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College Basketball Coaching Carousel: Rumors and Facts

By Chris Godfrey

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Time waits for no man, and the coaching carousel in college basketball doesn’t even wait for the ending of the NCAA Tournament before the wheels get turning. There’s already been plenty of rumors surrounding known vacancies and even more chatter regarding some potential high profile openings. In college basketball, the biggest upsets sometimes happen after the tournament, and this year’s list of coaching changes could serve as an example. Several mid-major coaches could be moving up the ranks, and that means big school’s getting familiar with new faces. In the meantime, let’s separate the rumors from the facts when it comes to the latest buzz in the NCAA basketball coaching fraternity.

FACTS

  • Ben Howland will be the next head coach at Mississippi State. He has already stated that his goal in Starkville is to reach the Final Four. Those are lofty expectations, but they come from a man who has been to that particular mountain top on three occasions with UCLA.

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  • Oliver Purnell RESIGNED from DePaul. He was not fired. Why is this important? Purnell has been a head coach at five different schools for 27 consecutive years and has never been fired. This is easily the most underrated streak in coaching, and it may be impossible to duplicate this record of amicable departure.
  • Arizona State parted ways with Herb Sendek after an up and down tenure at the school. Sendek is one of the nice guys in college basketball, but it seems that nice guys tend to finish last on the recruiting trial. Other than landing Jahii Carson, Sendek struggled to bring talent to Tempe. If you can’t convince an 18 year old athlete to spend four years at Arizona State, one of the nation’s most notorious party schools, then you may not be cut out for college basketball coaching. I’d like to see Sendek at a mid-major where he would actually be appreciated for being a hard-working class act in the coaching profession.
  • Anthony Grant is out at Alabama. In hindsight, taking the “bigger” job proved to be an ultimate failure. The VCU program that Grant legitimized before leaving was cultivated by Shaka Smart. The primary fruits being a shocking Final Four run in 2011. Now the Rams are the closest thing to Gonzaga on the eastern coast, and when Shaka Smart decides to leave Richmond, it will be for pastures far more inviting than Tuscaloosa.
  • Steve Donahue is the new head coach at Penn. After being let go by Boston College less last week, Donahue has already landed on his feet by securing one of the best gigs in the Ivy. Donahue made his name in the Ivy, working as an assistant at both Penn and Cornell before becoming a head man for the Big Red. His last three seasons at Cornell produced Ivy League titles, and his last season ended with a Sweet Sixteen appearance. Expect his time with the Quakers to resemble the Cornell years more so than what you’ve seen most recently at BC. Penn benefits from the rich basketball culture of Philadelphia, and in comparison to other Ivy institutions, is a bit easier to get into. He’ll work well with those built in advantages at his disposal.
  • Stew Morrill retired from his post as the head coach at Utah State. Morrill is a coaching institution out west, having won over 600 games in his career that included stops at Montana and Colorado State before settling with USU. Since Morrill arrived in 1998, the Aggies have never suffered a losing campaign, and have twice tallied reached the 30-win plateau in a single season. Taking over for Morrill will be a tall task since consistent winning has been the culture on campus for almost two decades.

