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Tim Cluess

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MCKnight2004

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Oct 25, 2012
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intersting quote from Rothstein article on cluess still at Iona and not getting bigger job

“I didn’t have an interest in that one,” Cluess said of Rutgers. “I wasn’t going to leave Long Island for that. I didn’t think the infrastucture was in place to win, and hopefully that changes for them down the line. I’m happy Coach Pikiell got that job and hope he gets that thing going in the right direction. But I know me, I’m really happy when I win, and I’m not really happy when I lose.”
 
MCKnight2004 said:
intersting quote from Rothstein article on cluess still at Iona and not getting bigger job

“I didn’t have an interest in that one,” Cluess said of Rutgers. “I wasn’t going to leave Long Island for that. I didn’t think the infrastucture was in place to win, and hopefully that changes for them down the line. I’m happy Coach Pikiell got that job and hope he gets that thing going in the right direction. But I know me, I’m really happy when I win, and I’m not really happy when I lose.”
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Well, good thing he did not know about the RU Build Fund and Donations that fueled the new infrastructure: The New Practice Facility , the new locker rooms and the new weight room. If he did, maybe we don't get Pikiell.
 
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He had interest when the Rice debacle went down, but we didn't have the mechanics to lure him away from Iona back then....sometimes coaches miss opportunities, Cluess name was tied to Seton Hall years ago as well, but is still somehow stuck at Iona....Pike will have this gig for a very long time....everything is on the way up, which will eventually turn into the staffs salaries going way up as well.

Cluess is nowhere near Pike's class as a coach/teacher and definitely doesn't believe in defense and rebounding, so he is absolutely not a fit in this conference, where you must rebound and recruit size to win. Running and gunning aimlessly like Iona plays works at the MAAC level, but cannot translate at this next level of recruiting.
 
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on behalf of the Rutgers Community.....

Phew.jpg
 
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NewJerseyHawk said:
He had interest when the Rice debacle went down, but we didn't have the mechanics to lure him away from Iona back then....sometimes coaches miss opportunities, Cluess name was tied to Seton Hall years ago as well, but is still somehow stuck at Iona....Pike will have this gig for a very long time....everything is on the way up, which will eventually turn into the staffs salaries going way up as well.

Cluess is nowhere near Pike's class as a coach/teacher and definitely doesn't believe in defense and rebounding, so he is absolutely not a fit in this conference, where you must rebound and recruit size to win. Running and gunning aimlessly like Iona plays works at the MAAC level, but cannot translate at this next level of recruiting.
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While defense and rebounding are important in a power conference the ability to make 3 point shots are equally important.The lack of shooters/scorers remains Rutgers biggest weakness.
 
Why do coaches feel the need to talk about other programs, and take digs at them? Even if asked there is an easy classy way to answer. Obviously Cluess is not classy.
 
True but Tim is Coach transfer. He lives by bringing in transfers every year and his team gives up a ton of points. It wasn't that many years ago that our team took his team averaging a lot of ppg to the woodshed at Madison Square Garden. I am quite happy with Pikiell and believe he is a much better coach than Cluless. I think he just prefers coaching at a mid major where he has a much better chance of winning his league.
 
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Agree with Hawk. Was never a big Cluess guy as a high major fit. He is a really good HC at Iona so I am not knocking his ability I just don't see his style/methods translating at a high major like Rutgers. Rutgers needs a high level X's and O's HC who can put together a winning staff for the "trail". Not sure that is how I would describe Cluess.

Cluess has (smartly) built the Iona program under his leadership on transfers like Momo Jones, Mike Glover, Jon Severe, Sam Cassell Jr, etc. Iona became a landing place for players who tried the high major route and wound up looking for a better fit. And he won in the MAAC with that strategy. Other than Scott Machado I was trying to think of a four year player at Iona that Cluess recruited who helped him win. I am sure I am missing some players, but the names of the transfers are much easier to recall.

And I am not certain that is the type of resume for a winning Rutgers HC.
 
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I don't think he's a high major fit either------first of all because doesn't want to be.

As for transfers the whole board was giddy when they took the Kiss kid and there would have been a parade if the Jackson kid committed.

So it's possible that Coach P doesn't agree with you.

My point was Tim Cleuss doesn't take a backseat to many coaches.

