Porter is Gone…Now What and Who’s Next?

The only source for the Legans-to-Indiana stuff is a joke tweet by Goodman that missed its mark with many people.

https://twitter.com/sr_collingwood/status/1361370247505137664?s=21

It’s not just us rambling on a message board... we’ve got sources!

wrv wrote:what exactly do we have to lure a winning D1 coach, particularly when pitted against other D1 programs without such negative factors to consider.

Which other D1 programs are going after Coach Legans?

Dean Murdoch wrote:

wrv wrote:what exactly do we have to lure a winning D1 coach, particularly when pitted against other D1 programs without such negative factors to consider.

Which other D1 programs are going after Coach Legans?

I don't know details, but I imagine there are a couple. Money never hurt. I suspect Legans will be be leaving ewu as he'll easily make at least double elsewhere.

Giving him a significant salary increase and a decent budget to hire assistants is going to be a large factor. The amenities of living in a larger city may or may not be important to him personally. Otherwise we've done a bit recently to increase the desirability of the facilities themselves, especially the practice facilities available now that Howard Hall is gone. There's more to like than when we hired Reveno other than the recent abysmal record. Hiring a coach with a winning record is a must in my opinion as when recruiting you can sell the coaches record and the university's facilities as a package rather than the programs recent record....

DoubleDipper wrote: Timing could be a problem as I would imagine Scott is anxious to pull the trigger on a new coach, and even if Legans decides to leave Cheney, his season just came to an end yesterday and he will probably want to shop around for better opportunities before committing anywhere, especially to UP.

Perhaps my words were more negative than intended.  My glass is half-full when it comes to all aspects of UP and the MBB program…and the Pilots have a strong fan base that is just waiting to bust loose as soon as the team becomes both competitive and exciting.

Perhaps there are other programs pursuing Legans, but I doubt those other programs are better than UP except perhaps in their win/loss record over the last five years.  UP has game and practice facilities that match the rest of the WCC except GU and BYU, and there is operating money available that matches or outpaces all but those same two schools as well.

Shantay Legans has faced challenges since he was a little kid being brought up by a single mom and battling to become the starting point-guard at Cal. If I am Shantay Legans I choose to come to UP (and bring the Groves brothers?) because this too is a challenge that can be won through selfless hard work.  

I have no idea what salary might be appealing to Legans to help him decide on UP as his next coaching stop, but he shouldn’t settle for less than twice what he is making a EWU, and there had better be plenty of incentive clauses (and a buyout clause) included.

Shantay Legans has the right personality and mindset to get it done at UP.  I still think he should shop around, but I also think he should come to UP and do what other coaches have NOT been able to do…WIN!

wrv wrote:Well according to this presumably knowledgeable poster:

"We probably shouldn't get ahead of ourselves.  From what I’m hearing and reading, Legans is now being contacted by a number of schools out west and even one Big-10 school.

It looks like he might have a few options if he decides to leave Cheney, and it's difficult to say if UP is actually one of them or it only appears that way because of posts on PilotNation that others are reading."

Look at my post up on the top of this page regarding the Big Ten thing. There is zero chance that Indiana hires Shantay Legans.

Consider the actual openings right now in the West - one off the books in the past hour as it appears that UNLV has gone with former assistant Kevin Kruger as the main guy. That leaves Utah, Portland, UC Riverside, San Jose State, Denver.

If Utah's interested, we can't compete. But I haven't seen anything linking Coach Legans to that job.

What about the other openings would make any of them more attractive than Portland? SJSU and Denver are even worse competitively than the Pilots are. Riverside had an up year last year - huge hats off to Mike Magpayo - but the Athletics department is an absolute tire fire. Go look up program budget, none of them are even close to what UP invests per year.

If no other options besides these ones come up for Coach Legans, I like UP's chances here. I'm ready for a big win for this program after five years of absolute dumpster fire.

wrv wrote:We'll see. By the way, since we are going down this road further than need be, can you name the last winning D1 coach hired by the Pilots?

Not convinced we are more likely to do so now, at the end of the Porter era

But I would love to be surprised.

Rob Chavez (29-26 at Maryland-Eastern Shore).

wrv wrote:We'll see. By the way, since we are going down this road further than need be, can you name the last winning D1 coach hired by the Pilots?

Not convinced we are more likely to do so now, at the end of the Porter era

But I would love to be surprised.

I'm guessing the answer you're looking for is "never" - but was it not likely that the Pilots would have gone with Jim Hayford or Randy Rahe last time around, had the opportunity to hire local legend Terry Porter not presented itself?

I know what history suggests, but I think it's also important to note that this is only the second hire the Pilots have made since the WCC has made a clear step forward in the conference pecking order. Even when Rev was hired, the Mountain West was a step up from the WCC and the old WAC was almost always better in any given year. Different story now, as we all know.

Here's hoping to you being surprised sometime early this week.

wrv wrote:Well according to this presumably knowledgeable poster:

Who, me?  Thank you...

But I think Murdoch killed my post with facts!!

wrv wrote:Chavez, if I recall, was coaching at a community college when hired. Not the same as a direct hire.

I looked it up, Chavez came directly to UP from Maryland Eastern Shore in 1994 after serving two years there.

wrv wrote:We'll see. By the way, since we are going down this road further than need be, can you name the last winning D1 coach hired by the Pilots?

Rob Chavez, who came to UP after a 16-12 season  in 1993-94 from Maryland Eastern shore, which is/was in the D1 MEAC, a conference of traditionally black schools. He holds the distinction of being the first white coach at a traditionally black college. The season before( his first) the school went 13-14, which was more wins than they had in over a decade. He took over a 3-25 team.

His record for the two years there was a respectable .527 and his last year there was .571. For second place in the MEAC.


