Pluto: Daniyal Robinson comes through at Cleveland State

Terry Pluto called it the "first in a two part series". He said the next article is about chopping wood, whatever the heck that is about. LOL

Part two:

www.cleveland.com/sports/college/2023/02/cleveland-state-basketball-flipping-tires-morning-practices-and-chopping-wood-terry-pluto.html

CSU first year coaches:
1972-73: Ray Dieringer, 9 wins
1983-84: Kevin Mackey, 14 wins
1990-91: Mike Boyd, 12 wins
1996-97: Rollie Massimino, 9 wins
2003-04: Mike Garland, 4 wins
2006-07: Gary Waters, 10 wins
2017-18: Dennis Felton, 12 wins
2019-20: Dennis Gates, 11 wins
2022-23: Daniyal Robinson, at least 20 wins

I agree. I've seen TOTO mention this in the past, but you can build a program by continuously hitting on up-and-coming coaches. You get a good one like Gates, stretch the budget to pay him, increase the buyout in his contract, and then get paid when he leaves. Then use that payment to sign another up-and-comer to a larger contract. Rinse and repeat. I'm not sure the contract details of Robinson's deal, but I'd imagine the buyout is even larger than the $500,000 or so that we received for Gates (since he's still so early in the deal). Ideally, he stays at least 2 years, has a bunch of success, gets a high profile job, and then you do it again at an even higher starting point.

Eventually, you hope to build the budget that you can actually compete for the coach you want to keep, or you move up a level that allows you to keep a top coach. Kent State is a great example that stayed at their existing level (Waters to Heath to Christian to Ford to Senderoff, who's now been there 10 seasons and has the most wins in program history). Of course, Butler is the prime example for moving up and finding the top coach they were able to keep, at least for a while (Collier to Matta to Lickliter to Stevens). 

I can’t see any of them transferring since they’ve all been to 3 schools already (or 4 in Lowder’s case). Maybe deciding to play pro somewhere, but not transfer.

Gates never had an issue with losing transfers. He did play more people so we’ll see.

I’m not as worried about replacing Spider as others are. I think Enaruna becomes his replacement at the 5 and Williams becomes Enaruna’s replacement at the 4. Arnett and Middleton continue to be the backups. I wouldn’t be opposed to a freshman who could be ready to play in 2 years, but they can just as easily bring in a juco or a transfer after next year to start immediately.

see your point,but we are talking about teens and 20 year olds.

Sure. But by the rules, none of the 3 are allowed to transfer without sitting out a year. And all only have one year of eligibility. Outside of a special waiver, it’s literally impossible for them to transfer. Now, it seems like waivers are easy to get these days, but would any of them tempt that to potentially lose their last season? Especially when Enaruna was already granted a waiver to play this year.

I don’t think refurbished would be cheaper. It’s 30 years old and hasn’t had any significant upgrades done over its lifetime. It’s beyond saving.

Also, we had 2,500 people there. That’s still 30% capacity even with the curtain, and less than 15% of the original capacity. A 5,000 seat arena has been and remains the best option.