriously, why not give a NAIA coach a shot? R-Jay is the current coach at Southeastern and is only in his second year. Southeastern is currently 20-4 and ranked 18th in the NAIA Coaches poll. We did run all over them earlier in the year, but they were missing a few of their best players.

I like R-Jay because he's currently coaching at a school very similar to Liberty. Southeastern is a Christian school that is investing a lot of money into their athletics. They're adding football and with it, a really nice stadium.

Jim Crutchfield HC at West Liberty University

http://www.hilltoppersports.com/coaches ... ath=mbball

Jim is in his 10th year at West Liberty and has his team at 17-1. He might be one of the best offensive minds around. West Liberty is averaging around 100 points per game I believe. I like him because he's got people excited about a small school in no-where West Virginia. He's done a lot with a little and I think he could do a lot here. In addition to that, because of how electrifying his offense is, I think he'd get people excited about Liberty basketball for the first time in a while.

He's similar to Jonathon Holmes, in that, I have no idea how well he'll fit in with our policies. With that said, as long as he isn't an out-spoken atheist, I don't really have a problem with it. If he can recruit, win games, and make us relevant, I think he'd be great here.



None of the guys that I listed are big-name hires, so, I don't expect Barber to even give them the time of day. But I do think any of these guys could make us relevant.

Any candidate for whom it is stated, "I have no idea if he would fit our policies/standards/way of life," is just a blind puff of smoke. That will absolutely be a high priority when the next or any future hiring is made.

And in MBB, it won't be this year. Just my hunble prediction.

JK37 wrote:Any candidate for whom it is stated, "I have no idea if he would fit our policies/standards/way of life," is just a blind puff of smoke. That will absolutely be a high priority when the next or any future hiring is made.

And in MBB, it won't be this year. Just my hunble prediction.

+1

I don't think you can underestimate what DL does off the court. While fans care about wins and losses there is more to running a program than that.

JK37 wrote:Any candidate for whom it is stated, "I have no idea if he would fit our policies/standards/way of life," is just a blind puff of smoke. That will absolutely be a high priority when the next or any future hiring is made.

And in MBB, it won't be this year. Just my hunble prediction.

It will be the first priority, an absolute deal-breaker, and it should be. This position simply has too high a profile to hire anyone who cannot lead the program spiritually as well as athletically and academically. It wouldn't be that hard for a guy smart enough to be a successful coach to talk the talk for a while, but in this environment, if they are not the real deal it will come out at some point.

I have followed LU basketball longer than 99% of the people on this board, and I don't recall ever being as disappointed with the performance of a team as I am with this one. I want to win as much as anyone, but hiring a coach, no matter how gifted, who is not in line with the schools mission not only would not be right, IMHO it would not work.

So, instead of maybe researching whether or not any of those candidates would be a great fit, we're just going to discredit them because we don't know?


Also, what does Layer do for us off the court? From everything I've seen, he seems to be a good guy, but I wouldn't say the same about the players. The players have locker room issues, ego problems and no motivation. If we're going to label Dale Layer is this great guy, than why can't he lead? If we're going to give Layer this credit for being a "great guy" then he needs to be able to lead the rest of the team too.

VAGolf wrote:So, instead of maybe researching whether or not any of those candidates would be a great fit, we're just going to discredit them because we don't know?


Also, what does Layer do for us off the court? From everything I've seen, he seems to be a good guy, but I wouldn't say the same about the players. The players have locker room issues, ego problems and no motivation. If we're going to label Dale Layer is this great guy, than why can't he lead? If we're going to give Layer this credit for being a "great guy" then he needs to be able to lead the rest of the team too.

All coaches, no matter how gifted will have these problems at one time or the other in their programs. So it's not just isolated to him. I will say you put your finger on the bigger part of the problem and that's the players. A performance like the other night rests more on their shoulders than the coaches.

Purple Haize wrote:

VAGolf wrote:So, instead of maybe researching whether or not any of those candidates would be a great fit, we're just going to discredit them because we don't know?


Also, what does Layer do for us off the court? From everything I've seen, he seems to be a good guy, but I wouldn't say the same about the players. The players have locker room issues, ego problems and no motivation. If we're going to label Dale Layer is this great guy, than why can't he lead? If we're going to give Layer this credit for being a "great guy" then he needs to be able to lead the rest of the team too.

All coaches, no matter how gifted will have these problems at one time or the other in their programs. So it's not just isolated to him. I will say you put your finger on the bigger part of the problem and that's the players. A performance like the other night rests more on their shoulders than the coaches.

Even off the court, I haven't seen these players do anything. If we're going to make such a big deal about the influence our coach has off the court, than what has Dale Layer done?

Vagolf, no one is discrediting the candidates you posted, we are just making it clear that we are in a unique situation where at the heart of the matter, we cant just pick anyone...it needs to be someone that would fit the mission of the school and be successful on the court. if we don't know for sure, its more than fair to at least ask the question

For the record: not only do I think Dale Layer will be back, I sincerely hope he is.

Rooster Cogburn wrote:For the record: not only do I think Dale Layer will be back, I sincerely hope he is.

We haven't been above .500 since 2010. At what point do we realize we can find a guy who believes in Jesus and can coach?

Rooster Cogburn wrote:For the record: not only do I think Dale Layer will be back, I sincerely hope he is.

Dude, we're closing in on two consecutive 20 loss seasons! Yeah, let's bring him back so we can go for the trifecta I'd like to hear your rationale.

Liberty22 wrote:

Rooster Cogburn wrote:For the record: not only do I think Dale Layer will be back, I sincerely hope he is.

We haven't been above .500 since 2010. At what point do we realize we can find a guy who believes in Jesus and can coach?

This. It's seems like some are saying the two are mutually exclusive...or that if he is a great Christian the leash is ridiculously long no matter how bad our record gets.

The reason I would want him back is because I know him personally and want to believe in him. Yes, that's a very jaded reason for wanting him back, but it's why I root for him. I also think he's working harder than his seniors right now and that without their personality issues around next year, we'll be better off. Barber would have every right to get rid of him, but I would not be sad if he didn't make that move.

SuperJon wrote:The reason I would want him back is because I know him personally and want to believe in him. Yes, that's a very jaded reason for wanting him back, but it's why I root for him. I also think he's working harder than his seniors right now and that without their personality issues around next year, we'll be better off. Barber would have every right to get rid of him, but I would not be sad if he didn't make that move.

BOOM. You are in for trouble when the coach wants to win more than his players.