And yet, the more things change, in some ways they remain the same. When the program is dominant, it means they have good players, and that means that the successor is going to come in, and should win some games. The more dominant the team is, the better the players, and the better the success of the following coach should be. But, over the course of a few years, those players leave, and the new coach recruits players to replace them. That's where things diverge, and can take different courses. Note, that it isn't always true. Knorr inherited good players, and had a bad first year.

Note that the above is similar to the findings in that article, where programs tended to reach peaks or valleys 3-4 years after new hires.