Don't Dismiss the B.J. Armstrong Talk

Thank you Jon for the information....i absolutely love the idea of bringing back members of the hawkeye family back into the fold. As head coach, i'm not sure of unless a entire staff was put together ahead of time that had coach's with certain strengths that balanced out the weakness of others, which is what most consistent top 20 programs have!
I am 43 and had season tickets for much of the Davis era and dropped them when Tom was pushed out when the "next level" was brought in. I watched only two full games on television this season, only because i had absolutely nothing else to do. I grew up in the days when you came home from school you had to get your homework done immediately so you could watch Bob Hogue "oh my" the Hawks to another big ten win. I still get chills when i hear the Kenny Loggins song "This is it", which was the opening soundtrack played on NBC's coverage of the 1980 final four.
As a life long hawk i would be thrilled to see the iowa program bring back some of the Hawk family, and that's what it felt like in the 70's-2000, for those of you to young enough to remember this. You lived and died with each game and you scheduled your life around the Hawks playing. This facet of the program has been missing for far too long.
 
HawkeyeMike23 said:
Do you know how much say BJ personally had in those draft decisions? Wasn't Krause still the GM at that time, because I'm sure he was the one who thought Curry - Chandler would become dominating twin towers. I also don't think your success as a GM, or in this case assistant GM, translates to your ability to recruit. Recruiting has much more to do with your personality and ability to attract talent than being a GM does.
Click to expand...

In BJ's defense, the Bulls organization made the decision to trade Brand to start over from scratch with two picks in the top four.
And of course, we all know that Krause had the final say on any picks.
BJ may have been totally against those picks, and it would not have mattered and no one would ever know. Krause ran a tight ship.

That was a tough year for drafting...Jordan took Kwame Brown 1st...then Chandler,Gasol,Curry came off the board with Diop going soon thereafter...High school big men are still a crapshoot. I think that draft probably started the movement toward the new rule of one year in college...thankfully.
 
I named my 3 son after him.. how much worse could the program be and the ceiling on him would be very high. This is like buying a lotto ticket. Little chance of winning but having fun dreaming about the possibilities...
 
JonDMiller said:
I have heard people in the business tell me this for years: 70% of being a successful coach at this level is recruiting.
Click to expand...

I totally agree, coaching is not rocket science. It ultimately comes down to a bunch of 19-20-21 year olds putting a ball in hoop!

And Thad Matta has mastered it...at a Big Ten football school while navigating 5 "one and done" recruits over the past few years, not to mention this year's probably National Player of the Year!

Anyways, I don't see Barta mortgaging his career on a coach no experience, but it is very nice to see that BJ is interested in helping out his alma mater. Recruiting is paramount in this day and age, if you can relate to young kids and get that to play inspired basketball, you're a lot further along than the brand of ball that we've seen of late.
 
I just made a post the other day how i thought BJ would really help. i say higher him if they could and he wanted the job. BJ knows the game and the school. i believe that he could recruit really well and i hope he gets a chance to interview. for all you people thinking BJ needs experience need to relax. he has plenty he played at Iowa, He played for the Bulls and won 3 rings, he was a scout for the Bulls. that is a lot of experience just there in basketball i am sure he can teach some kids some things. cause god knows Lickliter couldnt teach worth a crap. i bet BJ would bring some real athletes too not these guys we have who are most painful thing to watch because the athletism on our team right now is a joke. we have zero athletes. thats a big reason why we stink the last 3 years 0 talent
 
Mr Calkins- It's great to hear you are still light on your feet. =) I absolutely adored those shoes.

My initials are RA and I graduated from the WB in 1999. That should narrow it down a bit.

Yes, I feel confident that the Hawkeyes will rise again! Enjoy your St. Paddy's day!
 
GhostofBTT said:
For the #2 and #4 overall picks (in the same draft) they were whiffs. I forgot to mention that they traded Elton Brand to get Ty Chandler. Bigger whiff. Oh yeah, the #3 pick between Chandler and Curry? Pau Gasol. Whiff. The pick after Curry? Jason Richardson. Whiff, whiff, whiff, whiff.

