Mike Rutherford just said that he believes Schertz has been offered the job. Rutherford having Twitter spaces show.

Some scuttlebutt that Pat Kelsey is atop the leaderboard. This is one guy where Heird would lose me. I don’t believe he’d be a good fit. He’s a big win the press conference, slogan guy. I just don’t think that fake juice, rah rah Dabo stuff flies well at UofL. We need a guy with a chip on his shoulder and some stones to back it up. More importantly he pulled the ultimate Dusty May and recanted on UMASS days after accepting a head coaching job. Was he afraid of the tougher conference? He also resigned as Associate Head Coach at Xavier and left coaching for a year. Two of his coaching influences are Chris Mack and Dino Gaudio. This would be the kind of unimaginative hire that gets an AD three years before he’s fired.

Apparently May received death threats from some dumbasses. Really upset that happened, but not sure if it’s legitimately U of L fans or if it’s trolls.

TY

U of L spent $8.6 million on MBB in 2023, and $7.8 million the year before. Therefore...


And we wonder what's happened...

All information was that May was coming to UofL. Michigan used that Nike/Big 10 money to pull him in. Total egg on Heird’s face to not close the deal. Not sure where else we are looking. Very troubling.

Is that the focus is on Dusty May. Got a text around 8:30 PM last night saying as much, but wanted to wait to hear from a couple of others. Have confirmed this morning.

Nuff said

Did some reading on Eric Musselman. These might be the reasons he hasn't been more seriously considered here but have no idea.

2006 DUI

Current contract has a clause that states that no buyout is mandated if Musselman leaves Arkansas to coach San Diego after April 2024.

From many accounts, he is difficult to work with and not well liked by many. He has erratic behavior under pressure and walks out of press conferences on occasion.

Lost the Arkansas locker room this season

Had a romantic love triangle between 3 players on this year's team.

The interesting thing about the current coaching change is that we are applying historical performance to future results. I'm not sure there is a prototypical profile for a coach in the new NIL era. We are seeing some traditionally great coaches really struggling to adapt to the new world. Rick Pitino embraced the new 3-pointer that changed the game and found great success. He didn't adapt to the shoe company-AAU era like Calipari did, and Cal owned Rick for the next decade. The Portal and NIL has changed the game once again and now Calipari is struggling and a new style will find success.

You are seeing some programs hire general managers to help their coaches manage the roster with resect to the Portal and NIL. It seems to me that while you need a coach with good X's and O's, I think what will be more important will be the ability to gel a squad together, motivate them, and keep them together. I think the coaches that can excite and team and motivate them by wanting to perform instead of forcing them to perform. Personality may end up ruling the day. Not just with players, but one that can excite the fanbase and motivate NIL donors.

For example, is Shertz a guy with an impressive NCAA tournament record? Of course not, but does he possess the personality that will generate success? I don't know. The AD that is able to figure out the special sauce of the new modern coaching model will look like a genius and the ones that overpay for a historically-proven guy that will struggle in the new basketball paradigm will look like a fool. We may look back and see that the Louisville job may be the proving ground for the new model of coach.

Pat Forde was a guest on "The Deener Show" this morning and was asked by Drew about Will Wade. Forde said unless the UofL administration has been overthrown overnight there is no way they are going to hire Will Wade. Deener and Forde both talked about Heird had a set of standards that he was using for his search and that they both could not see him changing course because Dusty May bailed at the last minute. Deener also said of all of his contacts, not one has said Will Wade is in play.

Forde then provided a very respectable pitch for Indiana State's Josh Schertz. Said that ISU had the lead over Drake in the MVC Championship game with 4-minutes left. If that was deciding factor as to whether you hire a coach (missing the NCAA tournament) then that's a pretty tough evaluation process. Forde said Schertz runs a very exciting offense with great guard play. He believes he would be an excellent hire.

Lastly, he touched on coaching hires in general and how many of the coaches that ultimately get hired were not the first choice. Some examples he provided:

1989 - Rick Pitino was UK's third choice and it took 2 months to make the hire.
2007 - Nick Saban was not Alabama's first choice, they offered the job to Rich Rodriguez who turned them down.
2018 - Dan Mullen was not Florida's first choice, offered it to Chip Kelly and then Scott Frost.

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Umm… Lol

With the ACC doing well in the NCAA tournament, it makes the UofL job very interesting to other good quality coaches looking for an opportunity. Who wouldn't want to come to the best basketball conference and to one of the best sports programs.

