Thursday, September 1, 2011

Some Questions on Big Sky Coaches

Some good stuff from Craw's Corner:

Will Jim Hayford be as good in D-1 as he was at D-3? This will be one to watch for sure. I have always been a big proponent that a coach can win at any level, if he is a winner. Hayford had a great run at D-3 Whitworth, built them into a national power. The challenges are much greater at Eastern Washington for Hayford, where he has to worry lots, including making sure his athletes are attending classes. I have always said it does not take much to rise to the top the Big Sky, Eastern has potential to do just that in future years.
I think EWU could be a top 4 team in the Big Sky this season, as they have a lot of talent coming back (and some nice additions)... it will be interesting to see the style of play that Hayford has his teams play.

Will Joe O'Brien win five games at Idaho State? Idaho State is overmatched even in the weak Big Sky and as bad as Idaho State has been under O'Brien, this year could be even worse. I think the only thing that could save him from being terminated at the end of the year would be if his team won 20 games and that is not going to happen, winning 10 would be a successful season and that is not going to happen. In the winter in Idaho, people deserve to watch good basketball, or actually at Idaho State it is been so long since they have seen good basketball, would they even recognize it.
He is spot on here... O'Brien will need a miracle to see one coming. I suppose by the very definition of the word "miracle" it is something that you can't see coming, and that is more than applicable here. It would be a shock if O'Brien is still the coach after this season.

7 comments:

  1. ISU aint finish'n 3rd. Probab 8th-9th.

    3rd will be out of MSU/NAU.

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  2. I would rank O'Brien as one of the worst ISU hires in 50 years, and that's saying something. Cronyism and nepotism can only take a program so far.

    He is in so far over his head at this level, it isn't funny. His former slimeball college buddy, Paul Bubb, was ISU's AD at the time, and he hired him. Funny enough, Bubb was the AD at Northridge back in the 90's, and he tried to hire O'Brien there (Braswell got the job instead, because some higher-ups stepped in. A committee was formed, and they ranked O'Brien last of all the finalists.).

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  3. I would take Coach O'Brien over Coach Hayford any day of the week. Look at the early blogs for Eastern Washington; Hayford is bullying his way through the guys over there. Guys are getting hurt and he is asking them to leave. With O'Brien, we have struggled a few years but he will get us back on track. He is a good coach and a good man; he has some great players coming on board, just have some faith.

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  4. I haven't heard that about Coach Hayford at EWU, do you have links talking about the bullying? Just curious, I have not read anything about that at all.

    And you might be right about O'Brien, but I will tell you that you are definitely in the minority among Idaho St fans...

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  5. Ok, it was on the EWU blog site around the end of May. It talked about a player who was on the roster and injured his arm or shoulder and was asked to leave by Hayford. The interesting thing is...it isn't there anymore??? Hayford had 13 returning guys that were to get a scholarship, and somehow he was able to add 4-5 scholarship players. That's a lot of players to just up and leave a D1 scholarship.

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  6. "Hayford had 13 returning guys that were to get a scholarship, and somehow he was able to add 4-5 scholarship players. That's a lot of players to just up and leave a D1 scholarship."

    It seems to be completely acceptable when money schools like UConn and Kentucky do this crap. I find this to be sleazy regardless of what level of sports it occurs. I hope for EWU's sake it isn't true. I've despised UConn for a long time and the recent developments further my resolve to actively root against em. I don't want my favorite league acting like this.
    -MTJack

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  7. If I recall Hayford brought in 2 guys, Collin Chiverton and another JUCO... and Glen Dean transferred (and believe me, Hayford would have loved to have kept him around), as well as another solid wing (I think Geoffrey Allen)... so I think we are safe right now, nothing happened here like what happened with the Drummond situation.

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