Daily news and notes from around the college basketball coaching world…
- Former Penn State head coach Pat Chambers spoke publicly for the first time since he “resigned” back in October. Chambers appeared on a podcast hosted by two current Penn State players, telling the duo “I learned I’ve got to be more mindful with words, that hurt me. I did a deeper dive over the last couple of years about the history of our players and what we need to do better and things of that nature. That education still goes on as I sit down here down south…but what a learned experience for me, and I’m only going to get better.” More HERE.
- Pitt associate head coach Tim O’Toole will fill in for Jeff Capel (positive COVID test) tonight in the Panthers match-up vs #23 Louisville. Capel also released his first public comments about testing positive, “I am grateful that we have been able to avoid any additional positive test results and that our social distancing measures within the program have cleared our players and staff through contact tracing,” said Capel. “Everyone in our program and across the college basketball landscape is making significant sacrifices to have a successful season. I am proud of how our program and University has handled the pandemic and look forward to getting back on the court with my team.” More HERE.
- Charlotte head coach Ron Sanchez is also out due to COVID tracing. He was replaced on the bench Saturday by assistant coach Aaron Fearne, who will also coach today’s game at George Washington. More HERE.
- A good article from the NCAA and Andy Katz on how first-year D1 head coaches are performing. In order to see how teams led by first-year coaches have performed, NCAA.com analyzed each team’s adjusted offensive and defensive efficiency ratings, as well as each team’s adjusted tempo, which is calculated by the average number of possessions that are in a team’s games this season. We then compared each team’s efficiency ratings and tempo to its marks from last season, and if a first-year head coach had previously served as head coach at the Division I level, then we compared his current team’s ratings to those of his last team at his previous school. Full report HERE.
- With yesterday’s 93-88 victory over UMass, Bryant University head coach Jared Grasso has his team off to their best start in D1 program history. The 7-2 upstart Bulldogs have now scored 80+ points in eight of their nine games this season. More HERE.
- ICYMI: Penny inks 5-yr $12.5m extension at Memphis HERE.
- ICYMI2: Steve Shields resigns at Tarleton HERE.
- The week 4 HoopDirt.com / Just Play Solutions Coach of the Week winners were released yesterday. Full list of recipients can be found HERE.
