College basketball coaching carousel

Someone mentioned Steve Henson earlier. He should be A2 for KSU when they come to their senses and shit-ass Weber. A1 would have been Underwood had Currie not been a prick.

 

Yes.

Always take the paycheck if you're at a really small conference like Stony Brook's. Perhaps if you're at a MAC or Valley where you usually have a larger profile, you can be choosy but a low-major to Big Ten - even at Rutgers - is smart. You fail there and you can still go back to mid-majors.

 

Until the next better job in a power conference opens up. The Hokies' AD has already said Buzz' salary is a strain on the budget.

 

The revolving door of coaches at Kansas State is actually pretty amazing. That was a really, really good program into the late 80s. Hartman retires and they hire young stud Lon Kruger who is an alum and local product. He's bringing in talent and making deep tourney runs and looks like a lifer.

But, if the rumors are true, he's a little too fond of a particular cheerleader and has to leave town.

Dana Altman comes in and they've had recent success and a brand new arena. Things should go well, but he and the boosters have little patience for each other so he's off to have a long, solid career elsewhere.

There's a long dark period, but KSU pulls off the ultimate coup, bringing in Bob Huggins, who had been recruiting without restriction while unemployed. He signs Mike Beasley, Bill Walker, etc., but the WVU job opens and he only stays a year.

To keep that class together they hire his assistant whose main claim to fame is getting banned from coaching high school ball in Florida. But it turns out Frank Martin can actually coach a little. What he can't do is get along with the AD, so he jumps to South Carolina.

In comes Weber, who is meh. He does some things OK, but everybody can tell it's not going to work long term.

But hey, the hottest mid major coach in the country is a K-State guy from McPherson. He's the next Lon Kruger. Oh, except he hates the AD because he's loyal to Frank Martin, so he's going to another Big 12 school instead.

 

And yet, CoMo looks longingly at Little Apple's troubles.

 

And to think, Quinnnnn Snyder was the best coach they had since Alden forced Stewart out.

 

And obviously there are some institutional things at a place like KU that contributes to long term success, but a lot of luck too. Kruger's wife doesn't bust him and K-State is looking at 30 really good years with him. Bill Self was Mizzou's, all it had to do was offer him the job.

 

Self would not still be at Mizzou, which at the time was much like Illinois -- or a little worse than Illinois, actually. He would have stayed five years and gone to an Indiana, a Kentucky, a UCLA as his destination job. Still, a big fuck-up by Alden for picking Snyder instead of Self.

 

Yeah, but he also probably wouldn't be at Kansas, which is the important part of the equation.

 

Agreed.

I was in Champaign when he coached Illinois, and obviously he was a good/great coach. But it's his skills at recruiting, at being smooth in person, in a kid's home with the parent(s) that sets him apart. His personality is such that he can get kids -- really good kids -- to come play for him, and it obviously doesn't hurt to be recruiting for a traditional team like Kansas. Fucking Kansas.

 

If West Virginia doesn't open up, Huggins would still be in Manhattan.........and Currie wouldn't.

 

I'll bit here, Chef, since we work the same geographical corners.

Kansas, in 1988, was coming off a national championship with a superstar and a bunch of role players. Kansas State was very good that year but they had kind of peaked out with Mitch Richmond. KU was back in the FF three years later, even after losing Larry Brown and getting one year of probation.

My thoughts on K-State, as a guy who worked in the market in the 1990s, is that it's a university that still isn't really sure what it wants to be, academically or athletically. Bill Snyder gets whatever he wants but, fortunately, for K-State, he doesn't work them hostage for anything over than "make my son, the punter, the head coach when I finally leave".

In 1988, K-State thought that basketball would be the only sport that doesn't look gobs of money. Then Snyder performed his miracle. By 1992, they were winning. By 1997, they were in BCS games. Somewhere around Altman leaving, not hiring Tubby Smith and then getting Tom Asbury, they seemed to just not care about basketball until Huggins fell into their lap.

K-State seems to want to be a serious academic institution yet they have, traditionally, had a football program full of JUCO players who, and I'll say it, are some of the least intellectual people I've ever encountered. Yet as long as Snyder is a gentleman who doesn't swear in public, the administration is fine with it.

Huggins and Martin do swear in public -- that's who they are.

In college basketball, either take the high-maintenance control freak with vulgarity or take the nice guy who is in it for the money grab. Right now they have the latter.