It's not dementia. It's concentration. Reading all the crapola on here tonight makes it hard to keep my mind focused. I'll apologize again that I did misread the earlier post. I guess my nerves are a little on edge tonight, because I really do feel sorry for Saul and I get so tired reading some of drivel on here where some just seem to revel in the team's misery.

Someone had to point out the worst ideas on here. It's like people don't even think.

Two more thoughts. First, while Schaus's desire to land experienced head coaches is admirable, ultimately it limits the pool of qualified candidates to much too small a field. It's going to be a pretty slim group of guys who are willing to leave another successful stint at a D-1 job to come here. Anyone great would already have been snatched up by a bigger fish, so we're inherently settling for a flawed candidate or someone without much ambition.

Second, we need to develop a consistent identity. Part of the problem the last 7 years is that we've bounced between very different coaching styles with each hire, from Groce to Christian to Phillips. That requires you to largely start from scratch recruiting wise each time, while you wait to get guys in who fit the new system.

The elite mid-majors (Butler, Xavier, Gonzaga), have stuck to a single system and always hired from within. Even in the MAC, Kent State's 2002 Elite Eight team and Buffalo this year and last had former assistants at the helm (Stan Heath and Oats) after the initial successful hires had moved on (Gary Waters and Hurley).

Schaus's mistake, in my mind, has been to become so overly enamored with prior HC experience that he has overlooked any semblance of program continuity. Moving forward we need to pick a style, stick to it, and develop second-chair guys ready to move up when the time comes.

Flomo brings the sanity back to the board.

With this line of thinking, I'm wondering if the right choice from the get-go was Dustin Ford. The players wanted him, but seemingly nobody else did.

My tongue was planted firmly in my cheek when I typed that..

In hindsight, I'm not sure we could be in much worse shape today had we gone with Dustin in 2012. That having been said, I'm still not convinced he was ready.

Instead, the alternative history I prefer to live in is one where we convinced Holtmann to stay as coach-in-waiting rather than jump to Gardner Webb. When Groce gets the call in 2012, Holtmann replaces him without missing a beat, with Dustin promoted to associate HC. They convince Lavert and Bradds to stay the course, and we continue to build on the 2012 run in the subsequent years. By 2015 or 16, Holtmann gets the call for a P5 job, and Dustin gets the HC job.

I think it was discussed before but did Holtmann get a call/interview after Groce left? What could have been.

In the words of the Flamingos, Schaus only had eyes for Christian after Groce departed. Just my opinion, but it seemed like near obsession to get the man to Athens and back in the MAC. Ultimately, I think that's why we are in the situation we are in today. It will always be a favorite argument, but that was a very very bad hire in my opinion.

+1

I think we're gonna get along A-OK on a few topics here.

As to your suggestion from IU, very solid choice indeed. I didn't do as much digging on their staff as I should have, especially with a coaching tree that Archie comes off of.

He can be a little grating more often than not, but there are times where without him, there would be next to nothing on social media giving consistent coverage/updates for Ohio games (especially basketball and football).

Let’s go for Kevin Ollie.

Makes $250,000 plus incentives and will be on the very short list for Wake Forest (and a number of other places) if they let Manning go, but Wes Miller at UNC-Greensboro would be great - though a "yes" from him would be a challenge.