I guess the hope was he could do the same with the  56-141 Larry Steele disaster.

Compared to Steele, he was wildly successful, taking UP to its only tournament appearance since 1958. His record is the best at UP since the sixties. The last winning season UP had before he arrived was in 1971-72.


https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/bs-xpm-1993-03-01-1993060015-story.html

https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/bs-xpm-1994-04-12-1994102139-story.html


The only coach with a winning record when he left UP was Al Negratti (163-156) who took UP to the tourney in 1958, losing to Depaw by a point in the first round.

wrv wrote:Well my recollection is he, Chavez, came from a community college, which appears erased. Casey Flicker came to the U because of the connection.

Apparently however Chavez coached at Chemeketa before Maryland's Eastern Shore.  

Actually, Kasey Flicker did go to Chemeketa for one year, but Rob Chavez was already at Maryland-Eastern Shore that year.

Flicker, recruited by Coach Larry Steele, arrived at UP in 1993, the year before Chavez arrived.

During his senior year I remember how visibly and verbally upset Kasey's dad was because of Kasey's inexplicably reduced playing time, but that was also the year the Pilots won the WCC Tournament at Santa Clara and were the #14 seed against #3 Villanova, to whom they lost 92-58.  

In those day the Tournament was carried on just one or two TV networks, and I remember watching the game in a bar in LA for about 30 minutes before the network cut away to another game that was more competitive.

Um, Kasey wasn’t a starter under Steele.
The three returning starters when Rob arrived were  leading scorer Caanan Chapman (16.4), 6-foot-10 center Curt Ransa (14.0) and guard Ray Ross (12.1).

His year under Steele he played in 30 games starting 9 and shooting .302 from 3 point range. His first year under Rob he played in 29 games starting 7 and shooting .405 from beyond the arc, taking a lot more shots and getting more minutes than under Steele.

His playing time the next year might have had something to do with his shooting touch being AWOL.
He only shot .239 from 3 point range that year in what supposed to be his best asset.

The previous two years he shot .100 better from outside the arc than inside it.

https://www.sports-reference.com/cbb/players/kasey-flicker-1.html

Geezaldinho wrote: The only coach with a winning record when he left UP was Al Negratti (163-156) who took UP to the tourney in 1958, losing to Depaw by a point in the first round.

Close.  Negratti and the Pilots went the Tournament in 1959 (at the conclusion of the '58-'59 season, and lost to DePaul, 57-56, in the Midwest Region first round.

Q: And where do you suppose that game was played? (answer at the bottom of the page)

I remember that season well because I was a young diehard Cal fan, which I still am today, and that was the year Cal won the National Championship in Louisville under Pete Newell (Pete's son Tom was a student at UP in the '60's) by beating Cincinnati and Oscar Roberston before beating West Virginia and Jerry West in the final.

Fun fact from that year: There were only 23 teams in the single elimination tournament, but there were 27 games because each of the four regions had a 3rd-place game.  Cal beat St. Mary's to win the West Region and get to the Final Four.

It is because of my passion for Cal basketball that I know so much about Shantay Legans, the one time Cal point guard.

A: At the Pacific International Livestock Pavilion in Portland...now known as the Portland Expo Center.

wrv wrote:But I remain skeptical that we will hire a winning D1 coach.

You should be skeptical!  Except for Rob Chavez, UP has no history of hiring any D1 head coaches, let alone one with a winning record, although there have been a couple of D1 assistants who were winners prior to UP.

Al Negratti, the coach with the highest winning percentage (.511) at UP came from being a high school basketball coach at Cleveland High in Portland.

Jack Avina, the coach with the most wins (222) was a successful high school coach and head coach at the College of San Mateo (JUCO) in California before coming to UP.

As we all know, Larry Steele, Michael Holton, and Terry Porter came to UP after playing with the Blazers.

Bill Turner (8 wins in two years at UP) and Eric Reveno were both successful assistants at D1 Stanford.

Mike Tichy came to UP after coaching high school baseball and basketball in the Portland area, and after leaving UP became the baseball coach at PSU and is in their Hall of Fame.

And Mush Torson, who coached seven years of NAIA ball and one year of D1 basketball at UP,  was a high school football, baseball, and basketball coach in Corvallis and Portland before arriving on The Bluff.

In eight seasons as the basketball coach Torson was 144-110, the Pilots won 20 games four times and qualified for the NAIA playoffs six times. In 1952, Portland reached the 16-team national tournament and played into the semifinals, where they lost to Murray State, 58-57.

So yeah, you have every right to be skeptical, and I respect your skepticism that is based upon the facts!!

I am confident this will be the year UP hires a D1 MBB head coach with a winning record!

YES!!!!!!!!

@johncanzanobft wrote:Breaking: University of Portland has agreed to terms to make Eastern Washington coach Shantay Legans the next men’s basketball coach, per UP athletic director Scott Leykam.

Dean Murdoch wrote:YES!!!!!!!!

@johncanzanobft wrote:Breaking: University of Portland has agreed to terms to make Eastern Washington coach Shantay Legans the next men’s basketball coach, per UP athletic director Scott Leykam.

It is a good thing Scott reads PilotNation!!

I cannot wait for Shantay to bring his staff and team together and get started...I think his players will be excited.

I truly cannot believe we pulled this off! More excited about Pilot Hoops right now than I have been in a long time!

The most pleasantly surprised with this program I have been in awhile!

https://twitter.com/willmaup/status/1374053015137579010?s=20
Can always count on the Spokane based take to be a damp blanket


Edit: After the 1st tweet he then defended the job against those calling it a downgrade serves me right for being reactionary haha

Some of you who are fans of women's basketball may remember Mrs. Legans, Tatjana (Sparavalo), from her time coming to the Chiles Center as a member of the EWU basketball team about 10 years ago.