Gotta say, we’re a little shocked by this one. 

It had to be the money.  Otherwise, why would Trent Johnson, a west coast guy who had rebuilt Stanford basketball into a top program in the west take a job in the south at a football school with only lukewarm support for roundball?

Johnson May Find Things a Little Different in Baton Rouge

And what about LSU – they were reportedly looking at Anthony Grant or Travis Ford, two of the hotter young program-builders around.  Hiring Trent Johnson seems to come a little out of left field, but it undoubtedly will be the ship upon which new AD Joe Alleva will raise his sail.

As for Stanford, can Monty get out of his contract with Cal this quickly?  Will they now target someone such as Grant or Ford?  Do they look internally?   

Last fall we wrote a posting in reference to former Stanford and Golden State Warriors head coach Mike Montgomery taking some undefined and vacuous role as an advisor in the Stanford athletic department.  Getting the sense that Monty was restless, we wondered aloud whether this move was some sort of failsafe strategy on the part of Stanford should Trent Johnson’s Cardinal have another underachieving season. 

Given that Stanford ended up as a #3 seed in the NCAA Tournament and rode the Lopez Twins to the Sweet 16, Johnson’s job appears safe, but lo and behold if the other major source of academic smug on the west coast, Cal-Berkeley, didn’t fire its longtime and chronic underachiever Ben Braun last week.  Hmmm… 

Judas Iscariot is Moving to Berkeley

Mercenary that he is, Montgomery today accepted the head job at Cal in a startling move that can only be compared with one of the other great treasonous acts in college sports history (Rick Pitino to Louisville) – equally heinous, but perhaps with a little less passionate response from the fans.  Make no mistake though, despite both being world-class institutions of higher education, these two schools do not like one another, and several of the pranks the students have played on each other rank among some of the very best we’ve seen (especially this one).  So the very idea that the architect and greatest coach in the history of Stanford basketball (he’s in the Cardinal HOF, for chrissakes!) will cross the Maginot Line Bay to coach the enemy is nothing short of perfidy. 

To its credit, um, the Stanford community seem to be taking the news well.  One poster named CreoleCard on this forum caught our eye with his measured response to the news (love the use of the small “c” to really hammer home the inferiority angle):

1. We got his best years.  I can’t imagine that he will be that thrilled to recruit now at his age.
2. He won’t have to worry about admissions standards at cal.
3. It’s fitting that cal would want our left overs.
4. Interesting that cal would go to him with all the younger, up-and-coming coaches available.
5.  Anything at cal is doomed to failure.  The tide is turning on Tedford now.

So the coaching carousel rumor mill is blowing up right now, and this one is on a little firmer footing than yesterday’s Knight/WKU rumor (which interestingly still hasn’t been refuted), but Pat Forde and others are reporting that UMass coach Travis Ford (and NIT finalist) will take over the head position of the LSU Tigers later this week.  The firm leading the search for a new head coach (and AD) had this to say:

Dan Parker of Parker Executive Search denied Wednesday an ESPN report that LSU is prepared to name University of Massachusetts Coach Travis Ford as its next basketball coach.  “We’re waiting on the new athletic director to be named today or tomorrow, then we’ll engage with him,” said Parker, whose firm was hired last week to assemble candidates and was also hired for the AD search. “There have been no interviews, but we have made some phone calls. LSU wants it to be an inclusive search.”

If the Bayou Bengals do hire Ford, we may as well start calling the SEC the Pitino Protege conference, what with three of his former players (John Pelphrey – Arkansas; Billy Donovan – Florida) running programs down there. 

This would be an intriguing hire.  Ford got the previously moribund Eastern Kentucky program into the NCAAs in 2005, and even gave his alma mater Kentucky a run in the first round before losing 72-64.  After a rebuilding year in 2006 at UMass, the last two seasons have been very successful by UMass standards (24-9 in 2007 and 25-10 thus far in 2008), culminating in two postseason trips to the NIT with the possibility of an NIT title tomorrow night against Ohio St.   

If true, LSU fans should be thrilled.  Ford is young, ambitious and has a strong hoops pedigree.  But hey, anything beats John Brady, right? 

