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March 30, 2009

Basketball Coaching Search Rumors

As the coaching world turns:
  • Mike Anderson - The St. Louis Post-Dispatch says that Missouri has a big job to keep its coach. The two most interesting tidbits from this article include MU stating that they have no idea where the rumor of a $1.3 million/year offer from MU got started, and the rumblings from inside the MU athletic department that they can't match a $2 million offer. The NY Times also discusses the in demand status of Anderson.

    Chip Towers says that UGA hasn't contacted Missouri for permission to speak with Anderson, yet. It can't be long now.

  • John Calipari - The Memphis coach is not a candidate in Athens; however, he is a candidate in Lexington. Calipari currently makes around $2.8 million a year in total compensation when you factor in annuity payments. I doubt he goes to Kentucky. However, if the Memphis job opens, they could go after Anderson. The former CUSA Coach / Tiger Slayer would be the ultimate hire for Memphis. USA Today offers a look at their suggested Top 5 candidates for the UK job.
Also, if you have a Scout.com subscription, check out Josh Kendall's piece on the potential recruiting advantages at UGA. The comments from Dave Telep, Scout.com's hoops recruiting guru, are very encouraging.

PWD

24 comments:

Anonymous said...

ESPN just said that UK has meet with Calipari and deal is in the works.

Anonymous said...

Have we done anything other than form a committee?

rbubp said...

Where's whoever it was that was claiming last week that Calipari would never go to Kentucky? They are a match made in hell: sleaze, meet slime. Enjoy your relationship; you were made for each other.

rbubp said...

Also, UVa's blogs don't seem to have Anderson on their radar; they were high on Tubby Smith but are also chatting up Capel and Fran MCaffery of Siena.

footyball said...

1058:
The fact that you think all we've done is form a committee shows me that the committee is doing its job.

Anonymous said...

Rbubp-

I still think, as I did last week, that Calapari is an idiot to leave Memphis for UK...but will leave if they roll a truck of $$ up to his house and Memphis doesn't match.

That is what I suspect is happening right now. UK threw a truck load of money at him, hoped he would jump at it, and instead, Cal is now milking Memphis for all the offer is worth...

Interesting b/c this is probably Cal's last best shot to work this kind of leverage into a big raise at Memphis, but even with the probability that no one will come along with Kentucky Money in the future, Memphis has to be worried that they will just be matching other's offers for the next 15 years. But if they are worried about that, they don't want Anderson with Sexton as his agent. That is a classic Sexton move...any job opening ends up in a raise b/c of the spector of the coach leaving.

Anyway, still shocked if Cal leaves.

UGA should focus on Capel. At the end of the day, coaches don't win games, players do. Capel has the best track record of the available candidates in recruiting top players and he has proven he can coach them enough to win games.

We need someone who will absolutely tap into Atlanta and Georgia as a recruiter.

rbubp said...

Capel is clearly not a "bad" coach as claimed by Whitlock. If he were, Griffin would not have developed into the monster he is.

That said, it is surprising that a team could have both Griffin and Willie Warren and look so offensively predictable and disinterested in give and gos and two-man games with those two aces.

MikeInValdosta said...

I will say one thing, Damon Evans is handling this hire much differently (better, in my opinion) than any other hire I can remember UGA making.

I do not think Capel is a target simply because he will leave for Duke ASAP. Anderson, on the other hand, is our best chance to land and keep a quality coach within the demographic we are looking for.

Not thrilled with the prospect of recruiting against Calipari as lexington's coach. He has already bagged a great deal of Atlanta recruits away from Athens to Memphis. Add the lexington tradition to his sales pitch and things will only get harder...

Anonymous said...

I'd rather have Anderson over Capel if nothing else because Capel looks too much like Hugo Chavez (just a bit slimmer.)

Anonymous said...

Calapari to UK puts Memphis in the derby for Anderson. Apparently they have the kind of money that can compete with ours.

Would Anderson slap around Memphis in the tourney only to tell his guys he's moving to Memphis a week later?

All this silence means we have our guy locked in or that we are going to be a bridesmaid.

If we get our guy, our headhunter will look like solid gold.

