Most of the firings will take place by the Final Four. That's a big weekend for networking and interviewing coaches

I am glad that it appears that Buzz is staying, tech should be in the tourney next year, they could have been this year had they scheduled their non con with the goal of getting into the tourney, instead they shattered their RPI with games against 300+ RPI teams, such as Grambling state(350). The rate of improvment and success that the Hokies had was just incredible, they lost their first game to Alabama state, the they went on later to beat two top 10 teams in UVA and Miami, and losing by 1 to UNC. They went from like 4 straight years of 2-14 in ACC to 10-6 in only Buzz's second season, that's amazing. They are only losing 1 bench player, watch out for the Hokies in your brackets next year.

Buzz never built a team the traditional route of bringing in freshmen and let them grow into solid players. Actually his record of high school recruits was not that impressive while at Marquette. (although I do like Med Hill at VT if he comes back from his knee injury)
However, Buzz is a master with the "unwanted" and "under appreciated". Transfers and Jucos. And then gets those guys to perform like 4 star recruits. Darius Johnson-Odom, Jae Crowder and Jimmy Butler, all jucos, and while at Marquette all made first team BigEast when it was the monster 16 team league. VT's top two scores this past season were transfers from Maryland and South Florida.

Jimmy Butler was only offered a scholarship by one D-1 team and now may be one of the top 20 players in the world. His life story is a good read if you get the chance. A lot of similarities to Michael Oher in the movie The Blind Side. Butler was kicked out by his mother in 8th grade because she couldn't afford to keep him. Lived on his own for a few years and finally taken in by a white family while in high school.

This morning, the Rutgers Board of Governors voted unanimously to support the hiring of Steve Pikiell as the university’s new head basketball coach. According to NJ.com, some of the details are as follows:

Pikiell received a five-year contract starting at $1.4 million and increasing by $100,000 each year.

The contract, which includes performance incentives contingent on academic and team success, is worth $8 million guaranteed for Pikiell, who earned approximately $500,000 in his final season at Stony Brook, according to former Athletics Director Jim Fiore.

The contract also guarantees the Rutgers assistant coaches a pool of $800,000, which is a $220,000 increase from Jordan’s tenure.

A St. Louis columnist lists these possibilites for the coaching job at St. Louis U.

• Chris Harriman (New Mexico Assistant): One of several former Rick Majerus assistants who could be in play. He was a key recruiter in the SLU turnaround, bringing in foreign imports Rob Loe and Cody Ellis.

• Porter Moser (Loyola Chicago Head Coach): Another Majerus alum, Moser would have a good handle on recruiting in the St. Louis area. Jim Crews’ fate was sealed in part because of his inability to capitalize on the class of 2016 locally, which will rank as one of the best in recent memory. . Whoever the next coach is will need to sell kids who will have lots of options on the benefits of staying home.

• Jeff Boals (Ohio State Assistant): Boals has also been lauded as a sharp recruiter and, the hope would be, the latest Thad Motta disciple to strike success as a head coach, following in the footsteps of Sean and Archie Miller, among others.

• Kevin Stallings (Vanderbilt Head Coach): He’d be the most accomplished and tenured head coach in consideration. Stallings has talked openly about frustrations with his club, which had big things expected of it heading into this season. I Stallings is a Collinsville, IL native, and knows about recruiting in a private school environment.

• Chris Carrawell (Marquette Assistant Coach): The St. Louis native would be the least experienced of this group as far as college coaching experience goes, with only 2 years under his belt at Marquette. He has NBDL coaching experience and worked in a variety of roles at Duke, his alma mater. He’s helped his Duke teammate Steve Wojciechowski assemble a top flight recruiting class in Milwaukee.

One coach certainly isn’t shying away from the Western Kentucky men’s basketball job.

Kurtis Townsend, a former WKU player and current Kansas assistant, said in a radio interview Monday on “Steve Gorman SPORTS!” that coaching the Hilltoppers would be “a dream job for me.”

Townsend, now in his 12th season on the Kansas bench, is the longest-tenured assistant coach in Jayhawks history. His time has included the program’s 2008 NCAA championship.

“I love Western Kentucky,” Townsend said Monday. “I found my wife there. She went to school there, too, and is from Nashville originally. ... I loved it out there. They care about basketball, I know that.”

UNLV Interim Head Coach Todd Simon will become the next head coach at Southern Utah. CBSSports.com’s Jon Rothstein was the first to confirm this. Simon will replace Nick Robinson who was fired as the Thunderbirds head coach on March 9th.

Simon became the Interim Head Coach at UNLV back on January 10th, 2016 following the dismissal of Dave Rice.

From Hoopdirt.com
Texas-Rio Grande Valley is down to 6 finalists as to replace Dan Hipsher as the head basketball coach. Interviews will start this weekend. The final group includes:

Raphael Chillious: Assistant Coach University of Washington

Lew Hill – Assistant Coach University of Oklahoma, spent six seasons at Texas A&M

Robert Kirby – Assistant Coach University of Memphis, a 1983 alum of UTRGV (was Texas Pan American back then)

Chris Ogden – Assistant Coach University of Tennessee, long-time Texas assistant

Vince Taylor – Assistant Coach Texas Tech University

Paul Weir – Associate Head Coach New Mexico State University

• Stanford: Tommy Amaker is involved here. The current Harvard coach has also been the head coach at Michigan and Seton Hall. Interesting to see if Stanford would hire another former Duke guard after they dismissed Johnny Dawkins.

