In this next category, we’ll explore guys leaving jobs while under contract for another job for one of the football 5 jobs or a job in the Big East or AAC. While we can debate the merits of one job versus another, that’s a debate for another time. Chris Holtmann was never going to get paid at Butler like he does at Ohio State but there isn’t much of a reason Brad Underwood couldn’t get paid and be successful at Oklahoma State versus Illinois.
There have been 16 moves I consider lateral since the end of the 2010 season. Two of them include Mick Cronin from Cincinnati to UCLA and Buzz Williams from Virginia Tech to Texas A&M prior to the 2019 season. It’s too early to judge either of those tenures and given the pandemic, we’reprobably at least two more years from having a real good idea.
A third is Cuonzo Martin (He’ll be mentioned again later). He’s had a good year at Missouri this year after leaving Cal 4 years ago. His previous 3 seasons at Missouri have been good his 1st season and bad the last 2. That said, at the moment, I’d think Tigers fans are happy with him.
Speaking of Buzz, he is one of the 4 lateral hires I’d rate a success of the 14 remaining. His move from Marquette to Virginia Tech was a rousing success. In fact, it continues to be as Mike Young has built positively on the foundation laid by Buzz. I also categorize the aforementioned hires of Holtmann and Underwood as successes, too.
I wrestled with Frank Martin’s tenure at South Carolina. He’s only made one tournament but he took the Gamecocks to a Final 4 and they were a bubble team last year. This is his 9th year at USC East and this year has been bad and the seat is warm but in a place where football still rules, that one Final 4 makes him a success.
I’d categorize the rest as failures or disappointments at best. This includes Jeff Bzdelik at Wake Forest from Colorado, Trent Johnson from LSU to TCU, Mike Anderson from Mizzou to Arkansas, Cuonzo Martin from Tennessee to Cal, Josh Pastner from Memphis to Georgia Tech, Kevin Stallings from Vandy to Pitt, Frank Haith from Mizzou to Tulsa, Tubby Smith from Texas Tech to Memphis and Jamie Dixon from Pitt to TCU.
A few of those coaches got out before getting fired. Trent Johnson was on the hot seat at LSU as was Pastner at Memphis and Stallings at Vandy. Cuonzo left Tennessee feeling disrespected after replacing Bruce Pearl and while making the tourney at Cal, he wasn’t a long-term answer and was looking for anything, including Marquette at the time. Given Cal’s struggles since he left, he didn’t leave it better than he found it.
Mike Anderson was an assistant under Nolan Richardson and was seen as a natural fit at Arkansas but he only made the tournament 3 out of 8 years and never made the 2nd weekend. Tubby was a disaster at Memphis.
Jamie Dixon’s first two seasons at TCU were quite good but even then, his best Big XII record is .500. They’ve progressively gotten worse the last 3 seasons and are a sub-100 KenPom team at the moment. Couple that with his flirtations elsewhere while at TCU and we can see where this is heading.
What does this mean? Well, I think a lateral hire has shown that it’s a risky proposition. Underwood and Holtmann are almost unicorns. If Oklahoma State acts like a school committed to winning, Underwood doesn’t leave. He didn’t have any Big Ten ties and was a Frank Martin disciple. Holtmann may have left Butler at some point but is probably still there if Thad Matta doesn’t have to retire. Butler has been snake bitten by late cycle hires.
A lot of times, you’re bringing in a coach looking for a place to fall or a coaching vagabond such as Buzz Williams and you get lucky. Some of the coaches mentioned here are on the hot seat now or getting there.
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