Cleveland State coach Dennis Gates. Played basketball at the University of California, was briefly an assistant there when Barbour was there. Was an assistant under Leonard Hamilton of Florida State for 8 years so President Eric Barron is familiar with him and how Hamilton runs his program. He has been at Cleveland State for 2 years which plays in the Horizon League. Was Coach of the Year in his first year and has Cleveland State in first place this year.
If we lose the roster he would get his brains beat for a few years and would maybe never recover from that, but I will say it’s a smart target.
To me the most attractive part of his resume is 8 years with Leonard Hamilton. Leonard Hamilton is a boarder line Hall of Fame Coach who has won at two “football” schools. Miami was a dumpster fire, he built that from nothing when Miami joined the Big East. I saw his early years going to Villanova games and Miami was a doormat. He built them into a winner and Michael Jordan hired him to become the Wizards coach. That didn’t work out, but he’s been a consistent winner at Florida State. They defend, play hard and he recruits well there. When you understand the challenges of working at Penn State, Hamilton is the kind of coaching tree you’d like to get a guy from, because he’s a blue collar coach.
Ben Jones saw Sandy speak with Dennis’ brother who coaches at Nebraska under Hoiberg, so just connecting some dots.
The mid major head coaching success and the connection to Barron and Barbour makes this a very logical target.
If we lose the roster he would get his brains beat for a few years and would maybe never recover from that, but I will say it’s a smart target.
To me the most attractive part of his resume is 8 years with Leonard Hamilton. Leonard Hamilton is a boarder line Hall of Fame Coach who has won at two “football” schools. Miami was a dumpster fire, he built that from nothing when Miami joined the Big East. I saw his early years going to Villanova games and Miami was a doormat. He built them into a winner and Michael Jordan hired him to become the Wizards coach. That didn’t work out, but he’s been a consistent winner at Florida State. They defend, play hard and he recruits well there. When you understand the challenges of working at Penn State, Hamilton is the kind of coaching tree you’d like to get a guy from, because he’s a blue collar coach.
Ben Jones saw Sandy speak with Dennis’ brother who coaches at Nebraska under Hoiberg, so just connecting some dots.
The mid major head coaching success and the connection to Barron and Barbour makes this a very logical target.
