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| Harbourview, Milwaukee |
Where do you find a basketball coach?
Actually,
where will Wright State find a coach?
WSU Athletics Director Mike Cusack is focusing on
three profiles in the wake of severing relations with Paul Biancardi, who was
slapped with sanctions over recruiting violations the NCAA said took place when
he was an Ohio State assistant.
One profile features assistant coaches already with
the school. A second profile is a person already a head coach, not necessarily
at a Division I school. The third profile is a top assistant coach at a
powerconference school.
Each of the profiles comes with a history of success
and failure.
That doesn't mean a coach at a smaller school, or
someone with very little experience, can't apply. It just means the competition
will look like this:
- Current WSU assistants Brian Donoher, Ed Huckaby and
John Fitzpatrick should all be candidates, assuring continuity, not only with
the current roster, but with recruits.
Elsewhere in WSU's Horizon League, Thad Matta had
success when he took over for Barry Collier at Butler six years ago, and
current Butler coach Todd Lickliter has had success after taking over for
Matta.
In the Big Ten -- to name a conference overlapping
Horizon territory -- Tom Izzo was a longtime Michigan State assistant before
assuming the top job. Mike Davis was chosen off Bob Knight's staff after Knight
was let go at Indiana. Davis, of course, had mixed success.
- Candidates from smaller Division I schools might be
interested, and coaches from D-II or lower might show some interest.
Ron Hunter of Indiana-Purdue-Indianapolis showed
interest the last time the WSU job was open. Ken Barer, an assistant under
former WSU coach Ed Schilling, has been head coach at D-II UMass-Lowell for
five years, posting a 115-40 record with four NCAA tournament appearances.
Michael Grant, a Toledo assistant, has had head
coaching experience at Central State and Southern, and Paul Bryant just
completed his third season at Urbana, an NAIA school.
Loyola (Jim Whitesell) and Youngstown State (Jerry
Slocum) both improved their Horizon League fortunes by recently hiring Division
II coaches.
In the Big Ten, coaches usually have usually come from
"smaller" D- I schools. Examples would be Minnesota's Dan Monson from
Gonzaga, Northwestern's Bill Carmody from Princeton and Penn State's Ed
Dechellis from East Tennessee State.
- Assistants from big-time universities?
There are as many as the number of teams in the NCAA
tournament. Biancardi came from Ohio State, and the product he put on the floor
was improving.
In the Horizon, Cleveland State's Mike Garland was a
Michigan State assistant, Detroit's Perry Watson was at Michigan. Illinois-
Chicago's Jimmy Collins assisted at Illinois, Green Bay's Tod Kowalczyk was an
assistant at several places, including two years at Marquette, prior to taking
his first head coaching job.
Milwaukee's Rob Jeter was an assistant at that school
before leaving when his mentor, Bo Ryan, went to Wisconsin. Now, Jeter's back.
It would be good to pay attention to who the Horizon
League schools hire, because at least four head coaches have gone on to coach
in power conferences in just the past six seasons, including Butler's Barry
Collier to Nebraska, Matta to Xavier and OSU, Ryan to Wisconsin from Milwaukee
and Bruce Pearl from Milwaukee to Tennessee.
Before them, just before the league changed its name
to the Horizon League, Dick Bennett moved from Green Bay to Wisconsin.
The choices are plenty. Wright State has to make one.
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