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Halldan1

Halldan1

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Jan 1, 2003
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What's your opinion of SHU hiring Tony Skinn.

Are we talking home run here or are we talking bust? Or maybe somewhere in the middle?

My feeling is that no it's not a home run, but considering the options and knowing that the Hall just hired an up and coming young coach with tremendous ties to AAU basketball in the DC area as well as (so I have been told) a big time work ethic and the personality that young players will gravitate to...I would give this a triple.

Nice rebound hire by Willard after losing the nearly irreplaceable Holloway.
 
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I like it. I like that coach seems to gave gotten his first choice. I think Tony will quickly ingratiate himself in the local scene as well as working the dc area. How many bases? I dont care. Terrific hire.
 
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Since I don't know what/who a home run would have been, I am on board with a triple. He's an important hire and I wish him a ton of success.
 
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Just like recruits themselves we'll know whether it's a homerun hire or not once we see him in action. My first impressions however are positive. I came away from Carino's article feeling good about the hire. Coach Skinn definitely seems to be a dynamic rising star in the profession. I think it won't take him long to build relationships in this area while retaining the contacts he already has in DC. One plus is that like Holloway he's a former player that had success on a very high level. I think young guys appreciate and look up to that. No doubt he'll also be able to leverage the Big East brand and Seton Hall's recent string of success on the recruiting trail.
 
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I am undecided.

Our strategy lately has been hammering the NYC area and St. Pat's
Class of 2014, JW, Manuel, Nelson, Rhoden.

Although, I recognize the importance of drawing from another region, I am worried that losing Sha and replacing him with a guy that doesn't have strong NYC connections will cause us to slip a little bit from where our bread is buttered. Also, I'd probably prefer our other region to be Philly but that's nitpicking.

I like Grant as a big man recruiter and I like the idea of having Tony as a former pg with tournament success. Not sure what Hill brings to the table.

I also worry since he has no ties to this area that he will skip town as soon as he's offered another assistant role. I would be very surprised if he's still at Seton Hall in 4 years.

For some positives, I think he has the potential to be a similar type of assistant and successful recruiter as Sha has been, which is a pretty good complement.

Imo, there is some room for error and time to grow recruiting ties as I think we could make the tournament in each of the next three years without adding a single player. I'd swing for the fences in the class of 2019 (only 4 star top 125 players) and if we miss than fill the remaining spot with a sit-out transfer.
 
ivyhillparkk1963 said:
Only concern I have is why wasn't he in a better job than LA tech
Can he recruit at a high level?
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This is my only question as well. He was interviewed by Ewing for a spot on the Georgetown Staff last year but they went another direction.

Seems like a solid hire though, up and comer who seems hungry and has great AAU ties to a hotbed area that The Hall hasn't typically gotten tons of kids from. Also was a solid college player in his own right and can seemingly relate to and develop kids from what I have read anyway.
 
I like the move as we need to compete in the DC/MD market.

I think the issue really comes down to is Fred Hill. Can he be the shark that he once was or is his time passed? If so, when do we move on?
 
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ivyhillparkk1963 said:
Only concern I have is why wasn't he in a better job than LA tech
Can he recruit at a high level?
Click to expand...
He played in the FIBA Olympic qualifiers in 2012..



He's a young guy that in less than 6 years after crossing over harden he's getting interviews for Big East and ACC jobs. We don't have the $ to be robbing P6 schools of assistant coaches so we need to identify up and coming talent in the coaching ranks.
 
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Since the 'home run' is probably unobtainable at Seton Hall, I'd say the hire was a cut below and a very good get. We've got to keep it going and this seems like a nice fit.
 
I like the hire as I’ve said in other threads on his hiring. What I think is important to remember is that he is just one of three assistants who have recruiting responsibilities and each of those assistants will have to significantly up their game to minimize the loss of Sha who carried the main recruiting load during his tenure here. Again, not to beat a dead horse , how well Hill and Grant do in the NY/NJ area is an absolute key to our recruiting success .

To use the baseball metaphor that others have used I see it as a ball in the gap and he’s rounding second trying to turn it into a triple. We’ll have to see if this hire was a solid double or a triple.
 
I think he will make a great addition. Young hungry recruiter. Can still play ball and relate to players. I like it. I wish we had one more hungry more seasoned NY/NJ recruiter to add to staff and we would be really on the move.
 
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VioletPirate said:
Just like recruits themselves we'll know whether it's a homerun hire or not once we see him in action. My first impressions however are positive. I came away from Carino's article feeling good about the hire. Coach Skinn definitely seems to be a dynamic rising star in the profession. I think it won't take him long to build relationships in this area while retaining the contacts he already has in DC. One plus is that like Holloway he's a former player that had success on a very high level. I think young guys appreciate and look up to that. No doubt he'll also be able to leverage the Big East brand and Seton Hall's recent string of success on the recruiting trail.
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This!

Coach Tony Skinn tells me that Coach Willard wants to continue to build SHU into a top program. We don't have the same money some other top programs have for assistants but this guy was a heck of a player, is a rising star in the coaching ranks and he is not the typical assistant coach that we have had in the past. He has great contacts in the DC area and can build his contacts in the NY/NJ area quickly with our staff's help and will be a really good role model for our kids. Not sure if it's a home run yet but as a prominent poster and admin said in another post, this is definitely a triple and we will see if it's a home run after a few years. I like it a lot!

I also like it a lot that Coach Willard did not immediately give him the title of associate head coach. Make him work for it. We wanted a good pedigree AND hungry and a good coach and a good role model and he seems to check all those boxes.
 