@Ty Spalding I am writing this post as observer of the current state of the site. I left KY in 2005 and have been a member of this board since 2006. It has been the one constant that has kept me connected to all things UofL sports. Recently I have seen posters talking about the lack of content on this site. Or comparing the content of this site to the content of the other site. This is the only place I have ever been so I don't have a frame of reference. The content recently has been slow...I mean really slow! But posters have posted in defense that this site brings quality over quantity. You have come on and posted about patience and things are going to pick up. I have been happy just reading the scoops of insiders that have been proven to have connections within the various programs. Last night though someone posted that members would be better off following you on twitter in response to yet again someone posting about the lack of information on this board. I recognize you can manage your site anyway that you want and members deciding to take there $10 somewhere else isn't a big deal in the short term it could become a big deal if enough decide to do that. I have a twitter account but I am not active on it at all. With that though if I decided to be more active and can get your takes and information for free then it takes away from the value of being a member on this sight. I enjoy the insiders, the banter the conflict but most importantly I enjoy information and currently there really isn't enough. I am still patiently waiting for you to drop your article on the football spring practice. At this moment I've read two posters who have provided a pretty good write up. I hope that the information starts flowing soon and I hope that you continue to make this site worth having a membership too.

Drake’s Darian Devries is now off the board. Need to make a hire soon or all of the dates to the dance are going to be taken.

Looks like no coach is immune to losing. Clemson looked like us in the last minute, but they hung on to win. Go GCU.



GO CARDS!,,

He’s the REAL deal. Wow.

Bucky will be millionaire after this season.

I know we like May and he may be great but Bucky….that’s an X and O stud.

Two fan bases walking around sad and dazed. One because they can’t get rid of a coach that they hate, and another because they can’t find a coach.

Gotta say it though, perusing raftards these last few days certainly has provided a nice bit of escape. They so mad… 🤬😂

On Schertz. I like their half-court offense. I like their defense. I like their aggressiveness and appetite to push the ball in transition. I think with ACC-level talent, Schertz could win a LOT of games at Louisville.

Really looking forward to JMU and Duke later. I like Byington's style too.

Smoke on it. Hypothetical interview between Josh and Dusty May:

JH: Coach want to offer the UL head coaching to you for $3.5 million a year. Interested?

DM: Shazam (Hoosier talk for “damn straight”.) You betcha I would.

JH: And Coach you will have $4 million in NIL funds to attract the players you need to compete in the P5 ACC.

DM: $4 mill, wow! I could get Jimmy Chitwood with that kinda dough and I would not have to rely on my assistant Shooter to do much recruiting as his license is in suspension for a DUI or two.

JH: Great then we are in agreement. I will arrange the press conference for Tuesday.

DM: Press conference?

JH: yes the press conference to announce you as the new head coach at Louisville. Dusty with you at the helm the Cards will return to mountain top and the world will be your stage.

DM: Stage? The whole world, my stage? Josh I’m a bit sleepy from the NCAA tournament. I think I need to “tear away” from this conversation and take a quick break. Do you have any Kleenex? I’ll have my agent call you.

*****

An hour later DM talks to his agent who tells DM to lay low because we’re gonna leverage a few more bucks from those Cardinals, as they have shown us the eggs in their nest.


*****

Agent A: Josh, DM is really excited about the Louisville gig, but it’s gonna take a few more million to get your boy. You see the rich folk at Michigan and Vandy are ready to open up their wallets.

JH: Agent A this is Louisville, a premier job that is being offered to your mid major coach. A golden opportunity. But DM is not worth more than what has been offered. Don’t try to play me or UL.

Agent A: Hey that’s not the way it works. We agents have the controls. If we say we want more money, you say how much. And if you don’t play my game I’m gonna tell all the other agents and their coaches that you don’t play fair.

JH: Let me show you the door. And by the way tell DM he doesn’t have to worry about the press conference.

****
If, and maybe it’s a big IF, DM and his agent were attempting to milk DM’s limelight for a few more dollars and Josh said “we had deal and we’re not cut like that at UL”. Take your bigger deal at Michigan if you can get it. Louisville is no longer dealing with folks who attempt to scam us. Talk to Coach SS if you have any questions.

And Scott Drew goes down to Clemson.

As a Hoosier born Card fan. Will have to root for someone local. Even though I went to Rose Hulman, let’s go Engineers. Of course still glad they “let us have JB”

ACC teams in final 16. Not bad for a conference that is down this year if you believe the talking heads.