It's official: Donlan joins NU's staff
- Thread starter lou v
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Collins had said if he had had an opening last year he would have grabbed him. Now he does and he did.
I posted this on the Rock...but thought I would share here as well. Awesome pic circa August 1994.
Sure that isn't Feb/March 1995? I'd guess that is after a supersectional win for GBN (Go Spartans!) at Welsh-Ryan. The mythical 1995 football schedule in the back is a nice touchI posted this on the Rock...but thought I would share here as well. Awesome pic circa August 1994.
Just curious if Dolans' wife is also a Chicago area gal. With the long hours coaches put in, being at home or near family would be a big plus IMO.
No, she is from the outer banks of NC. I've known Billy since he was in 8th grade. Great Young Man. Welcome Home Billy. Bring Dad with you!!!
Billy Sr. is a classic...lots of great stories. He and Tim Carter were quite a duo for Coach Foster.
Donlon seems like a great person and coach. But the NU BkB staff may be excessively Chicago- (or at best Midwest)-centric. Very little experience in the Western half or the lower third of the country by anyone!.
CCC must know what he's doing, and the results so far are encouraging...but...a bit strange!
CCC must know what he's doing, and the results so far are encouraging...but...a bit strange!
Can't please 100% of the people 100% of the time. Someone is always going to find something to complain about.
Pretty sure I read Billy will be moving back in with his dad...a similar arrangement to what they had while working together at Wright State. Billy's mom passed a few years back after a long battle with cancer. He and Billy Sr have always ben close, but even more so after his mom's passing.
You say that, I'd be curious to know why. There is a lot to like about this hire but it does seem to narrow the staff down to a pretty specific type.
Read the stories about Donlon's recruiting ability or, shoot, the stories about his dad sending him down to Cabrini-Green to play so he had better exposure to different styles of basketball on the court and cultures off of it. The guy was inviting his entire team from the projects to his house for the Super Bowl as a frigging high schooler.
Just because he's a white dude from Northbrook doesn't mean he, or any of the other guys on staff who fit that descriptor, is/are a "pretty specific type."
You know that Donlon was out on the East Coast for 7 years and Chris was over there for 15, right? I don't know what their recruiting regions/responsibilities were as assistants, but I'm guessing they have recruited all over.
Either way, at the very least they have the Midwest, East Coast, and southeastern connections between just the two of them.
Also... the results are just "encouraging"? Now that they've landed their PG finally, I'm feeling really good about the transition following Mac and Scott's departure. I have to remember that we are spoiled with an entire season of those two fellas right in front of us, too!
That's nuts. What "pretty specific type"? Racially? Age wise? I don't see either of those given the others on the staff. Do you mean regionally? Because I shot an arrow through that one already.
(i may be missing someone here but...)
class 1 - chicago, chicago, ohio, indiana, los angeles (vasser? i forget)
class 2 - ohio, chicago burbs, boston, calif (walk on)
class 3 - chicago burbs, alaska/seattle, chicago burbs, chicago burbs (walk on)
class 4 - new york/new hampshire, boston area transfer
class 5 - missouri, (ohio, texas - my guesses with nance and kopp)
seems like a pretty solid mix of chicago area talent and mixing in players from far away. baldwin was a midwest guy, i hardly see this changing with donlon. if anything donlon has a wider reach than baldwin did.
The discussion is about the coaches, not the players...nevertheless, although I haven't checked your data, it seems to suggest STRONGLY that the players are as Chicago-centric as the staff is...if it works, fine....but given the fairly small percentage of strong athletes that can actually get in a school like NU, a national focus (all regions) would seem more appropriate....it may work EVEN BETTER!
Yes they were. Bill Sr. does have great stories about some of the Great NY Coaches from The Day!!! Looking forward to seeing him and Billy this fall!!!
Mrs. Donlon was a Gem. Lovely lady who is sorely missed by the family and those who knew her.
What you wrote is consistent with what I wrote....the (mostly NORTH-)East Coast is NOT in the Western HALF (or lower third) of the country.
1) Now you're just arguing to argue.
2) Like football, NU basketball recruiting will always start in Chicago. Given that basketball classes are smaller by definition, a national approach isn't necessary to fill out classes like in football.
Feli - our program is roughly 70% Chicago, Ohio, Mich, and now missouri. 30% is plucking a few Gems from the east and west coast. Collins has said numerous times that his goal would be to be chicago heavy and then fill in with specific talent from across the country. the staff has done that, and looks like they will continue to do that (with a far bigger reach than what was done with baldwin - Donlons teams had carolinas, texas, WV, and alabama - the south/southeast which is an area we have not had a presence in recruiting) but it still doesn't dspute the fact that we will be a midwest heavy team, by collins own admission. (fun fact: if we don't get tucker we will have 2 straight classes without a player from illinois)
why would you bring up a point/argument that would go against what the head coach has said his plan would be? argue for the sake or arguing?
