St. John's is a whole different animal than NU from location, tradition, local talent pool to a former All Star NBA coach. I don't think we have any of those things going for us. Even with a a name coach like Mullen, NU is not going to be able to attract the volume of guys that St. John's can get. JMHO. Personally I think we need to be able to run a fundamentally sound offense that creates open shots for guy by setting good screens in an offense where nobody stands around. I don't think we'll ever be able to accumulate enough talent to overwhelm the B1G with our depth and a fast paced offense. We have to be more disciplined and smarter than other teams because I highly doubt we will be more talented. People dramatically overstate the talent we had on this team this year. Yes, we had more talent than we've had for years, but it still doesn't compare to the top teams in the B1G especially off the bench. When we watch NU play some of the other teams in the B1G, it seems they are constantly getting open looks and layups created from their offense. NU? Not so much. Occasionally when we run a set play that happens but not often.
You’re going to need offense in the BIG to win.
IMO the next hire needs to recruit those long athletes while also emphasizing some kind of offensive philosophy. Just develop one position grouping would be a start, like good guard play or front line, etc.
To Tucos point, I have seen really good Creighton teams with Doug McD struggle against St Johns, Providence, etc. Athletic bigs are erasers against good offensive teams. Providence’s coach, Cooley, is a Big East guy that started at BC, coached at Fairfield, then got the gig at Providence, taking them to the NCAA tourney 5/7 years. Get a guy with ties to a region, recruits these athletic bigs, and go from there. Oh and Cooley also won the Ben Jobe National Coach of the Year before he got the Providence job. Wouldn’t hurt to look at that type of coach
Here are the nominees from 2018:
2018 BEN JOBE AWARD FINALISTS
Tommy Amaker, Harvard
Kevin Baggett, Rider
Mike Boynton, Oklahoma State
Travis DeCuire, Montana
Earl Grant, Charleston
Ron Hunter, Georgia State
Donte’ Jackson, Grambling
Mike Jones, Radford
LaVall Jordan, Butler
Edward Joyner, Hampton
Bashir Mason, Wagner
Rob Murphy, Eastern Michigan
Kelvin Sampson, Houston
Damon Stoudamire, Pacific
Dedrique Taylor, Fullerton
Reggie Witherspoon, Canisius
Here are the nominees from 2017
The 2016-17 finalists include: Tommy Amaker (Harvard), Mike Anderson (Arkansas), Rod Barnes (CSU Bakersfield), Jamion Christian (Mount St. Mary’s), Mike Davis (Texas Southern), Johnny Dawkins (UCF), Earl Grant (Charleston), Leonard Hamilton (Florida State), Ron Hunter (Georgia State), James Jones (Yale), Robert Jones (Norfolk State), Kevin Keatts (UNC Wilmington), Danny Manning (Wake Forest), Ritchie McKay (Liberty), LeVelle Moton (North Carolina Central), King Rice (Monmouth), Montez Robinson (Alcorn State), Kelvin Sampson (Houston), Anthony Stewart (UT Martin), Dedrique Taylor (Cal State Fullerton) and Willis Wilson (Texas A&M-Corpus Christi).
FWIW I just looked back at the OP and he mentioned Montana’s DeCuire. I agree he’s worth a look as well as some of the others on these lists