Dick Rosenthal {l Wrote}:Schmidt is a very good coach. The person shitting on his record at Saint Bonnies needs to understand a couple of things:
1. Van Bredakoff not only pretty much destroyed the basketball program at Saint Bonnies, he almost took the entire school down--member of the BOT killed himself because he thought the scandal and the implosion of the basketball team was going to bankrupt the school. Imagine a BOT member caring that much--I could think of one member of the BC BOT I'd love to watch eat a gun while his Chef-with-a-tire-track-across-his-midsection-son watched with grim satisfaction. Anyway, picture what JOB did to BC times 1000 and then compounding that by hiring a staggeringly incompetent Anthony Solomon because he has the Coach K seal of approval and Bonnies needed good publicity of any kind. then come in and try to clean up that nuclear waste dump and convince kids t play in Olean, New York. Schmidt did it.
2. He is a very good recruiter. He was the primary recruiter for some great Xavier teams and he has upgraded Bonnies talent exponentially since his arrival.
3. He is good at discovering diamonds in the rough--see Andrew Nicholson and I can guarantee you his current center Ndoye will be collecting an NBA paycheck in two years.
4. Bonnies was unanimously picked to finish dead last in the A-10 this year and they went 18-15 with wins over two ranked teams.
Schmidt is not my first choice. That would be Howland. However, if we are even considering Tommy Amaker or someone similarly unimpressive, someone ought to drive out to Olean and bring Schmidt to the Heights before Leahy can fuck this up. The guy bleeds maroon and gold and he would recruit the shit out of NYC and DC. I do think he sometimes overthinks it at the end of games, but he doesn't whistle and he won't be doing offensive-defensive substitutions with 38 minutes left to play.
Yeah, agree with all of this. Bonaventure is the "family school" (one generation up) so always keep an eye there. Was at Barclays last weekend - side note, incredible fan base and passion, not just among current students.
Schmidt is not the best coach in the country. But he is passionate, and is a tireless recruiter - as someone mentioned, with better reach he had great success in "mainstream" recruiting and has turned Bonnies around with guys from corners of Canada, 2 current players from Senegal, their departing PG (very reminiscent of Lou Hinnant) is from Suriname, JUCO routes, etc. And he would bleed the Maroon and Gold. The parallels to Daz seem obvious here.
He wouldn't top my list, but he should be on the list, IMO. He had brought Adams onto his SBU staff but something happened and he left before the season even started - but if that combo could reconnect, that could be fun.
Bottom line is he took a program that was absolutely dead and have made them at least worth the energy of the fanbase. That Nicholson tourney team got screwed in its seed and matchup and still should've pulled the 3/14 upset if not for an end game collapse. Having a team competitive year in and out in Olean is pretty tough, especially as the A-10 gets recognized for being the quality league it is. He would absolutely have this program back to at least the latter Skinner years. That may not sound exciting, but right now, its a huge upgrade.