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    Molinari is N as assistant

      Jim Molinari

    Release from the University

    Lincoln – Nebraska men’s basketball coach Tim Miles announced Friday the hiring of Jim Molinari

    (pronounced Mole-in-AIR-ee) as an assistant coach with the Husker basketball program.

    One of the most well-respected teachers in college basketball, Molinari bring over three decades of Division I coaching experience to Nebraska, including 20 years of head coaching experience. He is a three-time conference coach of the year during his career, while he has guided nine teams to postseason play. In addition, he has been a member of 10 NCAA Tournament staffs during his 12 season as a Division I assistant coach.

    Today is a great day for Husker Hoops,” Nebraska Coach Tim Miles said. “Adding Coach Molinari to our staff can help elevate us to the next level. He's a great coach and a better person. We are very fortunate he's joining us. He brings a wealth of coaching and recruiting experience. He’s coached in the Final Four as an assistant. He's taken his own team to the NCAA Tournament at two different universities, and he’s recruited NBA players. Jim has had every conceivable experience a coach can have, and he will have a major impact on our program.”

    Molinari said it was tough leaving a program he had built over the last six seasons, but is excited for the challenge of helping the Husker program reach unprecedented heights in the near future with Miles. The Huskers made their first NCAA appearance in 16 seasons in 2014.

    “It was difficult decision because I love my players and Western Illinois University,” Molinari said. “I am extremely excited and blessed that the Lord has opened this door to partner with Tim and his staff to continue to build on their success at a very special place - Nebraska.”

    “What drew me to Nebraska is that you pick a person as much as you do a place,” Molinari said. “I think the challenge of trying to do something special on a national stage, and I obviously have a love and admiration for the Big Ten having been a part of it for three years at Minnesota.”

    Molinari spent the past six seasons at Western Illinois, leading the Leathernecks to their first-ever postseason appearances at the Division I level. In 2012-13, he guided WIU to a 22-9 record and a share of the Summit League regular-season title with a 13-3 mark. The 22 wins were the program’s highest total since moving to Division I while he was named the Summit League Coach of the Year and the NABC District 12 Coach of the Year. He was also a finalist for the Hugh Durham Award (CollegeInsider.com Mid-Major Coach of the Year). WIU led the nation in fewest fouls committed and was second in scoring defense at 52.6 points per game, while ranking in the top 75 in six categories. Molinari coached Terell Parks who was tabbed second-team NABC all-district and also named first-team All-Summit League and the Summit League Defensive Player of the Year in 2012-13.

    In 2011-12, WIU broke through with an 18-15 record and an appearance in the College Basketball Invitational, the program’s first-ever postseason appearance at the Division I level. The Leathernecks reached the Summit League title game for the first time since 1997, while the 18 wins were the most since 1996-97. Ceola Clark led the team earning Summit League Defensive Player of the Year for the second straight season, becoming the first player in conference history to be a two-time winner of the award. Clark was also a three-time All-Summit League performer, including a two-time first-team winner.

    In 2007-08, Molinari served as an assistant coach at Ball State, following a three-year stint at Minnesota in which he was the interim head coach for most of the 2006-07 season. In his first season as an assistant at Minnesota, his defensive emphasis helped the Gophers rank third in Big Ten scoring defense (62.7 points per game). They led the league in field goal percentage defense (.424) and three-point field goal percentage defense (.274) in conference play, and allowed 62.9 points per league game, the fewest since the 1981-82 season. In 2005, Street & Smith’s named Molinari the “best assistant in the Big Ten Conference.”

    For 11 seasons, from 1991-2002, Molinari was the head coach at Bradley University, where he amassed a 174-152 (.534) record and guided the Braves to the postseason six times - five National Invitation Tournament appearances and the 1996 NCAA Tournament. He led Bradley to a trio of 20-win seasons, including a 22-8 record in 1995-96 when he was chosen as Missouri Valley Conference Coach of the Year. He left Bradley with more league wins than any other active coach in the Missouri Valley.

    From 1989-91, he was the head coach at Northern Illinois, where he posted a record of 42-17 (.712). The Huskies won the 1991 Mid-Continent Conference title, going 25-6 and setting a school record for wins. At Northern, Molinari inherited a program that had not won as many as 17 games in a season since 1981, but made a quick turnaround with a 17-win season followed by a 25-win campaign in just his second year at the school.