Wins 20 every year----has won an NCAA game and been to the NCAA's 4 times in 7 years.

I like Coach P and hope he wins but he went to the NCAA's once in 11 years at Stony Brook in a league nobody mistakes for the Big Ten.

He can coach obviously but there aren't many at the D-1 level who can't.

It's about getting players-----let's hope he does.
 
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Winning is very important. Cleuss might not be the best fit here, but you must agree the guy can coach and put together a roster to beat the competition put in front of him.
 
TDIrish27 said:
I don't think he's a high major fit either------first of all because doesn't want to be.

As for transfers the whole board was giddy when they took the Kiss kid and there would have been a parade if the Jackson kid committed.

So it's possible that Coach P doesn't agree with you.

My point was Tim Cleuss doesn't take a backseat to many coaches.

Wins 20 every year----has won an NCAA game and been to the NCAA's 4 times in 7 years.

I like Coach P and hope he wins but he went to the NCAA's once in 11 years at Stony Brook in a league nobody mistakes for the Big Ten.

He can coach obviously but there aren't many at the D-1 level who can't.

It's about getting players-----let's hope he does.
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Beyond unfair to compare Iona and Stony Brook. Stony Brook has won, well Stony Brook had never won before Coach Pikiell. Three of the four HCs at Iona who preceded Coach Cluess were Pat Kennedy, Tim Welch and Ralph Willard. Iona has a very solid basketball history for a MAAC school.

I'm not attempting to bash Tim Cluess as I think he is a really good HC at Iona. But I don't see him as a fit at a high major program nor do I hold him in the same regard as an HC as it seems you do.
 
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Local Shill said:
He comes across as a guy that doesn't have the stomach for a (re)-build.
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My thoughts exactly. Pikiell is a much better fit for what the Rutgers program needed. I absolutely love the Pikiell hire with his experience building up a program and he is even better than I thought he would be. Rutgers legend in the making IMO
 
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Pikiell may in fact be a better fit but Cluess is no slouch. Lifetime he is 162-78 with 4 NCAA appearances. Pikiell is 207-174 with 1 NCAA appearance.
 
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MadRU said:
Why do coaches feel the need to talk about other programs, and take digs at them? Even if asked there is an easy classy way to answer. Obviously Cluess is not classy.
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I took what he said as an honest assessment of him being able to suceed at RU and why he didn't think he could after being asked.

One of the problems Rutgers MBB has had was the type of support it received until recently. I believe that was still a problem when he was interviewed for the job.
here's article:Stuck At Iona | Why Success Hasn't Landed Tim Cluess A High-Major Job
https://www.fanragsports.com/cbb/tim-cluess-hasnt-earned-high-major-job-despite-mid-major-success/
 
MADHAT1 said:
I took what he said as an honest assessment of him being able to suceed at RU and why he didn't think he could after being asked.

One of the problems Rutgers MBB has had was the type of support it received until recently. I believe that was still a problem when he was interviewed for the job.
here's article:Stuck At Iona | Why Success Hasn't Landed Tim Cluess A High-Major Job
https://www.fanragsports.com/cbb/tim-cluess-hasnt-earned-high-major-job-despite-mid-major-success/
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Never said it wasn't an honest statement. But there are ways to make statements and ways not to.

The line: "I wasn’t going to leave Long Island for that". Does not sound classy to me.
 
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MadRU said:
Never said it wasn't an honest statement. But there are ways to make statements and ways not to.

The line: "I wasn’t going to leave Long Island for that". Does not sound classy to me.
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Not going to claim you're wrong, just say I took it as Rutgers MBB not having the support needed for him to succeed there and there really isn't a nice way for him to put it when explaining why the lack of interest he had for the job.
 
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MADHAT1 said:
Not going to claim you're wrong, just say I took it as Rutgers MBB not having the support needed for him to succeed there and there really isn't a nice way for him to put it when explaining why the lack of interest he had for the job.
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Fair enough, I still just think there are ways to avoid or address questions differently that won't make another program sound bad.
 
SHU, like the poster wrote above Iona has a good program and don't compare the record. Steve Pikes started at a program that never won before.
 
