I'd worry about getting to .500 in the Big Ten before I'd worry about being a top 5 or 10 program nationally (and that's what you'd be if you are in the Sweet 16 that often).
Dooley, who wasn't a college head coach for almost 15 years prior since he was fired by ECU back in 1999, obviously benefited greatly from the work FGCU Head Coach Andy Enfield did during his Sweet 16 run...as all of his Top 3 scorers this year are Seniors that Enfield recruited.
I knew a little about him but read a handful of articles and Q&As with him from the last couple of years and I think he is an interesting mid major coach to keep an eye on. I mentioned a little about him in the run/gun offense thread. He talks about all the things we mention here about team, working hard, not giving up, etc..as keys to why his teams have been good.
I'm ready to trade our roster for FGCU's. Look at the freshman and sophmores (see link) (Dooley's players). Long and athletic. Look at the length of the players on the roster. And a mature team with transfers mixed in who had to sit for a year. Recruited players from Indiana, Chicago, St. Louis, Miami, Jacksonville. Rutgers should be so lucky. And the stuff about Dooley not being a head coach for 15 years -- 10 of those years were as an assistant at Kansas! Not a bad gig.
He's a name I've thought about too and it's the 10 years with Bill Self that is more interesting to me than the Kansas thing. The previous stint at ECU wouldn't bother me as much as did he improve after those 10 years under Self? Just like the Hurleys, I'd like to see him do it longer to see if that time with Self made him better and if he can keep doing it with his own guys.
BTW, I am not pushing Dooley for the Rutgers position. What I am trying to say is that Rutgers needs to drastically redraw their model for success. The facilities angle is nice but not primary. Drop the "recruit locally" nonsense. Get long and athletic players from the midwest and/or wherever. There are plenty of non-NBA caliber athletes (high school players and college transfers and offspring of NBA players) choosing schools like FGCU and Dayton and Xavier and VCU and Northern Iowa and Providence and Colorado State who would look good in a Rutgers uniform, who would love to compete in the Big Ten, who can shoot and dribble and rebound and dunk and play above the rim and compete, and who would stay four years. We are picking the wrong recruiting battles. Please drop any semblance of the recruit locally mentality and getting NBA-caliber and one-and-done types. It is absolutely a waste of time. Even if we get them, they always bolt for greener pastures.
I agree with you on that and others have said the same here. I feel that way both in football and basketball. I'm always about the coaching and finding players that work well in whatever particular system a coach may employ.
For some mid majors I'd agree, it would be tough for us to out recruit them. For others, I don't think it's so difficult despite our pathetic history. It is still a big conference and we offer more exposure. The BE has a Fox contract so they get on tv including broadcast tv but the other mid majors not so much. We still get on the ESPN networks or the BTN for almost all our games. If we had any pulse, the possibility of more ESPN and even a CBS game would be there but even without that pulse the exposure is there as opposed to some of these mid majors.
