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Report: Craig Smith new Drake coach [Updated]

I love Drake but if he gives USD one or two more 20+ win seasons, he'll get better offers. Drake is basically a career killer at this point.
 
WHO tv just said he is now staying at South Dakota. he had a team meeting scheduled was 90miniutes late to it came in and told his team he's staying .
 
WHO tv just said he is now staying at South Dakota. he had a team meeting scheduled was 90miniutes late to it came in and told his team he's staying .

Drake has to be one of the most difficult jobs in college hoops. Small population state to begin with, two good power 5 programs and another pretty good mid-major program and they're a private school with somewhat tighter admittance standards.

Tough gig.
 
Just keep the temp guy they have now.

Drake is a joke, they pretend their relays are a big deal but nobody cares. Take the high school kids out and see how many over priced tickets they sell.

They should go diii or actually try to compete.
 
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I love Drake but if he gives USD one or two more 20+ win seasons, he'll get better offers. Drake is basically a career killer at this point.

This-plus I recall the announcers saying during the Iowa game he returns the majority of his team and will be a favorite in the Summit League next year.
 
Drake needs to stop acting like Simpson College and start acting like Creighton University. They aren't that much smaller than Creighton. Creighton's return to prominence essentially coincided with them abandoning the Civic Arena and moving to the (then) Qwest Center and making their games events.
 
I think Dr. Tom and Keno showed that Drake can still get it done. Dr. Tom built that team and Keno took them to the NCAA Tournament.
you are correct actually forgot about the Davis Drake days...however they didnt make the Final 4 like John did.

Pulliam, Willie Wise, McCarter..great teams. Davis' Drake ..good but not great.
It broke alot of Drake fans heart when John went to ISU.
 
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Who could forget Lewis "Black Magic" Lloyd?

2 time MVC POY. #30 hanging from the rafters. Scored a lot of points and scored a lot of coke too.
Saw him play at Veterans Auditorium. He was awesome. Trying to remember and correct me if I am wrong, but I believe I saw him play against Larry Bird and ISU (The other ISU).
 
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Drake needs to stop acting like Simpson College and start acting like Creighton University. They aren't that much smaller than Creighton. Creighton's return to prominence essentially coincided with them abandoning the Civic Arena and moving to the (then) Qwest Center and making their games events.

Creighton was pretty solid in the Civic Auditorium. They had Altman and guys like Rodney Buford, Ryan Sears, Ben Walker, and Kyle Korver.
 
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you are correct actually forgot about the Davis Drake days...however they didnt make the Final 4 like John did.

Pulliam, Willie Wise, McCarter..great teams. Davis' Drake ..good but not great.
It broke alot of Drake fans heart when John went to ISU.
I was not trying to compare what they did to the accomplishments of Maury John's Final Four. The Davis' Drake team was good they were snookered by The Hilltoppers or they might have made it ti the Sweet 16.
 
Drake needs to hire a midwest guy or an Iowa guy.

Creighton isn't a challenge anymore- they are in the Big East.

Need to recruit Iowa, MSP, Chicago, STL, and KC.

Its that simple
 
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Drake needs to hire a midwest guy or an Iowa guy.

Creighton isn't a challenge anymore- they are in the Big East.

Need to recruit Iowa, MSP, Chicago, STL, and KC.

Its that simple
I like your plan, now put in your application and get started. :) ;)
 
Drake needs to stop acting like Simpson College and start acting like Creighton University. They aren't that much smaller than Creighton. Creighton's return to prominence essentially coincided with them abandoning the Civic Arena and moving to the (then) Qwest Center and making their games events.
I don't think you can compare Drake to Creighton. Creighton is in a state with one P5 team that has never won an NCAA tournament game. I guess Drake could try and make Wells Fargo it's home court but it would be a cavernous home court feel.
 
Just keep the temp guy they have now.

Drake is a joke, they pretend their relays are a big deal but nobody cares. Take the high school kids out and see how many over priced tickets they sell.

They should go diii or actually try to compete.
So are you nobody?
 
Drake needs to hire a midwest guy or an Iowa guy.

Creighton isn't a challenge anymore- they are in the Big East.

Need to recruit Iowa, MSP, Chicago, STL, and KC.

Its that simple

I know he isn't qualified on paper, but I wonder if Jeff Horner will get an opportunity to interview for the job? His only head coaching experience is at the high school level, but considering Drake's position, they might have to take a risk and leap of faith to find success again. If not someone like Horner, wonder if a guy like Andrew Francis would have interest? A home run hire for Drake would be a guy like Speraw based on his Iowa roots and head coaching experience, but I have no idea if he has any desire to be a head coach again. Drake isn't an easy place to win, but it can be done. Considering the academic requirements, they can't go heavy on jucos, so they ultimately need to find a coach that is a good talent evaluator while utilizing redshirts to maximize the talent on the roster, sort of the Wisconsin model, but on a smaller stage.
 
Drake can be successful. It's in the capital city. Close to Illinois (i.e. Chicago) ... It plays in a decent arena ... Fan support seems pretty good for the Bulldogs ... It's all about recruiting ... and coaching ... no secret sauce here ... But Drake can win again ... I think the foundation is there ... Unfortunately, they've missed on their last couple of hires ...
 
