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To Pull an Oppenheimer (slang): hiring the top assistant off your most successful conference rival in order to replicate their success

The Sycamores of the MVC hired Creighton assistant Kevin McKenna as their new head coach. This follows the University of San Diego of the WCC pulling an Oppenheimer by hiring Gonzaga assistant Bill Grier. UTEP of Conference USA pulled an Oppenheimer last year by hiring Memphis assistant Tony Barbee.

With Jim Christian missing out on the Utah job and remaining at Kent, he's no longer a candidate for the Kent job. He enjoys a well-earned reputation as the best mid-major recruiter in the Midwest and possibly in all of college basketball. He knows the in's and out's of the conference and what it takes to succeed on a smaller budget. Josh Oppenheimer deserves serious, serious consideration for this job.

Obviously, you don't consider the Missouri Valley to be mid-major? Top mid-major recruiter in the country? Is Nevada mid-major? The CAA? Calling any coach from the MAC the best of anything (Mid-major) wise is a long stretch at best. Don't get me wrong, Kent has had a great run, but other mid-majors are doing better in better conferences.

The Valley has seperated itself in the past couple years, and while it's technically considered a mid-major, they play in vastly superior facilities and pay their coaches substantially more than the MAC. Hence, it's far easier to recruit. A assistant in the Valley recruits to arenas twice the size of Kent's and also enjoy a larger operating budget and salary.

As for the CAA, they're not exactly in the Midwest and have a similar advantage to the MVC in facilities, but give me an assisant that has a better recruiting reputation than Josh Oppenheimer? Tom Parrotta was very highly thought of at Hofstra but he got the Cansisius head job last year. Drexel, ODU and Mason have good staffs, but no one assisant is verifibaly superior to Oppenheimer when it comes to getting exceptional players to campus.

I stand by the statement that JO is the best mid-major recruiter in the midwest and possibly the best in the country.

I was doing squats last night at the gym and pulled my oppenheimer.

Well considering that all these "former" mid-major schools that we used to compare ourselves to like teams from the MVC and CAA, shouldnt we be considered low-major now?

Globetrotter wrote:I was doing squats last night at the gym and pulled my oppenheimer.

I was in bed last night and pulled mine.

commonsense wrote:Well considering that all these "former" mid-major schools that we used to compare ourselves to like teams from the MVC and CAA, shouldnt we be considered low-major now?

Nah, there's still plenty of schools in 2000 seat bandboxes to occupy that territory. The conference RPI for the MAC was still 14 out of 32 leagues in a down year, just a notch below the CAA.

The whole "major" labeling system is a bit obsolete. There are mid-major jobs in the Missouri Valley that are considered better than so-called "high major" jobs from BCS conferences, like Northwestern. Facilities, recruiting budgets and coaching salaries are all emerging factors as conference affiliation is becoming less important. The key will be when the smaller leagues get multiple teams in the tournament with regularity.

guest44 wrote:Obviously, you don't consider the Missouri Valley to be mid-major? Top mid-major recruiter in the country? Is Nevada mid-major? The CAA? Calling any coach from the MAC the best of anything (Mid-major) wise is a long stretch at best. Don't get me wrong, Kent has had a great run, but other mid-majors are doing better in better conferences.

Well, if we are going to use these labels, the MVC isn't a "high-major" conference. The Valley had two teams in the NCAA tournament this year. That is hardly high-major stuff. The same goes for the CAA. Do I consider Nevada or SIU to be typical "mid-major" programs? No, but they don't play in high-major conferences. Gonzaga has a better program than many in the Big Ten, Big East, etc., but that doesn't mean the WCC isn't a mid-major league.

Now we're all pulling our Oppenheimers.

The hockey program just pulled an Oppenheimer!

http://bgsufalcons.com/news/2010/4/12/H ... 03031.aspx

Good luck to Coach Bergeron.

Mid-major and low-major are loose terms. However, the MAC has fallen from the 9th to the 16th best conference in D1 over the past 8 years. The fall-off in talent is visible.

Bottom line is that the MVC clearly superior than the MAC, and there's nothing to make me think that the MAC can close that gap significantly within the next 5 years. The conference lacks ambition, vision, and direction.

Same for our little program. My family has held season tickets to BG basketball every year since 1961. The talent, energy, and excitement with BG hoops has dropped off so badly that we're dropping season tickets for next year. The futility has finally taken its toll.

BleedOrange wrote:Mid-major and low-major are loose terms. However, the MAC has fallen from the 9th to the 16th best conference in D1 over the past 8 years. The fall-off in talent is visible.

Bottom line is that the MVC clearly superior than the MAC, and there's nothing to make me think that the MAC can close that gap significantly within the next 5 years. The conference lacks ambition, vision, and direction.

Same for our little program. My family has held season tickets to BG basketball every year since 1961. The talent, energy, and excitement with BG hoops has dropped off so badly that we're dropping season tickets for next year. The futility has finally taken its toll.

I can understand that and cannot disagree with it.

I missed more games this year than I have in the last 10 years, and didn't really care. The games just haven't been that much fun to watch the last 5-6 years or so. The product on the court, conference-wide, has not been nearly as good as what I enjoyed as a student from '99-'02.

I'll still go to my fair share of games, but until this conference makes a concerted effort to improve the basketball product I just don't see myself going out of my way to attend games anymore. It wasn't that long ago that I'd make every single BG home game, a few road games a year, and watch the entire MAC tourney in Cleveland. Its a shame to see how far the quality of the programs has fallen.

UTEP "Oppenheimer" worked for them, now he is off to Auburn

JoeFalcon wrote:The hockey program just pulled an Oppenheimer!

http://bgsufalcons.com/news/2010/4/12/H ... 03031.aspx

Good luck to Coach Bergeron.

And I almost posted this myself until I noticed your post and I'm certain that would have caused someone to accusse me of pulling something.