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Coaching Candidates


JMM28

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I thought this would be easier to break down potential candidates instead of getting mixed in with the Crewshate threads.

Assistant Coaches

Dane Fife - Michigan State - Dane is a weird candidate. He was the head coach at IPFW and a candidate for several HC jobs in the 2010-2011 years. He quit IPFW to become an assistant under Izzo at Michigan State. He had some moderate success at IPFW on a shoe string budget. Most reported his salary at barely 6 figures.

Dwayne Stephens - Michigan State Associate Head Coach - Has been with Izzo for 14 years. Played at MSU under Heathcoate. Was an assistant at Marquette in the CUSA days of Wardle and Wade. Turned down the SEMO job last offseason.

Jeff Boals - Ohio State - Played at Ohio. AC previously at Ohio, Marshall, Akron. Has been heavily involved in recruiting at all of his stops. OSU has had several top 10 classes with him around.

LaVall Jordan - Michigan - Played at Butler. Worked as AC at Butler under Lickliter, then joined him in Iowa. In his 6th year at Michigan under Beilein now. Comes from good mid major stock with Beilein system experience. Was a finalist for the Butler job a few years back.

Kenny Payne - Kentucky - Calipari's right hand (bag) man. Highest paid assistant coach in the country at 700,000 a year. Has interviewed with schools before, but UK has given him pay bumps the last several years to keep him around. Probably priced out of contention.

Greg Gard - Wisconsin Interim HC - If he doesn't get the Wisconsin job full time, he could be a candidate. Bo Ryan's top assistant for 20 years at his various stops.

Tommy Lloyd - Gonzaga - Tommy is the guy who recruits Gonzaga's international players. Like a rich man's Chris Harriman. Heir to the Zags throne if Few ever decides to leave.

TJ Otzelberger - Associate HC Iowa State - Started under McDermott, worked under Hoiberg. Left to go to Washington under Romar. Came back for final year of Hoiberg. Was a candidate at ISU when Hoiberg left. Recruited the core of Iowa State's team. From Wisconsin originally. Has JuCo connections from his early coaching days. Prohm retained him as AHC when he took IaSt job.

Greg Paulus - Ohio State - He is only 29. He has been coaching for 5 years now. He played for Coach K and worked for Matta. Seen as a big up and comer. Could be a home run hire.

Jeff Capel - Duke - Former HC at Oklahoma and VCU. Currently on Coach K's staff. Passed on Arizona State last offseason. May be looking for only a good BCS position.

Damon Stoudamire - Memphis - Former NBA PG. Coached under Sean Miller at Arizona, his alma mater, and went to Elite 8's in his two years. Came back to Memphis this year as an assistant. Passed on a few coaching jobs 2 years ago. Might be candidate in Memphis if Pastner is fired.

Current Head Coaches - Moving Up?

Andy Toole - Current HC at Robert Morris. Reportedly turned down Fordham last year. Tough start this year, but had an NCAA team at RMU last year. East coast guy.

Zach Spiker - Current HC at Army. Spiker, Bobby Knight, and Coach K are the only coaches to win 65 games at Army in their first 5 seasons! Was an assistant at Cornell for their late 2000's tournament teams under Steve Donahue. Has Army positioned as a favorite to win the Patriot League this year. Could possibly be the first coach to take Army to the NCAA Tournament.

Keith Dambrot - Akron - LeBron James's high school coach. Has been at Akron since 01 and HC since 2004. Taken the Zips to 3 NCAAs in his time there. Is still friends with LeBron and Shaka!

Current Head Coaches - Moving Down?

John Groce - Firmly on the hot seat at Illinois this year. New athletic director could make a change. Took Ohio to 2 NCAA's in 4 years there, including a Sweet 16 run that led to his job at Illinois. Solid recruiter. Struggled with injuries at Illinois this year.

Josh Pastner - Memphis fans have a #firejpastner hashtag! Currently HC at Memphis. Missed tournament last year, but has taken Memphis 4/6 years there.

Travis Ford - Current HC at Oklahoma State. He has compiled a .611 winning percentage at OkSt, but has been mediocre enough to get the fan base against him. Has gone to the NCAA 5/7 years there but only has 1 win, in his first year. Formerly the HC at UMass.

Tom Crean - Indiana - had some success at Marquette. Looked to be turning corner at Indiana, but hasn't gotten it done.

Lorenzo Romar - could be on the hot seat at Washington. Plenty of talent with very little results. Obvious connection to SLU.

Dream On

Bryce Drew - Current HC at Valpo, his alma mater. Took over for dad. Has an NCAA tournament team this year. Likely to get more BCS offers this offseason.

