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McClain to Texas Tech?

BeaverPoke

BeaverPoke

Well-known member
Someone on gowyogo said that Steve McClain might be headed to Texas Tech for the head coaching job. I hope he gets it. So that way I can say suck it to all the haters of McClain that said he won't get a big job.
Now that I brought up McClain again, let's have everyone say "I don't hate him but he really lost control of the team the final years he was here".....same story different thread.
 
NowherePoke said:
BeaverPoke said:
same story different thread.
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I believe every one of them started by you. If you don't like to hear the same responses, why keep posing the same question?
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None of them have the same question. This one doesn't even have a question. All I said is that McClain met with Texas Tech.
 
BackHarlowRoad said:
Why egg on your haters? There's always a BeaverPoke vs [insert screen name here] fight going on. Non-stop.
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Lol I have thought about that, and I think it is mostly because often if I say something along the lines of McClain was a good coach it pisses tons of people off...for no reason. And if I say something overly optimistic it pisses people off...which is stupid. Why get so mad at someone for thinking we can be good? So it is fun to light fire under grumpy asses.

But on a serious note, I think McClain is on the move this offseason. Texas Tech wants Tubby Smith, so we've heard, why don't they hire him then?
And I could see McClain at New Mexico...I wonder if that is a possibility, he knows the MWC, and has the resume for it.
 
McClain WAS (and still is) a good coach. He wouldn't be where he is otherwise. He got the most out of his teams, and proved that he could recruit when the effort was put in (Straight, Richardson, Ewing, etc). His problem was that the effort wasn't put in as it should have been after our 02 NCAA run. Wins didn't materialize as they could have, and the downward spiral began. Lots of people were pissed off, and perceived that McClain wouldn't take the brunt of the blame for it. We're still dealing with the repercussions of that to a certain extent.

But McClain is a good x's and o's coach. And I hope he gets that big time job. He coached at TCU and A&M for a bit, so it seems like Tech could be a good fit.

I don't see him going to New Mexico though. There are long memories in this conference, and especially at NM about Bball. The administration won't take a chance on McClain, IMO. Tech seems much more likely.
 
I don't know ... McClain may be a good assistant but I watched the guy coach at Wyoming and he was not a good x's and o's coach. Did manage to recruit a few good players, especially out of Chicago. But he also benefitted hugely from several Shyatt recruits. Look, I knew a couple of players on those 2001-2002 teams and they describe a coach who did not have control of his team (incidents in Locker rooms which will go unmentioned) and got flustered in critical game moments. I played a fair amount of basketball myself and once when I asked a very prominent player "what offense are you running?" with admittedly some tone of "what the f... offense are you running?", the player responded "exactly, WHAT offense?!" At a critical juncture in the Arizona NCAA game, McClain was so flustered he couldn't even instruct his team what play to run ... the five players huddled together on the court and came up with something. Actually, one of the prominent players described Schroyer as their best coach.
 
McClain is a product of good timing and great mentors. He never played in college and wasn't that good in High school Not to say that in order to be a good coach you must have played the game. However, after talking with two of his assistant coaches he wasn't a good X and O guy! He struggled to run an effective practice and indeed was flustered in the midst of high pressure game situations. His gift is his ability to recruit and BS. He had the "gift of Gab" and could BS with the best of them. However his success with the Chicago kids were largely due to an AAU contact he had in the Windy City. High school coaches in Chicago didn't really care for him because he bypassed them in the recruiting process. I am glad to to see him as an assistant at IU, In my opinion that is his best fit. Outside of that I would say that the Junior College circuit, where he won his national championship, is a good fit for him as well. Just my two cents.
"Lock and load"
 
jarhead said:
McClain is a product of good timing and great mentors. He never played in college and wasn't that good in High school Not to say that in order to be a good coach you must have played the game. However, after talking with two of his assistant coaches he wasn't a good X and O guy! He struggled to run an effective practice and indeed was flustered in the midst of high pressure game situations. His gift is his ability to recruit and BS. He had the "gift of Gab" and could BS with the best of them. However his success with the Chicago kids were largely due to an AAU contact he had in the Windy City. High school coaches in Chicago didn't really care for him because he bypassed them in the recruiting process. I am glad to to see him as an assistant at IU, In my opinion that is his best fit. Outside of that I would say that the Junior College circuit, where he won his national championship, is a good fit for him as well. Just my two cents.
"Lock and load"
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Juco? Hell no. A former mwc championship winning head coach and current big 10 championship assistant is waaaaaaaay above juco. That's kinda an insult.
Being an assistant at any d1 school, hell even d3 assistant jobs are better than juco head coaching
 
He was a finalist at CU and they wisely chose Tad. He's going to need to be at another mid-major before he gets a look anywhere else. Jobs like ECU, Tulane, etc.

