Asst Coach Howard to Beard staff at Texas

kuathletics.com/assistant-mens-basketbal...e-howard-leaving-ku/

Hmm...

I agree with your takes, jayhawk969 and jojohawk.

I'm not sure what, if any, shortcomings Howard may have had, but two strengths of his - well-known and documented in articles and with one's own eyes - were recruiting prowess and keeping things light and fun with the players (particularly the African-American players on our rosters). The latter has been punctuated in speech after speech on Senior Night, and it's clear that he was a very helpful member of the staff in that regard. He was also a serious recruiter, and a feather in our cap as a younger African-American coaching staff member. (He had particular ties to Chicago, I would note)

As for your take, JoJo, that is precisely what I noted to HE in a 1:1 conversation when the news came out:

"He’s moving to the biggest athletic program in the conference, with a solid and shiny new HC. Maybe also recruited to have a 'constant spy' on the staff - a guy who knows every play and tendency of Self (with the dominant program) inside and out."

It's not disturbing that an assistant is moving on. But it IS disturbing when he's moving laterally to a conference rival (and the conference athletics behemoth) - one with a solid new coach who simply has to recruit better to try and join the upper tier of the conference.

That said, what's done is done. It's yet another reason for Self to keep evolving, growing, and adapting - in his staff, his recruiting, and particularly (now) his on-court strategies, sets, and approaches. I would love to see us incorporate to our existing attack (which he'll need to modify in its look, to throw UT off) more stretch 4 and 5 shooters (as I've noted often in the past) plus more guards/wings who can create their own shot off the ball. (See: Butler and Mitchell from Baylor) As it stands with last year's roster, we have no such animals - no stretch 4s/5s and our wings are all the types of shooters who basically have to be set to have any chance of making a shot. (Thankfully our initial transfer focus and recruiting for next year seems to be addressing the former, though we still need plus-ups with the latter)

Time for Bill to get to work.

I like the sound of this.
Full text
Bill Self on the job opening on his coaching staff: "It has been very, very pleasantly uplifting and surprising to know the pool that would be interested in coming here. I mean very." ... He said he's in no hurry to fill the asst. coach opening.

Wondering if the pool includes Aaron and Jacque?

I was telling konza63 that if Kurtis Townsend should end up leaving I would love it if both Aaron and Jacque came on board.

Aaron (now with the GS Warriors) can handle west coast recruiting, Jacque (Nets) with his exposure can handle the east coast, let Norm & Bill handle middle America.

Porthawk: Good points. I also don’t like the fact that Howard was almost certainly privy to a ton of inside information regarding the NCAA investigation, KU’s and Self’s strategy for that, and all the nuanced details. Or, even worse, just snippets of info that might not provide full and proper context.

Should such information be used against Self and KU in recruiting, planting misinformation with the media, etc - as part of an effort to “injure the Goliath” of the conference - that would be very unseemly and problematic.

Bottom line: I wish I knew if this was a planned and amicable departure or a sudden and negative one, but my reading between the lines on Self’s comments yesterday about the staff opening tells me it could very well have been the latter. Just supposition, but the bottom line is, for all intents and purposes, a staff coach with intimate inside knowledge of our program, coaching style, game-planning, practice techniques, recruiting approaches, game preparation, and in-game coaching Xs and Os just bolted for “the enemy.” (The enemy being any and all major conference programs or national rivals seeking to elevate themselves above KU, at KU’s expense)