    At DePaul from 1979-89, Molinari helped both Ray and Joey Meyer lead the Blue Demons to national prominence. Over 10 seasons at DePaul, Molinari helped recruit college and professional stars such as Mark Aguirre, Dallas Comegys, Tyrone Corbin, Terry Cummings and Rod Strickland -- players who led DePaul to nine NCAA Tournaments and a runner-up finish in the NIT.

    In addition to his collegiate coaching experience, Molinari is a veteran of national selection committees for international competition. He led the 1997 USA Basketball men’s team to a gold medal at the World University Games played in Trapani, Italy. For two years in-between collegiate coaching positions, Molinari was an NBA scout for the Toronto Raptors (2002-03) and Miami Heat (2003-04).

    His college playing career began at Kansas State, where he teamed with current Oklahoma head coach Lon Kruger for two seasons. After transferring to Illinois Wesleyan, where he teamed with former NBA center Jack Sikma, Molinari helped the Titans win consecutive league titles, before entering the coaching ranks in 1978 as a part-time assistant with DePaul.

    Molinari earned his bachelor’s degree in English from Illinois Wesleyan University in 1977 and earned a Juris Doctor from DePaul in 1980.

    Lon Kruger, University of Oklahoma Basketball Coach

    “I have known Jim since we were teammates at Kansas State. He is very highly respected among coaches. Jim relates well and gets the most from his players. He has great integrity and high character and is interested in development of players, both on and off court. Jim has one of the best defensive minds in college basketball.”




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    BR has a story up now saying the buzz is that Molinari is the leading contender, so it's close to official.

     

    This is the first article I've seen based on something besides Robin Washut reporting. MULTIPLE SOURCES!

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    Maybe someone can dig up the quote, but Miles said within the past 10 days that he likes to have a staff made up of two guys who can recruit, scout and develop players, and one guy who sees the game the way he does. Molinari falls into that category for sure. He plays the same pack line defense we do, and he and Miles seem to share a brain as far as how the game should be played and coached. They share the same philosophical mindset. 

     

    This seems like a great fit, and Molinari is a tremendous asset in terms of knowledge and experience. He's a defensive guru and should be able to take a team that was already playing great defense and take it to an even higher level.

     

    My only question is about how good a recruiter he is. I honestly have no idea.

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    Maybe someone can dig up the quote, but Miles said within the past 10 days that he likes to have a staff made up of two guys who can recruit, scout and develop players, and one guy who sees the game the way he does. Molinari falls into that category for sure. He plays the same pack line defense we do, and he and Miles seem to share a brain as far as how the game should be played and coached. They share the same philosophical mindset. 

     

    This seems like a great fit, and Molinari is a tremendous asset in terms of knowledge and experience. He's a defensive guru and should be able to take a team that was already playing great defense and take it to an even higher level.

     

    My only question is about how good a recruiter he is. I honestly have no idea.

    I have no idea if Molinari runs a pack line defense or not so this is not commentary on your post, but pack line is the phrase of the tournament. I am so tired of every announcer calling every sagging m4m a pack line defense. Just because you run a flex cut doesn't mean you are running a flex offense and just because you are sagging off doesn't mean you are running a pack line defense. I personally don't like all the principles of the pack line. 

     

    I do like the not denying the wing pass. You can play an on the line, up the line wing defense to give better help on penetration. I never really got hurt on wing passes but guard penetration could be a problem. I do not like the PLD's funneling penetration into the elbow or 3/4 post defense when the ball is on the wing. One misstep on your wing defense and you've given up an uncontested lay-up. 

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    I distinctly remember Miles talking about Molinari during the pre-game radio broadcast (might have been the post-game) for Western Illinois.  He was very complimentary of Molinari and said it would be a good test for his team to face a Molinari-coached club.  

