2024 college basketball coaching carousel

Dana Altman coached at the Moberly MO juco before moving on to better things. Cotton Fitzsimmons, too. Moberly used to be a regular at Hutch. Paid for a lot of good players.

 

The Athletic has a story up on Liam McNeeley, Indiana's only recruit signed for next season, requesting his release on the day after it was announced that Mike Woodson would be retained. McNeeley, a five star recruit ranked #16 overall, was described in the article as "a 6-foot-7 wing, originally from Richardson, Texas, is seen as arguably the best shooter in the 2024 class. He has real size to shoot over the top of defenders closing out and pristine mechanics with very little wasted motion."

Then we hit this paragraph, and, Holy Shit!

"Speaking of Woodson and optics, it’s impossible not to at least recognize the timing of this decision. It was confirmed yesterday that Woodson would return for the 2024-25 season, a choice that seems to have frustrated an Indiana fanbase that has been forced to watch an offense that resembles someone attempting to flush a clogged toilet repeatedly all season.

And frankly, given that context, it’s hard to blame McNeeley for choosing to re-open his recruitment."

That's gonna leave a mark.

Top Indiana recruit McNeeley decommits: Sources

 

So, why did he commit when the guy was the coach already? I'm assuming bags of cash were mentioned.

 

When he signed it was literally the day after the first game. They were coming off a 23-12 season where they tied for second in the conference and made the second round of the NCAA Tournament. Now they are not making the tournament are tied for 8th in the conference and there were a lot of people who don't want the coach back and were surprised he would be

 

Was the guy-in-waiting at Syracuse, too. Probably would've stuck around if he knew how the 2023 season was going to end.

 

Boeheim hung on like a prick for so long, there was a couple-year period there where it looked like Hopkins had done the smartest thing by going as far away from him as possible and winning so that he could make even more coin whenever the hell Boeheim left. Alas.

 

Tavaras Hardy resigns at Loyola of Maryland.

 

If I had to grab a name out of thin air for UD-Mercy, I'd probably take a shot at Dane Fife.

He's sitting out this year taking odd consulting gigs and writing occasional Yahoo columns, after being broomed out after a year on Woodson's staff at IU, which seems to be imploding on its own. He had taken the job at IU with supposedly vague hints of being a possible heir when Woodson (who turns 66 in two weeks) moves on from the scene, presumably under reasonably positive circumstances; prior to that he had served 10 years on Izzo's staff at Michigan State, moving into a kind of "primary X/O assistant" (Izzo doesn't really have clear cut hierarchy for his aides) and even inching into the discussions of possible heirs to Izzo when he hung it up, but apparently he felt the IU gig was more promising.

Anyway Fife's name hasn't really been buzzing as a hot prospect for any open P5 jobs, but he's 44 and the clock is ticking. He was an unspectacular 82-97 in six years at IUPU Ft Wayne. He's originally from suburban Detroit so he certainly knows the landscape and the AAU hierarchies around the Midwest. Anybody who takes this job is gonna have to figure out how UD can snag one or two of the fourth tier kids out of Michigan every year after U-M and MSU grab the plums, and maybe pick up a player or two in the transfer portal looking for PT as a bench boy at one of the biggies. That's probably UD's best route to getting even functional as a D1 program.

Although Fife might well be holding out for a shot at the Oakland U job when and if Greg Kampe (now 68) himself decides to move on; pretty much all the same factors apply except Kampe has a reasonably successful program already going at OU (they're 21-11 going into the Horizon semis next week) while UD has hit the skids and requires a down-to-the-blocks rebuild. Although at the Horizon level, it is possible to get good fast if you strike it rich on some hidden gems the big boys let slip through their fingers.

 

The Fie hire at Indiana was a disaster waiting to happen. Fife had no relationship with Woodson and was pretty much forced on him. As Machiavelli taught it is not a good idea for the leader to have a heir apparent. After Woodson had a successful first season he offed Fife.

I did find it interesting that Fife, who had a two year contract with Indiana, is sitting out a second year after his contract expired.

 

He's obviously not a hotly pursued prospect on the open market.