Jeff Goodman has added to his ratings:

Buffalo   B+
Chattanooga B+
SE Missouri A-
VMI    B

All 3 of VCU's 2015 recruits, as well as one of their freshmen, have received their releases from VCU.   North Carolina and Texas are interested in 2 of them.

Northern Kentucky, which also has a new coach, announced the transfer of two players. One of them, Taylor Persons,  was the Atlantic Sun 'Freshmen of the Year'. He averaged 13ppg and 3.7 assists.  He hasn't selected a new school

Bucknell Athletic director John Hardt is searching for a head coach following Dave Paulsen's decision to depart after seven seasons (Paulsen was 134-94 at Bucknell) and take over the men's hoops program at George Mason.

HoopDirt says those still in the running to succeed Paulsen are:

• Mount St. Mary's head coach Jamion Christian

• University of Scranton head coach Carl Danzig

Bowling Green has hired Miami (FL) assistant Michael Huber.   Prior to Miami, he was an assistant at George Mason. He played at Bowling Green. 

Great job and great thread Alblack56. It's really informative. I feel like I am ready for next season!!! You should start a high-school recruiting thread!!!

Posted by zorzii on 4/16/2015 5:06:00 PM (view original):
Great job and great thread Alblack56. It's really informative. I feel like I am ready for next season!!! You should start a high-school recruiting thread!!!

thanks, zorzii!   I enjoy this annual thread.  This is by far the fewest schools (37) that  I've seen. Most seasons, I have around 50. I suspect there are a lot of coaches on the 'hot seat' this year

Nathan Davis, coach at DIII Randolph-Macon, has accepted the Bucknell job.   Before going to Randolph-Macon, he was an assistant at Bucknell from 2003-08 

Only Alcorn State and Kennesaw State remain coachless

I've underlined my favorite sentence from this Pat Forde (Yahoo Sports) column:

The current trends seem to be:

Nostalgia is in.

NBA backgrounds are in.

Recent success is out.

Hiring high-major assistant coaches is out.

Of the seven jobs that opened in power conferences, exactly one hire would qualify as a no-brainer: Shaka Smart to Texas. Everything else comes with a question mark attached. The new guys come from odd places, and often after extended periods away.

Avery Johnson to Alabama? Zero college coaching experience. Hasn’t coached at all since being fired in 2013 by the Brooklyn Nets. Was 56 games below .500 as coach of the Nets. The Crimson Tide took a big swing at Wichita State’s Gregg Marshall, but the backup plan appeared to be lacking when he ultimately said no. ga 

Bobby Hurley to Arizona State? That has the chance to work out well, but it’s a complete geographic start-over for Hurley, whose roots and coaching experience are in the Northeast.

Dave Leitao to DePaul? What, Joey Meyer wasn’t available? Ten years after leaving DePaul and six years after he was last a college head coach – there was a stint in 2011-12 as head coach of the NBA Development League Maine Red Claws – Leitao is back. Don’t everyone order your season tickets all at once.

Ben Howland to Mississippi State? On paper, Mississippi State hiring a guy with three Final Four appearances looks great. But beyond the odd cultural fit, there is the fact that Howland hasn’t coached in two years, and why that may be. Things did not end well at UCLA, and there is reason to question whether things are starting any differently in Starkville. One of Howland’s first reported moves was to visit junior-college forward Ray Kasongo, which indicates that the ties between Howland assistant Korey McCray and Kasongo “mentor” Brandon Bender – named in Central Florida’s NCAA violations a couple years ago – are alive and well.

Chris Mullin to St. John’s? Not to be outdone by DePaul in the Big East Nostalgia Sweepstakes, the Red Storm dialed back to the mid-80s glory days to give the 51-year-old Mullin his first-ever coaching job. The name is magic in New York – at least among parents and grandparents of prospects. Mullin did a smart thing by hiring ace recruiter Barry “Slice” Rohrssen away from Kentucky, but that’s only part of the equation. The X’s and O’s question will loom every bit as large.

Rick Barnes to Tennessee? For a school that spectacularly blew its last hire (the thoroughly-investigated, quickly-discarded Donnie Tyndall), the Volunteers may have lucked into an upgrade on the rebound. Barnes took the job about five minutes after being forced out at Texas. If he regains the motivation level he showed early in his time in Austin, this may work out splendidly. If not, then hiring a guy who recruited Final Four talent but hasn’t made the Sweet 16 since 2008 may not work out that gloriously.