He got lazy in recruiting. For every Brandon Ewing he would land a Daron Brown, Chris Anderson, and Ross Forman.

He was able to pull some guys with other offers like Dion Sherrel, Justin Williams, and Jay Straight though.
 
ProudWYOAlum said:
He was a finalist at CU and they wisely chose Tad. He's going to need to be at another mid-major before he gets a look anywhere else. Jobs like ECU, Tulane, etc.

He got lazy in recruiting. For every Brandon Ewing he would land a Daron Brown, Chris Anderson, and Ross Forman.

He was able to pull some guys with other offers like Dion Sherrel, Justin Williams, and Jay Straight though.
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Yeah...that's what everyone says...

I'm guessing that he gets a big conference job (BCS- or high mid major like MVC, A-10, or MWC)
Wyo fans like to be so critical of him, because we like to give Shyatt all the success for the Big Dance win.
When you look at McClains resume, it indicates he will probably land a job like a Big12 job, or Pac12, or even MWC.
I think McClain would be a lot better for UNLV than Dave Rice is.
But then again since I don't constantly say that McClain ruined our program people a lot of people say I think he is the best coach ever... :roll:
 
BeaverPoke said:
jarhead said:
McClain is a product of good timing and great mentors. He never played in college and wasn't that good in High school Not to say that in order to be a good coach you must have played the game. However, after talking with two of his assistant coaches he wasn't a good X and O guy! He struggled to run an effective practice and indeed was flustered in the midst of high pressure game situations. His gift is his ability to recruit and BS. He had the "gift of Gab" and could BS with the best of them. However his success with the Chicago kids were largely due to an AAU contact he had in the Windy City. High school coaches in Chicago didn't really care for him because he bypassed them in the recruiting process. I am glad to to see him as an assistant at IU, In my opinion that is his best fit. Outside of that I would say that the Junior College circuit, where he won his national championship, is a good fit for him as well. Just my two cents.
"Lock and load"
Click to expand...


Juco? Hell no. A former mwc championship winning head coach and current big 10 championship assistant is waaaaaaaay above juco. That's kinda an insult.
Being an assistant at any d1 school, hell even d3 assistant jobs are better than juco head coaching
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No insult meant...just an observation. JUCO is where he garnished his national championship status which got him the looks in D1. If you want a good laugh go look at the team photos at Chaderon State where he was a student manager. From the outside it appeared as though he was a pretty good coach....passionate, energetic, and possessed the charisma needed to win over the public. But speak to his assistants and former players and you will get a completely different picture. Not a good X and O guy and a poor game time coach. He struggled to make adjustments in the heat of battle. But I think he probably is a great guy and I wish him nothing but the best. ;-)
 
What was interesting about McClain's tenure was that he tried to parlay his early success at Wyoming into a high major head coaching position ... but it didn't work, no one hired him. Those who knew anything about bball could see through the success Wyoming was having. Further, the loss of control in the locker room and the dissatisfaction amongst some of the players fed into losing out on some big recruiting battles, including some who went on to play in the NBA.

I am just happy we have Shyatt; he's the real deal; McClain was smoke and mirrors. Now I just am hoping that substance wins out in the long haul and that Shyatt begins to haul in some high level recruits ... I wouldn't bet against it. As high school coaches in Colorado are figuring out, Shyatt is not only a damn good coach but he is a character guy, a leader of young men. We gotta stick with this guy.
 
From what I heard on the inside, McClain made a strong push for the Iowa State job and fell short. From 2003-2006 he was always pushing for another job.

Anyone remember the 2006 MWC Tourney when he was walking the Green Mile and doing interviews about this being his last conference tourney? As we all know, that team got hot and lost to SDSU in the MW champ game in OT.

That gave him another year and 2006-07 was a disaster too.
 
BeaverPoke said:
ProudWYOAlum said:
He was a finalist at CU and they wisely chose Tad. He's going to need to be at another mid-major before he gets a look anywhere else. Jobs like ECU, Tulane, etc.

He got lazy in recruiting. For every Brandon Ewing he would land a Daron Brown, Chris Anderson, and Ross Forman.

He was able to pull some guys with other offers like Dion Sherrel, Justin Williams, and Jay Straight though.
Click to expand...

