The Tigers are about 72 hours into the search for a new basketball coach. I try to stay on top of things happening in the AD, but I'm really having some problems getting into this one. Maybe it's the really foul taste from the recent departure of lma, (lyin' mike anderson) or simply the fact that I'm really more interested in what guys are making moves in spring football. However, the school goes on spring break this week so I assume I'll start to get more interested in things occurring on the basketball front. If I did have a personal favorite, it would be Brad Stevens of Butler. He has the Bulldogs in the elite 8 again this year after taking them to the championship game last season, before falling to Duke in the final as a last second shot rattled out at the buzzer. However, it appears that Stevens is happy at Butler for now. I suspect he's holding out for the Indiana job when/if it opens. Hell, he only looks to be about 19 or so, (actually, he's 34) so it's not like he has time to wait for a destination job to open up.
The early favorites also appear to be a couple of guys that cut their coaching teeth in the state of Indiana. One makes sense, and the other really makes no sense to me. Matt Painter, the 40 year old head man at Purdue appears to be the early front runner, and as I say, it makes no sense to me. He's coaching at the same school he played at, has been the Big Ten coach of the year 3 of the past 4 seasons, and, like Stevens may have designs on the Indiana job should Tom Crean fail. However, there have been lots of rumblings that he'd be interested in talking with Mike Alden. He currently makes 1.3 million at Purdue, which isn't chicken feed, but also isn't in the same neighborhood as the 2 million Alden had on the table for the guy that just left. Also, rumors that he doesn't get along with athletic director Morgan Burke might be true, which would explain a lot. Then he has a fan base that seems somewhat disinterested in paying more to keep him, thinking that if he leaves then they could just hire Cuonzo Martin, interestingly enough the 3rd guy on my list, and wouldn't miss a beat. If Painter is indeed the guy targeted, we may know by Wednesday of this week. Hey, if he were to sign he'd already have a nice collection of black and gold ties.
As I say, Martin is certainly a candidate, and he might be my first choice. Currently the 39 year old head coach at Missouri State, was born and grew up in East St. Louis, played at Purdue and coached with Painter. He has the ties to Missouri and should be able to recruit the guys anderson couldn't as he tried to recruit talent for his "40 minutes of mild inconvenience" system he ran at Mizzou. I'm damn sure getting tired of watching highly rated St Louis kids like Beal, McLemore, BJ Young and others going out of state to play ball. It would also serve as a nice reminder to the Missouri State fans as to how the food chain in Missouri sports works.
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