Let's play a game...

If somehow a miracle unfolds, and Hewitt is fired who would you hire as a replacement?

my choice is a no brainer.. Bill Coen from Northeastern. He could come to us at a cheap price tag and be a great coach.

Other choices, Tommy Amaker, Bruce Pearl, Steve Wojo, Pat Skerry, Grant Hill. I'd take any of them.
 

Walter

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It would be some up-and-coming assistant who no one has ever heard of. He might be good or he might be bad. If he is bad you fire him and pay him his $250k.

Bruce Pearl would be huge though. I know the issues but whoever (BC probably) gets him will get a winner who can recruit, coach and promote.
 

EXpatriot13

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Do we want a coach who's going to be a stop gap and be successful for a few years and then bolt? Or someone who's going to be committed for several years? A few of those guys would bolt to bigger and brighter pastures if they found success at Mason.
 

gmujim92

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Coen has established a rep for finding underappreciated players (Janning, Chase Allen, Joel Smith, etc.) and getting more out of them than anyone could've expected.

Since that runs 180 degrees to our current coach's penchant for assembling talented teams and underachieving with them, I'd take Coen in a heartbeat.

But as I've noted previously, I'd really like to see Mason take a shot at a hot young assistant and see what happens. I think an energetic young guy who prefers an up-tempo system would mesh well with the talent Hewitt has recruited.
 

Walter

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Pearl has been surprisingly loyal (except to his wife). If he thought he could get to the dance at Mason regularly then he would probably stay.
 

GMUgemini

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We have plenty of these threads already, but as to your list:

1: Bill Coen, I just don't think he's a good enough recruiter. He has had some talent, but the depth of NU's teams were always godawful. It's why they collapsed down the stretch of every season. I don't know if he'd be up for the rigors of the A-10 arms race. We might become the new Dayton of the A-10 -- start off strong every year and wind up 8-8 or 9-7 after our teams run out of gas.

2. We aren't getting Tommy Amaker, unless GMU Law suddenly becomes better than Princeton Law.

2: Bruce Pearl, really? Just what we need, a guy who will kill us with recruitment violations.

3: I doubt Wojo comes here. I'm thinking a Roy Williams situation.

4: Pat Skerry, unless we are willing to pay him BCS money he doesn't leave Towson.

5. Grant Hill, really? I mean, if you're going former NBA player, why not Damon Stoudamire? At least he has a few years under his belt under Pastner at Memphis and Arizona.

Solutions:

Solution One: We could retroactively do what we probably should have done and hire away one of Miami's assistants in a kind of time travel promote an assistant coach way: I think most here wouldn't mind seeing Caputo or Konkol in that role.

Solution Two: We go back to the "proven head coach" option and poach a guy who has had sustained success at a lower mid-major school like Rick Byrd from Belmont (although he'd probably be a caretaker coach and might just retire at Belmont) or Steve Prohm from Murray State (although I think Murray State's facilities are probably better than ours now, but we still have the benefit of playing in a much better conference than the OVC).

Solution Three: The "up and coming assistant" route. Find a few head coaches who play a style you admire. I love Beilein's offense and defense at Michigan so I wouldn't mind giving LaVall Jordan a chance (reportedly a great recruiter, so that's a plus).
 

psyclone

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If somehow a miracle unfolds, and Hewitt is fired who would you hire as a replacement?

my choice is a no brainer.. Bill Coen from Northeastern. He could come to us at a cheap price tag and be a great coach.

Other choices, Tommy Amaker, Bruce Pearl, Steve Wojo, Pat Skerry, Grant Hill. I'd take any of them.

I've heard that Coen has a very good reputation as a coach and seems like a very nice guy, but looking at his time at Northeastern, he's only been over .500 3 times in 7 seasons (and is currently 6-14 this year), has never been to the NCAAs and never won an NIT game in 2 trips. Seems like a very modest record, at best.

