College Basketball Coaching Carousel Thread

Western Illinois is the sole surviving member of the Mid-Con.....Summit League, sorry.

And the Leathernecks are looking for a men's basketball coach.

 

Maybe Ramsey will hire him to be his assistant (talk about role reversals there).

Why did Cal fire him?

 

Cal's AD said she wants someone to come in and provide some discipline to the team.

To me that means there's only one person on the search list:

Kevin fucking fucking fucker fucking shit fucking fucker O'Neill.

 

Steve Alford's success in Springfield spoiled the school.

As for Ben Braun, he was given plenty of time in Berkeley. The Pac-10's particularly strong season should help bring in a high-caliber candidate eager for the challenge. Kevin O'Neill ... good grief ... he could cause many an alum to fall out of those tall, beautiful trees.

 

I also think Braun was a victim of his own success. You get used to going to the NCAAs and winning a game or two, even an NIT championship isn't going to satisfy people.

 

I'd love to see Darrin get a better job, but I think he's still got a little way to go to get one. He's a good guy by every account I've heard and he seems like a good coach, even though a couple WKU grads I know have told me in the past that this was a season the Toppers needed to make the tourney if Horn didn't want to start hearing whispers. But he's unbelievably popular there because he played there and I can only imagine this helped.

 

The thing is, other than one year when it made the Sweet 16, Alford wasn't any better than Hinson at SMS/Missouri State, perhaps worse. In Alford's year that propelled him to Iowa in '99, SMS was also lucky enough to draw Wisconsin in the tourney on one of their bad Dick Bennett days when they shot minus-10 percent from the field.

The man whose shadow still looms over Springfield is Charlie Spoonhour.

 

I gotta think there's a coach who is just dying to leave the snow country for a place like Cal, with decent weather and 30 million people within two hours by plane to recruit from.

Mike Brey, come on down?

Sandy Barbour's a heavy hitter, she went all the way across the country to hire a woman's hoops coach and won't think local or small-time on this job either, I don't think.

 

It's funny what two weeks do for you. Before the SBC tourney, Horn was a wanted man with most WKU fans and etc ... but now after WKU's tourney run, they're all trying to figure out what it's going to take to keep him there.
I'd be surprised if he doesn't get a look or an offer from someone out there, and that said, if he sees any sort of large pay increase then he'd be stupid not to take it. This was WKU's year to make noise, because they lose so much and the next few years will almost be rebuilding campaigns -- and with that, Horn loses his flavor of the month luster.
I think Horn is sort of a "buyer beware" type guy, he's a solid recruiter and I think he understands the game very well ... but he's really not a big gamer coach necessarily. He was a former asst. at Marquette under Crean, but by no means is he a Brian Gregory type guy that's going to go somewhere and turn the tide instantly.
But I guess we shall see.

 

I've heard the same thing about the Drews.

 

He is a good recruiter, but WKU's talent-level has always been a reflection of the state around him. I realize Courtney Lee isn't a KY kid, but Western has done well recruiting the hell out of a state that produces some very strong basketball talent that just misses what Kentucky and Louisville are taking. One kid on WKU nearly grabbed an offer from Kentucky last year before getting tired of waiting.

I think he'd be wise to take another job, but as a Western grad and a Western guy, I think he may be a little hesitant to. I want to see him do well wherever though.

 

Aww, come on, Slap. The guy should get a chance to coach in the arena he helped build. The largely empty Convo wouldn't even be there if not for Braun.

And, Hank. That'd be great, although Braun returning to EMU - under any circumstances - will unfortunately never happen. He and Ramsey are still pretty tight, and I can't see him taking that job from his buddy.