Catching-up on a bunch of search updates – just quick hitters….
Boston College: Cleveland State’s Dennis Gates (his wife is the senior associate AD at BC) is the leader. Purdue’s Micah Shrewsberry (former Celtics assistant) in the hunt. Current non-power 6 head coach with big time pedigree is lurking. Nothing will happen until Cleveland State’s tourney run is over.
Penn State: Gates and Shrewsberry here. too. Other names to keep an eye on – Montana’s Travis DeCuire (was at Cal when PSU AD Sandy Barbour was there) and Ohio head coach Jeff Boals (former Ohio State assistant).
Albany: Sounds like top 3 (in order) – Desmond Oliver (assistant coach Tennessee), Kyle Neptune (assistant coach Vilanova), and Dwayne Killings (associate head coach Marquette). Siena’s Antoni Wyche lurking in the next group with other potential candidates Tobin Anderson (head coach St. Thomas Aquinas), and Gerry McNamara further down the list.
New Mexico: Tim Miles (former Nebraska & Colorado State head coach), and Richard Pitino (Minnesota head coach) making pushes here. New Mexico AD Eddie Nunez is a basketball guy – was a GA under Billy the Kid at Florida (hence the Pitino connection), and an administrative guy with Tom Crean at Marquette.
Eastern Illinois: Very early names here – Paul Lusk (Creighton assistant – former head coach at Missouri State), Marty Simmons (Clemson – former head coach Evansville), Jamal Walker (assistant coach Grand Canyon – former assistant Illinois), and Chris Hollender (assistant coach Missouri).
Indiana State: D2 Lincoln Memorial (TN) head coach Josh Schertz is the leader here (and apparently has been for a while). 334-68 (.831) in 13-seasons at LMU is pretty impressive.
Tennessee-Martin: Most interesting name I’ve heard here so far is Wyoming assistant Sundance Wicks. Former Missouri Western AD is now at UTM – Wicks spent time as the head coach at Missouri Western (although they missed each other by a year).
Fordham: Not much new here. Still thinking that Jared Grasso (head coach Bryant), Shaheen (head coach St. Peter’s), and Pat Chambers (former head coach Penn State) are the top 3. Apparently former St. John’s / UCLA head coach Steve Lavin is higher on the list than people think…
The next few days will be busy when HM’s start getting bounced from their tournaments. Stay tuned…
