Former Arkansas coach Nolan Richardson, on the Razorback's falling attendance:

"That’s what happens when you build a 20,000-seat arena and things go south, You create that monster, and now you’ve got to feed it, and sometimes you run out of food. And when you run out of food, he’s hungry. That's what is happening now."

A fan blogged:
 They need to convince people that poor basketball attendance is hurting football recruiting.

Posted by alblack56 on 4/7/2011 7:47:00 PM (view original):
At Haith's news conference in Missouri, he got in a dig at  Miami, saying "I can tell I'm in a different place. I'm in a place that cares."

Meanwhile, a source said that Kansas St's Frank Martin "would walk on coals" to get the Miami job.  He was born in Miami to Cuban immigrants.   CBS reports that Martin is only interested in the job if Miami is willing to invest in winning...i.e. more money for assistants, etc.

Most programs with coaching vacancies typically like to fill those vacancies before, or during, the Final Four; no athletics director likes to leave a program in limbo for too long. Hence the new hires at all of this offseason's biggest open jobs: NC State hired Mark Gottfried (meh); Georgia Tech hired Brian Gregory (yikes); Tennessee landed Cuonzo Martin in the midst of its post-Bruce Pearl mess (not too bad, given the circumstances); Oklahoma lured Lon Kruger away from UNLV (pretty good!); and after Mike Anderson left for Arkansas (the hire of the offseason), Missouri went from a potential Matt Painter hire (wheee!) to settling on Frank Haith (ouch) in the matter of a week.

Posted by jslotman on 4/8/2011 9:13:00 AM (view original):
What's wrong with Brian Gregory?  He's a very, very solid coach, IMO. 

I agree. Since taking over as Dayton’s head coach in 2003, Gregory has a record of 150-80, with two NCAA appearances, the 2010 NIT championship and two other NIT quarterfinal berths. Entering the 2010-11 season, he was one of just 24 coaches who have been at their current school at least five years who average at least 20 wins a season. 
 He's also 14-12 versus BCS teams in that time, including 2-0 vs. Louisville.  He split with both Pitt and North Carolina.

Posted by mduncanhogs on 4/7/2011 10:49:00 PM (view original):

Posted by coach_billyg on 4/6/2011 3:09:00 PM (view original):
i think arkansas made a bad move getting rid of pelphry this quickly. i thought he took them over in a pretty bad state and deserved another season or two to make his mark. i think they made a pretty good hire, though.  missouri seems to play a pretty similar style to arkansas when they were at their prime, although i am skeptical they will ever get near that level again.

I'm obviously an Arkansas fan.  Trust me when I say Pelphrey got TOO MUCH time.  Being the head basketball coach at a major university is as much about what happens off the court as it is about what happens on it.  Pelphrey recruited a lot of questionable character guys and most of the guys he recruited didn't last because of it.  He also allowed the team to get away with too much crud behind the scense.  After the Hogs lost by more than 30 points at Texas the team was bascially partying on the team flight back (I know this from talking to someone who was on the plane), and by doing so he let them beleive that it was ok to get run over that badly.  It is not ok.  Under Nolan Richardson those guys would have not said a word on the plane and they would have gone straight to Bud Walton Arena when they landed for a late night practice.  John often showed up 30 minutes or more late to his own press conferences looking like he hadn't shaved in 3 days and may not have showered in as long too.  His biggest problem was attendance, which was WAYYYYY down because the product on the court wasn't winning (our arena holds over 19k people and it was routinely only and 1/3 full).

You are right that our program was in bad condition when he took it over (thanks for that, Stan Heath), but unfortunately he did nothing to improve it.  Hopefully Mike Anderson will bring back a style and level of play we Arkansas fans grew accustomed to in the 90's.  I'm thrilled that "40 minutes of hell" is returning (I guess Mike calls it the "fastest 40 minutes in basketball", but it's essentially the same thing), but that style of play is clearly harder to win with in today's game.  That said, with the class he has coming in next year (top 5 class) the Hogs will be a lot better fast.

Stetson has interviewed two coaches....assistant Chris Capko and Glenn Wilkes, Jr.   Wilkes has won over 500 games as the women's coach at Rollins.  His father, Glenn Wilkes, Sr. won over 500 games as the men's coach at Stetson. They're the only father-son 500 game winners in NCAA history.

Posted by jslotman on 4/8/2011 9:13:00 AM (view original):
What's wrong with Brian Gregory?  He's a very, very solid coach, IMO. 

San Antonio Spurs guard George Hill believes his alma mater has a clear choice for its next basketball coach: Todd Howard. The only NBA player IUPUI has produced emphatically endorsed Howard, a longtime Jaguars assistant, to replace Ron Hunter.

"It's crazy they're even going through a search," Hill said in a phone interview. "You have a guy that spent his time there behind coach Hunter for 16 years, a guy who could have gone other places, but stuck with everyone there, made his career there, is dedicated to the program. To go out and talk to other coaches is a slap in the face."

Howard is considered the leading candidate but IUPUI is also considering other candidates, including former Butler and Iowa coach Todd Lickliter.

"No offense to Lickliter, but he got fired for losing," Hill said.

Posted by alblack56 on 4/8/2011 9:52:00 PM (view original):
Andy Katz of ESPN  caught a school that I missed:

Southern fired coach Rob Spivery, who led the Jaguars to the NCAA tourney in his first year (2006) but plummeted all the way to 4-26 last season. The interesting thing is how this was handled. The university said Spivery was fired on March 18, but his termination is effective on April 21. And the announcement came out on April 2. Then there's the matter of who gets to make the hire. Athletic director Greg LaFleur was fired following his arrest for solicitation of a prostitute in Houston during the Final Four. That means the hiring process could take some time obviously. What a mess.