Looking for a team to come out of nowhere next basketball season. Steal a glance down to Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Wake Forest was 17-13 this past season, but the Demon Deacons had no seniors and played very well at times. Now, they'll add the top-rated power forward in the country, 6-foot-8 Al-Farour Aminu, the second-rated center, 6-11 Ty Walker and the third-ranked center, 6-11 Tony Woods. All three are in the Rivals Top 20 players nationally.
- Don Bowman
Stanford coach Trent Johnson has a verbal agreement to become the LSU men's basketball coach, Fox Sports and other media outlets are reporting.
-- Vince Langford
Tyler Hansbrough, who topped the Atlantic Coast Conference in scoring and rebounding and led North Carolina to the Final Four, was selected The Associated Press college basketball player of the year Friday.
He received 56 votes from the 72-member national media panel that selects the weekly Top 25. Freshman Michael Beasley of Kansas State had 15 votes and junior guard Chris Douglas-Roberts of Memphis got one in the voting conducted before the NCAA tournament.
Hansbrough, second on the North Carolina career scoring list with 2,151 points, 139 behind Phil Ford, joins Michael Jordan (1984) and Antawn Jamison (1998) as national players of the year from North Carolina. The last two players to lead the ACC in scoring and rebounding in the same season, Tim Duncan of Wake Forest in 1997 and Jamison, were national players of the year.
Players from the Atlantic Coast Conference have won the award eight times in the last 14 years.
Freshman Kevin Durant of Texas was the player of the year last season. He was the second overall pick in the NBA draft.
-- The Associated Press
Bob Knight is not a candidate for the basketball opening at Western Kentucky.
Athletic director Wood Selig said Thursday there was no truth to speculation that Knight would replace Darrin Horn, who left this week to become coach at South Carolina.
University president Gary Ransdell and Selig came forward Wednesday night to address the situation after hearing various reports that Knight was spotted in the area on Tuesday.
“We were getting inundated and it was hampering our entire search process,” Selig said Thursday in a phone interview. “There was never any contact, direct or indirect, between WKU and coach Knight.”
Selig said he wasn’t sure how the rumor got started, though he was “flattered” Knight’s name would be mentioned with the school.
Knight didn’t rule out a return to coaching while speaking Wednesday night at a forum in College Station, Texas.
“I don’t know,” Knight said. “I enjoyed coaching (but) I like fishing. I like helping my wife around the house ... nobody could have enjoyed coaching and the people I’ve gotten to know more than I have.”
Knight resigned from Texas Tech in February as the winningest men’s coach in NCAA Division I history with 902 victories. He’ll do analysis for ESPN of the Final Four in San Antonio this weekend.
Selig said he expects to bring in four or five candidates for on-campus interviews and hopes to select Horn’s replacement in the next 10 days.
North Texas, already in the throes of a coaching search for its women's program, could be in the market for a men's coach if Johnny Jones gets enough political muscle behind him at LSU.
Jones, a former LSU and south Louisiana prep standout player, said Wednesday he will talk to LSU officials during the Final Four in San Antonio, if they want to talk to him (it's a lead-pipe cinch at this point) and if LSU calls UNT athletic director Rick Villarreal first for permission. How far things go beyond just talk, who knows.
Villarreal's green light shouldn't be a problem, since LSU likes to throw cash at UNT occasionally for nonconference football games, and since LSU represents career advancement for Jones. He spent 13 years there as an assistant coach to Dale Brown, who has told newspapers in Baton Rouge and Shreveport that LSU needs to hire Jones.
Jones didn't guarantee he was headed for an interview, but the Jones/Brown/LSU connection has been too strong for months. Consecutive 20-win seasons at UNT have helped his case, as well as last year's NCAA Tournament appearance. He's 106-100 in seven years at UNT, but 43-22 the past two years after rebuilding a dreg Sun Belt Conference program. From that first season (2001-2002), UNT's attendance has improved from 1,800 a game to more than 3,100.
