New Coach: Candidates and Qualifications

Latest per The Athletic on action the past few days...

UT-Arlington is rumored to announced Texas Tech assistant Chris Ogden as new head coach.
Fresno State is to hire Justin Hutson, past 5 years was assistant at San Diego State.
Florida Gulf Coast promoted assistant Michael Fly to head coach.
Rhode Island promoting assistant David Cox.
South Dakota bringing in former Grand Canyon associate head coach Todd Lee.

Otherwise, a lot of news and updates on teams filling out their staffs with Assistants. I'm starting to hear the clock tick-tock a little louder with each day we don't have a Head Coach named. No panic, but we do need to get it going here soon enough.

Really? You think the UNC-Asheville job is objectively more attractive than UofD? People, including coaches, are motivated by different things, but the Detroit job pays MUCH better. Nick McDevitt, who just left the UNC-Asheville job after 5 years, earned $144,000 last year. Bacari Alexander earned three times that or more, as did Ray McCallum before him. The Detroit job has more money for assistant coaches, too. The Horizon ain't the conference it used to be, but it is a better conference than the Big South. The Big South's NCAA entrant has been seeded 16th in 8 of the last 10 years (as far back as I went). They were 15th 1 year, and 13th another. The Horizon champ has NEVER been seeded 16th. Even if we start from when Butler left the Horizon, the Horizon champ has been seeded at least a full line above the Big South champ in 6 of 7 years. This year, the worst RPI year in Horizon history, the Horizon champ was 2 lines above Big South champ. The Horizon still has an average attendance 20% higher than the Big South, and Detroit higher than Asheville every year except this last one. Detroit is still a better recruiting area than western Carolina, too.

Detroit is no longer a better job than Middle Tennessee State, where McDevitt was hired, but it is WAY better than UNC-Asheville unless a guy has a particular attachment to Asheville. One could argue that UNC-A is a more successful program for the past few years, but it is NOT a better head coaching job.

I agree with you that our job is not as attractive as some think--we've got our share of delusional fans. And you are also right that our value is at an historic low, and falling. But ours is still an objectively better job than probably 40-60% of DI positions, including several that I've listed in other posts.

P.S. No, it is not a coincidence that the open positions have high RPIs. It's exactly what you'd expect, since it's eams with low RPIs are more likely to change coaches, and thus make up a majority of the jobs available. And teams with low RPIs are more likely to come from the ranks of traditional powers, whose jobs open due to retirements and are much coveted. The main reason our job is still open is that we didn't decide to make the change for 3 weeks after the season.

I said that over recent years, UNC-Asheville's men's BB program is better than ours. For some candidates, that will be important. For others, not so much. It depends upon how each candidate views their career paths. Some will opt for the challenge of schools like us. Others will view a solid program like UNC-Asheville as a more probable way to get a better job than even ours. MTSU was paying its HC about $750K. That step-up for UNC-Asheville's former HC puts him on a strong career path.

The schools with even worse RPI's than ours fired their coaches long before we fired Bacari. Their jobs remain open. In recent years, our program has been trending towards those programs. That's a negative.

Also, there is the likely fit between the type of coach that we want and the school itself. It's pretty clear that Vowels has decided to take things in a different direction and that he knows the importance of this hiring decision. In the longer term, it is better that he get this one right than rush the process by a few days in order to save the 2018-19 season. I've written off next season already. But I do agree that the timing of the firing does not help the situation.

BTW, I am not disagreeing with Commissioner - just trying to clarify what I said earlier.

The length of time being taken by Vowels to make a decision is actually OK by me. It's only two weeks since BA was fired. The length of time being taken indicates that Vowels has decided to move in a different direction than just promoting Jackson. Since Vowels was apparently fooled by Bacari's interview and application two years ago, likely he realizes that he needs to employ a better vetting process. It's the three weeks it took to fire Bacari that is most concerning.

No real disagreement gents -- the right decision is the most important part of that. BUT, could the right decision be made in a more timely way? We are seeing other schools get clarity on their staffing, and starting to assess/build out their rosters.

Two Jeff Goodman tweets in the last day, relevant to new coaches and teams that have gone thru them...

"Xavier has landed Columbia grad transfer Kyle Castlin, he told ESPN. New coach Travis Steele quickly adding some pieces that can help next season." (why getting a HC named and getting going on filling out the team is important)

"Villanova assistant Ashley Howard expected to be head coach at La Salle, source told ESPN." (per Commish's 'Assistant from Bigger Program' profile option of a new head coach)

Hi everyone, newcomer to the board here. I've been reading this and the other board for years, and finally gave in to joining one.

Regarding candidates, I was watching a Pistons game last week (yes, people do still watch them!), and "The University of Detroit" got a mention from Greg Kelser. He emphasized the need for someone at the university to highly consider Rick Mahorn for head coach, assistant AD or some role because he would provide a lot to the program.

It made me think a little. Obviously Rick Mahorn is pushing for a presence within the program, if Greg Kelser made it a point to call this out. While many would not consider him for the HC position, it would be interesting for him to have some other sort of position within athletics. What role would that be and how could he use his passion (and popularity) to benefit the program?