A lot has been made of Coach Golding and his recruiting issues since he was selected as our head basketball coach. The prevailing theory as to why he was able to build a winner from scratch at Abilene Christian, but has failed to bring in enough talent to UTEP, is that ACU competes in a lower rated conference (the Southland) than CUSA, so he didn't have to bring in any decent talent. I don't buy this idea at all. I personally believe that Golding's 2018-19 (27-7 record) and 2020-21 (24-5) ACU teams were better than either of his UTEP teams, and his 2019-20 team (20-11) was certainly better than at least last year's UTEP team. If I'm correct (and I'm confident that I am), since all of those teams were Joe Golding coached teams, it means that his later ACU teams were more talented than his UTEP teams. This begs the question: why was he able to bring in better talent to ACU than he's been able to bring into UTEP, when expectations are that it should be the other way around? I have two theories:
1. Golding's ACU teams were built before the current transfer rules were in place, and before the NIL. It might be that Golding and his ACU staff were adept at finding high school diamonds in the rough and developing them into good players during their time at ACU. With the current transfer rules, and the lure of NIL money, this is no longer a viable strategy for mid major coaches to build teams, and Golding and his staff have been unable to adapt to the transfer portal; or
2. Golding had a better staff at ACU, at least when it comes to recruiting.
Now if Wilson was to make the colossal mistake of naming me as UTEP's AD tomorrow, Golding would have to compete for a conference championship this year in order to keep his job. But the AD position still belongs to Senter, who is much more forgiving than I would be, so it's likely that Golding will return next year. That being the case, I see one solution to Golding's recruiting woes: hire new assistant coaches, coaches who are adept at recruiting the transfer portal. Any coach in today's game who can't successfully navigate the portal to bring in talent is doomed to fail.
1. Golding's ACU teams were built before the current transfer rules were in place, and before the NIL. It might be that Golding and his ACU staff were adept at finding high school diamonds in the rough and developing them into good players during their time at ACU. With the current transfer rules, and the lure of NIL money, this is no longer a viable strategy for mid major coaches to build teams, and Golding and his staff have been unable to adapt to the transfer portal; or
2. Golding had a better staff at ACU, at least when it comes to recruiting.
Now if Wilson was to make the colossal mistake of naming me as UTEP's AD tomorrow, Golding would have to compete for a conference championship this year in order to keep his job. But the AD position still belongs to Senter, who is much more forgiving than I would be, so it's likely that Golding will return next year. That being the case, I see one solution to Golding's recruiting woes: hire new assistant coaches, coaches who are adept at recruiting the transfer portal. Any coach in today's game who can't successfully navigate the portal to bring in talent is doomed to fail.
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