Not saying that BJ will be a bust as a recruiter in the miniscule chance someone gives him a chance to do it, but his record as assistant GM in Chicago is absolutely HORRIBLE. The best player the Bulls aquired during his tenure, draft and FA, was Kirk Hinrich.
Click to expand...

Well, Elton Brand was going to leave Chicago so they had to trade him some time that season or the next. Krause was absolutely in love with the idea of Curry and Chandler like others said BJ may have been against it.

No free agents were coming to Chicago at the time so who was he supposed to get that was great. It's not BJ fault Jay Williams is a idiot. Also Hinrich was a decent draft pick that the Bulls were forced to make with Wade already taken and J-Will's accident.

Not saying he should be coach though.
 
Hawks4Life said:
Mr Calkins- It's great to hear you are still light on your feet. =) I absolutely adored those shoes.

My initials are RA and I graduated from the WB in 1999. That should narrow it down a bit.

Yes, I feel confident that the Hawkeyes will rise again! Enjoy your St. Paddy's day!
Click to expand...

Let's move this to PMs. Check your message box, Ryan.
 
I think people are mistaking BJ's offer of helping as him throwing his hat in as a Head Coaching candidate. BJ was on the last committee when they were searching for a coach and that maybe all his intentions. If BJ wants to help the Iowa basketball program out then let him. If he gets asked to coach I am sure he would consider it.

I hope other former players rally around this program to get it back to what it once was.
 
JonDMiller said:
According to my source, he would establish a great x's & o's staff, as well as a strong recruiting staff. I have heard one of the names that BJ would bring in as a staff member, and I have seen this guy's name thrown out on the boards not only for this search, but for the search three years ago. This person has been a head coach before and has NBA experience, but is now an assistant coach at a major conference program.
Click to expand...

OK, so this part of the story has been driving me nuts all day. And when I heard Jon on KXNO this afternoon, he reiterated this part, assuring that this unnamed assistant is part of the "right staff." I think I've figured out who this mystery component is.

Stop me if you've heard this one before: Gary Close.

If you don't know who he is, Close has been an assistant with Bo Ryan at Wisconsin (i.e. major conference program) for the past seven years. Prior to that he spent 16 (1983-1999) years along side Tom Davis at both Iowa and Stanford.

I don't recall his name being mentioned during the last search, but in 2007, Rivals.com ranked him #2 on their list of Top 25 Assistant Coaches:

Rivals.com College Basketball - Rivals.com's top 25 assistant coaches

According to Hoopepedia at NBA.com, Close has long been known as a expert shooting instructor who worked closely with none other than B.J. Armstrong:

Gary Close - Hoopedia

His UW bio has the best detail of his career. It's available here:

Player Bio: Gary Close - UWBadgers.com - The Official Web Site of the Wisconsin Badgers

If this dude hasn't already been mentioned as a candidate for head coach himself, let me be the first to do so. I can't find any mention of particular recruiting skills (I guess that's what BJ is for), but his coaching pedigree seems impeccable. My only concern would be whether or not he harbors an affection for Bo Ryan's style of play. Suffice it to say, we just suffered through an unsuccessful attempt at that.

Anyway, I'm sorry if this is old news to everyone. And I'm especially sorry if this information has already been divulged somewhere else in this thread. If nothing else, I've gained peace-of-mind and I can move on to other things. Perhaps I'll feed my children. You understand.
 
i'm of the opinion that it can't get much worse. but i don't think barta is willing to take a gamble with his job at stake.
 
Don't think you could make BJ an assistant. He would have to be the head only if in title only. You probably couldn't have your assistant coach be more loved by the fans than your head coach. The would drive the head coach away pretty fast.
 
I don't take this as someone who is looking for a coaching job, rather someone who loves the Hawks, has some experience, and wants to help. No one needs to cite sources or tell me this is the case. This is a given. When a university has resources like B. J. Armstrong available it would only make sense to get in touch and talk about where to go from here.

BTW Jon, re. your post on BJ, I believe the expression is to "trust implicitly", not explicity. You write for a living, so if you have a degree in English, please let me know.
 
After some long hard thought...

I just jumped on board the hire BJ Armstrong idea...

if he hires Phil Jackson as an assitant.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Share this page

Top