Wednesday, April 22, 2015

The New Hires

VCU: The Rams lost the biggest fish thus far when Shaka Smart finally postponed the inevitable and left Richmond. I think they did well in hiring one of his former assistants, Will Wade who had been the head coach at Chattanooga the last years and runs a similar style as Shaka Smart. Wade was approached for the Charlotte job and declined. There's no reason the Rams can't have continued success in the A-10.

Fordham: At other A-10 locales, Fordham hired Eastern Kentucky's Jeff Neubauer. This is a tough job and Neubauer has work to do. Andy Toole was the initial choice and would have been a great hire.

George Mason: Life in the A-10 hasn't been kind to the Patriots and Paul Hewitt payed with his job. The Patriots kicked the tires on former coach, Jim Larranaga's son Jay, who chose to stay in the NBA. The turned to Bucknell's head man, Dave Paulsen. He'll have the support of the school to be a contender in the A-10 and had success at Bucknell. There's no reason he can't do the same here.

Texas: It was a matter of time before the Longhorns and Rick Barnes parted ways and they did so amicably following this past season. Texas swung for the fences and believe they hit a HR with Shaka Smart. It'll be interesting to see if his system can work on this big a level and in a league with good coaches and a round robin schedule. The nice thing about Austin for Smart will be, basketball will never be king but he'll have access to oodles of talent in the state. The more I think about it, the more I think I like this fit for him and the Longhorns.

DePaul: The Blue Demons did the right thing and "let" Oliver Purnell walk away. His tenure was an unmitigated disaster for them. Given the new framework of the Big East, DePaul has every chance in the world to become a prominent basketball school again. Unfortunately, they botched this hire, I think. Dave Leitao had some success his first go round but bolted on the first thing smoking for Virginia where he flamed out. He was on the bench as an assistant at Tulsa this year with Frank Haith. After allegedly sniffing around Bobby Hurley and Bryce Drew, this was their fall back. Given the depth of young, qualified, hungry assistants throughout this nation, I can't believe Dave Leitao was the best choice.

St. John's: Steve Lavin did a nice job getting the Red Storm back on track but never could get over the hurdle into making them a real national player. Stories abounded he never made an effort to work the greater NYC area for talent and schmooze coaches there. Well, aboard comes Chris Mullin. Mullin seems like a bad choice. No head coaching experience in college and so far removed from the game, how much weight could his name carry? It may not matter because he made two slam dunk assistant hires in Matt Abdelmassih and Barry "Slice" Rohrssen off of Kentucky's staff. It might be bumpy early but these are positive first steps. I think it's closer to this being a Hoiberg/Cyclone match than Jordan/Rutgers.

Arizona State: Bobby Hurley is a great hire. He'll bring enthusiasm and energy to the program that had stagnated under Herb Sendek. It's not an easy or glamour job but Hurley's track record suggests he is willing to do the work and will succeed. This almost certainly won't be his last job but if he can get this program on track and have 4-5 good years in the desert, I think Sun Devil fans will take it. Him and Sean Miller butting heads twice a year? Sign me up.

Mississippi State: Within the last year, the SEC has added Bruce Pearl, Avery Johnson, Rick Barnes and Ben Howland to its coaching fraternity. I said it early last season, the league may not be great now but it will be. It seemed curious Rick Ray had such a short leash at Starkville but it became obvious early that Howland was the man for the job. It's not impossible to win there and it appears he is about to land one of the top prizes in this recruiting cycle with Malik Newman who was targeted by Kentucky among others. Look for the Rebels to be contenders sooner than later.

Tennessee: The Vols didn't want to hire a new coach and I truly believed Donnie Tyndall could have succeeded in Knowville but to get Rick Barnes to come in and clean up the mess is truly as good as things could have gone. Maybe Barnes isn't the best coach but he succeeded at Providence and Clemson before taking the Texas job and there's no reason he won't at Tennessee.

Alabama: The Crimson Tide gave Anthony Grant every chance to succeed and the Tide was always near the bubble every March. Grant is probably a good coach but he wasn't good enough for the SEC. Alabama made a bold choice in hiring Avery Johnson who had some success coaching in the NBA. Can he recruit will be the question. He'll certainly have the pedigree to do so and only adds to the intrigue of the future of the SEC.

Other hires I liked: Steve Donohue to Penn who took Cornell to the Sweet 16 but flamed out at BC, Brian Wardle at Bradley who has a better conference and opportunity to make the NCAA and Eric Musselman at Nevada.

Also, former Marquette player Jon Harris gets his first head coaching gig at SIU-Edwardsville

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