Bluegrassrivals

outdoorsman43 Wrote:Coach Auriemma could be successful in the men's league. Sounds crazy doesn't it?

I'll tell you why he could.

First of all, he is a man and not a woman. This is not a sexist statement. It's just the way it is. A male athlete simply would not respect and listen to a female head coach. To argue with taxidriver a little bit, Summit is a great coach. She has great knowledge of the game, much much much more than you or I. Her problem in the men's game would be simply that she is a woman. The sad truth is that most men don't respect women as an authority figure. And if the player doesn't respect the coach, then it doesn't work.Secondly, Geno is a coach that simply demands respect and can be very intimidating. If you've seen some specials of his practices on ESPN, you can tell he gives his players a hard time and tells them how it is when they're doing something he doesn't like.

The guy can obviously recruit the best girls in the country. Thus, why couldn't he recruit the best high school boys if he were coaching men's basketball?

I'm not saying he could win 88 games in a row in men's college hoops, but I do think he could win with the big dogs. He's nothing but a winner.

I agree with the bolded. Good points.
However, I'm still not convinced that he would succeed at the mens level.
First of all recruiting, who does he have to go against for these big recruits? Summit and that's pretty much it. If he coached at the mens level he'd have to go up against Coach K, Cal, Ricky P, Bill Self, and so on. What's his pitch going to be? Well I coached womens bball for 20 odd years and that experience there will help you get to the NBA!
Also the big money is in coaching the mens game, not the womens. Why not make the jump if he's THAT great of a coach.
I'm just not sold on him or anybody else that trys to make the jump. I'll have to see it before I do believe it.

Aslan Wrote:I agree with the bolded. Good points.
However, I'm still not convinced that he would succeed at the mens level.
First of all recruiting, who does he have to go against for these big recruits? Summit and that's pretty much it. If he coached at the mens level he'd have to go up against Coach K, Cal, Ricky P, Bill Self, and so on. What's his pitch going to be? Well I coached womens bball for 20 odd years and that experience there will help you get to the NBA!
Also the big money is in coaching the mens game, not the womens. Why not make the jump if he's THAT great of a coach.
I'm just not sold on him or anybody else that trys to make the jump. I'll have to see it before I do believe it.

I can see your point and I'm not saying you're wrong. We probably will never see Auriemma on the sidelines coaching a men's team. Although he did say he might consider a Duke or North Carolina gig if he had the chance.

I really agree with your man vs woman argument, and that would be the x-factor. But I believe without a shadow of a doubt that if a woman who knew her junk had the good players and found a way to get them to listen to her then she wouldn't have a problem with the transition.

I think I can be done. But it would take a few years for her or him to prove their worth

No doubt he could win if he coached a guys team