MATT LOTTICH HAS BEEN FIRED!

[AlaskaCrusader19]

https://twitter.com/bakari_evelyn11/status/1639038108682571781?s=46&t=cNk7taMAYtxNl1Q0_O79Gw

https://twitter.com/bakari_evelyn11/status/1639038526066130945?s=46&t=cNk7taMAYtxNl1Q0_O79Gw

Not that Bakari Evelyn was ever some great player, but this doesn't reflect well on Lottich, obviously. Valpo made the right call. Now, hire the right guy no matter how long it takes.

[NativeCheesehead]

I don't think those posts reflect poorly on ML, I think they reflect very poorly on Bakari.

Listen, we've all been friends with / worked with / know someone like him. Someone whose failure to live up to their potential is always someone else's fault. This guy will spend the rest of his life complaining about teammates, coaches, bosses, coworkers, etc. No one on this board shed a tear when he left and he won't even be the answer to a trivia question for the fans at Nebraska and Iowa.

[usc4valpo]

He is making himself look like an ass and only hurting himself in whatever future endeavors he wants to accomplish.

[justducky]

No one on this board shed a tear when he left and he won't even be the answer to a trivia question for the fans at Nebraska and Iowa.

I had hoped that Sorolla and Golder would have stayed but would Clay and Krikke still have had the scholarship openings? It doesn't really matter because the point remains that fresh starts when needed can be a great thing.

[historyman]

The union may be the only place to eat but it isn't like your choices are the meatloaf and green beans or frozen pizza!

Actually the Bell & Beacon at the Union is very good. For a senior citizen it's between $8 & $9 all you can eat and the food selection is very good.

[JD24]

Not that Bakari Evelyn was ever some great player, but this doesn't reflect well on Lottich, obviously. Valpo made the right call. Now, hire the right guy no matter how long it takes.

The only person it reflects poorly on is Bakari Evelyn.

[historyman]

Not that Bakari Evelyn was ever some great player, but this doesn't reflect well on Lottich, obviously. Valpo made the right call. Now, hire the right guy no matter how long it takes.

The only person it reflects poorly on is Bakari Evelyn.

And Ehingen Urspring in Pro-A Germany the höchstes niveau in Deutschland."


They must be an awful outfit.

[historyman]

Former Hawkeye Bakari Evelyn signs first professional contract (247sports.com)


"Even early in the year when we were moving him around and it probably wasn't the thing that he was excited about, he just accepted it and did whatever we asked him to do to help us win," Iowa head coach Fran McCaffery said. "That's who he is. And little by little, he's had some great games for us. I mean, just tremendous. And games where he hasn't scored as much, he's been rock solid as a point guard or as a defender. He has the ability to play through a mistake, which veteran guys typically do. But he's been a great fit in that locker room, and that's obviously really critical."
[/color][/size]Evelyn's college career started at Nebraska, went through Valporiasso and ended with a year in Iowa. Throughout his eventful journey, he said that staying in the moment was one of his most valuable lessons.
[/color][/size]"Learning how to stay in the moment," Evelyn said. "I think this generation has a tendency to look ahead and just consumed by outside noise, opinions, media or anything. You can lose focus of the moments you're in. For me, it was learning how to block out everything, be in the moment, be present and don't take anything for granted."
[/color][/size]"I think he fit right in. He was humble and he wanted a chance to be part of something special," Luka Garza said about Evelyn. "He wanted to get to the NCAA Tournament, he wanted to be ranked and there were a lot of things that he hadn't done in his career that he looked for. He's all about the team."
[/color][/size]
[/color][/size]Fran McCaffery had never taken a division one transfer in his coaching career until Evelyn came along. After watching what he had done in his career, the prior relationship and Evelyn's attitude, it was a perfect fit. After the season was underway, the team had nothing but praise for him.
[/color][/size]"No matter what role he had on the team, he just played hard for the time he got," Garza said. "And, obviously, recently he's just been really stepping up for us. He's been huge for us and he's just made an immediate impact on our program and in the locker room as well. He's an upstanding guy and everybody is really good friends with him. I'm really, really good friends with him."
[/color][/size]It was a long road, but now, Evelyn gets to check a childhood dream off his bucket list and live it.

[crusader05]

I think one of lotticjs biggest issues was that he did not know to recruit players who meshed with his coaching style. He seems to have improved at that BUT ironically ended up with maybe less raw talent which made the holes in his coaching strategy more blatant

[usc4valpo]

There were 2 obvious issues on the Lottich hiring. 1. Lottich did not have enough experience to be a head coach, and he will be a better and successful coach after this. 2. Valpo and MLB was lazy and predictably cheap in a making a quick fix to keep operations moving.