Not Coaching Currently

Todd Lickliter - Currently a scout for the Celtics. Butler coach from 01-07. Most recently HC at Marian in Indianapolis. Not sure if he is done with the college game or not.

Herb Sendek - Fired at Arizona State after last season. Taking a year off. Looking to get back into coaching. Formerly HC at NC State and Miami Ohio. Recruited Wally Szczerbiak to Miami OH. Before HC was a Pitino guy at UK.

Everyone at ESPN.

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My intrigued low D1 moving up guy to think about is horace broadnax the head coach at Savannah state. A few years ago he came in here with a buy game and almost beat us. Seemed to have a nice plan, his kids responded. He Was all positive on the bench. I was imoressed. Of course he doesn't have much of a record at Savannah state, but who would.

He was a player under John thompson at Georgetown and his team won a national championship. So not only was he at a private Catholic program like slu, undet thompson, georgetown had turned around and become a national power.

Broadnax also has a law degree which demonstrates he understands the academic importance of college and put in the effort himself.

If we're going to reach, I'd look at this guy. I don't want the guy that's been fired 2 or 3 times and on his way down.

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I could get excited about some people on that list. I would venture to say that it is a better list than Chris May has right now. A spashy hire might be the former VA tech head coach Seth Greenberg. VA Tech is a tough place to try to build basketball tradition.

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More current head coaches: King Rice at Monmouth, Scott Nagy at S Dakota St, Steve Masiello at Manhattan, Jim Engles at NJIT, Will Brown at Albany, Scott Cross at UT Arlington, Mitch Henderson at Princeton, Steve Pikiell at Stony Brook, Jerod Haase at UAB, Russell Turner at UC Irvine, Pat Kelsey at Winthrop.

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I thought this would be easier to break down potential candidates instead of getting mixed in with the Crewshate threads.

Assistant Coaches

Dane Fife - Michigan State - Dane is a weird candidate. He was the head coach at IPFW and a candidate for several HC jobs in the 2010-2011 years. He quit IPFW to become an assistant under Izzo at Michigan State. He had some moderate success at IPFW on a shoe string budget. Most reported his salary at barely 6 figures.

Dwayne Stephens - Michigan State Associate Head Coach - Has been with Izzo for 14 years. Played at MSU under Heathcoate. Was an assistant at Marquette in the CUSA days of Wardle and Wade. Turned down the SEMO job last offseason.

Jeff Boals - Ohio State - Played at Ohio. AC previously at Ohio, Marshall, Akron. Has been heavily involved in recruiting at all of his stops. OSU has had several top 10 classes with him around.

LaVall Jordan - Michigan - Played at Butler. Worked as AC at Butler under Lickliter, then joined him in Iowa. In his 6th year at Michigan under Beilein now. Comes from good mid major stock with Beilein system experience. Was a finalist for the Butler job a few years back.

Kenny Payne - Kentucky - Calipari's right hand (bag) man. Highest paid assistant coach in the country at 700,000 a year. Has interviewed with schools before, but UK has given him pay bumps the last several years to keep him around. Probably priced out of contention.

Greg Gard - Wisconsin Interim HC - If he doesn't get the Wisconsin job full time, he could be a candidate. Bo Ryan's top assistant for 20 years at his various stops.

Tommy Lloyd - Gonzaga - Tommy is the guy who recruits Gonzaga's international players. Like a rich man's Chris Harriman. Heir to the Zags throne if Few ever decides to leave.

TJ Otzelberger - Associate HC Iowa State - Started under McDermott, worked under Hoiberg. Left to go to Washington under Romar. Came back for final year of Hoiberg. Was a candidate at ISU when Hoiberg left. Recruited the core of Iowa State's team. From Wisconsin originally. Has JuCo connections from his early coaching days. Prohm retained him as AHC when he took IaSt job.

Greg Paulus - Ohio State - He is only 29. He has been coaching for 5 years now. He played for Coach K and worked for Matta. Seen as a big up and comer. Could be a home run hire.

Jeff Capel - Duke - Former HC at Oklahoma and VCU. Currently on Coach K's staff. Passed on Arizona State last offseason. May be looking for only a good BCS position.

Damon Stoudamire - Memphis - Former NBA PG. Coached under Sean Miller at Arizona, his alma mater, and went to Elite 8's in his two years. Came back to Memphis this year as an assistant. Passed on a few coaching jobs 2 years ago. Might be candidate in Memphis if Pastner is fired.

Current Head Coaches - Moving Up?

Andy Toole - Current HC at Robert Morris. Reportedly turned down Fordham last year. Tough start this year, but had an NCAA team at RMU last year. East coast guy.

