December 22 Notebook
December 22, 2005 02:06 PM | General
December 22, 2005
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| Beilein |
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – During a recent press conference, West Virginia coach John Beilein offered reporters a candid analysis of his recruiting philosophy.
“There are some coaches that are maybe more into recruiting great players instead of developing players and I think that’s rare,” the coach said recently. “I also think teachers are better when they have willing students. If you’re a great teach and you don’t have kids that are willing students then it’s much more difficult to be a teacher.
“What we’ve tried to recruit are the kids that have that desire to get better,” he said. “And then whether it’s me or any coach you just get better through osmosis. I don’t know any tricks that other people don’t know. Johannes (Herber), Patrick (Beilein), Mike (Gansey), Kevin (Pittsnogle) and J.D. (Collins) are you kidding me? There is very rarely a day in practice when they don’t want to get better.”
Beilein says right after he sees a prospect his first call is to his high school coach.
“I ask him about his work habits and what type of teammate he is? We don’t care one bit what type of player he is,” Beilein said. “What is his work ethic and what is his teammate ability? Then we know we’re at least in the ballpark.
“Then when they’re 18 and all of the sudden they fall in love or they’re not used to not playing. That can all go to … somewhere else. For the most part these kids have been able to stay focused.”
Beilein’s staff was able to land an outstanding six-player recruiting class in November that includes prospects from Illinois, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Washington, D.C., and Ohio.
A couple of Beilein’s signees are already making news. Devan Bawinkel, a 6-foot-5-inch wing guard from Winnebago, Ill., recently scored 52 points in a holiday tournament against Aquin High School. Bawinkel has led Winnebago High School to the Class-A state finals in each of the last two seasons.
Warwick, R.I., point guard Joe Mazzula dropped in 39 points on Coventry High School in an 85-63 win last night.
And Blair (N.J.) Academy coach Joe Mantegna believes that in 6-7 Wellington Smith, a WVU signee, and power forward Shamari Spears (Boston College), he has his strongest team since Charlie Villanueva and Luol Deng played there. Both Villanueva and Deng are now playing in the NBA.
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| Cavanaugh |
Cavanaugh was the 1960 swim team captain for Coach Lewis Ringer, setting pool records in the 220-yard freestyle (2:14.4), 50-yard freestyle (24.9), 100-yard freestyle (53.4) and 440-yard freestyle (4:53.2).
The two-time Southern Conference champion served coaching stints at Miami Ransom Everglades and Ft. Lauderdale High School. He was also the water polo coach at the University of Miami.
Cavanaugh is now turning his attention toward the U.S. Masters Short Course Nationals in Coral Springs, Fla., May 11-14. He was inducted into the Florida Gold Coast LMSC Hall of Fame in 1998.
My question is this: what constitutes a good recruiter? Is it a coach that can convince a good prospect to come to his school or is it a coach that can evaluate and determine which prospects are the best fit for his school?
The school has already cut $3.5 million in operating expenses over the past two years and more cuts may be in store. Tennessee, with a 104,000-seat football stadium, had a losing season in football this past year.
This just goes to show you how fragile athletic budgets are today at even the nation’s biggest schools.
Earlier this week the Atlanta Journal-Constitution ran a lengthy story about the ACC’s displeasure over having teams with losing conference records jumping better teams in the league’s present bowl-game selection process.
Specifically, two nationally ranked teams (Boston College and Georgia Tech) are being shipped to distant bowl games while two 3-5 ACC teams N.C. State and Virginia are playing close to their respective campuses.
“I would always prefer that the bowl selections mirror what happens on the field competitively,” says ACC commissioner John Swofford.
Of course it doesn’t happen that way and never has. Bowls are in the business to make money and apparently, Boston College and Georgia Tech don’t make bowls money.
“The conferences are not going to take less money (from bowl-game payouts) because we did what they thought was the right thing,” said Scott Ramsey, executive director of the Music City Bowl in Nashville.
Of course 8-3 Boston College is the biggest loser having to travel to Boise, Idaho, to face Boise State on its home field in the MPC Computers Bowl. If Boston College were still in the Big East it would have probably landed in the Gator Bowl and quite possibly a BCS game as the league’s champion.
Eagle coach Tom O’Brien won’t comment on the bowl selection process until after his team’s game with Boise State, but BC athletic director Gene DeFillipo is talking.
“It’s got to be about more than who can sell the most tickets,” DeFillipo says. “If it’s just about travel and geography, then we are at a real disadvantage.”
Said Georgia Tech athletic director Dave Braine, “A team should not have to lobby its way into a bowl -- it should be about what they did on the field.”
Am I missing something here?
Isn’t that the way things have always been done?
It sounds to me like the ACC is about to revisit its bowl-game situation and it will be interesting to see which bowls will be receptive to any changes.
Here is to hoping that everyone has a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