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Not denigrating Pike at all (I think he has done a great job so far), just pointing out Cluess is also a pretty good coach.
 
there are a LOT of good coaches in CBB and most at the Power 5 level accumulated a pretty good winning percentage...but....they all cannot win at this level of basketball.....recruiting shooters is fine, but if you don't keep people off the glass and defend, you have no shot at winning in this league, period.....shooters have not been RU's problem, it's the lazy way of looking at basketball, when RU lacked the overall skill set, height, strength or basically everything from top to bottom to win in the old Big East or the current B1G....there are 5 separate ways to impact a roster, shooting is always ranked 1st with fans that only watch the basketball... but way less important than the other 4.....

A well coached team defeats a Cluess style team 2 out of 3 B1G games (if he's lucky) or 3 out of 4 most nights in the B1G, even with better players and better shooters than he accumulated at Iona....Cluess is maybe as good as former Siena coach and current Iowa coach Fran McCaffery, who despite his temper tantrums, is a far better coach than Cluess as well and he recruits shooters all over the place....and while Iowa has made the NCAA's recently, it took a very, very long time to get McCaffrey in a position to balance out just shooters and that MAAC mindset of outscoring teams....

I didn't think the comment was that bad or too much of a slap in the face....we had Hurley pretty much on the hook, not once but twice and he indirectly said the same thing Cluess did.....but that's really his loss at the end of the day, RU is a future gold mine of revenue and upside, not everyone sees it, but Pike and this staff are turning heads on the recruiting trail and the dividends will payoff down the road.
 
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I would have rather had Bozo the Clown than Tim Cluess. We would have a roster filled with transfers, academic problems and shady characters. I was definitely giving up my tickets if we hired him. We dodged a bullet.
 
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MadRU said:
Never said it wasn't an honest statement. But there are ways to make statements and ways not to.

The line: "I wasn’t going to leave Long Island for that". Does not sound classy to me.
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I agree, it definitely reads like he was throwing RU under the bus in order to save face. He could of just said he had no interest and left it at that. Instead he continued on why he came to that decision.

This was done in order to make his case, that I could of had that job but I didn't want it. He could of easily danced around the question but instead decided to throw somebody under the bus to make himself look better. As in he was better than settling for a job at Rutgers.
 
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This guy isn't very smart. He isn't going to get a job at a turnkey school. He is at Iona. The next step is at a school where you will very likely have to help build/update the infrastructure. Frankly speaking, any real coach taking on a rebuild will want that, as to have some control over how that works with their program.

Even if this is true, which I doubt, this guy isn't too bright. He just publicly eliminated a number of the types of schools that would be looking at him.

His agent just cringed.
 
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TDIrish27 said:
NJ Hawk

Really ?

Tim Cleuss can coach-------period.

His league is every bit as good as the league Coach P came from and his record is excellent.
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You all discount Tim unfairly. Not sure why he's still at Iona but your man spent 8 years at SUNY SB. I think they are both good coaches.
 
God forbid a man actually tells the real reason why he didn't show interest in a job. I didn't know that we had a hidden infrastructure that made his statement not true.
 
Caliknight said:
This guy isn't very smart. He isn't going to get a job at a turnkey school. He is at Iona. The next step is at a school where you will very likely have to help build/update the infrastructure. Frankly speaking, any real coach taking on a rebuild will want that, as to have some control over how that works with their program.

Even if this is true, which I doubt, this guy isn't too bright. He just publicly eliminated a number of the types of schools that would be looking at him.

His agent just cringed.
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Agree. Plus it's OK for RU fans to call the guy out for being an a-hole and idiot for his comments.
 
Touchy touchy touchy. All he did was say -- in actually a nicer way -- what we were saying for YEARS about our facilities. But a coach with a far better record than Pikiell says it and we act all offended?

Look, he's happy where he is. We're happy -- at the moment, it's still very early -- with our coach. Why do we even concern ourselves with this?
 
BoroKnight said:
Touchy touchy touchy. All he did was say -- in actually a nicer way -- what we were saying for YEARS about our facilities. But a coach with a far better record than Pikiell says it and we act all offended?

Look, he's happy where he is. We're happy -- at the moment, it's still very early -- with our coach. Why do we even concern ourselves with this?
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Far better record? Cluess took over a highly successful program; Pikiell started one from scratch. Look at their last five years.
 
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