Zach Spiker - Current HC at Army. Spiker, Bobby Knight, and Coach K are the only coaches to win 65 games at Army in their first 5 seasons! Was an assistant at Cornell for their late 2000's tournament teams under Steve Donahue. Has Army positioned as a favorite to win the Patriot League this year. Could possibly be the first coach to take Army to the NCAA Tournament.

Keith Dambrot - Akron - LeBron James's high school coach. Has been at Akron since 01 and HC since 2004. Taken the Zips to 3 NCAAs in his time there. Is still friends with LeBron and Shaka!

Current Head Coaches - Moving Down?

John Groce - Firmly on the hot seat at Illinois this year. New athletic director could make a change. Took Ohio to 2 NCAA's in 4 years there, including a Sweet 16 run that led to his job at Illinois. Solid recruiter. Struggled with injuries at Illinois this year.

Josh Pastner - Memphis fans have a #firejpastner hashtag! Currently HC at Memphis. Missed tournament last year, but has taken Memphis 4/6 years there.

Travis Ford - Current HC at Oklahoma State. He has compiled a .611 winning percentage at OkSt, but has been mediocre enough to get the fan base against him. Has gone to the NCAA 5/7 years there but only has 1 win, in his first year. Formerly the HC at UMass.

Tom Crean - Indiana - had some success at Marquette. Looked to be turning corner at Indiana, but hasn't gotten it done.

Lorenzo Romar - could be on the hot seat at Washington. Plenty of talent with very little results. Obvious connection to SLU.

Dream On

Bryce Drew - Current HC at Valpo, his alma mater. Took over for dad. Has an NCAA tournament team this year. Likely to get more BCS offers this offseason.

Not Coaching Currently

Todd Lickliter - Currently a scout for the Celtics. Butler coach from 01-07. Most recently HC at Marian in Indianapolis. Not sure if he is done with the college game or not.

Herb Sendek - Fired at Arizona State after last season. Taking a year off. Looking to get back into coaching. Formerly HC at NC State and Miami Ohio. Recruited Wally Szczerbiak to Miami OH. Before HC was a Pitino guy at UK.

Everyone at ESPN.

I had mentioned Herb Sendek a while ago. I like that idea. I'm intrigued by the Winthrop guy mentioned with a strong Xavier background - that would be appealing. Steve Lavin? I don't know... no to Seth Greenberg.

Joe Pasternack, top assistant at Arizona under Sean Miller, was a head coach at New Orleans.

How about Anthony Grant? Won three consecutive conference titles at VCU. I like guys who have had a proven track record of success at the "mid-major" level.

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Good list and great idea. However, I have a sneaking suspicion Jim Crews will still be the Billikens' head coach in 2016-17. I just think the powers-that-be will buy the excuse that the team comprises mostly sophomores and freshmen and aren't gelling for that reason but could likely come together in the next two years. Inertia is difficult to overcome unless it's a situation like 2007 (when Biondi suddenly dumped Soderberg after a 20-win season to get Majerus).

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Good list and great idea. However, I have a sneaking suspicion Jim Crews will still be the Billikens' head coach in 2016-17. I just think the powers-that-be will buy the excuse that the team comprises mostly sophomores and freshmen and aren't gelling for that reason but could likely come together in the next two years. Inertia is difficult to overcome unless it's a situation like 2007 (when Biondi suddenly dumped Soderberg after a 20-win season to get Majerus).

I seriously doubt that was Biondi's idea... that had to have come from boosters and that's what needs to be driving it again. Good sign that DocC has been going to some games.

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I seriously doubt that was Biondi's idea... that had to have come from boosters and that's what needs to be driving it again. Good sign that DocC has been going to some games.

I would add it is probably a good thing Chaifetz did not win the bids for the Hawks or Bucks. SLU can stay his #1 team for right now, when it needs him.

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I have always gotten the sense that any basketball success SLU had was in spite of Biondi. But I gotta at least give him credit for supporting the arena effort. This is now a chance for DocP and DocC to try to build a program that will be successful through coaching changes, etc. - a sustainable program like Xavier. This is a chance to build a vision that is bigger than just finding the next coach. Hopefully Doc P, May, Doc C and the rest of the boosters can all get on the same page and figure out how to build a blueprint for longterm success.

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Good list and great idea. However, I have a sneaking suspicion Jim Crews will still be the Billikens' head coach in 2016-17. I just think the powers-that-be will buy the excuse that the team comprises mostly sophomores and freshmen and aren't gelling for that reason but could likely come together in the next two years. Inertia is difficult to overcome unless it's a situation like 2007 (when Biondi suddenly dumped Soderberg after a 20-win season to get Majerus).

