Per Tommy Bowman,

Tommy Bowman @AppTrailWSJ · 27m
App State men's basketball assistants in place: Jason Allison (formerly VMI), Bryan Lentz (Texas) and Mantoris Robinson (Fairmont State).

Robinson was a former Winthrop player, so he knows the area. He was the main unknown guy.

Good find, thanks.

Two mid-30s guys with experience at different levels, and a young coach who recently played at the D1 level.

My layman's interpretation is that Fox has assembled a staff with an emphasis on recruiting. I had guessed he might hire one older assistant, one with Allison's background, and one young guy. The fact that all three are younger than Fox suggests to me that Fox expects all three to spend plenty of time on the road and to be savvy users of social media. Which also might mean that he's pretty confident in his own abilities to game plan, run practices, etc.

With the money we're spending I'm surprised we Mantoris Robinson is an assistant. I would have expected someone like him to be in the Director of Basketball Operations role.

EastHallApp wrote:Good find, thanks.

Two mid-30s guys with experience at different levels, and a young coach who recently played at the D1 level.

My layman's interpretation is that Fox has assembled a staff with an emphasis on recruiting. I had guessed he might hire one older assistant, one with Allison's background, and one young guy. The fact that all three are younger than Fox suggests to me that Fox expects all three to spend plenty of time on the road and to be savvy users of social media. Which also might mean that he's pretty confident in his own abilities to game plan, run practices, etc.

Apparently Coach Fox's plan changed along the way; causing the process to go a little longer than expected. An older, more experienced coach was the initial plan and a name was dropped. Something happened along the way--a change of mind; or a concern raised in a background check; or an unanticipated salary raise helping the older guy decide to stay in his current situation. It's inconsequential now. We have the makings of a strong staff--and they're on the road working for ASU. I feel much better now that folks are on board.

Of course, they're living out of suitcases for at least the next month, but at some point they all have to take time out to find a house to buy or a condo to lease. Now, we could use some housing support from Mark Harrill and all the good folks over at Ecotah Resort.

So I guess the Dupree rumors were just that....rumors. Or, maybe we couldn't meet his demands. Although I don't know anything about him, I feel like he would have been a good hire with the NY recruiting connection.

asu66 wrote:

EastHallApp wrote:Good find, thanks.

Two mid-30s guys with experience at different levels, and a young coach who recently played at the D1 level.

My layman's interpretation is that Fox has assembled a staff with an emphasis on recruiting. I had guessed he might hire one older assistant, one with Allison's background, and one young guy. The fact that all three are younger than Fox suggests to me that Fox expects all three to spend plenty of time on the road and to be savvy users of social media. Which also might mean that he's pretty confident in his own abilities to game plan, run practices, etc.

Apparently Coach Fox's plan changed along the way; causing the process to go a little longer than expected. An older, more experienced coach was the initial plan and a name was dropped. Something happened along the way--a change of mind; or a concern raised in a background check; or an unanticipated salary raise helping the older guy decide to stay in his current situation. It's inconsequential now. We have the makings of a strong staff--and they're on the road working for ASU. I feel much better now that folks are on board.

Of course, they're living out of suitcases for at least the next month, but at some point they all have to take time out to find a house to buy or a condo to lease. Now, we could use some housing support from Mark Harrill and all the good folks over at Ecotah Resort.

who was the older coach whose name was dropped? Dupree?

I'm going to say they'll be renting - I doubt too many low- or mid-major assistants buy houses, especially their first year on the job. Looks like the first full-time job for Robinson - he might just set up a cot in his office for a while.

app97 wrote:

asu66 wrote:

EastHallApp wrote:Good find, thanks.

Two mid-30s guys with experience at different levels, and a young coach who recently played at the D1 level.

My layman's interpretation is that Fox has assembled a staff with an emphasis on recruiting. I had guessed he might hire one older assistant, one with Allison's background, and one young guy. The fact that all three are younger than Fox suggests to me that Fox expects all three to spend plenty of time on the road and to be savvy users of social media. Which also might mean that he's pretty confident in his own abilities to game plan, run practices, etc.

Apparently Coach Fox's plan changed along the way; causing the process to go a little longer than expected. An older, more experienced coach was the initial plan and a name was dropped. Something happened along the way--a change of mind; or a concern raised in a background check; or an unanticipated salary raise helping the older guy decide to stay in his current situation. It's inconsequential now. We have the makings of a strong staff--and they're on the road working for ASU. I feel much better now that folks are on board.

Of course, they're living out of suitcases for at least the next month, but at some point they all have to take time out to find a house to buy or a condo to lease. Now, we could use some housing support from Mark Harrill and all the good folks over at Ecotah Resort.

who was the older coach whose name was dropped? Dupree?

