Congrats to Pat Kelsey 23-1 headed to March Madness

[Xavier2005]

Former Xavier player and Asst Head Coach at Xavier makes good . Pat Kelsey as Head Coach for Winthrop 23-1 and wins their 2nd straight Big South Title and trip to March Madness. Congrats!!!!!!

[edgecliff hall]

Watched some of their game today. Good players, well coached. Could play at Big East level. Best wishes and congrats to Pat.

[muskieman]

Watched some of their game today. Good players, well coached. Could play at Big East level. Best wishes and congrats to Pat.

let's not give them more talent than they have. That team is good but would have problems with even the A-10 and the BE would run them off the court.

[bluegrass]

Watched some of their game today. Good players, well coached. Could play at Big East level. Best wishes and congrats to Pat.

let's not give them more talent than they have. That team is good but would have problems with even the A-10 and the BE would run them off the court.

Could Kelsey coach in the BE?

[muskieman]

Watched some of their game today. Good players, well coached. Could play at Big East level. Best wishes and congrats to Pat.

let's not give them more talent than they have. That team is good but would have problems with even the A-10 and the BE would run them off the court.

Could Kelsey coach in the BE?

He might be able to coach in the BE. He was on a Big East staff but if people are going to hail him as the "Solver of all things wrong" they might be jumping the gun. If Pat had gone to UMass and had some success there I might be more receptive of him as a BE coach. Had he stayed on Mack's staff or Travis's staff I also might have a different view. I like Pat and follow him on his various social media and I think he might take an opening at X but let us not get ahead of ourselves

Do you think he can coach in the BE and WHY?

[madness31]

I like Pat. Had classes with him and he was a good guy. Like him as a player as he always got after it on the court.

My take on him as a coach is almost the exact opposite as Muskieman. I worry that defense would be terrible because he coached during the Mack years. I am encouraged that he left that sh$t show but worry he kept some of those tendencies. Mack was the start of bad coaching. Kelsey left voluntarily from what I know so maybe that means he understood the Mack philosophy was a problem. If true, Pat should be near the top of the coaching options.

I will not voice an opinion on whether Pat's team could compete in the BE as I have not seen them play. What I will state with confidence is that colleges generally recruit at a level appropriate for their conference. Winning games is generally about good coaching or a history that enables a coach to get preferential recruits.

The exceptions to recruiting outside expectations for a conference is generally related to reputation. It starts as reputation of the university but expands as the coach displays an ability to maximize talent.

Pat winning at any conference argues he is a legit coach. I may still have complaints but his achievement is significant.

[muskieman]

I like Pat. Had classes with him and he was a good guy. Like him as a player as he always got after it on the court.

My take on him as a coach is almost the exact opposite as Muskieman. I worry that defense would be terrible because he coached during the Mack years. I am encouraged that he left that sh$t show but worry he kept some of those tendencies. Mack was the start of bad coaching. Kelsey left voluntarily from what I know so maybe that means he understood the Mack philosophy was a problem. If true, Pat should be near the top of the coaching options.

I will not voice an opinion on whether Pat's team could compete in the BE as I have not seen them play. What I will state with confidence is that colleges generally recruit at a level appropriate for their conference. Winning games is generally about good coaching or a history that enables a coach to get preferential recruits.

The exceptions to recruiting outside expectations for a conference is generally related to reputation. It starts as reputation of the university but expands as the coach displays an ability to maximize talent.

Pat winning at any conference argues he is a legit coach. I may still have complaints but his achievement is significant.

Pat was a GCL recruiter and leaving was more a recruiting philosophy than a coaching one. I think, at times, the pac line D is more difficult to execute for younger teams and makes a team more one-dimensional on D much like the Zone for some orange team in New York. Sure, when it works it is tough but getting it to work is the problem. We saw that early in the Miller years and some here, the same some that complain about everything, kept calling for Zone but when Miller got it right it worked. Of course, he had players that could hedge better.

