Terrible Tuesday II

E-mailed 3/29/11

Purdue students holding a noon pep rally tomorrow to show "Coach Painter how much we love him" and Purdue Board of Regents opened up new money flows to men's basketball program.  Facilities being renovated.  Oh, ya, and Purdue is in a real athletic conference.  Something I hoped I wouldn't have to do, but here are the current list of other candidates with those having jobs already removed (I also deleted some unrealistic ones):

Terrible Choices:
Shaka Smart -- Head Coach of VCU. Plays a similar style of defense as our team does now. Only been at VCU two years. He would jump at the chance to come to Mizzou. I think this would be a terrible choice. The next Quinn Snyder (says Jason Witlock)
Scott Sutton -- Head Coach of Oral Roberts since 1999. Taken Oral Roberts to the NCAA Tourney three times, exiting in first round each time. Another terrible choice.
Anthony Grant -- Head Coach at Alabama for two years, three before that at VCU. Two NCAA appearances (both at VCU). Pass. Not enough experience and a habit of jumping teams every 2-3 years.
Gregg Marshall -- Head coach of Wichita State.  St. Louis media are obsessed with the Missouri Valley Conference and he's allegedly the best coach in that conference.  I would file him under "Terrible Choices" but I hate the MVC.  I
Greg Kampe -- Head Coach of Oakland since...1984. Not a misprint. 1984. 7 NCAA trips during that time. File under "Terrible Choices." The only things he has going for him are (1) He looks the part of someone from Missouri, and (2) Pat Forde (an ESPN Alumn) mentioned his name as a possible replacement.

Hopefully We Can Do Better:
Chris Mooney -- Head Coach of Richmond since 2005. Turned the program around and just now coming into his own as a coach with two back-to-back NCAA appearances.
Randy Bennett -- Head Coach at St. Mary's since 2001. Has shown he can run a program but the bottom line is he couldn't get over the hump and be better than Gonzaga. Can he really get over the hump and be better than kU?
Ben Jacobson -- Head Coach of Northern Iowa since 2006. Two NCAA appearances, one to the Sweet 16. Makes under 500,000 a year. Last time we hired someone from Northern Iowa to coach our team, we ended up naming out basketball court after him. Can beat Kansas.

Hopefully We Can Seal the Deal:
Mick Cronin -- Head coach of Cincinnati.  The Big East has around 96 schools in their basketball conference and he is in the lower half in terms of pay and UC sucks so bad as a University they can't afford to pay him more.  He turned around a program that under Bob Huggins hadn't graduated a single student.  Oh, ya, he also out-coached Anderson this year in the tournament.
Dave Rose -- Head Coach of BYU for six years. Went to the NIT his first year, NCAA all years after. Currently in Sweet 16. Has won 20 games every year as head coach. He's coaching BYU and is Mormon. BYU is starting its own national TV network. No reason for him to leave. He's at his dream job.  National media keeps saying he's interested...and would come.
Kevin Stallings -- Head Coach of Vanderbilt since 99. Coached IL State before that. 7 NCAA appearances and two Sweet 16's. The world wouldn't end, but I wonder if its better to chose someone with more upside than someone who is established, yet not spectacular.

Get Real:
Brad Stevens -- Head Coach of Butler. Four years as head coach, four NCAA tournaments, one final four. He can go anywhere he wants. He's not coming to Mizzou.
Buzz Williams -- Head Coach of Marquette for three years, all three with NCAA tournament appearances. He coaches in the Big East, best college basketball conference in the country. He has Big 12 ties. And let's just say, he looks the part of a Missourian. Perfect choice, but I don't know if heading to Mizzou from Marquette and Big East (where is both successful and worshiped) is the right move for him. He's not coming to Mizzou.

When Painter tells us no and then says lots of good things about us in the national news media, I hope that Mick Cronin gets in his bullet ridden car (he lives in Cincinnati) and starts driving straight to Columbia.  After that I've got Rose, Stallings, and *GULP* Jacobson on my wish list.  Post Cronin but pre-Rose/Stallings I would call both Williams and Stevens and make them tell me no.  At this point I'm just hoping and praying its not Scott Sutton.

On a light note, after Hall of Fame Journalist Dick Weiss ripped my beating heart out of my chest last night, Jason Whitlock went after him passive-aggressively.  First he said that Painter had signed a crazy contract with Ball State (Whitlock's alma mater...he has been on past search committees).  He was clearly joking and taking a shot at Weiss.  An hour later her says that Bob Night agreed on a 10 million--TEN MILLION--a year contract with Purdue.  Clearly joking, clearly taking a shot at Weiss and others who believe him (me?).  A giant number of people for some reason seemed to believe that.  As in thousands.

Wow...what a 24 hour stretch.  The next 24 seem equally as interesting.  Something to note: If an announcement isn't made about Painter by Thursday nothing will happen until after next Tuesday.  The NCAA puts a black-out on major announcements during the Final Four.

Later,

Doug