Minnesota Sports Forum

Happy for Billy. He built a great program at Florida, but nobody at Florida cares. They only.care about football.

BizarroJerry wrote:Happy for Billy. He built a great program at Florida, but nobody at Florida cares. They only.care about football.

This is ignorant and I'm obliged to call you on it.

lipoli390 wrote:

longstrangetrip wrote:

monsterpile wrote:Interesting supposedly Flip offered a top assistant coach position to Billups last year with the understanding he takes over next year but turned it down.

http://www.denverpost.com/kiszla/ci_27915458/kiszla-nuggets-need-chauncey-billups-but-management-role

Good find, monster. So we now know that Flip offered the job to Joerger and Billups, and there are also reports that the Wolves actively pursued Donovan. Since reports like this are coming out of the woodwork, it's logical to assume there were other candidates that the Wolves also went after. Can we finally put to bed the narrative that Flip wanted the head coach job from the start, and didn't put much effort into finding an alternative? It's clear to me that the Kevin Love uncertainty made it impossible for Flip to get the right guy to commit...only washed-up candidates like George Karl were interested.

On the positive side, the Wolves have to be a much better coaching job now than they were prior to the Love/Wiggins deal. More reason to believe that we may have a new coach next year.

The report on Billups is false. Nor was Joerger actually offered the job here. There were only discussions with him. The head coaching position was actually offered to one guy who turned it down before Flip finally named himself to the position.

Lip, not sure why you are saying the Billups report is false...it came directly from him. Sounds like we have a "he said, he said" situation here, and that you have a source inside the organization that said it never happened. One of the two is lying, and I can't come up with a motive why Billups would make this story up. Sounds legit to me.

You are technically correct that an offer was never made to Joerger, even though Mark Stein reported that there was an offer. Flip liked him, and recommended to the ownership group that they interview him. Joerger met with Glen, and I was told that Flip/Glen were preparing the terms of an offer sheet. But before they could present it to him. the goofball Grizzlies owner sweetened his own deal for Joerger...which he accepted. So while no offer was ever officially given to Dave, Flip was prepared to move forward with him.

I also have been told that Flip and Glen actively pursued Hoiberg, but Fred was not ready to leave Ames. I don't know personally for sure that they also went after Izzo, SVG and Donovan, but Steve Aschbrenner reported that they did.

Some here have questioned why they didn't hire George Karl, and I know for a fact that he was rejected right away. There were serious concerns about his health, and on the heels of a poor coaching job by Adelman partially due to health issues (albeit, his wife's issues), the front office deemed Karl too big a risk. But I still find enough substance in the Billups, Joerger, SVG, Izzo, Hoiberg, and Donovan stories to dispute that Flip's search for a coach was half-hearted.

As someone who lived there for 7 years, I think I know Cam. And dont reply to my posts anymore.

BizarroJerry wrote:As someone who lived there for 7 years, I think I know Cam. And dont reply to my posts anymore.

I've lived in Florida, in Gainesville, around Gainesville my entire my life. I think you're ignorant for actually believing that the fans don't love Billy D and/or the basketball program because it's so far from the truth.

That explains a lot about you Cam.

BizarroJerry wrote:That explains a lot about you Cam.

Meh. You haven't backed up your absurd comment. Maybe you're in the wrong. Yep, that's probably it.

It's somewhere in the middle. Florida is a football school and it probably always will be but what Donovan did there plenty of people loved that program. i live in Lincoln NE football is king here. Even if Miles has success here with the basketball team football will be the sport here but there was a pretty massive buzz about the basketball team the past few months withdraw new arena etc and they fell on their faces this year but probably the best recruiting class by far ever is coming in people are still paying attention. My point is both of your perspectives have some truth imo.

monsterpile wrote:It's somewhere in the middle. Florida is a football school and it probably always will be but what Donovan did there plenty of people loved that program. i live in Lincoln NE football is king here. Even if Miles has success here with the basketball team football will be the sport here but there was a pretty massive buzz about the basketball team the past few months withdraw new arena etc and they fell on their faces this year but probably the best recruiting class by far ever is coming in people are still paying attention. My point is both of your perspectives have some truth imo.

Agreed. I think the notion that nobody cares is a bit of an exaggeration, but when you think of Florida it's Football, but Donovan certainly helped put the basketball program on the map at least.

How many college coaches make the transition to the NBA and have success? It seems NBA assistants and ex NBA players have more success. Isn't it as much about massaging egos and understanding that these guys can't be talked down too once they become professionals? In college the coach is a father figure , in the pros it's more of an Im ur foreman figure, I'll determine ur work load based on production type of deal?