Coaching Carousel & Hot Seat 2017

[NJRedman]

I'd be cool with Crean to DePaul.

[Bill Marsh]

Usual suspects named to replace Crean. Archie Miller, Greg Marshall, Chris Mack and of course, Alford.

That's a job that worries me in regards to Mack. I'll wait till after the tournament to stress that out.

Mack is in the sweet spot of not good enough to get poached, and not bad enough to get fired.

Mack's stock is on the rise.

[ConnersvilleBulldog]

I'd almost bet anything that Alford goes to IU. He's from my area of Indiana, and I've heard rumblings that he doesn't love living in California. His family already spends every summer in Indiana. Plus, if you read between the lines from his comments at his press conference yesterday, it seems like he is highly interested.

[Irishdawg]

I'd almost bet anything that Alford goes to IU. He's from my area of Indiana, and I've heard rumblings that he doesn't love living in California. His family already spends every summer in Indiana. Plus, if you read between the lines from his comments at his press conference yesterday, it seems like he is highly interested.

Without watching the interview itself, it's tough to really gauge from his comments if or how much he might be interested in that job. I think Indiana fans would love it initially, and before this season UCLA fans were done with him, and depending on what happens in the tourney, may very well want him out again. If I were advising him I'd say to stay away from IU. If he wasn't winning enough, the divorce would be really, really painful and I'm not sure he'd want to take a hit to his legacy like that.

Was happy to see Holtmann's quotes on this yesterday. Never know what's going to happen, but probably not a strong way to get in good with your future boss to outright tell him you disagree with his decision. Now if NC State can hire Kevin Keatts or Pat Kelsey, I'll be ecstatic.

Q. Coach, we know what a tough business the college basketball can be. Just wonder what your reaction was to Indiana firing Tom Crean today or if you even knew that that had occurred?

COACH HOLTMANN: Did that happen?

Q. It happened right before the tournament started.

COACH HOLTMANN: You know -- you know, I don't know what to say to that. I've got a lot of respect for Tom and how his team plays. I had one of my closest friends lose a job not too long ago at Illinois and listen, we all get into this knowing the deal. Do I disagree with those decisions? Absolutely. Absolutely I do.

[Fieldhouse Flyer]

REPORT: Illinois Basketball mulling over massive job offer for Virginia’s Tony Bennett – SB Nation / The Champaign Room – March 15, 2017

Illinois athletics is opening up the war chest for their next men’s basketball hire. The program’s brief pursuit of Monty Williams indicated that they’re willing to offer top dollar for the right candidate, and we now roughly know what that entails. According to Rock M Nation’s Sam Snelling, the Fighting Illini are mulling over a potential $4.8 million/year deal for Virginia’s Tony Bennett.

We’ve had multiple sources provide similar information over the past few days, meaning there’s every reason to believe that this massive figure is legitimate. Keep in mind, Virginia is preparing for their NCAA Tournament game against UNC Wilmington, so it’s doubtful that Illinois has (un)officially submitted any sort of job offer to Bennett at this time.

To quickly put that number into perspective, it would be the fourth-largest annual contract for a college basketball coach. Only Mike Krzyzewski ($7.3 million), John Calipari ($6.6 million), and Rick Pitino ($6.0 million) would have more lucrative deals. Bennett is currently making $2.1 million/year at Virginia.

Elsewhere, media reports are indicating that Missouri has offered their head coaching position to California’s Cuonzo Martin; the deal is rumored to be in the neighborhood of $3.5 million/year. Martin, of course, has been a popular fan choice for the Illinois job over the past few months. Interest from the Fighting Illini seems to have significantly declined in the past few weeks, though, so I’d be very surprised if he ends up as the next coach in Champaign. Especially since the Orange and Blue are apparently willing throw $5 million/year at their top targets.

OSU salary database updated for 2016, plus the school's highest-paid employees March 18, 2016

We've updated our popular Ohio State University salary database, which covers more than 30,000 workers at Central Ohio's largest employer.

Here are some of the top earners:

• Thad Matta, head basketball coach, $5.78 million

• Urban Meyer, head football coach, $4.54 million ( He actually makes more than this.)

My money is still on Archie waiting for the Ohio State job to become available, and will remain at Dayton until it does.

