Are there any "mid majors" anymore?

I had a great little post written that I intended to roll out about how much I was starting to think Cuonzo Martin of Missouri State would make a great hire.  Then, before I could even get the damn thing out he goes and takes the job at Tennessee, a program facing sanctions from the NCAA for the past transgressions of former coach Bruce Pearl.  That being said, I have my doubts Martin was going to get an interview as all reports seem to indicate that Mizzou's first choice is current Purdue head man Matt Painter.  While that still seems a bit strange to me, apparently Painter has expressed interest in leaving the school he played for and assisted under his mentor, Gene Keady.  It seems that there may be some friction between Painter and athletic director Morgan Burke.  So, although I don't know that I consider Painter to be the home run hire that some do, I have to remember that I don't really follow basketball closely enough to be any sort of authority on who Mike Alden should or shouldn't hire.

One guy I do know that suddenly hit the lottery yesterday is VCU coach Shaka Smart, as his rams pulled off yet another upset, beating top seeded kansas 71-61 in a game that really wasn't as close as the score indicated.  His team now will meet last years Cinderella, Butler in one semifinal game next weekend with the winner playing against the winner of Kentucky/UConn for the national championship.  We've had these so called "mid majors" getting close and frankly, I kind of hope one of them wins it all this year.  With so many good players around now, and so many good young coaches, there's no reason one of these upstarts shouldn't bring home the hardware.  Smart or Butler head coach Brad Stevens would both look good cutting down the nets as far as I'm concerned.

On the other side of the bracket, we've got the Huskies of UConn, coached by Jim Calhoun facing Kentucky and their head man John Calipari going at each other.  The best part of this match up is one of the cocksuckers is going down.  As far as I'm concerned, they're 2 of the biggest reasons to cheer for the underdogs, along with ku coach Bill Self and Carolina's Roy Williams.
So the coaching search continues and if we don't hear anything by Wednesday or Thursday, it's likely we won't hear anything until the final 4 ends.  There's an unwritten rule about teams doing anything to take the spotlight away from the 4 teams in the championship round.  I probably should care more about the upcoming hire, but I can't say that I do right now.  I do know that I hope we see a coach standing on a stepladder a week from tonight that makes America say, "Who the hell is that guy?" 
If you'd like to get some stories on Missouri from some pretty darned good journalists, I'm attempting to consolidate some daily to keep you informed.  I'll be adding a Big XII section as well as serious news as well as the bizarre.  Drop by my website and head to "Current Events" to catch the thoughts of Mike and Gabe DeArmond, Bryan Burwell, Dave Matter and others.

The coaching search. Let the hysteria begin.

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.