And we're off...

With Mark Gottfried resigning from Alabama recently, the coaching carousel has begun to spin already. While no one will claim that Alabama is a top-tier job, it certainly has the capability to be. It was only a few years ago that the Tide were #1 in the nation for a time and advanced to the Elite Eight. Alabama is in an elite conference, is a school that is committed to winning, and has a supportive fan base. This could be an attractive job for an up and coming coach such as Anthony Grant. I do not expect that Grant will ultimately end up there, expect Alabama to make a push for the young and successful coach.

I think that we will see several names thrown into the mix, including: Jim Christian (TCU), Doug Wojcik (Tulsa), and Reggie Theus (formerly of New Mexico State and the Sacramento Kings).

Alabama is a big enough job where they will be able to go after someone with a successful head coaching resume, the coach will probably be younger and energetic, and be charismatic enough to recruit with Gillispie, Pearl, and Donovan in the SEC.

There are many other jobs that could cause a domino affect and I think that Arizona is the biggest one out there. It is an upper echelon job and they should be able to pull in a very high-level candidate. I would expect that their two biggest candidates would be Jamie Dixon (Pittsburgh) and Mark Few (Gonzaga).

Dixon has been highly successful and is a worthy candidate of that job. He was born in California and his wife is from Hawaii. While he clearly has ties to the West Coast, I would be surprised if he left for Arizona. He is comfortable at Pitt and is proving that he can hang with anyone in the Big East. Pitt has played for 7 of the last 8 Big East Championships. I just don’t see Arizona as an upgrade for him when he is already thriving in his current position.

Few is an interesting case. I think that if he were ever to leave his comfortable job at Gonzaga, this would be an opportunity that he would take. This would allow him to stay out on the West Coast, it is clearly a place where he can compete for national championships, and he would most likely receive a hefty raise. Expect for Arizona to pursue him hard and make him an absurd offer.

Now if Few were to leave Gonzaga, who would get that job? Would they perform a national search and try and bring in a big name candidate? I would expect them to try and hire Bill Grier, the current head coach at San Diego. Grier was a major part of the success that Gonzaga achieved in the late 90’s and through today. He spent 16 years as an assistant and associate head coach and would be a perfect fit for the school.

I wonder if Gonzaga would think about making a run at Dan Monson. Monson is the architect of the Gonzaga basketball program and was the head coach when the Bulldogs burst onto the scene with an Elite Eight appearance in 1999. He is currently the head coach at Long Beach State and I would think that Gonzaga would be an upgrade for him. The only question is, would Gonzaga want him back?

Another interesting question that needs to be asked is what is Maryland going to do with Gary Williams? Williams played for Maryland, has been the head coach there since 1989, and has won a national championship in this decade. Yet Maryland has missed the NCAA tournament 3 out of the last 4 years and this year’s team is on the bubble once again by losing to Morgan State at home and at Duke by 41. Williams has always had the reputation of recruiting lesser-heralded players and turning them into Division 1 players. Is this really something that you want your coach doing if you are Maryland? Not recruiting the top talent because you hate the AAU circuit and all that comes with it. I wonder if Carmelo Anthony could have helped Maryland back in 2002-2003 when he played for Syracuse; he was from Baltimore and never recruited heavily by the hometown Terrapins.

This situation reminds me an awful of the Phillip Fulmer situation at Tennessee this past year. The man played for the university, coached them to great success, and was ultimately pushed out the door because of recent failures on the field and in recruiting. Sound familiar?

Williams has built Maryland into a wonderful program and one that would attract a big name coach. I am not sure who would be in the running for that job but I would have to think that Sean Miller’s name would be thrown into the mix. Miller is still relatively young, has had a tremendous amount of success in his 5 years as a head coach, has experiencing coaching in the ACC, and has lots of east coast recruiting ties. This will be an interesting job to watch over the next few months.

I think that Paul Hewitt saved his job at Georgia Tech by getting Derrick Favors to commit to play for him next year. Hewitt has missed the NCAA tournament 2 out of the last 3 years and unless they win the ACC tournament this year, the Yellow Jackets will have missed it 3 out of 4 years. Ultimately pulling in the #4 rated prospect in the 2009 class may have allowed Hewitt to keep his job.

Sidney Lowe is also struggling right now. The North Carolina State coach was 20-16 in his first year at NCST but just 5-11 in conference play, in year two of Lowe’s tenure NCST was 15-16 and finished in last place in the ACC with a 4-12 record, this year NCST is currently 10-7 and 1-4 in the conference. Sounds to me like a school that is digressing and wondering if they made the right decision in hiring someone who had never coached a single year in college basketball. Suddenly Herb Sendek doesn’t seem so bad.