Bronny James, best coaching hires and a looming blue-blood revenge in 2023-24

April 28, 2024

Hello again, friends and those enjoying the hyperspace glow of the transfer portal, and welcome back to Shot Takers. We’ve crowned a national champion — if a title game happens and no one watches it, does it make a sound? — and we’re well into an offseason that’s somehow busier than the actual season.

So Dana O’Neil and I are here to talk about the next seven months before we have games again. These are the first steps on the Road to Glendale. I can hear the faint yet unmistakable siren song of the Coach House already. This is the way.

Where do we begin, Dana? Or should we ease into this and just spend the next 2,000 words discussing Bronny James and Caitlin Clark?

Dana: It’s amazing, isn’t it? How the offseason not only doesn’t exist but, in some ways, is more intriguing than the actual season? Good thing or bad, I’m not sure. It’s a thing, though.

But yes, why wouldn’t we just talk about two of the most captivating people in (or in Bronny’s case around) college basketball? I find the Bronny Brouhaha so fascinating, mostly because so much of it seems to be flat-out fiction. All of these reports about him going here or there, and then the actual coaches at Here U. and There State saying, “Um no.”

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The latest, of course, is that Bronny is apparently a done deal for USC. I mean, maybe that’s the case, but why would Bronny want to go to USC? The Trojans have Isaiah Collier coming in and Boogie Ellis coming back. They do not need Bronny. Bronny will not play ahead of either of those guys, and yet Bronny — or more LeBron — believes that he is a one-and-done player.

Feels like the messaging has really done a lot of damage here. If, from the jump, LeBron & Co. said they were looking for the best fit for Bronny, a place where he could grow and develop his talents and eventually (whenever eventually arises) go to the NBA, schools would have been happy to have him. Instead this notion that he’s leaving after one year — that, per his dad, he’s better than current NBA players — has understandably scared off coaches who don’t want to be the guy who plays Bronny just a handful of minutes.

I honestly cannot figure out where he’s going. You?

Brian: I haven’t spent a whole lot of time thinking about it, and I feel like I’ve spent too much time thinking about it. We’re dealing with the scion of a billionaire who’s one of the most recognizable people on the planet, so total confusion tracks as the likeliest outcome. But since we’re dealing with a billionaire’s son, we can also assume control drives the conversation. Control of the environment. Control of access. Control of development. Control of how the kid is used on the court.

I get it, at a certain level. I don’t watch my kids practice or micromanage their sporting endeavors. But I’m not a billionaire and my kids aren’t pros — and here I’ll pause as everyone processes this massive double reveal — and I can understand erring on the side of meticulous management here. It’s also why college coaches, deep down in places they don’t talk about at parties, will tell you they want nothing to do with the circus. So what option offers the James camp the most control? Maybe a desperate Nike-affiliated program like Oregon, which doesn’t fling its doors open regardless. But a semi-pro option like Overtime Elite makes a lot of sense, too. They’ll play ball with whatever LeBron wants. (Hell, Robert Dillingham is apparently speaking to reporters via blinks and marshaling wands.) And they’re sending kids into the NBA Draft lottery this summer. Anyway, figure out what venue is most permissive to the whims of an extremely rich and famous parent, and you probably have your answer.

Moving along to curiosity of a less tabloidy kind … we got a lot of transfers still looking to find a home. A lot. Whose choice are you most curious about?

Dana: Is it so much to ask that every school send me a personalized roster in September, highlighted with players added and subtracted? Because I don’t know if I can keep it straight. But, yes, there are a ton out there that are interesting — like I still can’t figure out why L.J. Cryer left Baylor for Houston — and I am wildly curious to see how the Caleb Love experiment works at Michigan. But I really want to see what happens with Hunter Dickinson.

This is fascinating on so many levels. So he’s reportedly talking to/has talked to Maryland, Georgetown, Kansas and Kentucky, and Michigan apparently is not entirely out of the running. Do I have that straight? Does he stay put which, with Love, makes Michigan very interesting? Does he go home to Maryland, to the school he detested because it didn’t properly recruit him out of high school, and then compete against Michigan? Does he go to Kentucky, operating under the assumption that Oscar Tshiebwe will be gone, or with the intention that they will be a formidable big man tandem? Or does he join up with Ed Cooley’s merry band of transfers and elevate Georgetown back to prominence?

Also … he’s an outspoken handful. So no matter where he goes, the headlines won’t stop with the decision. Bring it.

Whose relocation plan are you eyeing up?

Hunter Dickinson is the No. 1 available transfer in the country. (Rich Schultz / Getty Images)

Brian: First, since we’re making requests, can we stop with “That being said … ” in any and all announcements? Please? For the love of all English majors everywhere? If this is now a sort of ironic rite-of-passage inside joke, then I can 100 percent get on board. Otherwise? You’ve said it! You don’t need to say you’ve said it! Just get on with the thing. And you certainly don’t need to say anything is being said! It’s said! Period! If you must, just say it’s said and end it.

