Joe Scott, the offensive and defensive strategic architect of the Georgia staff is expected to return to Air Force as their Head Coach.
Joe Scott's Princeton-styled Offense and zone defenses will likely be missed as he is expected to once again become the Head Coach at Air Force. The offensive style and the defensive style of play were greatly shaped by Joe Scott and now Tom Crean would need to find an assistant to fill the role. With the expected change in assistants, there may be change and while it is likely that the offensive style of play will remain, the defensive end is a bit more uncertain.
What would likely not change.
Offensive Philosophy
The Offense will still have Princeton-styled elements to it. Tom Crean runs many of the same types of sets and looks that he ran at Indiana and Marquette. The Princeton-styled Offense should still remain given the high percentage looks it created for the players. Transitioning to a different type of offense would make things more complicated for this team.
Don't look for the offense to change much.
Pace of Play
Georgia is still going to be a fast-paced team. Tom Crean does not want this team to play slowly and changing an influential Assistant Coach will not change the pace of play. This is still a team that will push on defensive rebounds and use the dribble drive to set up offensive situations.
Experience
Joe Scott is a very experienced coach. He has 16 seasons of experience as a Head Coach in College Basketball. This is tough to replace, but on many different major conference staffs are former Head Coaches. It is very likely that Tom Crean finds an Assistant Coach who was a former Head Coach. It is likely that this coach will make the most impact on the team's defensive approach.
What would likely change.
Defensive Philosophy
This is the big change and it has been a shortcoming for Georgia in the past two seasons. Georgia's man-to-man defense has been inconsistent and spotty. Defensive rebounding has been a struggle and the team still is not defensively disruptive enough. This change may bring about a defensive shift. There may be more zone defense, a different type of zone defense, the team may embrace Pack Line Defense, there may be more pressing from this team or it is possible that the new Assistant does a better job teaching man-to-man defense.
Possible Replacements
Steve McClain
McClain took Illinois-Chicago to the Horizon League Tournament Championship Game in 2019-20 and lost to fellow Tom Crean disciple, Brian Wardle, the Head Coach of Bradley.
Tim Buckley
Buckley was Tom Crean's Associate Head Coach at Indiana during his entire tenure in Bloomington. Buckley is currently an Assistant Coach at UNLV.
Martin is another former Head Coach who was on Tom Crean's staff at Indiana. He was on staff from 2014-2017 and he is presently an Assistant Coach at South Carolina. Martin has experience as a Head Coach serving as Head Coach at Marist and he has worked under Frank Martin, Tom Crean, and John Calipari.
The former Nebraska Head Coach is not necessarily experienced in the Southeast, but neither was Joe Scott. Miles is an on-air analyst and personality on the Fox Sports 1, Fox Sports, and the Big Ten Network. Miles was previously a Head Coach for 24 seasons.
The brother-in-law of former President Barack Obama is a Princeton alum who happens to run the same Princeton Offense that Joe Scott runs. He was the Head Coach at Oregon State for six seasons.
Kennedy would fill the need of improving the defense the most out of all of these coaches on the list. Kennedy is best known as the former Head Coach at Texas A&M. Tom Crean has poached from Billy Kennedy's staff in the past and he might as well consider bringing the Head Coach who won the 2015-16 SEC Regular Season Title.
