This has to be a smart hire. People are saying that we should take every coach making less than $4.5 million and offer them $5 million to try to hire someone. That would just be stupid. We need a set of criteria by which to judge the next coach. What would your realistic criteria be?

Mine would include, just as a start:

Proven recruiter, preferably with Atlanta/GA ties
Ultra competitive
Uptempo offense with utilization of multiple defenses
Fan friendly and a genuine interest in working hard to increase fan interest and support of the program
Someone who really wants to be in Athens and itching to knock heads in the SEC
Someone not intimidated by the big name coaches in the conference
Can attract great assistants
Someone who has a long-range vision and plan to get UGA consistently to the top of the conference and relevant on a national level

Well stated foundation for qualifying and hiring a new coach and setting the salary.

You just described Jonas Hayes

Monk, unfortunately, the delusional fans are speaking rather loudly on other forums. On the 247 Sports message board, the following names were mentioned as potential replacements: Tony Bennett, Matt Painter, Brad Underwood, and last but certainly not least Mike Krzyzewski. If you don't understand why I get so frustrated communicating with these kinds of people, then this should make it more clear.

Twitter is an absolute disaster. I've been referred to as Tom's Crean's burner account numerous times for simply pointing out rational facts. It's kinda funny, but also reflective of the maturity of the loudest segment of fans. I also seem to have stirred up remarks from at least one father of a current player, Josh Taylor, who is clearly bothered that his son hasn't gotten on the court much.

TKramer15 said:

---

Monk, unfortunately, the delusional fans are speaking rather loudly on other forums. On the 247 Sports message board, the following names were mentioned as potential replacements: Tony Bennett, Matt Painter, Brad Underwood, and last but certainly not least Mike Krzyzewski. If you don't understand why I get so frustrated communicating with these kinds of people, then this should make it more clear.

Twitter is an absolute disaster. I've been referred to as Tom's Crean's burner account numerous times for simply pointing out rational facts. It's kinda funny, but also reflective of the maturity of the loudest segment of fans. I also seem to have stirred up remarks from at least one father of a current player, Josh Taylor, who is clearly bothered that his son hasn't gotten on the court much.

---

TKramer, yeah, I've seen those ridiculous hiring suggestions. I'm surprised someone hasn't mentioned hiring John Wooden (which we tried to do long ago, but he turned us down). LOL These people have no clue. I completely understand your frustration. Some fans are just not rational or knowledgeable. We made a mistake with the Crean hire. We could have avoided it had we done sufficient background work. There were many red flags that McGarity chose to ignore. I expressed some of them at the time. That said, on paper, without looking too deeply, the hire made sense. Crean knows basketball; he's just not the right fit in Athens. We have to be realistic about the next hire. We can't focus on some pie in the sky names. They will just get raises to stay where they are. We have to be smart about this hire - something we haven't typically been good about in basketball.

It's the old golf adage, it's not how you drive, it's how you arrive.

The head coach salary is not the issue. It's the assistants. And recruiting resources.

I think the notion of Jonas coming home is nostalgic and feel good.

If he's the choice I'm all in. But I'm betting the field against it. Unless as an assistant.