If Illinois does sign Bennett to a $4.8 million/year deal, the pressure on Indiana to get the ‘right’ replacement for Tom Crean will be immense. So will the expectations on the next Hoosiers’ coach.

"The expectations for Indiana University basketball are to perennially contend for and win multiple Big Ten championships, regularly go deep in the NCAA tournament, and win our next national championship — and more after that," Glass said in the release. "We will identify and recruit a coach who will meet these expectations."

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

UDPride Conference RPI Rankings – updated Friday morning March 17th

1 Atlantic Coast Conference .5821
2 Big 12 .5781
3 Big East .5717
4 Big Ten .5671
5 Southeastern .5564
6 Pac 12 .5504
7 American Athletic Conferen .5263
8 Atlantic 10 .5250

The difference between the Big East and the P5 conferences is not in the quality of basketball, but rather, in the salaries being paid to basketball coaches. If the Big East does not substantially raise the pay to its basketball coaches, the BE could well become a fertile hunting ground for the athletic directors of P5 conference schools. The high quality of Big East basketball means that in general, it will be a lot easier for an athletic director of a P5 school to ‘sell’ a Big East coach to its fans and boosters – as opposed to a coach from the AAC or A-10.

In fact, if I was Duke’s athletic director, Jay Wright would be at the top of my list to replace Mike Krzyzewski when he retires. It would be very easy to ‘sell’ Jay Wright to Duke’s fans and boosters, and Duke could afford to offer Wright twice as much as he’s making at Villanova.

I’m not attempting to cause mayhem on this thread with speculation, but BE basketball coaches’ salaries should be on the agenda for the AGM in Florida after the season ends. It is a topic that the presidents and athletic directors of BE schools need to keep an eye on.

[H.U.S.T.L.E.]

I don't think Tony Bennett will end up at Illinois or cares about the money, to be honest. UVA seems like the best spot for him to me.

I think the only reason Illinois is offering that much is that perhaps they think it's an offer he can't refuse. And if I'm Bennett, I don't see the allure of leaving UVA for Illinois. You already have the personnel to run your system at UVA, so why leave for a rebuild? It's not like coaching in the B1G is an upgrade over the ACC, and he hasn't shown any reason to believe "going home" means anything to him.

[Bill Marsh]

I don't think Tony Bennett will end up at Illinois or cares about the money, to be honest. UVA seems like the best spot for him to me.

I think the only reason Illinois is offering that much is that perhaps they think it's an offer he can't refuse. And if I'm Bennett, I don't see the allure of leaving UVA for Illinois. You already have the personnel to run your system at UVA, so why leave for a rebuild? It's not like coaching in the B1G is an upgrade over the ACC, and he hasn't shown any reason to believe "going home" means anything to him.

It's also hard to know what the money means. Coaches' incomes include money from summer camps, endorsements, sneaker contracts, etc. I think there is also little doubt that UVA will come up with more money to keep Bennett. I don't know that they'll. At his the UI offer, but they'll do something.

[xusandy]

FWIW, I think there's a lot more to successful coaches' decisions about staying or moving on than the money involved. Although there's a long history of guys grabbing a big salary to jump ship, there's also a long history of excellent coaches suddenly becoming not-so-excellent at their new program. Maybe I'm being a bit naive here, but I believe that if you make over $1MM per year, are able to recruit at a national level, have solid job security and a very appreciative administration and fan base, and are really happy about the community you're raising your kids in, then the opportunity to make over $2MM or even over $3MM is not necessarily attractive.

So, just for example, I would not expect Mack to leave Xavier for even a $3MM salary at a pressure cooker program. He already has his dream job, and another $1MM per year won't improve his life style, job security, recruiting ability, institutional loyalty, etc. etc. Same is true, though admittedly to a lesser extent, for other Big East coaches who were not grads of the program they lead, but who have job security, a national recruiting pull, a supportive administration, an appreciative and loyal fan base, and who clearly like the town they're living in. Only Woj among our current coaches seems to me to be pretty easily "poachable" right now, but I know nothing about how happy he is at Marquette. Willard might be poachable, but if he's looking for a top $$ pressure-cooker job, then sticking with his senior class next year should make him even more attractive.

[H.U.S.T.L.E.]

I don't think Tony Bennett will end up at Illinois or cares about the money, to be honest. UVA seems like the best spot for him to me.