• Portland: Early names that I’ve heard to replace Eric Reveno: Gregg Gottlieb (assistant coach Oregon State), Ken Bone (Associate head coach Montana -former head coach at Washington State and Portland State), Donnie Daniels (assistant coach Gonzaga), and former NBA head coach and long-time Trailblazer Terry Porter.

Arizona coach Sean Miller announced that he has "no interest" in the coaching vacancy at Pittsburgh, saying he has "one of the great jobs in college basketball" and ending speculation that he might pursue a return to his alma mater.

Central Florida has hired former Stanford coach Johnny Dawkins, sources told ESPN.

Dawkins, 52, was a star guard at Duke from 1982 to 1986. He was the coach of the Cardinal for eight seasons, taking the program to the Sweet 16 two years ago.

Stanford went 15-15 this past season and was 8-10 in Pac-12 play, finishing ninth in the conference.

From Yahoo Sports:

• Longtime Cincinnati coach Mick Cronin is talking to UNLV, as has been reported by multiple outlets. Several basketball insiders said they believe Cronin will ultimately decide to stay at Cincinnati, but a contract issue – he’s signed through 2021, but not all of it is guaranteed – could be a factor in his willingness to get involved at UNLV. Cronin has kicked the tires on other jobs several times and gotten results; the extension he signed in 2014 was the fourth he has received during his tenure at Cincinnati. If UNLV gets past Cronin, South Carolina's Frank Martin could be in the mix.

• A lot of eyes are on Georgia Tech as it plays in the NIT this week. The Yellow Jackets are at San Diego State Wednesday; when their season ends it will be up to athletic director Mike Bobinski whether to retain fifth-year coach Brian Gregory. He’s won 21 games this year, the most at Tech since 2009-10 and the third-most in the past 20 years. But the Yellow Jackets have not been to the NCAA tournament under Gregory, and there has been speculation that Bobinski will look for a big-name replacement.

• Florida Gulf Coast’s Joe Dooley has emerged as a significant candidate at Saint Louis, multiple sources told Yahoo Sports. There have been media reports that Vanderbilt’s Kevin Stallings, a St. Louis native whose teams have underachieved in recent years, is a candidate, but that remains to be seen. Former Oklahoma State coach Travis Ford is interested in getting involved, according to sources. Other potential names: Arkansas-Little Rock’s Chris Beard and six-year Michigan assistant LaVall Jordan. The problem with Jordan: Saint Louis athletic director Chris May has said his search will focus on established head coaches.

• Milwaukee somewhat surprisingly fired 11-year coach Rob Jeter after a 20-win season – his fifth 20-win year, but he’s only led the Panthers to the NCAA tournament twice. That led to some backlash directed at athletic director Amanda Braun – particularly from Wisconsin Sen. Lena Taylor, who verbally challenged Braun during a news conference to discuss Jeter’s dismissal. One candidate for the job is Milwaukee native T.J. Otzelberger, an Iowa State assistant, but sources said the school intends to cast a wide net in its search.

• Another surprise opening in the Horizon League came at Wright State, which parted ways with Billy Donlon after his third 20-win season in the past four years. Among the potential candidates to replace Donlon are Ohio State assistants Jeff Boals and Xavier assistant Travis Steele. Another candidate could be Evansville’s Marty Simmons, whose team won 25 games this season but missed the NCAA tournament on a last-second shot by Northern Iowa in the Missouri Valley Conference

• Columbia head coach Kyle Smith’s name has been mentioned for the Portland job. His team is currently 23-10 and still playing in the CIT. He knows the WCC – he spent nine seasons at St. Mary’s before taking over at Columbia. He has also worked at Air Force and San Diego.

• Latest name at Drexel is St. Joseph’s assistant Geoff Arnold is now in the mix. He has been on Phil Martelli’s staff for the past eight years, and before that, he spent seven seasons as the associate head coach at Drexel. He played at St. Joe’s with former Drexel head coach Bruiser Flint.

• Another name to keep an eye on at Western Kentucky is Texas A&M assistant coach Rick Stansbury. The long-time head coach at Mississippi State (293-166 – 14-seasons), has been on Billy Kennedy’s staff for the past two seasons. He is a Kentucky native, having played at NAIA Campbellsville, as well as being an assistant at both Campbellsville and Cumberland (KY).

James Green and Jacksonville State announced this week that both sides "mutually agreed" to end the coach's tenure as the team's head coach. Green spent eight years on the sideline for Jacksonville State, leaving he program in "much better shape," according to the school's athletic director, but went 89-153.

Drexel is expected to hire Army head coach Zach Spiker, sources told ESPN.

Spiker, 39, took over in 2009 and has a 102-112 career mark in seven seasons with the Black Knights.

Army was 19-14 this season and 9-9 in Patriot League play.