College hoops coaching firing/hiring thread

Average teams, declining attendance in a program that won the WAC/Mountain West several times under Jim Brandenburg/Benny Dees.

He pissed the locals off by regularly shopping for jobs. McClain wasn't anywhere near as popular as Joe Glenn, or a folksy (or successful) as the women's coach.

He also has a new AD (two removed from the guy who hired him) who is a Laramie native and Wyoming grad. Buhrman (sp?) will be there for a while, unlike previous ADs who used the job as a steppingstone, and is looking to make his mark.

Heath Shroyer worked under Burman at Portland State. He's a very logical candidate, I'd think, as may be Ken Bone, the current Portland State coach.

 

Two schools are hiring new coaches today:

Northern Illinois is set to hire ousted Colorado coach Ricardo Patton.
http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/news/story?id=2803898

And in even bigger news, the alma mater pulls a rabbit out of its hat and hired ex-Mississippi coach Rod Barnes.
http://www.sportsline.com/collegebasketball/story/10068729

 

What happened to Mike Perry?

Pretty lame story not to even say who was the predecessor, or what happened to him.

 

Mike Perry took the job when Georgia State was in the Atlantic Sun and got swept away in the undertow of advanced expectations in the CAA.

 

Correct.

Mike was hired when Lefty stepped down on January 3, 2003. Mike had been Lefty's assistant from day one at GSU, and Lefty was always scared GSU wouldn't give Mike a chance after he left. So that's the main reason he stepped down mid-season.
The strange thing I'll always remember about the Lefty retirement press conference is that they placed the interim tag immediately on Mike. But then Greg Manning, the AD at the time, talked about how they thought Mike would be the man to lead the program for many years. So I directly asked Greg after the press conference why Mike had the interim tag. Couldn't get a good answer from him.

As a fan, I feel this move had to be made. The program had fallen back into a rut where no one cared about it and something had to be done. I just hate it because Mike was one of the nicest people I've ever had to cover. He always welcomed me with open arms whenever I needed something for a story, and we would often sit in his office for an hour after an interview just talking about college basketball, watching game film, etc.
He's a class act and I'm sure he can land a top assistant's job somewhere.

 

Well I know a school Mike Perry is very familiar with whose basketball program needs a lift, pronto.

 

And I think Mike would be a great fit for that program as an assistant. I just don't see him going there unless he would be the top assistant.

 

Is it Perry's fault that no one cares about GSU? How many teams are ahead of them in the Atlanta-area totem pole? Georgia, Georgia Tech, the Braves, Hawks, Falcons...that's a tough bunch to leap, especially when you're playing in a conference with no natural rival. That's a tough, tough job for anyone.

At the least, Perry always had those guys playing hard in a conference in which they were overmatched. That, coupled with what you said about his personality, should indeed assure him a cushy landing as a top assistant somewhere.

 

I still say Georgia State to the CAA was one of the most bizarre conference moves I've ever seen.

 

For all who thought Berry Hinson would be let go, a presser was held today stating the exact opposite. The school president praised Hinson for his academic records and standards for success. Some changeds are being made (no word on those yet) but the head coach won't be one of them.

This makes one Missouri State alum VERY happy.

 

Somewhere the CAA decided to go the C-USA route of expansion and gathered up schools in all the major East Coast cities. CAA should have gone after Charlotte and UNC-Greensboro first.

 

In a sense, yes and no.

The easiest way to get people to care is by winning, and Perry didn't do that.
But he definitely didn't have the name value that Lefty did.
People started to care when Lefty came, and when he started winning, it was a utopia there. The '00-'01 season was the culmination of it all. 29-5 and a win in the NCAA Tournament that season showed that GSU could exist in the Atlanta sports market.
Ever since that year, it's been a struggle to get back there. For those of us who experienced that season, we believe that a year like that doesn't happen to often.