[valpo64]

Schools always want to make the change to a new coach as soon as possible to keep continuity in returning players, recruits and staff.  In Matts's case blending in transfers was his biggest problem.  In many cases when as new coach arrives and is greeted by a "clean house" with respect to players, it is often easier to start with a whole new group all learning a new system together.  One, or perhaps 2 transfers, or maybe even more newcomers often are very difficult to blend into a new starting five, especially when holdover players are competing for a starting position.   Many coaches have problems with this type of senario.

[Just Sayin]

Following Bruce Weber's firing, Tang took over a team that had two scholarship players, added 13 new faces and blended it into what is currently the best start in the country by a first-year Division I head coach (17-2). The Cats have already won three more games than they did all last season.

The right coach DOES matter.

[valpo95]

There were 2 obvious issues on the Lottich hiring. 1. Lottich did not have enough experience to be a head coach, and he will be a better and successful coach after this. 2. Valpo and MLB was lazy and predictably cheap in a making a quick fix to keep operations moving.

We should be careful to separate the process of hiring Matt Lottich from the outcome over seven years. Clearly Coach Lottich represented the program with the highest integrity, so it was way better than Evansville hiring Walter McCarty who lasted 1.5 years. I'm also guessing that Bryce and Homer Drew would have had good things to say about Coach Lottich - if they had been against it, it would have been unlikely he would have been offered the job. As far as we know, the players were favorable to promoting Coach Lottich. Also as far as we know, Roger Powell turned down the job, so perhaps MLB was dealing with an unexpected situation, especially with significant financial constraints on hiring a new coach. None of this makes MLB lazy, and it does not make the decision unreasonable.

As to the outcome, if the Horizon League has a real chance to practice at Joe Louis arena in 2016-17, the team doesn't lose a close game to Milwaukee and instead wins the HL and goes on to win a NCAA tournament game. (I don't remember the timing of the injury to Alec Peters, or if he would have been available for an NCAA tournament game.) Such an outcome might have landed a few more high profile recruits and more success rather than a career record just below .500.

I'm not being an apologist for Coach Lottich - the record is what it says, and he had ample opportunities to over seven years to win. He did not, and performance mandated his dismissal. Yet hiring a well-regarded though inexperienced assistant coach is more of a mistake in hindsight rather than an obvious mistake at the time.

[usc4valpo]

In due respect, I see what you are saying but I am not sure I agree. They made a very fast decision and did not really search sufficiently to make an objective decision. I know, easy for me to say seven years later.

Regarding the practice situation at the Joe, I don't buy that circumstance to the downfall and feel like a cop out. Great teams are resillant to situations like that.

[VULB#62]

It's quiet; too quiet.  No real basketball thread activity this morning unlike the previous few weeks. 

I liken this to the eerie quiet just before sunrise. Then, bam, the world is full of light. 

[tiny707]

62, the calm before the storm and Final Four weekend almost here for coaches. Also, Matt needs to update his Twitter account....

[tiny707]

Wonder if Matt will get an assistant job at Cal?

[VULB#62]

I thought about using the "calm before the storm" metaphor, but chose a more upbeat one cuz we are turning over a new page in Valpo BB history and there's always hope.

[AlaskaCrusader19]

It's quiet; too quiet.  No real basketball thread activity this morning unlike the previous few weeks. 

I liken this to the eerie quiet just before sunrise. Then, bam, the world is full of light. 

We're getting closer. I'd be fairly surprised if there's no announcement by this time next week. This weekend should do it if there's nothing by then.

[wh]

It's quiet; too quiet.  No real basketball thread activity this morning unlike the previous few weeks. 

I liken this to the eerie quiet just before sunrise. Then, bam, the world is full of light. 

When I was young and reckless, my brother-in-law and I borrowed my dad's speed boat and sank it. Trust me, raising a sunken boat and returning it to its former glory is painfully time consuming and expensive. To your point, I don't expect to see much sunshine any time soon.

[valpopal]

Make of this what you will.[tweet]1641214286138572800[/tweet]

[wh]

https://twitter.com/HD_DirtKing/status/1641192168772493315?s=20

[JD24]

So either nothings happening or somethings happening. I love these twitter guys. I should create an account and just start posting insider stuff and retweeting the real insider stuff. Then I'd be an insider.

Amir Abdul-Rahim went to South Florida and that's a guy I thought Valpo might be interested in.

[elephtheria47]

Open market job searches are beneficial. If you cant get who you think you can get, then its time to upgrade some things if you want to get to that level.  If you dont, then you know where you're heading. How many times do people in that position get honest feedback.

[vu84v2]

This was posted on ESPN's coaching carousel update today:

A couple of early names at Valparaiso: Iowa State assistant JR Blount and Marquette assistant DeAndre Haynes.

Haynes started at Marquette with Shaka Smart. He was at Maryland and Michigan prior to Marquette. Marquette's profile of Haynes is that his focus is on player development.