The Shantay Legans Era

From my perspective, having watched Legans’ teams fairly closely over the past few seasons, this is a great hire for the Pilots. He has a track record of success at the mid-major level, as both an assistant and head coach. His Eagles played a phenomenally fun style of basketball — against the slow-as-molasses Saint Mary’s Gaels, Eastern put up 75 points in a five point loss in Moraga.

After a five season run that put the Pilots firmly in the West Coast Conference cellar and saw the team become incapable of building rosters with much talent, a young, fun head coach is just what the doctor ordered to remedy the situation in the Rose City.

In my story on Portland’s firing of Terry Porter back in February, I argued that Porter isn’t entirely responsible for the Pilots’ struggles. Bringing in a new head coach alone isn’t enough to change the situation in Portland. There needs to be a change in culture along with the change in coach. Based upon how quickly Legans went from coaching in the NCAA Tournament to taking the Portland job — less than 48 hours! — I have to believe he sees something good at Portland.

It could just be money, of course, as Legans goes from making $130,000 (per reporting from Jeff Faraudo) at Eastern Washington, a public school facing budget cuts, to Portland, a private school that can throw cash around as it sees fit without having to answer to tax payers. But I feel like it has to be more than that. Eastern Washington was set to return almost everyone from this season’s squad, including both Groves brothers. Another NCAA Tournament next season and Legans would find himself on the shortlist for some more high-profile jobs.

Unless he gets the entire Gonzaga roster to transfer to Portland next season, there’s nothing he can do in one year at Portland to vault himself into those conversations next March. Which leads me to believe he sees the Portland job as a situation in which he can rebuild a program. That’s great news for Portland.

To me, there’s no reason for the Pilots to be the doorstop of the league. Portland is a phenomenal city that produces an underappreciated amount of talent. The Chiles Center is a perfect mid-major gym. It’s big enough that even the snarkiest BYU player or fan can’t call it a “high school gym” but it’s small enough that even a half-capacity crowd can generate some energy.

Can Legans lead the Pilots to the NCAA Tournament like he did with the Eagles? That will be tough. Since BYU joined the WCC, there hasn’t been a team outside of the league’s top three to break through and earn a bid. The WCC is unique among all the leagues in the sport in that regard; the top three are so entrenched, and so far ahead of everybody else, that even the most talented roster in a program’s history might not be enough. But, can Legans bring the Pilots to respectability once again? Can he get them to finish in the top half of the standings? Can he get them to become the team that poses a significant threat to the big three like Kyle Smith did with San Francisco? Absolutely. And if he can do that, all it takes is a couple of wins in Las Vegas.

To me, this is right up there with LMU’s hire of Stan Johnson, BYU’s hire of Mark Pope and Pacific’s hire of Damon Stoudamire as one of the best I’ve seen in my seasons covering the league. Not just because of the guy they hired, but because of the situation the program was in and the direction they chose to go from there.

Teams at this level have a few general options when making a hire.

You can stay in house, as San Francisco and San Diego did by promoting assistants in Todd Golden and Sam Scholl, respectively. Yes, they’re young up and comers, but they’re different in that they knew their athletic departments and their athletic departments knew them. Both have found some success, and both have had some hiccups, but it’s too soon to fully evaluate the quality of either hire. Also, both programs were in a good spot when their head coaching job opened up. San Francisco needed a new coach because Kyle Smith did such a good job that the Pac 12 came calling. San Diego needed one because Lamont Smith resigned abruptly after encountering legal issues. In those situations, it makes sense to stick with someone who had helped build the on court success. Portland isn’t in that kind of situation. Far from it.

You can go out and get a free agent former high-level coach, as Santa Clara did with Herb Sendek, Pepperdine did with Lorenzo Romar, and LMU did with Mike Dunlap. The thing is, those former high-level coaches are free agents for a reason, whatever success they once had dried up at some point. Could they be good again? Absolutely. However, those three programs have achieved at essentially the same level as they had under their previous head coaches.

Or, you can go out and grab a young up and comer as LMU did with Johnson, BYU did with Pope, Pacific did with Stoudamire and Portland has done with Legans. All three took a program that was down, relative to the league or its own standards, and turned things around. Yeah, we’ve only got one year of Johnson so far, so it’s way too soon to know how it pans out, but the early returns are very strong.

Considering how the first two options have worked out for the other programs in the conference, if I had to pick a head coach I’d be inclined to go with a young up and comer.

That’s exactly what Portland did, and not only did they get a young up and comer, they got one with a track record of success at the mid-major level. Plus, he’s just a likeable guy. I only occasionally cover the Eagles, but being in Spokane I see them all the time. I liked Legans at EWU. I expect Portland will like him on The Bluff, too.

FloridaPilot wrote:We hired Legans and the message is “why would he take that job?” Whereas if we hired anyone else and it would have been “Portland has no desire to be better.” You have to start somewhere.

Dean Murdoch wrote:If anyone feels like running through a brick wall tonight, go find some clips of his virtual presser today. You have to love his energy and attitude.

@sr_collingwood wrote:(New EWU coach David) Riley said his first priorities are trying to keep the current team intact in the era of the transfer portal, his current recruits and to begin hiring a new staff.

This suggests that assistants Bobby Suarez and TJ Lipold are following Legans to Portland.

dholcombe wrote:Is there a recording? I had a scheduling conflict.

DoubleDipper wrote:In the past, Coach Legans has relied on high school recruits, but now he is constantly checking the the transfer portal for updates and he is looking for the Pilots to be competitive sooner than later...

DoubleDipper wrote:

DoubleDipper wrote:In the past, Coach Legans has relied on high school recruits, but now he is constantly checking the the transfer portal for updates and he is looking for the Pilots to be competitive sooner than later...

This just in, EWU stars Tanner and Jacob Groves are both in the transfer portal!  

“Not ruling EWU out, love that program, I would love to be coached by Dave,” Tanner told The Spokesman-Review. “Just exploring all of my options.”

DoubleDipper wrote:This just in, EWU stars Tanner and Jacob Groves are both in the transfer portal!  

DoubleDipper wrote:Ann Schatz is a gem, and I hope we will see a lot more of her on Pilots' video productions..

DoubleDipper wrote:

DoubleDipper wrote:This just in, EWU stars Tanner and Jacob Groves are both in the transfer portal!  

An acquaintance in Spokane tells me Tanner Groves is getting some interest from high-majors...including Gonzaga.

The question is whether Tanner would only leave EWU if his brother accompanies him to the same team, and whether that would dissuade some schools from recruiting him.

Apparently you can learn all sorts of things in the bars and barber shops in the Spokane area...

@vegasbedwards wrote:Eastern Washington's Tanner Groves has told @GoodmanHoops that he's heard from Texas Tech, Arkansas, Iowa State, Virginia Tech, Stanford, LMU & Washington State since entering the transfer portal. Says he'll also consider Portland (his HC took that job) & returning to E-Wash.