Since I didn't personally hear a statement that Coach Fox made in one of the April 10 presser sessions in the athletics center, I'll paraphrase. It has been reported by several highly reliable sources that one of the coaches would be a highly experienced coach currently on the staff at Canisius (his alma mater) who spent five seasons on the staff at College of Charleston under the direction of Bobby Cremins. Apparently, something came up to change that initial plan. It's really inconsequential now. We have no need to know the whens and whys. We have our guys.

EastHallApp wrote:I'm going to say they'll be renting - I doubt too many low- or mid-major assistants buy houses, especially their first year on the job. Looks like the first full-time job for Robinson - he might just set up a cot in his office for a while.

No he'll be in the team room. Nice big couches.

asu66 wrote:

app97 wrote:

asu66 wrote:

EastHallApp wrote:Good find, thanks.

Two mid-30s guys with experience at different levels, and a young coach who recently played at the D1 level.

My layman's interpretation is that Fox has assembled a staff with an emphasis on recruiting. I had guessed he might hire one older assistant, one with Allison's background, and one young guy. The fact that all three are younger than Fox suggests to me that Fox expects all three to spend plenty of time on the road and to be savvy users of social media. Which also might mean that he's pretty confident in his own abilities to game plan, run practices, etc.

Apparently Coach Fox's plan changed along the way; causing the process to go a little longer than expected. An older, more experienced coach was the initial plan and a name was dropped. Something happened along the way--a change of mind; or a concern raised in a background check; or an unanticipated salary raise helping the older guy decide to stay in his current situation. It's inconsequential now. We have the makings of a strong staff--and they're on the road working for ASU. I feel much better now that folks are on board.

Of course, they're living out of suitcases for at least the next month, but at some point they all have to take time out to find a house to buy or a condo to lease. Now, we could use some housing support from Mark Harrill and all the good folks over at Ecotah Resort.

who was the older coach whose name was dropped? Dupree?

Since I didn't personally hear a statement that Coach Fox made in one of the April 10 presser sessions in the athletics center, I'll paraphrase. It has been reported by several highly reliable sources that one of the coaches would be a highly experienced coach currently on the staff at Canisius (his alma mater) who spent five seasons on the staff at College of Charleston under the direction of Bobby Cremins. Apparently, something came up to change that initial plan. It's really inconsequential now. We have no need to know the whens and whys. We have our guys.

I was just curious. Dupree is probably only around 38....not much older than Lentz and Allison...but, I suppose he does have more experience.

Fox wanted Dupree from Day 1.

T-Dog wrote:Fox wanted Dupree from Day 1.

Yep. Was told the same thing.

We have the three assistants in place now and it's time to get it on. Good Luck to Coach and the new staff and let's get some players.

All 3 of our assistants are NC natives. That should serve us well in local recruiting.

JTApps1 wrote:All 3 of our assistants are NC natives. That should serve us well in local recruiting.

Our problem, as you well know, is the number of Division I institutions in our state. The competition for athletes is fierce. It should help, however, that all of our assistants have homegrown knowledge and good contacts all across the state.

Which reminds me of something I noticed just today. One man's basketball "blue-chip prospect" is another man's nobody.

We've read for more than a year about what a fine prospect Kedrick Flomo is--probably one of the two or three best guards in the NC Class of 2014. Well, not every recruiting guru assesses Flomo in that same light. A well-known scouting and recruiting service that operates from offices in the Research Triangle doesn't even give Flomo a mention on it's website and blog. Some who are mentioned are kids I've really never heard of. http://www.allstarpreps.com/

I guess my point is that there are still (even at this late date) some good, unsigned, uncommitted players left in our state. Let's hope our coaches can identify a diamond or two in the rough.

Hopefully Robinson will bring the defensive mindset the Mountaineers have been lacking imo. http://www.fightingfalcons.com/director ... t/92/1797/ With division 1 scoring down in general, we still ranked 223 allowing over 71ppg.

http://www2.wataugademocrat.com/Sports/ ... -id-014827

I'll take it. Allison has had major success recruiting North Carolina as well as Virginia. Moving to the Sunbelt I'd expect this staff to start looking at some Georgia players too.

Roanoke Times article on Jason Allison:

http://www.roanoke.com/sports/colleges/ ... f6878.html

appgrouch wrote:

EastHallApp wrote:I'm going to say they'll be renting - I doubt too many low- or mid-major assistants buy houses, especially their first year on the job. Looks like the first full-time job for Robinson - he might just set up a cot in his office for a while.

No he'll be in the team room. Nice big couches.

It would be a wonder if any of them would be buying a house with the transitional nature of coaching college sports.