One of the wackiest member of the WAC recently is Grand Canyon, the FOR-PROFIT University (and the only one in D1) that has loved to spend money on athletics. They hired Dan Majerle for awhile before replacing him with Bryce Drew. Utah Valley did not lost to Grand Canyon in the WAC tournament but Grand Canyon eventually won to grab the automatic berth. Current (and going into his second year) Cal men's soccer head coach came from Grand Canyon.
Really appreciate the dive into his first year roster. The program falling off after a 25-win season was my one concern and you've completely alleviated it.
I'm WAY more excited about basketball season than I should be after a 3-win season but it's justifiable. Mad Dog will have a full off-season to hit the portal. I look forward to seeing the team he builds.
"That, by itself, is noteworthy. Mid-major/low-major schools don’t typically build high end defenses. When you don’t have access to top talent, you can still scheme a good offense, but it’s hard to build a defense without talent. There were only a handful of non-power conference schools with a better defense than Utah Valley,"
That's interesting that the stats show this, my personal intuition is that it would be easier to build a defense with under-talented teams; as defense relies as much on communication, belief and trust as much as it does talent - whereas talent is required to put the ball in the basket
I would tend to agree. Think of the fundamentals and communication that teams like St.Peter's, FDU, Princeton have shown over the years. Then to see that on the big stage with backcuts and keeping bigger teams in front of them. Not a barrage of three point shooting but coaches/philosophies that say we cant beat ourselves.
Without having much knowledge, I tend to agree with you also on this topic. In football, it's definitely easier to have better offense with inferior talent than defense, but in basketball I think it's the opposite.
Thanks a lot. Lots to learn here and I'm certainly hopeful that his records at UVU improved not only because of his roster moves but because he simply had to be learning how to coach college basketball. Excited to see the presser today and how convincing he is about Cal.
One of the wackiest member of the WAC recently is Grand Canyon, the FOR-PROFIT University (and the only one in D1) that has loved to spend money on athletics. They hired Dan Majerle for awhile before replacing him with Bryce Drew. Utah Valley did not lost to Grand Canyon in the WAC tournament but Grand Canyon eventually won to grab the automatic berth. Current (and going into his second year) Cal men's soccer head coach came from Grand Canyon.
https://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/22437323/grand-canyon-only-profit-team-division-is-building-monster-desert
They advertised soooooo much for a program I didn't know existed at the time.
They're transitioning to not-for-profit status - they ended up with a bunch of ex-Cal recruits post-Cuonzo. (Like 2?)
Really appreciate the dive into his first year roster. The program falling off after a 25-win season was my one concern and you've completely alleviated it.
I'm WAY more excited about basketball season than I should be after a 3-win season but it's justifiable. Mad Dog will have a full off-season to hit the portal. I look forward to seeing the team he builds.
I’m sure we are going to get a post about the presser soon, but my goodness am I optimistic after hearing all that. This dude is impressive.
Just watched the presser: color me impressed! Go Mark! Go Bears!!
"That, by itself, is noteworthy. Mid-major/low-major schools don’t typically build high end defenses. When you don’t have access to top talent, you can still scheme a good offense, but it’s hard to build a defense without talent. There were only a handful of non-power conference schools with a better defense than Utah Valley,"
That's interesting that the stats show this, my personal intuition is that it would be easier to build a defense with under-talented teams; as defense relies as much on communication, belief and trust as much as it does talent - whereas talent is required to put the ball in the basket
I would tend to agree. Think of the fundamentals and communication that teams like St.Peter's, FDU, Princeton have shown over the years. Then to see that on the big stage with backcuts and keeping bigger teams in front of them. Not a barrage of three point shooting but coaches/philosophies that say we cant beat ourselves.
Without having much knowledge, I tend to agree with you also on this topic. In football, it's definitely easier to have better offense with inferior talent than defense, but in basketball I think it's the opposite.
Thanks a lot. Lots to learn here and I'm certainly hopeful that his records at UVU improved not only because of his roster moves but because he simply had to be learning how to coach college basketball. Excited to see the presser today and how convincing he is about Cal.
Thank you. Lots of good reads. I had no idea about WAC.
Thanks Nick, good stuff.
Great analysis !
Was hoping for more concrete reasons why he left Cal based on that URL. But he seems happy.
Mark Fox?
Fox. Lack of facilities. Talents being wasted on a moribund team.
Just say you learned something new instead of "I'm sure most people didn't know" it's not embarrassing.