Long Beach State Athletics!: Re: Candidate C

Argenal doesn't impress me really.

Cal Poly's new coach has a much better pedigree of success IMO than Agenal, however not much in the California landscape, and not sure how big that is, but the Cal Poly guy would seem to need a solid assistant that can recruit in Calif.

the resumes are so hard to assess, even Acker, never been a head coach - it's a big leap.

I think we'll know by Sunday or Monday, and not just because of the SDSU NCAA thing, the 14 day plus interviews of 3 finalists should have to play out.

can the guy TEACH? & COMMUNICATE?

can Smitheran really assess those skills, without depending on a search firm for assessing those? that assessment has to have someone competent at Beach drilling down, again IMO.

Monson had difficulties there in growing in both those areas. Monson was a cliche machine, not a bad coach, just didn't grow much.

decision is massive for Smitheran and he knows that.

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Know that a well thought of search firm has been used and a number of candidates presented. So let’s see how this plays out.

Regarding Argenal to me the plus would be two years under Musselman at Arkansas. The negative a losing record at East Bay. The question would be this year at CSUSB where after one year as an assistant he inherited a solid program built by others. Is he capable of building a program?

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4 years assistant AD & Head coach San Bernadino college, 70% win record

7 years associate head coach at Fullerton, including a BWCT title

Head coach RIverside CIty College 10 years, 70% win percentage

just no easy formula

now Cal Poly did have an agenda when they hired the guy

that was John Smith, Cal Poly
knew SoCal basketball

John Smith, Cal Poly

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Candidate A

Citrus College Assistant Coach – 6 years
West LA JC Head Coach – 2 years
University of Hawaii Assistant Coach – 2 years
Boise State Assistant Coach – 2 years
SDSU Assistant Coach (current) – 5 years

Candidate B

UC Davis Assistant Coach – 1 year
Rice University Assistant Coach – 1 year
Cal State East Bay Head Coach – 4 years
University of Nevada Associate Head Coach – 2 years
Cal State Fullerton Associate Head Coach – 2 years
University of Arkansas Assistant Coach – 2 years
Cal State San Bernardino Head Coach (current) – 1 year

Candidate A is Chris Acker, our presumed new coach according to credible sources.

Candidate B is Gus Argenal. He has CSUSB in the D2 Final 4 in his first season. I'm 100% certain he will be a D1 head coach within 2 years, more likely next season.

I won't be unhappy if Acker is in fact our coach, but I'm disappointed it appears Smitheran didn't bother to look that hard at other candidates. There were rumors last week that Acker was the likely hire. I'll say this - Smitheran had nothing to do with the Aztec basketball program while he was there, so he's probably basing his decision on input from Dutcher and other Aztec administrator buddies who are praising Acker very highly. Those aren't always the best sources for personal references but I hope they're right...