Story: Adam Nelson (@HD_DirtKing)
Crazy weekend, especially in the SEC, with Will Wade getting canned, Mizzou parting ways with Cuonzo Martin, and Mike White heading from Florida to Georgia. Also, there are reports that Ben Howland is out at Mississippi State. Those reports aren’t quite accurate yet – he may(will) be out at some point, but is still the coach there, and will coach his team vs. Virginia in the NIT on Wednesday. I would expect an official announcement after they bow out of the NIT.
Two names that have been mentioned a lot at East Carolina are Tennessee associate head coach Mike Schwartz and Gardner-Webb head coach Tim Craft. Schwartz has been an assistant at UT since 2016 (ECU AD Jon Gilbert used to work at Tennessee), and also worked at Miami, Tulsa, Fresno State, and Texas. Craft has been the head coach at GWU for the past nine seasons (156-134 .538), and was an assistant at East Carolina before that.
More names at Omaha (in addition to Creighton’s Alan Huss) include Colorado State assistant Ali Farokhmanesh and Oregon assistant Chris Crutchfield. Farokhmanesh was at Nebraska for three seasons before joining Niko Medved at Drake and moving with him to CSU. Crutchfield is a Omaha alum who has been an assistant at Arkansas, Oklahoma, TCU, Oral Roberts, NM State, and spent one season on the bench at Omaha in 1995-96.
I mentioned Ed Conroy at The Citadel last week – I am also now hearing Doug Novak’s name here as well. Novak was on Conroy’s staff at The Citadel (2006-10) and was with him at Tulane after that. Novak spent last season as the interim head women’s coach at Mississippi State. Also, still one very good former D1 head coach lurking here. Stay tuned…
Early names at Tulsa include: Ole Miss assistant Win Case, George Mason head coach Kim English, Oklahoma State staffer (and former Oral Roberts head coach) Scott Sutton, and St. John’s head coach Mike Anderson.
A lot of names early at URI, but two getting the most attention are Bryant head coach Jared Grasso and New Mexico head coach Richard Pitino. Still early here though- more on this one soon.
Kansas State is going to make a hard run at Illinois head coach Brad Underwood. Underwood is a K-State alum, was an assistant there, and is from the area. Obviously he’s had a ton of success at Illinois, is under contract until 2026, and is one of the highest paid coaches in the game, so it may be hard to pry him away from the Illini, but keep an eye on this one. As an aside, here’s the PDF of his current deal at Illinois – pretty interesting read.
Collegiate Sports Associates has the search at D2 Grand Valley State.
I have heard that a D2 in the SAC and one in the Peach Belt are or have opened – more on those two when I confirm. 99.999% sure on both.
The 2022 HoopDirt.com College Basketball Coaching Changes Tracker with moves at all levels can be found HERE.
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