I know he isn't qualified on paper, but I wonder if Jeff Horner will get an opportunity to interview for the job? His only head coaching experience is at the high school level, but considering Drake's position, they might have to take a risk and leap of faith to find success again. If not someone like Horner, wonder if a guy like Andrew Francis would have interest? A home run hire for Drake would be a guy like Speraw based on his Iowa roots and head coaching experience, but I have no idea if he has any desire to be a head coach again. Drake isn't an easy place to win, but it can be done. Considering the academic requirements, they can't go heavy on jucos, so they ultimately need to find a coach that is a good talent evaluator while utilizing redshirts to maximize the talent on the roster, sort of the Wisconsin model, but on a smaller stage.
Speraw was one of the first names floated out there but nothing has come of it for several weeks.
 
I like your plan, now put in your application and get started. :) ;)

I can put on my resume 6 straight years coaching 6-8th grade basketball (boys and girls)- always making it to the end of year tournament final with 3 gold medals and 3 silver medals.

I do make sure my players do their homework, stay out of jail, and I have hands on experience dealing with pain in the ass administrators (both at work and at home);)
 
They screwed the pooch, IMO, not turning it over to ones of Keno's assistants when he had it rolling. And then they made matters worse by hiring a guy that ran a system opposite of what the Davis's had built.
 
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Alot of coaches moving around now. I would hold off for a little bit. As these jobs open/close there might be a good one left over.

I look at the guy at UC Davis (Les)? He was at Bradley before and had them rolling and then got into some issues and ended up getting let go. I don't know where he went in between, but he has turned his UC-Whatever school into a pretty good squad. made the NCAA this year. The guy can recruit (but he will be a jumper) any decent gig opens up, he will be gone.
 
Drake can be successful. It's in the capital city. Close to Illinois (i.e. Chicago) ... It plays in a decent arena ... Fan support seems pretty good for the Bulldogs ... It's all about recruiting ... and coaching ... no secret sauce here ... But Drake can win again ... I think the foundation is there ... Unfortunately, they've missed on their last couple of hires ...

Not so sure about fan support. To say that the home games I've seen were sparsely attended is being kind.
 
Not so sure about fan support. To say that the home games I've seen have been sparsely attended is being kind.
In year's past ... I'm going back a few years ... I don't know what attendance has been like the past 4-5 years but assuming not so great.
 
Saw him play at Veterans Auditorium. He was awesome. Trying to remember and correct me if I am wrong, but I believe I saw him play against Larry Bird and ISU (The other ISU).

I think he missed Bird by a year, but he did play against our Final Four team at the Fieldhouse and again, the following year at Vets in DM. We won both.
 
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Speraw is a great guy and fine coach but at 60 years am not sure he will get another head job.
 
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Alot of coaches moving around now. I would hold off for a little bit. As these jobs open/close there might be a good one left over.

I look at the guy at UC Davis (Les)? He was at Bradley before and had them rolling and then got into some issues and ended up getting let go. I don't know where he went in between, but he has turned his UC-Whatever school into a pretty good squad. made the NCAA this year. The guy can recruit (but he will be a jumper) any decent gig opens up, he will be gone.

.457 conference record at Bradley is hardly considered 'rolling'
 
I can put on my resume 6 straight years coaching 6-8th grade basketball (boys and girls)- always making it to the end of year tournament final with 3 gold medals and 3 silver medals.

I do make sure my players do their homework, stay out of jail, and I have hands on experience dealing with pain in the ass administrators (both at work and at home);)
Relax, just having a little fun. Sorry I touched a nerve.
 
I think he missed Bird by a year, but he did play against our Final Four team at the Fieldhouse and again, the following year at Vets in DM. We won both.
You are correct they missed each other by a year. I saw Larry Bird play at Vets Auditorium and I also saw Lewis Lloyd play at Vets, just could not remember if Bird was on the floor for ISU the night I saw "Black Magic" play.
 
But they made the sweet 16! They were pretty good while he was there (also his first couple of years were bad). The guy can win and he would bring Drake back

As were his last two, the sweet 16 was the pinnacle and the slide proceeded from there. They weren't coming back under his leadership. It was his on the job training and he may be a strong candidate but his Bradley experience shouldn't be his selling point.
 
As were his last two, the sweet 16 was the pinnacle and the slide proceeded from there. They weren't coming back under his leadership. It was his on the job training and he may be a strong candidate but his Bradley experience shouldn't be his selling point.

Well the guy has experience and I think Drake could use someone like that. But I think he holds out for a PAC12 gig personally. Why would you come back to here after being in Cali.

Whoever takes the Drake job has their hands full! Lots of rebuilding
 
IMHO, they need a guy who can go into place like Chicago and STL, recruit low end 3 star players who have been overshadowed by high end recruits and then develop them into cornerstone players. I'm thinking of guys like Moss who had interest from good D-Is but was obviously overshadowed by the stars at Simeon. For us, he is a developing star IMHO but mostly because we have other good players around him. At a place like Drake, he would have a rough year or so but have the ball in his hands a lot regardless of his youth and be a cornerstone player for them with lots of ability.

A team with four or five Moss-type players would at minimum get Drake out of the basement of the MVC. From there, you build a roster full of those kinds of players who are consistently developing on a rotation. For a school like Drake, this is the only way IMHO because they simply are not going to get the big time recruits other schools do to be good. This isn't far from what UNI does but at this point, Drake will have a tough time getting the in-state kids because the cupboard will be pretty bare after Iowa and UNI have their picks so going to the cities where there are more diamonds in the rough is necessary.
 
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