Story: Adam Nelson (@HD_DirtKing)
A little late night dirt…
Most interesting name I’ve heard mentioned with the search at Siena is UMBC head coach Jim Ferry. The veteran head coach led the Retrievers to a 24-9 (14-2 AE) record this past season and captured the America East Tournament Championship. Ferry has also been the head coach at LIU, Duquesne, Adelphi, and Plymouth State. He served as the interim head coach at Penn State in 2020-21. Working on more names now.
In yesterday’s Daily Dirt, I mentioned some names at Dartmouth. Now adding Wyoming assistant Nick Whitmore and Campbell assistant Landry Kosmalski to the list. Whitmore has New England ties, having served as the head coach at New Hampton (NH). He is also the son of former Vermont head coach Bill Whitmore. Kosmalski joined the Campbell staff last spring after a 13-year run as the head coach at D3 Swarthmore, where he went 241-102.
I have heard that D2 Malone head coach Charlie Wallrapp is “firmly” in the mix for a spot on new Northern Illinois head coach Matt Majkrzak’s staff. Prior to becoming the head coach at Malone back in 2023, Wallrapp had served as Majkrzak’s associate head coach at Northern Michigan. Stay tuned here.
New Oregon State head coach Justin Joyner is starting to assemble his staff. One name that keeps coming up in San Francisco assistant Michael Plank. Plank has been at USF since 2021 and Oregon ties. He attended Willamette U (OR), served as an assistant at Portland State, and worked with the Portland Basketball Club 17U (EYBL). I have also heard JUCO head coach from California is in the mix here.
On3’s Joe Tipton reporting that Casper College (WY) will hire Arizona State’s Ty Larson as their new head coach. Larson spent the last two seasons at Arizona State as the Special Assistant to Bobby Hurley and also worked as Director of Recruiting at Texas under both Rodney Terry and Chris Beard. Larson is a Wyoming native.
Incase you missed it from earlier today…D2 UW Parkside will hire Rockhurst’s Kyle Blackbourn as their new head coach. More on that one HERE.
Check out all of the openings at every level of college basketball in HoopDirt’s Coaching Changes Tracker presented by The Coaching Portfolio. The complete list can be found HERE.
My complete list of schools and their search firm partners is HERE.