     

    Here's what Huskers.com quotes Miles as saying AFTER the Western Illinois game:

     

     "Jim Molinari is a friend of mine. He’s really a good coach. He’s been on the bench at the Final Four with DePaul. He’s taken his Bradley team to the NCAA Tournament. He’s been right there in the championship game of the Summit League with his Western Illinois team. So you know it’s just going to get mucked up out there and they’re not going to stop. They’re not going to stop. And that’s what happened. We kind of got a little tired. They stayed on the attack. They make a couple threes and they get physical with us. We sort of start whining a little bit and don’t play the way we can. It was a good lesson to learn because there’s a stark contrast the last 14 minutes of the game I thought. If that lead isn’t so big, we don’t win."

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    If Molinari could convince the Covington kid to transfer to Nebraska, that'd be icing on the cake. As a Freshman, Covington averaged 15 and 5 while shooting 39% from behind the arc.

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    I for one wouldn't be shocked if Covington followed him here.  Nebraska did have contact with him during his Sr Year of HS (along with many other Big10 teams).

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    The mindset of your typical Husker fan is that it's all about recruiting and stars. They also believe that young and energetic equals great recruiter. To your average Husker fan "older" coaches aren't as good of recruiters as younger coaches. They covet the "big name". A lot, if a not a good majority, of Husker fans would trade Miles for any coach that could deliver a class of all 5 star players.

     

    I like this hire a lot. You basically have 2 head coaches on the bench. This is going to take a lot of pressure off of Tim moving forward. I'm not sure what Mo's motivation was for leaving West Ill. My guess would be that he wanted to make more $$ without the stress of being a head coach while getting back into the BIG 10. 

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    Odd we could lose our lead assistant to a head coaching gig in the Summit, and then replace that assistant with a head coach from the Summit.

    I would think Molinari would have some Chicago connections. He had a stud freshman this year at Westen Illinois, last name of Covington. He's a 6'5" wing who I've seen play a couple of times. He hails from Illinois and would have been one of our top 4 offensive players as a frosh. If Molinari could get a kid like that to Western Illinois, he'll do fine here.

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    At first I felt this could be a very good hire, but now after reading something's on line and on here I think this could be a great hire,

    Hopefully this comes about, because this will make the loss of Smith a little bit less hurtful.

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    I wonder if Craig Smith regrets taking the USD job now?  The NDSU job is now open:

     

     

    Funny. I thought the exact same thing when I saw that.

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    Robin posted a video of a Miles interview when we played them in November. Miles said they were good friends and have roomed together different times on recruiting trips. He had him come to CSU to give his coaches a 3 day clinic on how to coach defense.

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    Molonari spent about ten minutes in the Nebraska coaches locker room after the game this Fall. I have never heard of an opposing coach do that before. Miles and he are pretty close.

    That's what I thought I remembered hearing - something along those lines. I remember it seemed really unusual at the time. Thanks!

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    I think what you have here is Miles replacing Smith as his in-game adjustment guy because of his years of experience.  Then, you just have to imagine that the guy knows just about everyone in the nation and has recruiting connections anywhere.  So Miles is basically saying he trusts himself, Harriman, and Hunter to now be able to sell themselves in all the new areas that Mo potentially opens for us.  

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    Again, he could be a good hire. He has a losing record at his current school and what they won 8 or 10 games last year?

     

    The year before he had one of the top 2 teams in the Summit.  Graduation hit them pretty hard.

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    Doesn't matter what you want to call this philosophy.  It is designed to not give up easy 2 pointers and easy 3 pointers.  Whatever defense is being played needs to do those two things.  Denying the wing pass without being in control is a great way to lead to those two things not happening. 

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    Again, he could be a good hire. He has a losing record at his current school and what they won 8 or 10 games last year?

     

    This is like hiring Doc as an assistant...great defensive coach...schemer....Doc may not have had the closing power to get the recruiting done...but in this incarnation  of Huskers, we do not need the recruiter...

    Yet I am betting Coach Molinari could impress a fair number of recruits with the defensive discussion...perhaps in their high schools, many gave it much too little thought.

     

    In Ken Pom defensive rankings UConn was 10...Florida 2...Ohio St, Louisville, St. Louis, San Diego State ...all in the top 10...defense wins games...and Coach Molinari is now in charge!

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    Again, he could be a good hire. He has a losing record at his current school and what they won 8 or 10 games last year?

     

    I wouldnt be too concerned with his record...the guy has been around a long long time in D-1 basketball.  Were not going to find very many assistants out there with the type of experience he has. 

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