As for Pat, someone said Winthrop basketball is like hockey on hardwood. He plays everyone but when you play the teams they have played this year it is easy to play everyone. Everyone plays and while their stats look good on paper they have not been challenged this year. When they run into a Creighton, Ohio State, or someone like that it will be the first time they play a team with real talent. They play in the Big South which aside from Winthrop is pretty awful.

[madness31]

If you do not have the players to play the defense you want, you change the defense.

If you do not have the players to play the offense you want, you change the offense.

I get that the conference is not good. My point still stands that you get recruits based on the conference you are in plus the reputation of the program/coach. If Pat inherited a situation where the team was the best in the conference on a consistent basis then his achievement is not that impressive. If his school was just another team in the conference before he got there then his record means something.

Can he coach high level talent just because his team dominated questionable talent? Probably. I say that because he played D1 at a legit school. There is no reason to assume he doesn't know what it takes to win. I also say that because I know he is an intelligent person from my personal interactions with him. If he was not on the Mack staff, I'd sat he absolutely deserves the job. Mack is the only blemish on his resume in my opinion.

He was a big man coach while at X. Who were the big men when he was here? Was that the best use of his knowledge/talent given that he played PG? As a PG, he should certainly know where he wants the bigs to be and how to react to the ball movement. He likely has a different perspective on how to score on the block but is it the appropriate perspective for a 4/5? Generally I suspect the perspective was beneficial but it also could be unrealistic given that bigs don't necessarily move as well as smaller guards. If the centers/forwards didn't develop under Pat, it is worth noting but not necessarily a deal breaker.

How much did he improve the program he is responsible for? That is the primary question. You can question recruiting but it is likely a bad metric. Recruits will generally ***** to a combination of school reputation and coaching reputation. Can't see any 5s going to a lower division school. Doubt any 4s would go there either.

Is Pat a big enough name for X? I could see recruits see the history of X and see Pat as a winner and choose X. But it is possible that X becomes a 2nd option to some other similar programs that have more consistent quality coaches. What happens if we keep Travis another year or 2 and he continues to miss out on the tourney? At that point, you have to hire a big name to right the ship. If the big name is available and is still successful, then I'm all for that option. I'm just not sure I want to risk the future on giving Travis another year when there are so many red flags.

[muskieman]

As for Pat, I like him too. I do believe he could be an X coach but if you think Travis is wrong because he coached under Miller and Mack then Pat has coached under Skip and Mack (and many think Skip was not a great coach.

If I wanted to go for a new head coach why not Jeff Battle who has experience at X, Wake Forest, and Providence and even got a win this year as the Temporary Head coach of Providence. Head also is a good recruiter as he recruited and developed players like Chris Paul, Jeff Teague, and current Wizard pt guard Ish Smith along with some people we all know in David West and James Posey.

Why not Mark Schmidt, Schmidt has led the Bonnies to an Atlantic 10 Tournament Championship in 2012 and Atlantic 10 regular season championships in 2016 and 2021. He has far more players that have become professional (24) to be exact than Pat. As a player, he played for Gary Williams and Tom Davis It is probably tougher to recruit to Olean NY than South Carolina and he is in a tougher league.

[Jesseandrippers]

As for Pat, I like him too. I do believe he could be an X coach but if you think Travis is wrong because he coached under Miller and Mack then Pat has coached under Skip and Mack (and many think Skip was not a great coach.

If I wanted to go for a new head coach why not Jeff Battle who has experience at X, Wake Forest, and Providence and even got a win this year as the Temporary Head coach of Providence. Head also is a good recruiter as he recruited and developed players like Chris Paul, Jeff Teague, and current Wizard pt guard Ish Smith along with some people we all know in David West and James Posey.

Why not Mark Schmidt, Schmidt has led the Bonnies to an Atlantic 10 Tournament Championship in 2012 and Atlantic 10 regular season championships in 2016 and 2021. He has far more players that have become professional (24) to be exact than Pat. As a player, he played for Gary Williams and Tom Davis It is probably tougher to recruit to Olean NY than South Carolina and he is in a tougher league.

MM, are you planning for a new coach!?!? But what becomes of your agape for Steele?