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Herb Magee 1K

regarded as the best shooting coach in the country at one point in his career. been coaching philly univ formerly textile for 35+ years. local kid from west philly, mentored by Dr Jack Ramsey, played some pro ball.

he is basically the Harry Perretta of DII. only job he ever had and one of the best coaches in the country but doesnt get the recognition he deserves because of where he is coaching.
 
a friend of my parents played at textile with Herb. one day he was his teammate two years later the head coach. funny how things work out.
 
Jay was on the news last night talking about it. It's why Jay is cool and some of the posters on here are meatheads. Herb is a West Catholic grad, too. Burrs are everywhere :)
 
i didnt realize how old he was. time sure does fly. he , Jimmy Boyle and Jim Lynam all became coaches. only in philly could that happen. its such a tight knit basketball community.
 
Lynam, Boyle and Magee all played at WC at the same time along with Jim Flavin - can't recall the 5th guy. Lynam and Magee formed a formidable backcourt.
Herb was being considered for the Nova job after Krafty left but was summarily dismissed as a candidate by our forward thinking Augustinians because of a divorce.
 
I went to his basketball clinic when I as in middle school, taught me how to shoot a ball correctly.

Philly still sucks though.
 
I never buy the argument that coaches with success at lower levels are among the best at their craft and would automatically succeed at the higher level. Not that some could not, but I don't think it is automatic.

The coach at the lower level often have superior advantages over the competition, such as a more established program, more consistent influx of talent, and better funding than their relative competition.

Look at Fran dunphy, for example. Was a consistent winner at Penn, then stepped up to a higher level and has not performed as well as expected. Well, at Penn, he coached at a program that was more established, better funded, and had a more consistent influx of talent than their relative peers. Now coaches deserve credit for getting to that point, but it wasn't like Fran was some great in game coach at Penn, he just enjoyed institutional advantages over his peer competition. Fran has shown while at temple that he is a very average coach.

Same might be true about this Mcgee guy. Just because he is a good high school coach doesn't mean he would have what it takes to win at the college level.
 
its the longevity that makes it so astounding. is Coach K that great of a coach? of course not, but he built a winning program and gets whatever HS players he wants and he has done that for 30+ years. same with McGee. Is Bobby Hurley the best HS coach ever at St anthonys? of course not, he gets the best 10 NYC metro players annually. i monkey could win as the coach with those players. its the program they build which is incredible. look at how far Penn fell when Dunphy left. he is the second best Ivy league coach ever behind Carrill.

look at Jay is he a great coach? no but he has built a really good program .

there is more to success than actually coaching. you have to build a culture first. recruit and then coach.

what Coach K, Hurley and Magee have done is incredible. again is the longevity of success.
 
and Ball for the record Magee coached DII NCAA basketball not HS like you stated above.
 
Novabball2, my bad on the high school comment. I had no idea who this guy was. I guess he is the Andy Talley of college hoops.

And I agree, it is more about the program building and longevity than any particular coaching x's and o's skills. (and program building is important, so not knocking that).
 
I don't think Talley is a fair comparison even. I-AA football is more competitive than D-II basketball and you pretty regularly see successful pros come from the high I-AA level (very rare in D-II hoops). There are 325-some D-I teams. Only about 100 or so in I-A.

Agree that the success would not necessarily translate. Magee never challenged himself at a higher level which is fine, but doesn't deserve mention in the same breath as K and similar guys where your job is on the line every year. Good decision by 'Nova not to pursue him over Coach Mass -- didn't need a "we do ok" guy like that pre-Mass, pre national title, it ended up hurting us enough afterwards.

Better comparison might be the guy who was at Mt. St. Mary's forever until a few years ago (Phelan I think, wore a bowtie).
 
Yep, being more established, better funded, and having an influx of better talent has really done wonders for Penn since Dunphy left. Yawn.
 
lowry - that is why the Magee thing is only getting local coverage not national attention.

he got a lot of press when he passed Clarance Big House gains from Winston Salem St cause they were on the same level of hoops.

i dont know the man but i respect his accomplishments and i appreciate him doing what he wanted to do where he wanted to do it.

life isnt always about getting to the top. its about doing something you love to do , where you love to do it.

Harry Perretta was offered a big contract from Va tech back in like 2000 ish , he declined and never looked back. said he loved Villanova.
 
Originally posted by lowry99:

I don't think Talley is a fair comparison even. I-AA football is more competitive than D-II basketball and you pretty regularly see successful pros come from the high I-AA level (very rare in D-II hoops). There are 325-some D-I teams. Only about 100 or so in I-A.
How many college football teams really compete at the 1-aa level? Maybe 15-20? It's like college hockey, you just field a team and you are probably a top 25 team.
 
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