What a WEAK response. You are pushing the "Chicago-centric" line but you're ignoring the SE and East Coast. Convenient to your argument but it's hardly as if our coaches are only looking at Chicago and only have connections to the city. What a load of CRRRRAP.
By the way, even if ALL they EVER did was recruit Chicago and the Midwest, we wouldn't be bad AT ALL.
What a perfect response. I think you're wasting your mind on him, though.
For such a "smart" school boy are our fans dumb.
Isn't necessary and may be counterproductive. Four coaches on staff are allowed to recruit. If we pull an Isiah Brown out of Seattle once a decade, it's not a significant enough payoff to have a coach dedicated to recruiting the west coast. In the hypothetical that's an actual binary choice, I'd rather have four coaches dedicating themselves to forming relationships to every feeder school within 100 miles of campus than spreading them thin in the hopes that there's some unicorn hidden out in Phoenix, Atlanta or San Antonio.
Of course, without a coach dedicated to recruiting the west coast, this staff did pull Isiah Brown out of Seattle. And Aaron Falzon and Anthony Gaines out of New England. And Jordan Lathon out of Kansas City.
And Kevin Coble was from Phoenix. And Jershon Cobb was from Atlanta. And Tre Demps was from San Antonio.
There are a number of people on here who just constantly bring up the same crap about the size of the arena, the previous coach, the donation levels required for a parking pass. Then there's Feli who doesn't even like Northwestern. Either that or it's a serious mental illness, I'm not sure.
Anyway maybe not all of our fans are dumb but.... yeah. Who on god's earth would crap on us getting Donlon as an assistant except one of our own fans? See my point? Dumb
Mr. Jahblowme, do not waste time engaging Feli. He will just move the goalposts and change facts to suit whatever contrarian position he wants to take at that moment without regard to any actual beliefs he may or may not possess or facts you present to support your position.
Basketball recruiting is not at all like football recruiting. Coaches travel to showcases where they watch players from all over the country compete. Its not like football where they are depending on relationships to find players who are spread across the country.
Agree, but it does help to have local ties and relationships with AAU programs and schools.
This said, I love the makeup of the staff. Chris Collins is gold. Duke championship rings, USA basketball. Collins with his Duke pedigree (and recruiting coverage while there) has the national chops already. Gates has proven his worth and deep Chicago ties. Brian James is Mr. NBA - exhibit A in making the argument that we can develop kids for the next level (and in particular, bigs). And Donlon appears to be a great recruiter based on the mlive article. If anything I would have liked to have another African-American to balance out the racial profile of the staff (particularly given the clear racial bias for top basketball talent) and perhaps, an NU guy, but I trust Collins to assemble the best staff possible.
Will also point out that Chicago is arguably the top metro area for hoops talent nationally. It's like Florida and Texas for football. We need to recruit nationally in football not just because of the academic bar, but because Illinois and Chicagoland doesn't have enough talent to rely on solely (especially with our academic bar). Look at fricking UofI if you want to know what you end up with focused only on Illinois in football. But, as gcg pointed out, we only need to get 2-4 guys in each class and if we can land our pick of Chicagoland qualified talent, that could be the majority of our classes each year and would yield very high calibre talent, sufficient to contend for championships. If we can begin to consistently get the kids who qualify and are Chicagoland based, we will be on our way.
BTW, only because I have this thing about beating deceased equines, I thought this was interesting non-Donlan point from the mlive article on Donlan's recruiting of Eli Brooks.
While in Ann Arbor, Brooks took a tour of campus with U-M head coach John Beilein.
"A personal touch," Brooks called it.
Wow, what one can accomplish when you manage to actually be on campus when a recruit shows up.
While in Ann Arbor, Brooks took a tour of campus with U-M head coach John Beilein.
"A personal touch," Brooks called it.
Wow, what one can accomplish when you manage to actually be on campus when a recruit shows up.
Will be interesting to see if Villanova makes a run at Brooks now that Donlon is gone.
Sorry for being out of the loop on this, but what exactly is Donlan's role on our coaching staff going to be? Is he our assistant coach like Baldwin with a priority as recruiting coordinator? Are there even specialty coordinators like football for the basketball team? Just curious.
Is Donlon considered a "special" recruiter? Did he get anything done recruiting-wise at Michigan.
I like very much that he's considered an excellent defensive coach and especially good with perimeter defense. Will be a huge asset to NU with Gaines and Lathon.
I like very much that he's considered an excellent defensive coach and especially good with perimeter defense. Will be a huge asset to NU with Gaines and Lathon.
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