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I'm hopeful. There's enough there for optimism, but optimism is worthless. He has to get the job done. Hopefully 3 years from now we'll say this guy came in and impacted things for the better immediately. I think so much about coaching is being thr right guy in the right spot who understands how to sell each schools unique resources. Hopefully this is a good match for all parties and this guy gets us some big time players.
 
Definitely a good hire. Not a homerun but a solid double with the potential to leg it out into a triple.

Like the different geographic area of expertise. He's not a number 1 assistant, that role with the staff as currently constituted would have to be Hill.

Still a very nice hire.
 
SPK145 said:
Definitely a good hire. Not a homerun but a solid double with the potential to leg it out into a triple.

Like the different geographic area of expertise. He's not a number 1 assistant, that role with the staff as currently constituted would have to be Hill.

Still a very nice hire.
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If the posters here who know more about the world of recruiting than I do, such as SPK, Artie and rodrdj, line the hire than I am all for it.

Hopefully this is not the last move but, that is a conversation for a different time and thread.
 
From what I have seen, I like the hire as well. Checks a lot of boxes that we needed. SHU because of the money limitations is going to have to take some risk with either an inexperienced candidate or someone who has baggage. Given the choice, I would rather go for the hungry, young guy.
 
I'm not as happy about this hire as majority of the board is.

Replacing our primary local recruiter with an unproven assistant from the DC area. SHU's lifeline is the NY/NJ area, not DC, and we currently don't have anyone on the staff with a strong recruiting presence in our area.

To me it's a big risk to replace our Associate Head Coach with someone who has zero experience recruiting at the high major level / no local ties.
 
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Many wanted MTE, but I think they thought as a #2/3 guy and that would have meant someone else on the staff would have to leave (unlikely).

Marcus is too young and inexperienced to be a top guy. But I think he would be a super choice for any local high D1 team to have as an entry level assistant who could then work his way up the food chain.

His time will come and when it does I hope it's here.
 
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SOBO1 said:
I'm not as happy about this hire as majority of the board is.

Replacing our primary local recruiter with an unproven assistant from the DC area. SHU's lifeline is the NY/NJ area, not DC, and we currently don't have anyone on the staff with a strong recruiting presence in our area.

To me it's a big risk to replace our Associate Head Coach with someone who has zero experience recruiting at the high major level / no local ties.
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I kind of see it the same way as SOBO. Here’s hoping our concerns don’t turn out to be an issue.
 
For a non-blue blood school, and based only on the writeups here:
Up-and coming, liked on the AAU circuit and by hs coaches at the premier schools, hard-working with coaching and player development chops, established DMV ties, what am i missing that this isn't a home run?

Young and up-and-coming often beats established in recruiting. As far as having no local ties, he's got three fellow coaches introducing him around the area and backing him up. That's a head start a young and dynamic guy can run with.
 
I don't know enough about him to form an opinion. I will have to trust Willard on this one. I'm hoping Skin already has someone lined up for 2019 that he will bring along with him.
 
SOBO1 said:
I'm not as happy about this hire as majority of the board is.

Replacing our primary local recruiter with an unproven assistant from the DC area. SHU's lifeline is the NY/NJ area, not DC, and we currently don't have anyone on the staff with a strong recruiting presence in our area.

To me it's a big risk to replace our Associate Head Coach with someone who has zero experience recruiting at the high major level / no local ties.
Click to expand...
Who exactly did you have in mind?
 
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I like the hire. I think Fred is here because he can't get anything better.
 
Really like this hire, he brought in good talent to La Tech ( one being CUSA Freshmen of the year!) Young, hungry, well liked and wants to be in the BE.

Key will be developing the NY and NJ connections which I am sure he will with the help of Hill/ Grant/ Willard but lets be really honest the only NJ connections we ever had and still will have is with St. Pats.
 
I think this is a good hire for the Hall which will pay dividends as time goes on. A young aggressive recruiter can only be a positive. Someone posted that they worry about him using this as a step to get a better job. Well if someone is able to do that it would mean that he did a great job while he was here. I can live with that.

Tom K
 
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thehall07 said:
Really like this hire, he brought in good talent to La Tech ( one being CUSA Freshmen of the year!) Young, hungry, well liked and wants to be in the BE.

Key will be developing the NY and NJ connections which I am sure he will with the help of Hill/ Grant/ Willard but lets be really honest the only NJ connections we ever had and still will have is with St. Pats.
Click to expand...

We’ve actually had better success with the NY kids but your point is well taken about our NJ recruiting aside from St.Pat’s . I think of schools like SH Prep , St. Joe’s , Benedicts, Roselle Catholic, Hudson Catholic , CBA and others where we recruited players at those schools hard with little or no success.
 
We know who the NY/NJ area contacts are so we can tell Coach Skinn. If he is good at what he does, he will run with them and we will see positive results in a relatively short time.
 
Any word on Sha coaching staff? any chance that he could take a person on our staff thus opening another spot for someone like MTE?
 
He seems to fit the mold of how KW wants to build his staff. Good enough for me.
 
SOBO1 said:
I'm not as happy about this hire as majority of the board is.

Replacing our primary local recruiter with an unproven assistant from the DC area. SHU's lifeline is the NY/NJ area, not DC, and we currently don't have anyone on the staff with a strong recruiting presence in our area.

To me it's a big risk to replace our Associate Head Coach with someone who has zero experience recruiting at the high major level / no local ties.
Click to expand...

While I hear your concern and don't necessarily disagree with it, I do think it's a good thing to broaden our horizons. We need to think bigger and on a more national level at Seton Hall. The bigger programs will always come to our home base and poach the best talent. Let's turn the table and do that to other schools someplace else.
 
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