From Gary Parrish at CBSsports

Whether Smart will actually accept remains unclear.

But Texas officals are optimistic, a source told CBSSports.com.

HornsDigest.com is reporting that Texas is trying to finalize a 5-year deal.

A source told CBSSports.com that Smart has, for several days now, been communicating with various people in the industry to try to get a better grasp for the Texas job and athletic director Steve Patterson. The point, a source said, is that Smart is clearly interested in this job more than any other job that's opened in recent years -- including UCLA and N.C. State.

Tennessee paid Collegiate Sports Associates $51,000 for the search firm’s help in hiring new men’s basketball coach Rick Barnes.

That boils down to $12,750 every day the Vols were without a basketball coach.

Wichita State and head coach Gregg Marshall have reached agreement on a deal that will keep him at the school.

The deal is for seven years and is worth $3 million per year, sources told ESPN.

Marshall met with Alabama officials earlier in the week in Wichita. A source told ESPN's Jeff Goodman that the school was making an offer in the neighborhood of $4 million per year.

There is a growing sense among NBA executives that Florida Gators coach Billy Donovan is looking to making the jump to the NBA more than ever before, according to league sources

Sources told ESPN.com that Donovan is poised to draw interest from multiple NBA teams this offseason and is increasingly prepared to listen to those pitches after the Gators endured a 16-17 season in which they failed to qualify for postseason play for just the second time in Donovan's nearly two decades in Gainesville.

Confirmed Smart accepts position at Texas.

Posted by clansing on 4/3/2015 12:38:00 AM (view original):
Confirmed Smart accepts position at Texas.

Yes....here's the rest of the story

 

VCU sports information director Scott Day confirmed to reporters gathered at the campus Thursday night that Smart was making the move.  

Terms of Smart's contract were not immediately released. Barnes made $2.62 million last season. Smart made $1.8 million with the Rams. 

At VCU, Smart took over a program that had great success under Jeff Capel and then Anthony Grant. Smart hopes to avoid the pitfalls at Texas that his predecessors encountered when they left to take over programs at universities considered football schools.

Capel lasted five years at Oklahoma before being fired, and Grant spent six at Alabama before he was dismissed.

By leaving before May 1, Smart owes VCU a $500,000 buyout. His contract also contains a provision that if he became a head coach at another institution, that school would have to play VCU in a home-and-home series or pay VCU $250,000.

( I like that clause about the home-and-home series.  The mid-major schools should all add that clause to their contracts)

Here's the video and letter that led to the firing of Bowling Greens' coach:

http://deadspin.com/heres-the-***-slapping-video-that-got-bowling-greens-co-1695360858

Now that Gregg Marshall and Shaka Smart are off the board, who should Alabama pursue next?   A columnist suggested these names:

Richard Pitino, Minnesota
Steve Prohm, Murray St.
Archie Miller, Dayton
Bryce Drew, Valpasaiso
Ron Hunter, Georgia St.
Michael White, La. Tech

Billy Gillispie is named the new head coach of Ranger College (JC in Texas)

The news on Shaka Smart is huge. It means Texas expectations are high, they want to contend and finally put it together. Is Smart the right man for the job? He won't be able to hide behind the fact that he is coaching a mid-major program. He will need to get results fast. To me, the best mid-major coach we saw in the NCAA is now in Boston, coaching the Celtics. He is still incredibly good considering he has no team and he is knocking at the door of a playoffs spot.

I think DePaul made a huge mistake not to hire Hurley. When you get back to the same coach you had before, you get the same results. If your expectations are higher, you might as well try

I think Alabama should hire either Drew or Pitino. It's a no brainer. If they can't get either : why not try to build it with Steve Prohm. I am impressed with what he did in Murray State and thought they should have been in the NT this year.

Both DePaul and Liberty brought back coaches who'd been there before.......very unusual.  I've been keeping this thread for 5 years and it's the first time I've seen it done. 

  There was one other oddity 2-3 years ago.   Two schools fired their coaches, then hired the other coach. They essentially traded coaches. 

A group of prominent black coaches headlined by Tubby Smith and Shaka Smart are forming an organization to address the dwindling numbers of minority head coaches in college basketball.

The National Association for Coaching Equity and Development is in response to the dissolution of the Black Coaches Association. Ten years after minority coaches held more than 25 percent of the jobs across the country, the percentage dropped to 22 percent last year. And another 12 minority coaches have been fired this season. Only 2 vacancies....at DePaul and Texas...have been filled by black coaches. 

Former NBA coach Avery Johnson has verbally agreed to become the head coach at Alabama, sources told ESPN on Sunday.

The 50-year-old Johnson, an ESPN analyst, is from New Orleans and played in the NBA. He coached theDallas Mavericks from 2005 to 2008 and the Brooklyn Nets from 2010 to 2012.

memphisport.com printed a story about Kentucky and Florida's recent domination of the SEC:

"However, there will be some changes at the top of the conference real soon thanks to the additions of some high profile coaches the last couple of years.  From Auburn’s Bruce Pearl to Frank Martin in South Carolina, the SEC is now full of exceptional coaches who are more than capable of taking down the Gators and Wildcats.

Now Avery Johnson's going to Alabama,, and with Tennessee hiring Rick Barnes and Mississippi State snagging Ben Howland it is beginning to look like the conference will have some much needed parody soon.

Hopefully. I will be rooting for Avery to succeed. He was always a class act with San Antonio Spurs when he played. A lot of heart.