Friday, February 02, 2007

Early Coaching Carousel (just updated!)

UPDATE Friday February 2, 2007 New opening at the end of this season. Santa Clara's Dick Davey, after 30 years at SCU, 15 of which as a head coach, will be "retiring" at the end of this season. This looks more like a "Denny Crum-like retirement", meaning the AD and adminstration are heavily encouraging him to retire so they can bring in a new coach (I seriously doubt they can find a Rick Pitino).


UPDATED Thursday November 30, 2006: Apparently this post was slightly prophetic. Dan Monson (Monsoon?) of Minnesota has just resigned (read: fired) after a rather disappointing start of the season (three losses at the inaugural Old Spice Classic (aka Disney classic), and a really bad blowout home loss last night to Clemson in the ACC-Big11 Challenge).

This is rather premature, but it looks like university administrators are starting to mimick the NBA. At least three jobs are open for the 2007-2008 season:

  • Colorado: Ricardo Patton is stepping down at the end of this season
  • Hawaii: Riley Wallace is not going to get renewed at the end of this season
  • Minnesota: Dan Monson just fired today. (Technically he resigned after being given 1 million dollars to do so)
  • Santa Clara: Dick Davey is retiring at the end of the season

    All four coaches have been at their universities for a long time.


    Coaches on (or projected to be) the HOT SEAT
    *** does not necessarily mean they are at risk of getting fired ***
  • Jim Molinari at Minnesota (Interim)
  • Tommy Amaker the Dookie at Michigan
  • Ernie Kent of Oregon (despite the hot start, if the team doesn't perform in the Pac-10,...) Update 2/2/07: This sounds very silly as of right now :)
  • Bill Self of Kansas if he loses in the first round of the NCAA for the third year in a row
  • Dave Odom at South Carolina
  • Mike Brey the Dookie at Notre Dame
  • Bill Carmody at Northwestern
  • Jim Baron at Rhode Island
  • Matt Doherty at SMU
  • Steve McClain at Wyoming
  • Neil Daughterty at TCU (the word implode described the current state of that basketball team)



    Top available coaches:
    * Mike Montgomery
    * Nolan Richardson
    * Larry Brown
    * Flip Saunders


    The broadcasters:
    * Rick Majerus
    * Pete Gillan
    * Steve Lavin
    * Steve Lapas
    * Perry Clark
    * Paul Westphal
    * Mike Jarvis


    Recently fired/resigned/retiring and available coaches
    * Dan Monson (ex of Minnessota)
    * Ricardo Patton
    * Riley Wallace
    * Dick Davey


    Comeback long-shots
    * Gene Keady
    * Eddie Sutton
    * Bennett Senior (Dick)


    If Bobby Cremins made a coaching comeback after half a dozen years of broadcasting, I wouldn't be surprised with any of the above making a comeback either...

  • 2 comments:

    Anonymous said...

    In the list of potential replacements, where are all the up and coming Assistant Coaches? It seems to me there is a lot of talent already working at the Division I level. Why do they look to the people that got out or got fired? Give the young guys a shot. They're more passionate and fun to watch on the sidelines anyway.

    ncaahoops said...

    That is a very good point, and I agree with that. The reason I didn't post any up-n-coming Assistant coaches is because I don't know many of them, those that I do know of, I don't know if they might be interested in making a move as a head coach. Next time I update it I'll add a section for them.

    Some teams do go that route with a young ready-to-go assistant (eg Billy Gillespie, Norm Roberts, Frank Haith, Doc Sandler). Others prefer to go with established names for various reasons (eg fan/booster pressure for a quick turnaround such as Kelvin 500-call Sampson, or an AD worried about job security so he doesn't take a risk).

    Sometimes colleges get burned with a young coach/assistant, so their next one is veteran. Or vice versa.

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