I think the only reason Illinois is offering that much is that perhaps they think it's an offer he can't refuse. And if I'm Bennett, I don't see the allure of leaving UVA for Illinois. You already have the personnel to run your system at UVA, so why leave for a rebuild? It's not like coaching in the B1G is an upgrade over the ACC, and he hasn't shown any reason to believe "going home" means anything to him.

It's also hard to know what the money means. Coaches' incomes include money from summer camps, endorsements, sneaker contracts, etc. I think there is also little doubt that UVA will come up with more money to keep Bennett. I don't know that they'll. At his the UI offer, but they'll do something.

Winning changes a lot of things, but I'm not sure the Indiana faithful would be all that thrilled about the stylistic fit with Tony Bennett. Maybe I'm off base with that assessment, but I think the pack-line defense and Tony's grind-it-out offense isn't going to be a good match for the Hoosiers fanbase.

If you take the AD's comments into consideration, the Indiana job becomes even less attractive than his situation at UVA. The expectations at IU are through the roof and I'm not sure that's the healthiest work environment. Crean took them to a couple Sweet 16s, but they haven't been any further than that since 1993. That's a long time without any high-end success, yet all signs point to the administration thinking the job is still a blue-blood. There's plenty of history there, but it's not like they've been all that relevant to my generation (I'll be 30 this year, for reference).

FWIW, I think there's a lot more to successful coaches' decisions about staying or moving on than the money involved. Although there's a long history of guys grabbing a big salary to jump ship, there's also a long history of excellent coaches suddenly becoming not-so-excellent at their new program. Maybe I'm being a bit naive here, but I believe that if you make over $1MM per year, are able to recruit at a national level, have solid job security and a very appreciative administration and fan base, and are really happy about the community you're raising your kids in, then the opportunity to make over $2MM or even over $3MM is not necessarily attractive.

This is an excellent assessment, and one that I think sums up Tony Bennett's situation too. But for all I know, I may end up with egg on my face if he ends up elsewhere. I just don't see it though.

[Irishdawg]

FWIW, I think there's a lot more to successful coaches' decisions about staying or moving on than the money involved. Although there's a long history of guys grabbing a big salary to jump ship, there's also a long history of excellent coaches suddenly becoming not-so-excellent at their new program. Maybe I'm being a bit naive here, but I believe that if you make over $1MM per year, are able to recruit at a national level, have solid job security and a very appreciative administration and fan base, and are really happy about the community you're raising your kids in, then the opportunity to make over $2MM or even over $3MM is not necessarily attractive.

So, just for example, I would not expect Mack to leave Xavier for even a $3MM salary at a pressure cooker program. He already has his dream job, and another $1MM per year won't improve his life style, job security, recruiting ability, institutional loyalty, etc. etc. Same is true, though admittedly to a lesser extent, for other Big East coaches who were not grads of the program they lead, but who have job security, a national recruiting pull, a supportive administration, an appreciative and loyal fan base, and who clearly like the town they're living in. Only Woj among our current coaches seems to me to be pretty easily "poachable" right now, but I know nothing about how happy he is at Marquette. Willard might be poachable, but if he's looking for a top $$ pressure-cooker job, then sticking with his senior class next year should make him even more attractive.

Well said. For some coaches (i.e. Calipari), they want the big name school and immense pressure that comes with it. Not that Big East schools don't have the pressure to win, but comparatively speaking with an IU or Illinois, there's a LOT more patience within the athletic departments and fans to give coaches a longer leash. At least in Butler's case, the AD's relationship with the coach, having been one himself, is an extremely positive factor that IU and Illinois simply don't have.

And yes, the Duke's and Kentucky's of the world could come to the Big East to poach coaches. But they can go anywhere to do that whether it be within their own leagues or any other. I think as long as the Big East remains as a top league that gives its members a chance to compete at the highest level and doesn't necessarily devolve into a "Win at all costs" league that fires its coaches after a mediocre season or two, then I think at least in the near future, things should be fine in terms of coaching stability. The Big East is also unique in that, moreso than any other league, there's a lot of camaraderie among the schools and fans. Do I want to beat Xavier and talk trash during the conference season? Absolutely. But I can tell you that I was cheering them on last night against Maryland and will be doing the same today for Seton Hall, Creighton and Marquette.