Kyle Smith – Washington State (C+)
We’re going to be extremely fair on this assessment, Smith is a good hire for the Cougars. That being said, who exactly were we actually expecting would want this job? In nine seasons as head coach of Columbia and San Francisco, Smith has never even sniffed the NIT, though he has rebuilt the Dons program in the last three years. Rebuilding this program into anything close to a Pac-12 contender is almost an impossible task. The former Ivy League coach is smart and he’ll have the Cougars playing hard, but we all know that this is an uphill battle.
Dane Fischer – William & Mary (D+)
The firing of Tony Shaver wasn’t exactly met with delight and Fischer’s hire won’t bring excitement to the Tribe. He’s spent the last decade as an assistant under Dave Paulsen as Bucknell and George Mason and doesn’t have any head coaching experience. Sure, he knows the area, but it’s hard to see why Fischer will have greater success than Shaver, especially with much of the talent on this roster transferring away from the school. Long term, Fischer could develop into a great coach, but don’t expect much out of this team for a few seasons.
Jay McAuley – Wofford (B)
Somebody needed to replace Mike Young and McAuley was a pretty solid choice. He spent the last two seasons on Wofford’s staff, following stints at Furman and Gardner-Webb (under Chris Holtmann). This Terriers program is coming off an incredibly impressive season and building on that momentum will be important for McAuley. He’s familiar with the team and the conference and the Georgia alum has every tool he needs to continue to succeed.
We’ve taken a look at and graded each of the 58 hires from this past offseason. In a few months, we’ll start to see how each of these hires will actually fare on the basketball court. Did your team make the right hire?