RUMORS

  • Eric Musselman, a former head coach in the NBA will be a candidate to replace the departed Billy Grier at the University of San Diego. Musselman graduated from San Diego, and would be the second former NBA head coach to join the conference’s ranks. Mike Dunlap, former coach of the then Charlotte Bobcats, coaches at Loyola Marymount (his alma mater).
  • The Charlotte 49ers could be closing in on a home run hire. They are reaching out to former Cleveland Cavaliers legend Mark Price as a possible replacement for the departed Alan Majors. Price has been an assistant coach in the NBA for the past 12 years. Price is already rooted in Charlotte. He currently serves as an assistant coach with the Charlotte Hornets.
  • Alabama is looking to poach Steve Prohm from Murray State as a replacement for Anthony Grant. Prohm should be ripe for the taking after a stint in the national rankings wasn’t even enough to get the Racers close to the NCAA Tournament this year. Prohm will likely be more than willing to move to a place where mediocrity is rewarded by the NCAA. The name at the top of the wishlist is Wichita State’s Greg Marshall, but he’d be nuts to leave Wichita with a 15-16 roster that will include Ron Baker, Fred VanVleet, Evan Wessel, and Kansas transfer Connor Frankamp.
  • Bobby Hurley, the former Duke star and current head coach at Buffalo is looking to be the lead candidate for the DePaul coaching job. I’m somewhat surprised that he would take a job outside of his comfort zone in the Northeast. This would be a coup for DePaul but an interesting challenge for Bobby.
  • Disclaimer: This isn’t even a real rumor. I’m completely making this up, but wouldn’t it be fun if Arizona State reached out to Dayton head coach Archie Miller? Archie is the little brother of Arizona head coach Sean Miller. Arizona State’s basketball program is the little brother of the Arizona basketball program. Someone is going to pluck Archie from Dayton sooner than later, and the Sun Devils seem to be a perfect fit. Bringing in Archie Miller would finally had cache to these two schools’ in-state rivalry. The real rumor circulating at the moment is that this job will likely go to Jeff Capel, the Duke assistant coach tasked to reporters during halftime now that Wojo got a better job. Anyone who falls from the Coach K tree is usually a quality hire. Capel laid the foundation for the VCU program and was also a head man at Oklahoma. He’s a better candidate than Archie, but nowhere near as fun.
  • Jim Engles has built a program out of thumbtacks, construction paper, and Elmer’s glue at NJIT. The school defeated Michigan early this year, and is currently playing in their first ever postseason (they just advanced to the quarterfinals of the CIT, extra points if you have any idea what those letters stand for). His name hasn’t been linked to any jobs, but he has to be a prime candidate for any mid-major program in the east. If coaching dominoes fall at a school like Murray State, Manhattan, or Iona, Engles could become a commodity late in the process.
  • The prospects for St. John’s coach Steve Lavin have taken a turn for the worst. The school’s administration has been silent on whether they plan to retain him, and Lavin has responded by looking for broadcasting jobs, which offers an idea of what his own gut is telling him. Personally, I believe Lavin should be retained. St. John’s will likely be forced to flip their entire roster during this offseason. The Red Storm graduate six seniors, and will likely also lose two underclassmen that were slated to be the building blocks for next year’s team. Rysheed Jordan and Chris Obekpa are both expected to start their professional careers this summer. That leaves a blank slate, and it shouldn’t be trusted to an unproven commodity. The names circling the position are hot up and comers. Tim Cluess from Iona is a popular choice, as is Steve Masiello of Manhattan. The Hurley brothers have also found their way into that mix as well. However, with Bobby looking to be on his way to Chicago, Rhode Island coach Danny Hurley looks to be the only Hurley left on the market.
  • Much clamoring has been made for the heads of Texas coach Rick Barnes and Indiana boss Tom Crean. Both of these schools have eyes solely for Gregg Marshall, with Shaka Smart possibly serving as adequate consolation. If Barnes and Crean both keep their jobs going into next season, I would attribute it to the unlikelihood that Marshall would leave the possible preseason top 15 team he can expect to welcome back to Wichita next year. If Barnes and Crean can silence their critics while the red dot of termination trails their foreheads next year (forecast: not likely with a possibility of no way in hell), they can retain their positions long-term. If not, Marshall should be willing to cash in his chips after graduating Van Vleet, Baker, and Wessel. That would put these two schools at the front of the line to land college basketball’s next big thing in sideline stomping.
  • NBA teams are expected to reach out to Billy Donovan and Fred Hoiberg. Donovan should expect an overture from the Orlando Magic, who seemingly woo him whenever they have a vacancy. Hoiberg could possibly be courted by two of his former teams, the Chicago Bulls and the Minnesota Timberwolves. The latter was alluded to by Jalen Rose during a recent podcast, when he was asked about the future of his former teammate. Donovan to the Magic would almost certainly mean a move to Florida for Shaka Smart (a former Donovan assistant), but Iowa State could be left in the lurch if the Mayor were to skip town.

Next: 2015 NCAA Tournament South Region: Who Will Be 'The Guy'?

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