Perhaps not my best choice of words, but how many other top-25 / top-30 all-time college hoops programs would hire a head coach who: 1) was a walk-on college basketball player, 2) has no previous head-coaching experience at any level, and 3) has very little assistant coaching experience at any level except under his dad. With 5 Final Fours and more than 40 NCAA Tournament victories, Oklahoma University is not a school where you go for on-the-job-training.
If I was a Houston Cougars fan, I would wonder how good Kellen can be if his 70+ year old dad wants to keep coaching for several more years. Pat Knight turned out to be an awful head coach, but at least his dad had enough confidence in him to turn TTech over to him while he was still in his 60s.
I agree. And comparing Bob Stoops and Barry Switzer, who both achieved their positions on their own resume, and were coordinators for NC-level major conference football, is not even an apples-to-oranges comparison. I'm not sure one can accurately compare a P5 coordinator to a college basketball assistant. Maybe a more accurate comparison would be a P5 football coordinator to a mid-major coach. And running a practice here or there, cheering on or yelling during TOs, and hitting the recruiting trail on behalf of your dad aren't qualifying skills to run a major conference basketball school with a top 25ish history.
There have been very few successful father/son duos where the son took over for the dad. Sure, one can quote the Drew family, Tony Bennett, or Richard Pitino. But those examples didn't coach under their Dad and/or take over the same program. Like Pat Knight. Joey Meyer. Sean Sutton. John Thompson III. None, or very few, of them work.
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@WaymanFan said, if Kelvin had confidence that Kellen could take over the program and lead it to equal or greater heights, as a father, I can't imagine he wouldn't have retired this spring and handed it over to Kellen to get that title. But maybe he even had a doubt, or those at Houston convinced him of a doubt.
I love Kellen. And maybe he can be a great coach someday. Some day. But, IMO, he needs to go get a gig on his own somewhere and then come back to Houston, OU, or whoever comes calling if he can prove himself at a lower level as HC. And maybe he can be successful at Houston once Kelvin retires. Just not worth the risk here.
