It's that time of year: College coach carousel!

With all the talk about mid-majors cracking the Final Four, how about some of the funky teams we had in the '70s?
1977: UNC-Charlotte, with Cedric Maxwell. Anybody heard of them before Cornbread? It came within one dramatic Jim Boylan-Bernard Toone bomb of an all-Tobacco Road title game.
1970: Strangest Final Four ever. UCLA in the Alcindor-Walton interregnum and St. Bonaventure, Jacksonville and New Mexico State, all build around star centers (if only Bob Lanier hadn't blown his knee in the regional).
1971: Western Kentucky, with Jim McDaniels (vacated, along with Villanova).
Even finalists like '72 Florida State and '73 Memphis State didn't have big national profiles at the time - they were both indies.

 

Didn't Penn make a Final Four in the 70s?

 

Looks like OU is waiting on Shaka, and their No. 2 choice is Pastner.

This from the throw-it-against-the-wall department:

http://newsok.com/pastner-just-what-sooners-need/article/3549768

 

1979, right? The famous disaster in Greensboro when UNC and Duke both lost in (I believe) the Sweet 16 and what was supposed to be a Duke-UNC regional final became Penn vs. somebody else nobody in the Triangle cared about and there were tons of empty seats. Kinda like this year.

 

Whitlock tweeting that Bob Knight is the guy for Purdue.
Until I see something for sure, I will, as always disbelieve Whitlock.

 

What about Pat Knight resurfacing at a mid-major school? He didn't seem to to a horrible job at Texas Tech (maybe I didn't pay close-enough attention), he's young and has a "name" and a pedigree that could be beneficial. What about Missouri State?

 

Fixed

 

If Painter really is available, why aren't NC State and Oklahoma backing up the Brinks trucks? No way NC State would do better than Painter.

 

I was of the thinking that Memphis was paying Pastner well and he had a clause in his contract that would put him in line for a significant raise at the end of this season.

Also seems Memphis has a local McDonald's All-American already signed.

So I don't know why Pastner would bail for an Oklahoma job where the Sooners are about to catch the NCAA hammer.

 

Not in a $2 million/year job but I've been there.

Returned "home" to a great job a few years back. Loved it. Embraced by the area. New GM comes in and makes life a living hell for me and some other colleagues. When my current gig offered me a 50% raise (as I could see the recession coming)... yeah, I tossed and turned but, ultimately, left.

It's a business, whether in journalism or in coaching basketball. I also imagine Painter, for his roots in West Lafayette, also tires of being #4 now on the pecking order in the state, after Indiana's Mess, Resurgent Notre Dame, now Butler and THEN the Boilers. Purdue is very good but doesn't have the spotlight of the others.

Mizzou is a sleeping giant, especially if they could ever corral more KC/STL blue chippers. Is Rich Daly still coaching? He could open up that Detroit to Columbia pipeline.

 

But do you think Painter would be interested?

I'm guessin one of the big reasons Painter might wanna leave Purdue for Mizzou is to escape the nearby in-state competition from Notre Dame, IU and Butler for a school where he's the state's clear No. 1 program with no real competitors. That's hardly a selling point at NC State where you're swallowed up by the enormous shadows of Duke and UNC just down the road.

And Oklahoma has the coming NCAA hammer issue hanging over their head. I think Mizzou is the best of the available jobs right now.

 

Painter's leaving has nothing to do with location. He's an Indiana boy and have never wanted to get away from the state. His leaving has everything to do with money and his relationship with Morgan Burke. Burke is a jerk and always has been in his dealings with coaches. Painter has won the Big Ten Coach of the Year three times in six years as coach and yet is in the bottom half for pay in the Big Ten.