New University of Hawaii athletic director David Matlin’s first order of business, even before he “officially” starts his job on April 27, is to spearhead the process of selecting a permanent men’s basketball coach.
Ideally, that process needs to be in place by the end of this week, so that interviews can start this weekend and a new coach is introduced by the end of next week – in time to secure incoming recruits for the April 15 national letter-of-intent Signing Day.
Anything later would jeopardize an entire recruiting class and essentially set the program behind by one year. And in the fragile world of college basketball, where one or two players could make a difference, one year of lost recruits is huge.
Matlin and others may say that the most important thing is to get the right person for the long run, even if means extending the target date to past April 15. That might be true, especially if there were no leading candidate and there was strong potential to land a proven NCAA Division I head coach with winning experience and knowledge of Hawaii and its current personnel.
But that does not appear to be the case, as UH already has a leading candidate in interim head coach Benjy Taylor, and so far no “big name” candidates have emerged.
It is likely none has achieved what Benjy did this past season: win 22 games for a Division I program in the face of tremendous unexpected adversity and distractions.
And none of the other candidates can say they already know and have worked successfully with this particular group of players. The list of candidates can grow to to 100, but no one else can ever take credit for or claim to have achieved what Taylor did with this group over the past five months. That sets him apart from every other candidate.
Referring back to recruiting and the April 15 Signing Day, Taylor already has secured a verbal commitment from transfer Austin Pope, a 6-foot-6 combo guard from Northern Idaho (Junior) College. According to WarriorInside.com, Pope is ranked as the 24th-top JC prospect in the country and reportedly chose UH over Wichita State, Creighton and Missouri because “watching the Hawaii games (on TV), I really liked the open court game they played.”
Pope also mentioned he is friends with current Rainbow Warriors like Aaron Valdes, Mike Thomas and Quincy Smith, and he had been recruited by former head coach Gib Arnold and then Taylor since he attended Burbank (Calif.) High School and Los Angeles College Prep.
Pope also told WarriorInsider his decision was “based on the current coaching staff.”
“I understand it’s about the program,” Pope said, “but I feel like I’m coming out to Hawaii to play for Coach Benjy and the guys there now.”
So what would Pope do on April 15 if there is no indication by then that Taylor will be hired as the permanent coach? Who knows.
And then there is always the possibility of current players leaving the program if Taylor is not hired permanently.
A new coach – whoever it may be – would be hard-pressed to find quality replacements on short notice, although technically the signing period extends all the way until May 20. Most of the top recruits will probably sign on April 15 or soon after.
But as Matlin mentioned, the choice of head coach should not be made solely for the reason of preserving the April 15 Signing Day.
Though even when looking beyond next month, keeping Taylor on board makes sense.
As stated in this space two weeks ago, Taylor and this year’s team set the bar high for next year. If everything stays intact, there is good reason to believe UH can match or exceed this past season’s 22-victory win total and maybe advance to the Diamond Head Classic finals for the first time and the Big West Tournament title game again. All the pieces would appear to be there.
If a new coach were to come in – and some current players depart – who knows what will happen next season? Anything less than 22 victories or the aforementioned tournament finals would be considered a step backward. And with the state of the athletic department budget, a step backward in one of the three “revenue” sports would be ill-afforded.
And remember, the current roster includes not just two returning seniors (starting point guard Roderick Bobbitt and backup combo guard Smith) but also five key juniors in swingman Valdes, forwards Thomas, Negus Webster-Chan, Stefan Jankovic and center Stefan Jovanovic, plus sophomore top reserve guard Isaac Fleming, so Taylor’s master plan could stay on track beyond next season.
So for the short term and long term, Taylor appears to give the Rainbow Warriors the best chance to succeed for at least two years and maybe more.
It would be worth offering him a three-year contract to find out for sure.