Pearl may be a good coach but I'd be unhappy to see Mason hire someone who lied to the NCAA and is coming off of a "show cause" order. Not the sort of guy that I'd like to see representing our university.
 

gmutom

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Enough with Bruce Pearl. We don't need his baggage. I don't see a lot of our current players and incoming recruits wanting to play for a guy like him. He's always struck me as shady. If we do hire a new coach, I don't want another former head coach who's out of work.
 

MasonFanatic

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I'm willing to give Coen a pass because he has very little institutional support to work with, terrible facilities, etc. But I'd still be more excited about an up-and-comer like LaVall Jordan (someone who can be the "next Pat Skerry")
 

GMUheckler

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Enough with Bruce Pearl. We don't need his baggage. I don't see a lot of our current players and incoming recruits wanting to play for a guy like him. He's always struck me as shady. If we do hire a new coach, I don't want another former head coach who's out of work.
Why would our current players not want to play for him? I understand but dont understand fully all of his baggage. His teams always seem to be pretty successful. I think its more the administration will not make a splash in the water thats why he will never be remotely considered as a candidate.
 

GMUheckler

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We have plenty of these threads already, but as to your list:
As to the list.
1: Bill Coen- why not seems to get his players to play up to the competition. Maybe strike a deal with Hewitt to keep working on recruiting?
2. Tommy great candidate for head coach. GMU wont be competing with Princeton in terms of academics but why wouldnt he want to come here if the money was right? IF he is staying at Princeton because of his wife well FFX is a great area to raise kids and a great job market.
Bruce Pearl see above.
3. WoJo- great candidate but will GMU want to pay? Will WoJo want to leave?
4. Pat Skerry- great candidate but will GMU want to pay?
5. Grant Hill. AGREED WHY?!!!

None of the above will be the next head coach. Nor will Hewitt be at Mason after 2016.
My candidate G-Mas will pick will be the most PC/ cheapest candidate for the job.
 

gmutom

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Heckler, it just strikes me as another big-name hire just to make a splash. I have nothing to base my comment about the players on, but I'm just not a Pearl fan. You're right that he has had some success, so I'm sure some school will hire him. I just don't want it to be us.
 

Pablo

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If a new AD came in and hired a Larranaga to replace Hewitt, it would be the biggest middle finger ever to TOC.

That's not the reason to make such a move, of course. But it couldn't hurt.

I actually believe that Jay Larranaga has the potential to be an outstanding head coach at any level.
 

azgmu

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5. Grant Hill, really? I mean, if you're going former NBA player, why not Damon Stoudamire? At least he has a few years under his belt under Pastner at Memphis and Arizona.
He's classy and respected, and he's from Reston and from my generation. From my perspective he'd be the cool pick, but I have no idea if he's willing or able to coach. This is purely hypothetical, because I think it's silly to speculate about a new coach for as long as we still have one.
 

Quentin Daniels

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FINALLY! I was hoping someone would finally come around to creating a thread about potential replacement coaches.

1. Gene Chizik - the guy didn't just go to a national championship, he won it. I guarantee he'd be a hire that makes people say WOW!

2. Bernie Madoff - suck it Ga Tech, that $7 million ponzie scheme you had to eat to get rid of Paul Ball was child's play. We want someone who really knows how to screw people over.

3. Paul Hewitt - did you know he went to the national championship game 30 years ago???? And after just being fired by George Mason who had to eat the last year of his contract, George Mason could probably hire him on the cheap if we acted immediately. He'll just need some time to get his players in and rid of the old coaches recruits.

4. TomGmu - he's been setting uneducated poster straight since 2003

5. Anyone that's ever coached at Mason, played at Mason, or related to someone that's coached or played at Mason - I've no idea why, but it sure seems to impress some people here

6. John Wooden's Worm Eaten Corpse - meh.....it's still an upgrade over what we got now

7. Jessica Alba - because it's been far too long since there's been anything that was consistently good to look at on a Mason basketball court
 
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