2023-24 Season

[Juice Stand]

I know absolutely nothing about him, but hey, welcome to UMass! I'd love to get a scouting report on this guy. Is he a tactician, a stats and computer geek, a solid recruiter? It looks like he and McCall might have had some overlap at Florida, Nelson as a player and McCall as a student manager.

heard they are really good friends. this is an F Minus hire if it happens.. Look at what he did at HOLLLLLLYYYYY CROSS as the example.

Recruiting players to go to a small Catholic school in Worcester, Mass sounds rough. That is usually a last option for young males.

He has connections and ties to the area, was an assistant coach at a P5 school, and is young and ambitious with a ton of coaching experience already. Actually, played P5 basketball himself and knows the game. Not sure how anyone can possibly say that this is a F- hire.

Yup, I'm not going to rate this hire on face value, and I'm not going to rate an assistant based on what they did as a head coach (see: Kellogg, Derek). I would like to hear a little bit more about what specific strengths he brings to the table though.

[inthescoop]

^
You don't often hear from the assistants, so I think you'll be safe Floyd....

Won't be a McCall repeat

Where he was in his 5th season at UMass and announcers would highlight his biggest success as once being an assistant for Donovan.... in his 5th season as head coach

[MakeMullinsGreatAgain]

When he was an assistant at Marquette - Wojichekowsi said he was one of the best recruiters he's ever met! For what it's worth he was a McDonalds All American in 1999 so in theory he should be able to recognize talent when he see's it. He has been an assistant at quite a few P5 schools so he def. has some connections. I'd still rather have DK but this seems promising.

[NilesGold]

For what it's worth he was a McDonalds All American in 1999 so in theory he should be able to recognize talent when he see's it. He has been an assistant at quite a few P5 schools so he def. has some connections.

Assistant at 1 P5 (Arkansas), Marquette is not a P5 school, it's in the Big East.

What's the connection between being a McD AA and an ability to recognize talent?

[UMassfan_19]

For what it's worth he was a McDonalds All American in 1999 so in theory he should be able to recognize talent when he see's it. He has been an assistant at quite a few P5 schools so he def. has some connections.

Assistant at 1 P5 (Arkansas), Marquette is not a P5 school, it's in the Big East.

What's the connection between being a McD AA and an ability to recognize talent?

I mean big east is a power conference in basketball why people use the term p6 seems a silly semantic to critique

[inthescoop]

For what it's worth he was a McDonalds All American in 1999 so in theory he should be able to recognize talent when he see's it. He has been an assistant at quite a few P5 schools so he def. has some connections.

Assistant at 1 P5 (Arkansas), Marquette is not a P5 school, it's in the Big East.

What's the connection between being a McD AA and an ability to recognize talent?

Jokes on you if you're not categorizing the Big East as a top conference in college basketball.

[TheChamp]

I know absolutely nothing about him, but hey, welcome to UMass! I'd love to get a scouting report on this guy. Is he a tactician, a stats and computer geek, a solid recruiter? It looks like he and McCall might have had some overlap at Florida, Nelson as a player and McCall as a student manager.

He could probably start for this team. McDonald's All-American, stud at Florida under Billy Donovan.

[69MG]

Just looked at the Marquette BB page and our buddy Dwayne Killing was an assistant at Marquette for a couple of years with Nelson. By the way, his resume looks pretty good. I'm starting to feel better about this hire if I can just get the Holy Cross years out of my head.

https://gomarquette.com/sports/mens-bas ... nelson/355

[Floyd]

^
You don't often hear from the assistants, so I think you'll be safe Floyd....

Good. It was annoying

[Juice Stand]

Just looked at the Marquette BB page and our buddy Dwayne Killing was an assistant at Marquette for a couple of years with Nelson. By the way, his resume looks pretty good. I'm starting to feel better about this hire if I can just get the Holy Cross years out of my head.

https://gomarquette.com/sports/mens-bas ... nelson/355

Yup, a little more digging and he sounds like a real nice hire. From his Marquette bio:

While he was at Drake, the Bulldogs signed a class ranked No. 45 in the country and second in the Missouri Valley by HoopScoopOnline. A year earlier, he played a key role in Arkansas landing a class ranked among the top 10 nationally. At Marshall, Nelson was instrumental in the recruitment and development of Hassan Whiteside, who earned C-USA freshman and defensive player of the year accolades before being selected in the 2010 NBA Draft with the 33rd overall pick by the Sacramento Kings

[Upstate10]

I wish we hired Mark Schmidt

[minutefanjsf]

I wish we hired Mark Schmidt

We tried pretty hard I believe. It was his choice to stay in Olean.

[GOODY]

I wish we hired Mark Schmidt

I don’t !

[inthescoop]

I wish we hired Mark Schmidt

If we did, we would have had posts by now on here that said I wish we hired Frank Martin

[TheInsider]

^^^ Bingo