According to Jim Dunleavy of the Washington Examiner, Jim Larranaga's replacement at George Mason could be one of the following:

• - Mike Lonergan - The 45-year old Vermont head coach and former Maryland assistant is thought to be the favorite.
• - Mike Rhoades - Shaka Smart's 36-year-old assistant at VCU, Rhoades has previous head coaching experience at Randolph-Macon.
• - Jim Ferry - At age 43, Ferry is Long Island's run-and-gun style head coach who led his team to the NCAA tournament in 2011.
• - Jeff Jones - The American coach has turned his program into one of the top non-BCS teams in the country. After a down year in 2010, Jones' squad was again one of the top teams in the Patriot League.
• - Jim Baron - Rhode Island's 57-year-old coach who George Mason AD Tom O'Connor previously hired at St. Bonaventure.

Posted by alblack56 on 4/25/2011 8:21:00 PM (view original):

According to Jim Dunleavy of the Washington Examiner, Jim Larranaga's replacement at George Mason could be one of the following:

 

• - Mike Lonergan - The 45-year old Vermont head coach and former Maryland assistant is thought to be the favorite.
• - Mike Rhoades - Shaka Smart's 36-year-old assistant at VCU, Rhoades has previous head coaching experience at Randolph-Macon.
• - Jim Ferry - At age 43, Ferry is Long Island's run-and-gun style head coach who led his team to the NCAA tournament in 2011.
• - Jeff Jones - The American coach has turned his program into one of the top non-BCS teams in the country. After a down year in 2010, Jones' squad was again one of the top teams in the Patriot League.
• - Jim Baron - Rhode Island's 57-year-old coach who George Mason AD Tom O'Connor previously hired at St. Bonaventure.

Posted by alblack56 on 4/29/2011 2:40:00 PM (view original):
Eamonn Brennan of ESPN rates the major coaching hires;

For his complete analysis:

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/news/story?id=6448951

GRADES

A+  Arkansas

A     Bradley, Dayton, Fresno St., Wyoming

B+  Fairfield,  Miami, Missouri St, Tennessee

B    UNLV

B-   Oklahoma, Providence, Texas Tech

C+  Kent, Princeton

C   N.C. State

C-  Utah

D  Georgia Tech

F   Missouri

The George Mason Patriots have made a very surprising hire in the wake of losing longtime coach Jim Larranaga to the University of Miami. Paul Hewitt, the former Georgia Tech head coach that was fired earlier this winter, has verbally accepted the job, according to FOX Sports' Jeff Goodman. 

It's a very surprising hire because Hewitt has been labeled an underachieving coach for not having a lot of success at Georgia Tech since reaching the Final Four in 2004. He is certainly an outstanding recruiter, but has had trouble translating that to results on the court. Georgia . Nevertheless, he did have a 190-162 record in 11 seasons at Georgia Tech, and he certainly brings a big-conference reputation to the school.

George Mason is expected to be a very good team next year, losing only Cam Long from their main rotation.

With George Mason out of the way, however, Lonergan could lose some leverage in negotiations, so the potential for contract talks to break down may be a bit greater now.

That might be the only way Lonergan doesn't end up with the Colonials; GW reportedly requested permission to talk to the Catamounts coach earlier this week, and since then all has gone quiet on the hiring front. But barring any unexpected circumstances, expect Lonergan to be named the head coach at GW in the near future.

1) He  beat Missouri for athletic 6-foot-10 center Lekan Ajayi.
2)SG  Riley Grabau, Colorado's Mr. Basketball
3) PG Derrious Gilmore ,who ranked among the assist leaders in the JUCO ranks last season.
4) Larry Nance, Jr, son of forme slam dunk champion Larry Nance

Paul Hewitt, with incentives, will earn about $1 million dollars this year at George Mason. Plus, there was no off-setting clause in his buyout from Georgia Tech. So he gets to keep the entire $7.2 million they paid for him to leave. With only one senior graduating, there's considerable pressure on Hewitt this season.

Hewitt's package at George Mason is considerably larger than that of ex-coach Jim Larengaga.  Larengaga left, in part, because George Mason wouldn't increase his salary to the level of VCU's Shaka Smith.

Posted by Iguana1 on 5/5/2011 4:43:00 PM (view original):
Maryland ?

Do they have anyone worthy of promotion from within ?

According to several sources with knowledge of the situation, Mike Brey (Notre Dame) is expected to be targeted as the potential successor for Gary Williams, who announced his resignation as the school's college basketball coach Thursday.

Brey has deep roots in the D.C. area from his days as a player and assistant to the legendary Morgan Wooten at DeMatha Catholic. The Bethesda, Md., native also has strong ACC ties from being an assistant at Duke under Mike Krzyzewski.