962 replies to this topic

[Mackus]

He was an assistant for Pitino for a decade. Hopefully he picked up all the good traits while being able to stay away from the scummy behavior.

[BSLZackKiesel]

I’ve listened to him talk several times now on postgame interviews and other radio style interviews and he’s got a completely different mindset than Turgeon. That in and of itself is reason for hope.

The “Turgeon 2.0” comparison that some people are making is a lazy one IMO. Willard is an intense, East Coast guy who embraces high-level competition. He’s known as an excellent player development coach, which was one of the biggest knocks on Turgeon. They’re both more defensive-minded, but that’s a style that’ll win in the Big Ten and Willard is far more willing to let his teams run in transition.

[BSLChrisStoner]

Some commentary when Turgeon was hired:

https://baltimorespo...nt-part-1-of-2/

[Mackus]

The “Turgeon 2.0” comparison that some people are making is a lazy one IMO. Willard is an intense, East Coast guy who embraces high-level competition. He’s known as an excellent player development coach, which was one of the biggest knocks on Turgeon. They’re both more defensive-minded, but that’s a style that’ll win in the Big Ten and Willard is far more willing to let his teams run in transition.

 

I think he's a very similar level of hire as Turgeon was.  That doesn't mean he's an identical personality, but the quality of hire is very similar.  They share more similarities in resume and style than they have differences, IMO.  Long career as an assistant for a HOF coach, Turgeon had more success at the stepping stone level (Jax St, Wichita St versus Iona) but Willard had a longer and arguably more successful record at the immediate prior job.  Both were good hires but were not the person fans initially wanted.  

[You Play to Win the Game]

Some commentary when Turgeon was hired:
https://baltimorespo...nt-part-1-of-2/

Fun to look back on, now that we’ve moved in. DeCourcy and King both had some absolutely spot on comments about him.

This rang particularly true, IMO:

Mike DeCourcy: “Turgeon is a very composed coach. A class guy, and you rarely see him cracked. Typically what you see out of his teams is a standard to meet expectations. Not exceed or fall below, not a lot of shockers. In my piece with Sporting News (http://aol.sportingn...d#ixzz1LxC8RJtw) I point out the lack of upsets.”

[Chris B]

I'm honestly shocked they did it. Please give me Sean Miller back.

Let’s go!

[Mike B]

The “Turgeon 2.0” comparison that some people are making is a lazy one IMO. Willard is an intense, East Coast guy who embraces high-level competition. He’s known as an excellent player development coach, which was one of the biggest knocks on Turgeon. They’re both more defensive-minded, but that’s a style that’ll win in the Big Ten and Willard is far more willing to let his teams run in transition.

Yea, while I am not overly excited by the hire, I do not hate it either. I want a coach with fire and I think Willard is that.  Time will tell, but Willard does not seem like Turgeon to me.

I like that it is done, let’s hit the recruiting trail and get ready for the portal,  Time to work,

[BSLRoseKatz]

What website do you use to get these metrics?

Kenpom

[BSLRoseKatz]

The “Turgeon 2.0” comparison that some people are making is a lazy one IMO. Willard is an intense, East Coast guy who embraces high-level competition. He’s known as an excellent player development coach, which was one of the biggest knocks on Turgeon. They’re both more defensive-minded, but that’s a style that’ll win in the Big Ten and Willard is far more willing to let his teams run in transition.

Yeah I think that's an underrated positive compared to Turgeon, he was at Iona before getting the Seton Hall job and played at Pitt. I feel very confident we'll never get a story that he didn't like the job because the fans were jerks 

[Mike B]

Some commentary when Turgeon was hired:

https://baltimorespo...nt-part-1-of-2/

Jason King’s question on his first comment rang true.  

[makoman]

Man, was Jay Bilas Turgeon's best friend or what?

[Mike B]

Man, was Jay Bilas Turgeon's best friend or what?

I showed the article to my son, and told him Turgeon and Bilas must be related.

[glenn__davis]

Wow, some of those comments regarding Turgeon are spot on.  Exactly what he ended up being - pretty decent coach, won most of the games he should have, lost most of the games he should have.

 

Ready to move on with whoever the hire may be.  Agree that those comments regarding the coach next year were unfortunate.

[BSLRoseKatz]

Mike DeCourcy: “I think it was the right decision to hire an experienced Coach, but I do think there were other attractive candidates, such as Mick Cronin of Cincinnati, Chris Mack of Xavier, and Shaka Smart of  VCU. Again, Maryland got a good Coach, not sure they got the right one. I thought Turgeon was in a perfect situation for him at Texas A&M.”

 

It's funny seeing this knowing that Mack/Shaka were failures after leaving those teams for Louisville/Texas meanwhile Cronin has UCLA back to being nationally relevant and good in the tournament

[SouthRider]

On the surface, Wilard's resume is about the same as Turgeon's when he was hired.  So, not so inspiring. Additionally, I was a little leery of Willard's lack of success in the tournament, but after googling him for the last hour; I am somewhat optimistic.    Willard has gone to the tournament 5 of the last 6 years which is much better than Turgeon.   Willard was able to build Seton Hall into a reoccurring NCAA tourney team despite not being able to compete for the big recruits nationally.   He seems to be a good coach who develops talent.  This seems to be the opposite of Turgeon who recruited well but never took advantage of his talented rosters.  If Willard could develop a recruiting base in the local area or attract some national level recruits to the DC area, he could be successful.   In this respect, he sounds a lot more like Gary than Mark which is probably what the school was looking for. 

 

The other thing I like about him is he seems very engaging.  He smiles, laughs, seems to enjoy what he is doing.  Not that Turgeon didn't.  Turgeon just seemed like he didn't like being here which I guess is why he quit mid-season. 

 

So, welcome Coach Willard. 

[BSLRoseKatz]

Good story from someone who's covered Seton Hall since Willard got the job

 

https://www.app.com/...all/7103688001/

[BSLMikeLowe]

Good story from someone who's covered Seton Hall since Willard got the job

 

https://www.app.com/...all/7103688001/

 

Nice summary. He seems like a very high-character person who cares deeply about his players. Also no lack of traits mentioned that ring of Mark Turgeon. Doesn't seem like he has that "Jersey guy" persona.

 

The writer also makes him sound like more of a GW-type when it comes to recruiting, more interested in overlooked kids with a chip on their shoulder rather than the blue ones.

[You Play to Win the Game]

Nice summary. He seems like a very high-character person who cares deeply about his players. Also no lack of traits mentioned that ring of Mark Turgeon. Doesn't seem like he has that "Jersey guy" persona.

The writer also makes him sound like more of a GW-type when it comes to recruiting, more interested in overlooked kids with a chip on their shoulder rather than the blue ones.

My hope would be, at Maryland, he can get both. He hasn’t necessarily been able to land top recruits at The Hall.

[BSLZackKiesel]

My hope would be, at Maryland, he can get both. He hasn’t necessarily been able to land top recruits at The Hall.

Right, he hasn’t really had a choice but to embrace those more developmental players thus far in his career.

[BSLMikeLowe]

I tend to believe most coaches stick with what they've had prior success with when changing jobs. Maybe Willard could have sold higher-rated players on playing for him at Seton Hall, but he just preferred a different profile of recruit?

 

People talk about how Gary didn't get the blue chips because he didn't want any part of the shady AAU scene, and I don't doubt that's true, but I tend to think there was more to it. I think he didn't connect well with a lot of the big time recruits who mostly viewed college as a brief stepping stone, and vice versa. Maybe that's just who Willard is too.