-i have the same suspicion for the same reason in addition to the admin not seeing the math of the buyout versus the tumble the program will continue to take but i call it FEAR

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A few names that either haven't been mentioned, or thoughts on a few ready named:

Ben Jacobson, head coach at Northern Iowa: Probably in the "Dream On" category, but I'll add him here. Done well there, but I think he's getting paid pretty well there, possibly with a stiff buyout.

Pat Kelsey: head coach at Winthrop. I've mentioned him before; former assistant at Wake Forest and Xavier. If you're looking for a guy from a winning culture at a school similar to SLU, he's worth a look.

Keith Dambrot: HC at Akron. Interesting option. Coached at Central Michigan over 20 years ago and was considered a hot prospect at the time, but he made a terrible choice of words in a speech to his team, which led to his firing and basically got h blackballed from college coaching for several years. He returned to his hometown of Akron, where he discovered and later coached in high school some kid named LeBron James. He eventually coached at Akron and has had a good deal of success there. Not sure if he'll ever leave there.

Anthony Grant is intriguing. Coached at VCU before Shaka Smart.

If you look at Herb Sendek's record, it's pretty impressive. He made 5 consecutive NCAA tournaments at NC State, but was constantly bashed because he couldn't beat Duke and UNC.

There are a few other current head coaches who are intriguing from their background, but haven't produced the level of success to suggest they merit consideration yet, in part because they took over programs that were complete dumpster fires. With a good year, they could become better candidates. I'll refrain from naming them specifically so that nobody thinks I'm suggesting hiring some guy with a winning percentage under .500 .

I'll also that at some level, this year's crop of coaching candidates may be strong, or at least strong on experience. Last year was bizarre, with several schools going with guys with no coaching experience (Mark Price at Charlotte and Chris Mullin at St. John's) or other "outside the box" hires (Dave Leitao at DePaul and Avery Johnson at Alabama). This could mean that coaches who typically would have gotten new jobs last year will still be available this year.

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The Akron coach sounds intriguing...despite his use of the N-word in a pregame speech many years ago.

In his prior 11 seasons at Akron, his teams have made:

Three NCAAs

Three NITs

One CBI

One CIT

In the three years in which his teams did not qualify for postseason play, they went:

19-10/11-7 in the MAC - Tied for second place

26-7/13-1 - First place

21-14/9-9 - Fourth place

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The Akron coach sounds intriguing...despite his use of the N-word in a pregame speech many years ago.

In his prior 11 seasons at Akron, his teams have made:

Three NCAAs

Three NITs

One CBI

One CIT

In the three years in which his teams did not qualify for postseason play, they went:

19-10/11-7 in the MAC - Tied for second place

26-7/13-1 - First place

21-14/9-9 - Fourth place

And, Akron history was crap before he got there. They won only one MAC tournament game before he got there in 13 years. The only other coach to win twenty games at Akron since 1945 besides Dambrot is Huggins. Dambrot has won 20 ten seasons in a row.

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Good list and great idea. However, I have a sneaking suspicion Jim Crews will still be the Billikens' head coach in 2016-17. I just think the powers-that-be will buy the excuse that the team comprises mostly sophomores and freshmen and aren't gelling for that reason but could likely come together in the next two years. Inertia is difficult to overcome unless it's a situation like 2007 (when Biondi suddenly dumped Soderberg after a 20-win season to get Majerus).

I honestly think Crews will be gone. If we end up with 5, 6, 7 or 8 wins this season (and at this point it's hard to imagine winning more than 3 conference games), I think he will beg for a buyout. This is a guy who was content in retirement 4 years ago, who is about the record the two worst season for this program in the past 30 years, and who has padded his bank account with over $2.2 million from his SLU salary. Money should not be an issue for him and I think it is likely that he chooses the retirement option after this year v. Trying to grind out another season with the same team who already is devoid of talent and chemistry. I'm not sure Crews is overly intelligent but if he decides to come back to this team, he would have to be dumb and crazy.

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Unless it's a home-run name, I'm not a huge fan of getting guys that are from schools squarely on the east or west coasts. I'd suspect that their recruiting pipeline is built on high schools in that region and I continue to believe SLU will have a tough time recruiting high caliber players (i.e. the type that are good enough for Big East or the top half of the A-10) from the coasts. I have visions of Romar's mostly failed recruiting strategy when I think about this. This changes, of course, if you have a big name like Majerus.

Give me a guy from the Midwest with ties that are within driving distance of St. Louis. Somebody that has been able to recruit St. Louis well in the past gets bonus points.

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