Jim Baron is out at Rhode Island. He had a pretty decent run, but the wheels fell off this year.
By all accounts, he is one of the genuinely good people in the coaching profession. Hope he lands on his feet.
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Jim Baron is out at Rhode Island. He had a pretty decent run, but the wheels fell off this year.
By all accounts, he is one of the genuinely good people in the coaching profession. Hope he lands on his feet.
Baron's son, Little Jimmy, put on a show to remember in Cameron in November 2008, hitting 8-of-10 threes and nearly single-handedly leading the Rams to a victory over Duke. I think he snuck into the gym before the game and stole J.J.'s jersey from the rafters because Baron was just killing shots in traffic from 30 feet. Either that or he was born on Moron Mountain.
I am surprised to read SIU has fired Chris Lowry:
http://www.dukebasketballreport.com/articles/?p=43730
8-1 odds Calhoun is at URI next year.
THought I saw this AM that Charlie Coles resigned yesterday at Miami (Ohio). One of the more colorful personalities to grace the visitors bench and interview area pre/post games in recent years at CIS, IIRC.
Yes, you did see it. Here is a link:
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/201...l?sct=cb_t2_a8
Bruce Weber fired at Illinois today. They were 17-15 on the season but dropped 12 of their last 14.
I am assuming he both lost the locker room and angered alums/administration officials. Otherwise I think he's too good a coach to fire after one bad season.
Anyone following this one more closely?
Ohhhhh. I just had a thought. Collins is from the Chicago burbs. Could he be on the short list for Illinois? Would they accept him, considering he left the state to play his college ball at Duke?
My guess is the usual suspects get called - Stevens, Smart etc. But Chris Collins will probably get some consideration here.
Assuming the Illinois is willing to with someone without head coaching experience, I would be stunned if Chris Collins isn't on their list. He's from the state, he went the high school coached by Weber's brother (also Scheyer's high school), and there are at least three former Duke assistants under K whose first head coaching job was a slightly down program in a BCS conference (Amaker at Seton Hall, Snyder at Missouri, Dawkins at Stanford)
Again, a lot depends on a lot, but assuming that they don't decide that they need someone who has previously run a program, it would be both schocking &, imho, foolish, for Illiinois NOT to consider Chris Collins.
Jeff Goodman and Gary Parrish of CBS say that Shaka Smart of VCU is on top of Illinois's wish list, and the Chris Collins could also be a possibility
http://eye-on-college-basketball.blo...83066/35156720
My uninformed speculative guess is that Collins would be on the short-list for U of Ill. And that interest would be reciprocated from Collins. Why wouldn't they have interest in a native son and I equally suspect that the draw to "go home" to a certain degree; would have its own special lure to him. I couldn't blame Chris for seriously considering and even taking job.
The thing in my mind is recruiting. Duke is involved with a # if Ill. recruits... Do those guys transfer their interest in Duke to Chris's new home? Who knows..
I think that it's time for Collins to take a head coaching job as soon as a decent one becomes available. I would be really surprised if Smart left to coach in an area that he's not familiar with recruiting-wise, and I think that Illinois will end up having to take a very serious look at Collins, or at least I'd like them to.
Chris Collins needs to do a little crawling before he heads off to the "big-times." (May be a little too late for that crawqling now) Ala, Bobby Hurley. A smaller, mid-major, perhaps where he can prove himself. Many of our formers go off to large programs without having really proven themselves at one place outside of being an Assitant at Duke under a Hall of Famer. I think one can be successful with that jump from K, to a bigger school; but you've got to be reeeel goood.
I wouldn't be at all surprised if this isn't already a done deal. it's been interesting over the past few weeks to see Chris take on a leadership role in the huddle, calling plays and pretty much running several time outs. Maybe he and K have known this is in the cards and K has graciously allowed him to take on some game situations to provide him more experience.
I would be shocked if ILLINI don't offer Collins the job. Time to begin thinking about who we may replace him with. Is it Capel, as we have about 48 assistant coaches right now..
This thread should have been titled "Crank up the speculation about if, when and where Wojo and Collins are going this year".