Asked how attractive the prospect of returning to Baton Rouge was, Jones remained humble.
"I'm more elated because of what's transpired here at UNT," he said. "That's what has allowed this. If it wasn't for what we're doing here, there wouldn't be that attraction (from LSU) at all. It means good things are happening here. I'm more excited about that."
By various reports, LSU appears uncertain whether to hire an athletic director before finding a coach, or let outgoing AD Skip Bertman close the deal before he retires in June. There's been disagreement over whether or not to use a search firm.
That Jones all but acknowledges now he's a candidate must mean something. Better he do it now than come off disingenuous later.
--Troy Phillips
Oklahoma State’s first basketball coaching search in 18 years began in earnest Wednesday as the university looked for a replacement for Sean Sutton, who resigned a day earlier.
The last time Oklahoma State looked for a basketball coach was in 1990, after Leonard Hamilton left following a four-season stint.
Eddie Sutton, who had played for legendary coach Henry Iba at Oklahoma State in the 1950s, was hired then and spent 16 seasons at the Cowboys’ helm, restoring a once-proud program to national prominence with Final Four berths in 1995 and 2004.
Toward the end of Eddie Sutton’s tenure, Sean Sutton was named as the program’s head coach designate, and he succeeded his father before the 2006-07 season. Sean Sutton went 39-29 in his two seasons.
Two candidates with state ties thought to be on Oklahoma State’s wish list — Bill Self of Kansas and Billy Gillispie of Kentucky — have already indicated they would not leave their current schools.
Self, who played at Oklahoma State and later served as an assistant with the Cowboys, has a contract at Kansas that pays him $1.375 million a year, plus incentives, and runs through 2011.
Gillispie, a former assistant under Self at Tulsa, coached at Oklahoma State’s Big 12 Conference rival, Texas A&M, until this past season, when he went 18-13 at Kentucky. He never has signed a contract at Kentucky, instead working under a two-page memorandum of understanding that details his compensation package.
“There’s never a place that you could ever see that, in my opinion, that I could ever have any greater feeling for,” Gillispie said about Kentucky after the Wildcats lost to Marquette in the first round of the NCAA tournament. “...That’s no disrespect to anywhere else I’ve been. I mean, it’s just you are a special person if you are associated with Kentucky basketball."
-- The Associated Press
Nebraska basketball coach Doc Sadler received a two-year contract extension Wednesday after leading the Cornhuskers in their first 20-win season in nine years.
Sadler’s contract will run through the 2013-14 season, and his base pay will increase from $700,000 to $800,000 each of the next six years.
Sadler’s name was mentioned when coaching vacancies came up at Texas A&M and Arkansas last year, and his name was bandied again after Tuesday’s resignation of Oklahoma State’s Sean Sutton.
Sadler said he was not interested in the OSU job.
Sadler, 47, is 37-27 in two seasons since taking over for Barry Collier. He’s the first coach in Nebraska history to record at least 17 wins in each of his first two years. Sadler guided Nebraska to a 20-13 record this season, and the Huskers earned a spot in the NIT. The 20-win season was only the 12th in the program’s 112-year history.
Before coming to Nebraska, Sadler was head coach at UT-El Paso, continuing the success Billy Gillispie established there. Sadler was an assistant at UTEP under Gillispie when that program was turned around.
-- The Associated Press
George Mason basketball coach Jim Larranaga has turned down an offer to coach at his alma mater, Providence College.
“We offered him a very substantial package but he was too comfortable in his current situation and opted to stay at George Mason,” Providence athletic director Bob Driscoll said Wednesday. “As a result, I will continue to have ongoing discussions with the other finalists in this search.
Providence is looking for a replacement for Tim Welsh, who was fired last month after three losing seasons in the last four years.
Larranaga led George Mason to the Final Four in 2006 and has coached there for 11 seasons. He graduated from Providence in 1971 and was the Friars’ leading scorer in his sophomore and junior seasons. Before arriving at George Mason, he coached Bowling Green State in Ohio for 11 seasons.
