Interesting read on Stan Heath from Rivals...

[heathman]

States that landing Heath as one of the best hires this offseason.  Glad for Stan, but i like Pel and what he is doing!


http://collegebasketball.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=706785

[coach, my back hurts]

Of all the "candidates" that we were supposedly on.  I guess i'd rather have Calipari and maybe the dude from UNLV.(ex NBA coach).

I like Pel and think we LUCKED into a great coach.  Thanks Dana, who knew you leavin so early would be such a great thing. 

And best of luck to Heath.  Probably isnt a finer gentlemen in the world.  I'll be keeping up with SFlorida.  Maybe we can beat Creighton and SFlorida one these yrs.

[HOGWILD_F4I]

"Heath will need two years to stock up the roster before Big East opponents stop viewing trips to Tampa as automatic wins. As for the NCAA Tournament, USF fans should probably wait about four years before they start entertaining any dreams of the Big Dance."

[joeyself]

Yep.  Unlike some former Razorback coaches (and one future ex-head coach--I hope in the near future), I will pull for Stan Heath's teams to do well. 

But I wouldn't bet on it.

This opening tells the story: "Yes, Heath underachieved at Arkansas, but you're talking about a coach who has taken a mid-major to an Elite Eight (Kent State in 2002) and took the Razorbacks to the last two NCAA Tournaments."

The Kent State run looks more like a fluke--or a run despite, not because of, the coaching--as every year goes by.  A team built by someone else and one that actively rebelled against Heath's style.  And yes, we went to two tourneys, and were one and done in both. 

If USF wants a solid program, no scandals, and one that won't be an embarassment as it loses (well, most of the time), they probably have the right guy.

JcS

[joeyself]

I don't know guys.  I mean, his style did NOT fit in here, but think about all the just crappy luck we had.....  Georgia hitting that halfcourt buzzer shot to beat us, Ervin getting laid out at Ole Miss with no call, Mike Jones hitting the 3 at LSU that the refs took away when his foot was BEHIND the line, the PLAYERS missing 9 free throws the last half against bucknell, going like 1 for 25 from 3-pointers in the SECT Final vs florida.....  i mean, yes ,his style is NOT arkansas, but we had some DREADFUL LUCK under him. 

THe vandy win by ervin in this years SECT was special, not because we won, but because it was the first 'buzzer beater' or close to that we have had under stan in years.  Going back even to like Western Carolina in his first year, teams were always able to hit fluke shots against us.

Oh i know what will be said "that's stan's fault".  Dude, we had our hands in the eyeballs of Bucknell...  but they kept draining them from 30 feet as the shot clock expired.

My point is, he wasn't meant for Fayetteville, but I think he can be a GOOD coach -- just had some awful luck and never got a bounce (home vs kentucky in 05, vs MSU in 05... seems like ronnie or eric could never make that last buzzer shot....... )

I'll give you that some of those last second shots were lucky (or from our perspective, unlucky), but if we'd taken care of business in the first 39:50 of the game, the last 10 seconds wouldn't stand out so much.

And yes, teams get hot now and then, and yes, teams get cold once in awhile--goes with the territory.  But I ask the same question in basketball that I ask in football:  When was the last time you looked at the sidelines of both teams and thought we had an advantage based on who was coaching our team?

JcS