Things are popping here at HoopDirt! We have all hands on deck today through the weekend as we prepare for a big announcement on Monday! As we work towards that, we will still be updating all of the news, jobs and rumors. More on the announcement in the next few days….

Here are a few things that I have heard….

South Carolina AD Eric Hyman has said that he will not hire a search firm to help find a new MBB coach. Instead he lean on people in the basketball world that he knows. The fan favorite for this one is Wichita State head coach Gregg Marshall. Not only did he have tremendous success at Winthrop (1998-2007 with a 194-83 record), he is also a SC native and was an assistant at the College of Charleston (1988-1996). From what Hyman has said however, he is going to keep this search very close to the vest. I doubt we will hear any serious rumors out of this one.

Illinois is doing it the opposite way as they try to fill their vacancy. The school said earlier this week that they will be using the services of Parker Executive search. Current Illinois AD Mike Thomas was hired through a search conducted by Parker, so obviously he feel comfortable with the way they operate.

I keep hearing Mott CC head coach Steve Schmidt’s name come up surrounding the search at Central Michigan. Schmidt has been at Mott for the past 21 seasons – his squad this year is currently 31-1 and the #1 seed in the NJCAA tourney. Also, Schmidt is a Central Michigan alum (’86) and was a finalist when Ernie Zeigler got the job in 2006.

A new name that has surfaced at Eastern Illinois is Missouri Southern head coach Robert Corn. The Illinois native has won 374 games during his tenure (including 22-8 this season), and in 2006 was inducted into the Illinois Basketball Coaches Hall of Fame. He was also the DII National Coach of the Year in 2006. I still think Purdue assistant Jack Owens is the front runner (he’s an alum). I’ve also heard that now that Illinois assistant Jay Price is out of a job, he will be making a hard push here.