Welsh was fired after 10 seasons at Providence. The Friars finished the most recent season 15-16 and lost in the first round of the Big East conference tournament.
-- The Associated Press
Nevada basketball coach Mark Fox hasn't said whether he's been offered the head coaching job at Cal or if he's interested.
But he acknowledged he interviewed Monday night with Cal officials in the Bay area.
Cary Groth, Nevada athletic director, on Tuesday said she had given permission for Cal's athletic director to talk to Fox about the opening at the Pac-10 school.
Fox has been named as a possible replacement for the fired Ben Braun.
In August 2006, Fox had an informal meeting with Nebraska's then-athletic director Steve Pederson about the Cornhuskers' head coaching vacancy, but withdrew his name from consideration. Shortly after, Fox was given a one-time raise of $100,000 funded by program boosters.
The coach has compiled a 102-30 record in his four seasons at Nevada, leading the Wolf Pack to three NCAA Tournaments. He has also been named the Western Athletic Conference coach of the year three times.
Fox received a three-year contract extension last year, which runs through the 2013-2014 season. He must pay the university $250,000 if he leaves the school before July 2011.
In 2007-08, Fox earned a base salary of $425,000. In 2007-08, Braun earned a base salary of $985,000 with incentives that could have pushed the contract over $1 million.
-- The Associated Press
Tom Crean's departure to become head coach at Indiana came as a kick in the stomach to Marquette, Chris Jenkins of The Associated Press writes. Here are excerpts from his report:
Marquette remains an attractive job with a top-notch practice facility, enthusiastic fan support, a good recruiting base and considerable financial resources. Crean's annual salary was believed to be about $1.5 million.
Count out Celtics coach Rivers, a former Marquette player and current trustee who joked that he "would make more than the extra calls" to recruits as a college coach — a reference to the circumstances that led to Kelvin Sampson's departure from Indiana. The first name that came out of Rivers' mouth was former Marquette coach Rick Majerus, who coached three seasons at his alma mater in the 1980s.
Chicago Bulls interim coach Jim Boylan, the point guard for Marquette's 1977 national championship team, said he wasn't shocked by Crean's departure. So will Boylan, who is not likely to be retained by the Bulls, throw his hat in the ring?
"We're having a press conference tomorrow morning at nine, so we'll let you know," Boylan joked Tuesday night.
That didn't happen, of course.
Marquette athletic director Steve Cottingham, who has only been on the job full-time since February, was in Colorado with the Marquette women's basketball team when news of Crean's departure came Tuesday. Cottingham has returned to campus where he and Marquette players are scheduled to address the media at 3 p.m. Wednesday.
The list of potential replacements for Crean could include several of the same names that surfaced during Indiana's search.
Marquette's home-run hire would be Washington State coach Tony Bennett, who has strong ties to the state because of his father, former Wisconsin coach Dick Bennett. But the younger Bennett didn't jump when Indiana expressed interest, and it is unclear whether he would listen to Marquette.
Other names of interest could include UNLV's Lon Kruger, Vanderbilt's Kevin Stallings, Xavier's Sean Miller, Butler's Brad Stevens and Wright State's Brad Brownell.
Majerus is coaching at another Jesuit school, St. Louis University. But the Billikens had a so-so first season under him, and the gregarious coach made waves with controversial comments off the court — two strikes against him.
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee coach Rob Jeter could be considered despite his ties to rival Wisconsin and his mentor, Bo Ryan. Then there's Milwaukee Bucks coach Larry Krystkowiak, who had success at Montana before jumping to the NBA and could be out of a job when the Bucks hire a new general manager.
It also wouldn't hurt to put out feelers to Illinois coach Bruce Weber, a Milwaukee native who might not be feeling appreciated by Illini fans who have pressured him to recruit more big-name players.
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