smootness
03-24-2015, 02:07 PM
1) He has tailored his recruiting and philosophy to the situation he's in while having success in all of them. At Northern Arizona, he recruited shooters from smaller towns that would be ok living there, and he led the country in 3-point shooting several times. At Pitt, he recruited tough, inner-city kids and just beat people up. At UCLA, he recruited big-time talent and adapted what he did at Pitt a little with a more structured offense.
2) He has been willing to admit he made mistakes at UCLA and seems to have genuinely learned some lessons. Even before he was fired at UCLA, he made changes on offense when it was clear it was needed, and it worked. This, along with the first point, tell me his ego is relatively small. He's not concerned with being the most brilliant guy in the room. He just wants to win and is able to make adjustments when necessary. He's not too proud to say he was wrong and change.
I think these things set him up to thrive here. I'm really interested to see what we look like. I'm sure we'll be tough and will defend and rebound, but he's shown we probably won't look exactly like any of his previous programs.
I do not think we're going to start flooding the program with elite talent, as some seem to believe. Our recruiting will probably improve, and McCray may help us get a kid here and there from the Atlanta area, but I think he's going to come in and evaluate the situation and adjust accordingly.
He didn't recruit big-time guys at Pitt. I don't think we'll start recruiting from all over. I still think we'll concentrate mostly on kids from the Southeast who are a cultural fit, and I think he'll figure out a way to be successful with guys who are more athletic than they are polished basketball players.
I won't be surprised if Auburn with Pearl recruits at least as well as we do according to the rankings. What's incredibly exciting, though, is that there won't be a team in the entire conference that is better coached, including Florida.
2) He has been willing to admit he made mistakes at UCLA and seems to have genuinely learned some lessons. Even before he was fired at UCLA, he made changes on offense when it was clear it was needed, and it worked. This, along with the first point, tell me his ego is relatively small. He's not concerned with being the most brilliant guy in the room. He just wants to win and is able to make adjustments when necessary. He's not too proud to say he was wrong and change.
I think these things set him up to thrive here. I'm really interested to see what we look like. I'm sure we'll be tough and will defend and rebound, but he's shown we probably won't look exactly like any of his previous programs.
I do not think we're going to start flooding the program with elite talent, as some seem to believe. Our recruiting will probably improve, and McCray may help us get a kid here and there from the Atlanta area, but I think he's going to come in and evaluate the situation and adjust accordingly.
He didn't recruit big-time guys at Pitt. I don't think we'll start recruiting from all over. I still think we'll concentrate mostly on kids from the Southeast who are a cultural fit, and I think he'll figure out a way to be successful with guys who are more athletic than they are polished basketball players.
I won't be surprised if Auburn with Pearl recruits at least as well as we do according to the rankings. What's incredibly exciting, though, is that there won't be a team in the entire conference that is better coached, including Florida.