There are a ton of rumors swirling as to why Army Head Coach Jim Crews was fired – from poor recruiting, to getting physical with a player. When we get to the bottom of this, we’ll let you know. With the start of the season two weeks away, Army has to act fast in finding a replacement. The are bringing four guys to campus for interviews in the coming days. They are:

– Arizona State Associate Head Coach Dedrique Taylor – previously at Nevada, Portland State, LMU and UC Davis.

– St. John’s assistant Fred Quartlebaum – Bronx native has been at North Carolina, Notre Dame, Iowa State, Navy, and Holy Cross.

– Navy assistant Eugene Burroughs – Has been with Billy Lange since he took the job at Navy. Was also an assistant at Hofstra under Jay Wright and at Marist under current Army women’s head coach Dave Magarity.

– St. Mary’s associate head coach Kyle Smith – Spent one year at Air Force and eight as an assistant at San Diego.

I’d give Burroughs the leg up here. He’s worked at a service Academy, and has been a part of a couple very good recruiting classes that Navy has brought in. Magarity’s influence may also prove to be a deciding factor.

The situation at Binghampton does not look good for Head Coach Kevin Broadus. After the dismissal of 6 players last week, much has been made of the recruiting philosophy of Broadus to give guys a second (or third in some cases) chance. They did make the NCAA Tournament last season, but the win at all costs approach has now cost AD Joel Thirer his job – he resigned yesterday. Binghampton President Lois DeFleur is pissed at the situation and the negative press that it has brought to the University. She is now going to monitor Broadus – she ordered him to provide her with a recruitment and supervision plan for the basketball team. She is also hiring an outside consultant to make sure that the Athletic Department is compliant with NCAA rules. The feeling here is that once a new AD is hired, his first task will be to hire a new basketball coach.

UConn has begun talks with Jim Calhoun about a contract extension. He is currently in the final year of a 6-year deal that will pay him $1.6 million this season. The 67 year-old is in his 24th season at the helm of the Huskies.

We heard from another coach this week who said that HoopDirt was instrumental in helping him get a job. He was able to land a full-time DIII assistants spot on the East Coast – we’re glad that we could help! We are planning on adding some new features in the coming months that we think will also be beneficial to coaches looking for jobs.

Finally, if you are looking for a good laugh this morning, check out this blog:

http://firebillcarmody.blogspot.com/…

Read some of the comments posted by AC – he’s the AC of Wagercom.com (http://www.wagercom.com/…), and a faithful Northwestern Alum. Apparently he is not too happy with the job Bill Carmody has done at NU. Pretty entertaining…..