And … we breathe. So I have two curiosities, on both sides of college hoops. I was flummoxed by the Ryan Nembhard departure from Creighton, a program that was on the very cusp of the Final Four and does not lack NIL enticement. (I’m guessing it’s part of why Baylor Scheierman landed there in the first place and definitely part of why he’ll still be there in 2023-24.) So mostly I’m wondering how that story ends, and if there’s a kind of King Arthur vs. Prince Mordred vibe should Gonzaga and Arizona be in the mix. Nembhard would be much needed and extremely useful in either spot. A player who could stem a potential Gonzaga slide or stoke Arizona’s rise.

Meanwhile, has there ever been a more productive available transfer than Aneesah Morrow? Like, ever? I’m sure I’m forgetting a very obvious counter here but, apologies, I’m distracted by 25.7 points and 12.2 rebounds per night going up for grabs this offseason. Her motivation will be fascinating to discern. Does Morrow simply want to win, which wasn’t happening at DePaul? Or is this about winning … while also taking 20-plus shots a game? The options are very different, depending on her disposition.

Dana: Well, Brian, with that being said … Sorry. I could not resist. But having covered player movement, let’s talk about coaches and coaching hires. I’ll start with the best choice on my list: Rick Pitino. There are a ton of moves I like and endorse — including Rodney Terry at Texas. Thank you, Chris del Conte for not trying to just win the press conference.

But the no-brainer of all no-brainers was bringing Pitino to St. John’s, and you know how these things can go. Sometimes — somehow — administrators often overthink the no-brainers. So congrats, St. John’s, for not messing up the obvious. I am not saying that Pitino does not come without baggage and risk. He does. But if you want to make the Red Storm relevant again, this is the easiest and most direct route. Not only does Pitino make St. John’s better; he makes the already very good Big East better.

As for the worst, from a purely X-and-O standpoint I get it, but Ole Miss bringing in Chris Beard? I’m just not on board. I’m sure people will read that and say how can you applaud Pitino and denigrate Beard? Well, Pitino was not charged with a crime, nor did he miss a game while he was going through a bond hearing in handcuffs and prison stripes. Beard did. I also know that the charges were dropped, and Beard is free to go about his life. That doesn’t mean Ole Miss had to hire him.

That being said (I cannot and will not stop) I am here to listen to other arguments. What’s yours, Mr. Hamilton?

Brian: Beard and Will Wade were undoubtedly the two most cynical hires of the carousel. It’s hard to say “worst,” because they were hired solely to win basketball games, and nothing else mattered, and they will win basketball games. I suppose all Ole Miss worries about is how excited Ole Miss supporters are, and how much money those supporters are willing to spend on the product, but I do wonder if this will be a more laborious build than the school would prefer it to be.

My best hire is Micah Shrewsberry at Notre Dame, by a nose over Ed Cooley at Georgetown. Mostly because we knew basketball had to matter again at Georgetown and the school probably would throw the necessary resources at its biggest problem. That wasn’t as clear in South Bend. It is now. We can pick apart Shrewsberry’s limited record as a head coach, but in the end the school landed a guy who was one of the best available fits. I’ll be curious to see if, somehow, part of the deal is relaxing standards to permit more undergrad transfers, to accelerate a rebuild. The tail doesn’t typically wag the dog at Notre Dame. (And if nothing changes … yowza, it’s going to be lean for a while.) But a coach there must place a premium on player development, anyway, and Shrewsberry is a match in that respect. It’s also no small thing that Notre Dame now has Black head coaches in all three major sports.

Now that I think about it, after all the movement stops on all fronts, I’m wondering if we’re headed toward a Rise of the Blue Bloods in 2023-24, at least in men’s hoops. Just feels like the pendulum is due to swing back. Regression to the mean, or something. I see rosters at Duke and Michigan State coalescing with experience and talent, and it’s hard for me to believe some of the big names will be as vulnerable. Am I wrong?

Dana: No, you are not. That Champions Classic game between the Blue Devils and Spartans is going to be silly good, and I’m quite excited in general about the number of guys returning to college. The NIL has taken some rightful hits, but it also heightens the allure of returning to college which, at least in my opinion, is only good for college basketball. I love that we have players who are opting to run it back and stay a little longer.

And look, I enjoyed this NCAA Tournament. It suited the season. No one was great, a lot of teams were good and March Madness ensued. But when the name brands are better, it helps everyone. That’s just reality, so Duke with a loaded roster, Michigan State with a loaded roster, Kentucky doubling down on recruits and the potential for returnees, defending champion UConn getting guys like Donovan Clingan back … it’s a win-win for the sport.

I’ll put my pompoms down now.

Brian: Part of me is a little over college basketball having more 25-year-olds doing teenager things than The CW. But continuity absolutely helps. Both men’s and women’s hoops should teem with star power next season, which should create meatier storylines that are more accessible to the general public. Which is good for business. I’ll even make a horribly inadvisable April 2023 prediction of Duke and Michigan State in the 2024 Final Four, along with home-state Arizona, with a Saint Mary’s curveball thrown in for good measure.

So with that being said, let’s ride. It’s a long way to the desert next spring.

(Top photo of Bronny James: Sam Forencich / NBAE via Getty Images)

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