Yeah...that's what everyone says...

I'm guessing that he gets a big conference job (BCS- or high mid major like MVC, A-10, or MWC)
Wyo fans like to be so critical of him, because we like to give Shyatt all the success for the Big Dance win.
When you look at McClains resume, it indicates he will probably land a job like a Big12 job, or Pac12, or even MWC.
I think McClain would be a lot better for UNLV than Dave Rice is.
But then again since I don't constantly say that McClain ruined our program people a lot of people say I think he is the best coach ever... :roll:
Click to expand...

You seem to be downgrading your expectations already. A job in the MVC is actually a pretty good possibility, but aside from Creighton/Wichita (and Creighton is leaving the Valley of course) those are mid-major jobs, not comparable to the Big 10 type jobs you have been claiming McClain could land, and McClain isn't landing in Omaha or Wichita.

As I said before, when he was initially fired at Wyoming I thought the best he could do would be low-mid major type (think Summit League, Horizon, etc.), but with his subsequent success as a high major assistant, I think he could be in the running for better mid major jobs such as lower end MVC or MAC type schools.

I actually was surprised that his name didn't come up for the Drake opening. I thought that would be a really good fit for McClain. He is from Iowa and he always recruited Iowa, Minnesota, and Chicago which are the key recruiting areas for the Drake job. They went with another MWC re-tread in Giacoletti.

Keep in mind McClain interviewed for and tried to land a power conference job when he was fresh off of NCAA tournament success at Wyoming and was not successful. If he wasn't able to strike at that time, what makes you think he would be a candidate now?

Agree with you that he is certainly not going back to JUCO. His salary as an assistant at IU is probably double the highest paid JC coach in the country (if not more).
 
A big10 job I was thinking he could land would be something like Minnesota but that has been filled. I just said in that last post something in the PAC12 or Big12 is something he could get.
And the reason he could land a bigger job now vs back then is because he has a much more solid resume now. He was fresh on the coaching scene then, with the near sweet 16 appearance that got teams interested. Hell if had beat Arizona maybe he would have gotten the job. Like Infield did for FGCU, takes themto the Sweet16, then within a week is the new head coach of USC.
But now he has got the experience at CU, and Indiana, he is no longer "the young guy" or the guy who is up and coming, he is the guy who has been there and has tons of experience and is ready.
Coaching jobs are filling up fast right now though, how many big jobs are left? And by big jobs I don't mean UCLA, Indiana, Duke, NC, and Kentucky, I mean some teams that are from conferences that have the big names.
I don't think McClain is moving this offseason, probably staying for another year or 2 at Indiana.
And actually, does he have kids?
I think people forget that coaches have lives outside basketball that can influence their decisions.
Maybe he wants to stay at Indiana whether he stays an assistant or not?
 
I agree with two things here #1 he will not go back to JUCO simply because of the financial restraints that are in place. I was simply stating that he was very successful there. Secondly, I see him staying at IU....why leave a powerhouse program where you are a higher level assistant coach? Stay there a few years garnish the notoriety associated with the program and then move on to a head job somewhere down the line......sound familiar? Shyatt did the same thing after being fired from Clemson. Hell who knows maybe we will get McClain back after Shyatt resigns! :-) LOL
 
Couple of comments on above statements:

In regards to:

(1) "Hell who knows maybe we will get McClain back after Shyatt resigns! :-) LOL"

Very, very unlikely to happen even if he were to be offered the job "after Shyatt resigns". Were some really bad feelings created with the way he was treated in being "fired"! Re: "This is not a critical year for him" (statement TB made shortly after being hired in speaking about McClain. And, in McClain's opinion not being given a reason at the time of his "firing" why he was being let go (I think having TB and TB in that meeting with McClain lends credence to that--IMO an AD who had real just cause would not need to call in a bigger gun for support.) And then, I have heard that McClain had asked for tutorial type assistance for his players but we know that tutorial assistance didn't happen until after Heath was hired.

(2) "That gave him another year and 2006-07 was a disaster too." IMHO when one speaks of recent disasters relating to our men's BBall team the only names that really jump right out there are Tom and Heath.

Frankly I did not view McClain as a great coach, but I thought he was a good coach. And, I certainly don't fault him for looking to advance his career--profiting for earlier or a short period of success seems to be the nature of the beast (coaching) in the last decade or two. I did feel at the time, that were McClain to come back for another year we would have won 20 to 23 games. In fact, I also believe that were McClain playing the type of schedules we have played in the past several years, he probably would not have won 20 or more games every season.
 
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