HVL Dawg

Anonymous said...

Lets hope we have our guy but so far no news is not good news.

Committees are designed to make sure no one person is blamed rather than to look for the optimal solution. Our coach was let go so long ago we should have been able to make a decision by now or at least ask for permission to talk to certain coaches.

Anonymous said...

@Anon 12:17...

This decision will be made by AD Evans with approval from President Adams. There is no one else taking the blame or credit or whatever you like.

Evans is using a search firm and other athletic administrators at Georgia in consulting roles, but there is no committee making the hire.

Anonymous said...

Memphis has a monster class coming in .The 20k fed-ex summer jobs are alot to leave, I too don't see it.I also think UGA getting into any kind of deal with Sexton is a mistake.I too would like Anderson as coach, not that bad.Capel would only be a "loan" at best.

scarbinsky is a douche said...

Kevin Scarbinsky seems to think UGA screwed up.

http://blog.al.com/kevin-scarbinsky/2009/03/scarbinsky_alabama_coach_antho.html

Crane said...

If Grant was Plan B, it's only a screw-up if Plan A fails.

Anonymous said...

How did Scarbinsky suddenly get to be the expert on all things baseketball?

I had never heard the name until last week.

Unknown said...

There is no committee.

The silence is the best thing we have going for us.

Anonymous said...

Remember, a camel is a horse designed by a committee. This is going to turn into the most emabarassing, disaterous hiring process in the history of collegiate athletics. Just you wait and see.

By the time it's over, Evans will be lucky to have Jim Harrick as our corch.

MikeInValdosta said...

anon @ 1:23,

How would you do it better?

Are you saying Evans should be out there flying around being tracked by the press because it worked for tuscaloosa?

Normaltown Mike said...

Mike's right. The public "I'm gettin on a flight..." search effort is the lamest. Vince did this when Ron Polk left and looked stupid (in the process not the result). And Jeremy Foley nearly made it his funeral when Spurrier left.

If our goal was a proven success, then our open season has just begun. Grant has upside, but he's not a lock to succeed at this level.

Anderson has proven success at a mid-major AND a big 12 school. Further, his coaching can achieve results without a superstar.

Grant, like Felton, is dependent on one (or more) superstar makin a shot, and 4 guys lookin at him.

MykieSee said...

UGA, Evans, and Anderson are all being silent. That tells me a lot right there.

Anonymous said...

#1- Scarbinsky is a douche...

"Grant mixed a sense of purpose with a sense of humor, a clear vision of where this program can go and an honest appreciation for where it's been, a little of Nick Saban's intensity and a lot of Gene Stallings' humility."

Seriously, that sounds like a book report from a 4th grader in Tuscaloosa, not a grown man who writes for a paper. I'm sure he had a Bear reference in there somewhere but luckily his editor made him take it out.

#2- From the same article..."Georgia's mistake was in hiring the Parker Executive Search firm in Atlanta to help."

What? So, b/c Grant didn't like having to compete with others for the LSU job and he didn't want to compete with others for the UGA job, it is a mistake to hire a search firm?

This isn't the prom. I like Grant...I thought he would be a good fit at UGA...but if you aren't even willing to compete for the job you really want, which by all accounts was the Georgia job, then it makes me wonder a little bit about how you are going to handle the spotlight and the eventual criticism that will come with coaching at an SEC school.

#3- That being said, could Parker being the '3rd party' talking to Calipari for UK? They did work for UK when they hired Billy G. Interesting subplot. I assume they have more than one person who works on these sorts of things, but if it comes out that they are working on UK and UGA at the same time, they better make sure they nail both.

It seems with the recent publicity, they have a lot riding on this hiring season despite the recent success as stated on their website.

Anonymous said...

Scarbinsky is the Auburn beat writer for a B'ham newspaper. Why the hell is he writing abut Bama basketball?

rbubp said...

If what Scarbinsky says is true, i just find it kind of sickening that Grant had to be treated like such a damned prima donna. It's not enough that the coaches get a lot of the glory in college basketball, and get paid millions...they have to be the first choice and the only choice and have the red carpet already out on the floor just for them.

Whatever.

 
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