Even on the next level down, there seemed to be abnormal interest in nostalgia hires, head-coach retreads and novelty acts. Holy Cross hired Bill Carmody, who is 63 and hasn’t coached in two years after being fired at Northwestern. Charlotte hired Mark Price, a former NBA player with no experience as a head coach and very little as a college assistant. Liberty borrowed DePaul’s DeLorean and went back to the future, hiring former head coach Ritchie McKay six years after he left the school to be an assistant at Virginia. Penn brought Steve Donahue back to the Ivy League, five years after he left Cornell and a year after he was fired at Boston College. 

Some or all of those may work out well. But they’re examples of the fact that the old axioms about paying your dues as an assistant or lower-level head coach, working your way up from the ground floor, aren’t always true. Someone may come sailing out of unemployment or the NBA and take the job in front of you.

It’s true that top-level assistants now are paid well enough that they don’t have to jump at bad jobs – Kentucky’s Kenny Paine is making a reported $350,000 annually, and UK’s bench ace, John Robic, is making a reported $300,000. Plus bonuses.

But almost all of the high-major assistants who got head-coaching jobs this year are taking a risk. There are only seven of them total to date, and almost all of them had to go well down the food chain to do so.

Miami assistant Michael Huger went to Bowling Green; Florida assistant Matt McCall to Chattanooga; Minnesota assistant Dan McHale to Eastern Kentucky; Indiana assistant Steve McClain to Illinois-Chicago; LSU assistant Eric Musselman to Nevada; Alabama assistant John Brannen to Northern Kentucky; and California assistant Jon Harris to SIU-Edwardsville. Of that group, only Musselman is going to what can reasonably be called an NCAA tournament multi-bid league.

The Oklahoma City Thunder are looking for a new coach.

The 'Oklahoman' listed several possibilities as good fits.  In addition to some current NBA assistants, it lists college coaches Ollie (UConn);,  Donovan (Florida); Self (Kansas) and Hoiberg (Iowa St.)

Ollie has already stated that he's happy at UConn and is not interested in the position

The Oklahoma City Thunder have formally commenced discussions about their vacant coaching job with Florida coach Billy Donovan, according to league sources.

Sources told ESPN.com that Donovan and Thunder general manager Sam Presti have opened a dialogue about the position, which became available a week ago after the dismissal of Scott Brooks.

Within NBA coaching circles, Donovan is widely regarded as the clear favorite to succeed Brooks, who made one trip to the NBA Finals and two other trips to the Western Conference finals in his seven seasons as Thunder coach.

Donovan is the first known candidate to talk with the Thunder about the job. It was not immediately clear how many other candidates, if any, Presti plans to sit down with.

ESPN.com reported in early April that there was a growing sense among NBA executives that Donovan is more ready to make the jump to the NBA than he has ever been. He also has a very close with relationship with Presti, who has hired two members of Donovan's staff at Florida within the past 12 months to take positions with Oklahoma City -- Mark Daigneault as coach of the Thunder's D-League team and Oliver Winterbone as a data analyst.

Kennesaw State has named Al Skinner as their new coach.  He's been an assistant at Bryant for the last 2 seasons but previously was the head coach at Rhode Island and Boston College

Alcorn State has named Montez Robinson as their new coach. He's spent the last 4 years as an assistant at Bethume-Cookman.  Before that he was, ironically, the assistant at Kennesaw State.

So, if Billy Donovan doesn't go to Oklahoma City, all vacancies are now filled. 

Donovan looks likely to be gone (though I guess you never know with him until UF hires someone new)... any idea who the candidates to replace him there would be?  

Posted by wronoj on 4/30/2015 8:09:00 AM (view original):
Donovan looks likely to be gone (though I guess you never know with him until UF hires someone new)... any idea who the candidates to replace him there would be?  

I hear Chris Mack (Xavier) and Archie Miller (Dayton) would be high on the list, if this would happen.  I think Jeff Goodman of ESPN tweeted as such.

I wonder if Gregg Marshall (Wichita State) will come up again as usual (even with recent bump in pay). 

Somehow, I don't think folks at Florida would be happy with Mack or Miller though.  I imagine they want a big time, more proven coach.

If I was a betting man I would put my money on one of Archie Miller or Richard Pitino replacing Donovan.. That is just gut feeling of course. Haven't actually heard anything.

Kevin Brockway lists these possiblities for Florida:

Possible candidates to replace Donovan include current UF assistants John Pelphrey and Anthony Grant, Dayton coach Archie Miller, Villanova coach Jay Wright, Minnesota coach Richard Pitino and Louisiana Tech coach Mike White. Another intriguing candidate is Wichita State coach Gregg Marshall, though Marshall recently turned down an offer from Alabama to sign a contract extension with the Shockers worth a reported $3 million per season.