MBB Coaching Carousel, 2024-25 Edition

[brevity]

SB Nation/A Sea of Blue: John Calipari will remain the head coach of Kentucky Basketball

Following Tuesday’s much-anticipated meeting with athletics director Mitch Barnhart, KSR’s Matt Jones broke the news that Calipari will remain the head coach of the Wildcats.

So I guess that's settled, at least until next year. Now onto a potentially uncomfortable conversation...

GoStanford.com: Kyle Smith Named Head Coach of Stanford Men’s Basketball

ESPN: Sources: Utah State's Danny Sprinkle accepts Washington hoops job

ESPN: Sources: Vanderbilt to hire James Madison's Mark Byington

I guess I shouldn't be surprised but all three of these guys were hired within about 24 hours of their team's losses in the second round of the NCAA tourney. I'm not saying their prep was not what it could be but it would seem that at least past of the past week was spent on angling for a new job while they were still on the old job.

Real gut punch for each of these teams as they lose in their biggest moments on the biggest stage in many, many years and then lose the coach that got them there within hours of the conclusion of the game.

Agreed. There really should be a 48 hour moratorium between the end of your team's season and taking a new job. Even if it is not a real rule, it is just good form and makes for better optics. I agree that the quick change makes it look like you weren't focused on the game you were coaching. I know agents handle much of it and perhaps the interviewing was happening before Selection Sunday when there was a bit of downtime, but I'm sure there were interviews, discussions, etc. that are very distracting. If I were hiring, I would question a coach's dedication to my team if he didn't show full dedication to his prior team during their One Shining Moment.

I think we may have to start accepting the NCAA Tournament as an event in which its participants have differing levels of dedication, not quite as bad as football bowl games, but something less than 100 percent.

Coaches have the ability to delegate their current job to assistants and their future job to personal representatives, so multitasking is possible and they can conceal any divided attention. I don't know about Kyle Smith at WSU, whose team played well in the first half and lost on Saturday. But it was unusual to see Utah State and James Madison fall flat on Sunday after riding high two days earlier. I don't want to take anything away from Duke's victory, but at some point in the distant future, it might be educational to get an account of what exactly happened on the JMU side.

[ChrisP]

SB Nation/A Sea of Blue: John Calipari will remain the head coach of Kentucky Basketball



So I guess that's settled, at least until next year. Now onto a potentially uncomfortable conversation...







I think we may have to start accepting the NCAA Tournament as an event in which its participants have differing levels of dedication, not quite as bad as football bowl games, but something less than 100 percent.

Coaches have the ability to delegate their current job to assistants and their future job to personal representatives, so multitasking is possible and they can conceal any divided attention. I don't know about Kyle Smith at WSU, whose team played well in the first half and lost on Saturday. But it was unusual to see Utah State and James Madison fall flat on Sunday after riding high two days earlier. I don't want to take anything away from Duke's victory, but at some point in the distant future, it might be educational to get an account of what exactly happened on the JMU side.

I'll tell you what happened on the JMU side - they fattened up on a HEAVILY cupcake laden schedule and just were not that good. Of their 31 regular season wins, 1 came against a D3 team and only 4 came against teams that finished the year above .500. JMU was FAR FAR from a team realistically prepared to hang with Duke. They beat a bad Wisconsin team (who, btw, had THIRTEEN losses coming into the NCAAT) and squeaked by a mediocre Mich St team in OT in a game where MSU shot 1-20 from three and missed 14 FT's. I cannot believe anyone who took even a casual look at JMU's resume thought they had a chance against us.

[FosterCoachK82]

SB Nation/A Sea of Blue: John Calipari will remain the head coach of Kentucky Basketball



So I guess that's settled, at least until next year. Now onto a potentially uncomfortable conversation...







I think we may have to start accepting the NCAA Tournament as an event in which its participants have differing levels of dedication, not quite as bad as football bowl games, but something less than 100 percent.

Coaches have the ability to delegate their current job to assistants and their future job to personal representatives, so multitasking is possible and they can conceal any divided attention. I don't know about Kyle Smith at WSU, whose team played well in the first half and lost on Saturday. But it was unusual to see Utah State and James Madison fall flat on Sunday after riding high two days earlier. I don't want to take anything away from Duke's victory, but at some point in the distant future, it might be educational to get an account of what exactly happened on the JMU side.

This isn’t anything new, is it? I remember the announcement that Bill Foster was leaving Duke in early March, 1980. I believe that was after the ACC tournament and before the NCAA tournament.

[SoCalDukeFan]

SB Nation/A Sea of Blue: [URL="https://www.aseaofblue.com/2024/3/26/24111603/john-calipari-head-coach-kentucky-wildcats-basketball-uk"]John Calipari will remain the head coach of Kentucky Basketball[/URL

I think we may have to start accepting the NCAA Tournament as an event in which its participants have differing levels of dedication, not quite as bad as football bowl games, but something less than 100 percent.

I am sure that representatives for the coaches did much of the work for them. And if you are Kyle Smith and Washington State is in no man's land after the Pac 12 dissolved what are you going to do?

SoCal

[CameronBornAndBred]

Well it's not the MBB carousel, but VTs Kenny Brooks interviewed with Kentucky last week. This was prior to his team playing a single game in the NCAAs as a host 4 seed.
His hiring was announced today, after the Hokies had lost.

