Assistant Basketball Coach

[bantam33]

George Pfeifer, fired by U of Idaho & MSU Billings. What does he bring to the table.

[mslacat]

As an assistant?

He brings recruiting ties and is a pretty good recruiter, but at MSU-B he showed sometimes he was willing to take to many risks with his recruits. I would not want him to a schools recruiting coordinator until I had a good feeling ability to evaluate talent on AND off the court.

[BelgradeBobcat]

As an assistant?

He brings recruiting ties and is a pretty good recruiter, but at MSU-B he showed sometimes he was willing to take to many risks with his recruits. I would not want him to a schools recruiting coordinator until I had a good feeling ability to evaluate talent on AND off the court.

As I recall his Idaho teams had no shortage of athletes. But they could never put it together. Also, the Idaho admin may have been a little bit delusional in how good they thought they were supposed to be in the WAC. There's been a parade of coaches through that place.

[bantam33]

As an assistant?

He brings recruiting ties and is a pretty good recruiter, but at MSU-B he showed sometimes he was willing to take to many risks with his recruits. I would not want him to a schools recruiting coordinator until I had a good feeling ability to evaluate talent on AND off the court.

As I recall his Idaho teams had no shortage of athletes. But they could never put it together. Also, the Idaho admin may have been a little bit delusional in how good they thought they were supposed to be in the WAC. There's been a parade of coaches through that place.

Pfeifer at Idaho 12-48

at MSU Billings 33-45

at LCSC 295-206

[LTown Cat]

Did he get the job or are you asking how he would do if he did?

[bantam33]

Rumor is that he has been hired!!! What other candidates did Huse have and what is so special about Pfeifer????

[ilovethecats]

yikes, really? i haven't heard this yet. mslacat likely knows more than me but i certainly would be skeptical of this hire. first, up until this year i have been far from impressed with our recruiting. obviously this year we don't know about...but at least on paper it looks far better than any of our previous classes. that said, on of the biggest knocks on coach P has been is ability to recruit. that, and the fact that he is far from a people person, and i would be very interested to see how he relates to the boosters and fan base as a whole.

i am always one to try and take a "wait and see" approach before blasting a guy. but this would be a hire that i certainly wouldn't support fully in the beginning....but would be happy to be proved wrong. i don't discredit his ability to coach....but the weaknesses he has seem to be ones in which we just can't have right now.

also, a hire like this seems to be one i would have heard about...or those in the know are being very tight-lipped about it.

[CatBlitz]

[LTown Cat]

Any more news on this front? I'm really surprised we haven't hired yet, although it looks like the past 1-2 weeks have been busy recruiting weeks so maybe Brad is waiting until after that. My first impression would be that George wouldn't be a good hire at all. If he gets the job I hope he proves me wrong.

[Gidal Kaiser]

According to a source, the move is either going to be made over the weekend or early next week. As has been said, I believe the whole late recruiting deal kind of pushed this to the backburner in a sense.

[Gidal Kaiser]

http://www.bozemandailychronicle.com/ap ... ts/?p=8691 Sort of update on the coaching search

[Gidal Kaiser]

The official word, as of Monday afternoon, is that there has not been a hire made. Around 1:30, only Scott Carson was in his office and he was talking with a player.

[ilovethecats]

i still would be surprised if pfeifer gets hired. huse knows this needs to be a good....no, make that a great season and hiring a guy with coach p's pedigree seems risky to me. now, i'm not suggesting he needs to go out and hire an assistant with a "big" name just to appease the masses. but it is no secret that pfeifer doesn't exactly have a lot of support in billings, let alone montana. he has strengths and weaknesses like any coach but in my opinion his weaknesses are ones we can't have with this team based on where we are. huse needs to turn things around big time, and that involves thinking outside the box a little.

[LZCAT]

George was a couple years ahead of me at St. Maries HighSchool in northern Idaho. He was an extremely hard worker in sports then, and was very successful coaching the men's basketball team at Lewis and Clark State, turning them into a national power in the Naia. His resume is better than a lot of assistants who have been at MSU and I think we could do worse.

[mslacat]

With the quickest and most athletic team the MSU Bobcats have seen since I can remember I hope Phiefer can bring some X's and O's (mostly O's) wrinkles to the team that will make things a little less predicable. On the recruiting side if he can bring a few extra recruiting contacts great, but I prefer it if Coach Starr and Coach Carson were the focus of our recruiting efforts.

[Hawks86]

So, is he the one that was hired ? Seems like Will took the map to the coaches offices.

[ilovethecats]

George was a couple years ahead of me at St. Maries HighSchool in northern Idaho. He was an extremely hard worker in sports then, and was very successful coaching the men's basketball team at Lewis and Clark State, turning them into a national power in the Naia. His resume is better than a lot of assistants who have been at MSU and I think we could do worse.

just to be clear, i wasn't really questioning his coaching ability as a whole. i simply said that the weaknesses that he seems to have as a coach are ones in which we have already shown we need to improve. in a season where i think huse MUST win and turn some heads....this hire surprises me.

i admit that he had some very good years at lcsc but i don't know if i would call them a power. did they ever win a championship? even make it to a title game? a final four? i'm not saying they didn't i just don't recall. i do know he had some very good seasons there though, especially before moving on. but i don't think his resume is really a lot better than most of the assistants that we have had here over the years. and frankly, if it wasn't an "all-in" type of season as i feel it is for huse.....i wouldn't have a problem with this hire at all.

all that said, i feel your last statement summed up my thoughts. we could do worse. but that is 180 degree from the mindset i think we need to have. it seems like the last 3 years we have been content with "we could do worse" and i don't think that will fly this season. we need to do great in my opinion....

regardless, if he is the hire which i think he is....he's a cat now and he has my full support. he's a much better x's and o's guy than he is a recruiter....so hopefully he can help us big time in those areas. we certainly have the young talent to be able to have a great offense this year.....

[Gidal Kaiser]

So, is he the one that was hired ? Seems like Will took the map to the coaches offices.

I found Brad's office with a GPS system this morning and seeing-eye dog. Pfeifer is the new assistant coach, officially. I couldn't get anything more than that out of Brad, who wants to wait until the official release is out later this weekend before commenting. Keep throwing it at me, Bobcat Nation, because the only way I learn and get better is with feedback (constructive or not). I'll have interviews with Huse and Pfeifer later this week.

[mslacat]

Finding the office and even finding Huse is the easy part. Getting him to talk is a little more complicate!

[Hawks86]

Thanks Gidal and I'm glad you get to cover MBB.