[Hartford Dukie]

Reports late today (Jeff Goodman), apparently confirmed by UCF, that UCF is going to offer Johnny D an extension. He is going into the last year of this contract, meaning UCF realistically either needed to let him go or offer an extension. He presently gets $1.7 M annually, near the bottom of Big 12 coaches. Was a bit worried - so glad to see this moving. Hope its for at least three years.

https://www.orlandosentinel.com/2024...act-extension/

[J4Kop99]

Huggie Bear has entered the chat…

[BigWayne]

This isn’t anything new, is it? I remember the announcement that Bill Foster was leaving Duke in early March, 1980. I believe that was after the ACC tournament and before the NCAA tournament.

Correct: From NYT archives...
DURHAM, N.C., March 2 (AP)-- Bill Foster, the Duke University basketball coach, submitted his resignation today, one day after the Blue Devils captured the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament championship by beating Maryland, the conference's regular-season champion.

Almost everyone assumed our season would be over that day as we were not expected to have a chance at winning the ACCT.

[DavidBenAkiva]

Jeff Goodman is xtweeting that Louisville has settled on Pat Kesley, the former Winthrop and College of Charleston head coach. I think that's a great hire. Kesley has been a winner at both stops and is still pretty young. He's also a former Chris Mack assistant at Xavier (lol).

[dlmzzz]

Jeff Goodman is xtweeting that Louisville has settled on Pat Kesley, the former Winthrop and College of Charleston head coach. I think that's a great hire. Kesley has been a winner at both stops and is still pretty young. He's also a former Chris Mack assistant at Xavier (lol).

I saw Richard Pitino (currently at New Mexico) listed in the mix for the position a day ago. I think Kelsey is a much better choice. But neither would be an earth shattering hire for what was described as the best position to open this year.

[superdave]

I saw Richard Pitino (currently at New Mexico) listed in the mix for the position a day ago. I think Kelsey is a much better choice. But neither would be an earth shattering hire for what was described as the best position to open this year.

Every fan base things they are going to get Brad Stevens. Brad Stevens isnt walking through that door!

[CameronBornAndBred]

Jeff Goodman is xtweeting that Louisville has settled on Pat Kesley, the former Winthrop and College of Charleston head coach. I think that's a great hire. Kesley has been a winner at both stops and is still pretty young. He's also a former Chris Mack assistant at Xavier (lol).

Dude's got his work cut out for him.

Eight players from this season's team have already entered the transfer portal, including leading scorer Skyy Clark (13.2 PPG) and fellow key contributors Mike James (12.6 PPG), JJ Traynor (10.1 PPG in eight games), Curtis Williams (5.3 PPG) and Kaleb Glenn (3.9 PPG). The Cardinals' lone recruit in the 2024 class, T.J. Robinson, decommitted earlier this month

https://www.espn.com/mens-college-ba...sketball-coach

[DavidBenAkiva]

Addition by subtraction for UofL? It's not like their players were doing a whole lot.

One of Kelsey's former players from Withrop is having a moment, DJ Burns. I don't think Kelsey will have trouble building a roster from scratch. He did it twice now with Winthrop and College of Charleston.

Some other interesting nuggets: Kelsey was a former director of operations at Wake Forest under Skip Prosser. Kelsey's predecessor at CofC was Earl Grant, current BC head coach. Kelsey's predecessor at Winthrop was Skip's son, Mark Prosser.

[Billy Dat]

I wonder if any of our guys, specifically Jai Lucas, are interviewing for any of these openings?

[DavidBenAkiva]

I wonder if any of our guys, specifically Jai Lucas, are interviewing for any of these openings?

I hope that Lucas or others have the decency to tell potential suitors that he will have to wait until after the tournament to give them his full attention.

[Indoor66]

Every fan base things they are going to get Brad Stevens. Brad Stevens isnt walking through that door!

Yeah. even Brad Sevens isn't Brad Stevens of coaching lore.

[CameronBornAndBred]

I hope that Lucas or others have the decency to tell potential suitors that he will have to wait until after the tournament to give them his full attention.

Apparently if you do that these days the jobs are gone by the team your team is finished.

[crote]

Apparently if you do that these days the jobs are gone by the team your team is finished.

Seems like having the portal open during the tournament forces schools hands a bit. So long as the portal is open, it would behoove schools to fill their vacancy as quickly as possible so that the incoming coach has a chance to recruit the returning roster before it scatters.

[lotusland]

I think what Lamont Paris has done in 2 years at SC is pretty impressive. I hope the Cocks can keep him. He may have to start over every year tho. He’s already had some big losses to the portal this year.

[uh_no]

Seems like having the portal open during the tournament forces schools hands a bit. So long as the portal is open, it would behoove schools to fill their vacancy as quickly as possible so that the incoming coach has a chance to recruit the returning roster before it scatters.

It's an awful thing. If the portal is open, schools currently in the tournament are screwe, since most of them aren't going to be recruiting next years team while trying to win with this year's...pretty much going deep in the tournament is a handicap to getting transfers for next year.

On the other hand, if they don't open the portal, schools will tamper anyway, and if the NCAA tries to make a rule about not tampering, they'll get sued by someone for it and be forced to relent...because apparently rules are illegal these days.

So free for all it is.