Update:  Ford took his name out of consideration for the LSU job (ultimately taken by Stanford’s Trent Johnson), but he had that snivelling look of someone with one foot out the door after all.  He’s headed to Oklahoma St. to become Boone Pickens’ houseboy. 

Lost in the news of Tom Crean’s decision to go to Indiana is the possibility that the Kansas Jayhawks are once again going into the Final 4 with rumors that their head coach is going to leave them. The last time they were here in 2003, they went through this with Roy Williams, who initially denied any interest in the open position, but left Kansas anyways a week later. With Sean Sutton’s resignation after his ill-fated attempt to succeed his father Eddie, there is an opening in Stillwater for one head ball coach.

Although Bill Self, an OSU alum, has stated that he is not running in the running to be the Cowboys next head coach, his press conference left us less than convinced that he is definitely staying in Lawrence. As Seth Davis noted last week (scroll to bottom), OSU has some serious Boone Pickens money to throw around. That and the chance to go back to his alma mater (potentially ending their ceaseless requests for donations) may be enough to convince Self to leave the Jayhawks empty-handed once again.

I would have a hard time understanding why Self would leave Kansas. I know that he is an OSU alum and maybe I went to a school with absolutely no school spirit (stupid city campus), but it just seems like Self has fewer reasons to go from KU to OSU than Williams had to go from KU to UNC. I would consider KU and UNC to be on the same level in terms of historic significance and about the same in terms of ability to recruit (slight edge to UNC), but KU absolutely destroys OSU in any objective or subjective measure (other than number of fans in Stillwater).

I just hope the Roy Williams tearfest this week isn’t interrupted by this. Seriously though if Self leaves for OSU, who would Kansas trust after getting screwed over by 2 coaches who hadn’t won a title yet and left their team after/during (depending on your level of cynicism) a trip to the Final 4? Danny Manning?

I am sure this will hang over the heads of Jayhawk fans during what should be the best week of their year (unless they beat UNC/Roy and the winner of UCLA/Memphis) as will the memory of Roy high-tailing it out of town for Chapel Hill. The thing that should really bother them is that Self has a history of this having left a big-time basketball school (Illinois at the time) for another school (Kansas). The thing is that he may be leaving them this time.

According to reports on ESPN, Indiana is on the verge of signing Tom Crean as their new head coach. I think this is about as good as Indiana can expect since they are losing D.J. White (and most likely Eric Gordon), kicked 2 other starters off the team today (Armon Bassett and Jamarcus Ellis), and face potential NCAA sanctions for the Kelvin Sampson fiasco.

Crean has done an excellent job after taking his first job as head coach at Marquette (previously was an assistant at Michigan State, Western Kentucky, and Pittsburgh). After struggling to stay above .500 his first 2 seasons, Marquette quickly became a national power during the 2001-2002 season going 26-7. Crean’s career at Marquette reached its apex in 2003 when he took his team to the Final 4 (Dwayne Wade may have had a little to do with that too). After that season, Crean’s teams spent 2 years in the NIT before getting back to the NCAA tournament.

It appears that Crean will leave Marquette in good shape as they finished 5th in the loaded Big East this year. The Golden Eagles ended their season in the second round with an 82-81 OT loss to Stanford on a Brook Lopez leaner with 1.8 secs left.

I think Crean will be an excellent hire for Indiana. The big question now is what kind of damage control he can do. His first order of business will be to get his new program on the same page. I’m not sure what kind of process he will have to go through with Bassett and Ellis, but I don’t think he can afford to lose them and stay competitive. Keeping Eric Gordon will be a stretch, but Gordon probably dropped at least 5 spots with his awful performance in the last month or two of the season. After that, he will be at the mercy of the NCAA as they decide the programs fate for the next few years.

Yes, it’s April Fools’ Day, and yes, our sources are only message board chatter, but thankfully we’re not beholden to the same journalistic standards as our forebears, so we can actually give thoughtful consideration to this wild idea.

Is Bob Knight currently in talks with Western Kentucky to become the next head coach of the Hilltoppers? If the chatter is true, Knight wants to coach a mid-major with a solid fanbase, and WKU would certainly fit that bill.

Hmmm…..

In other coaching news, Andy Katz is reporting that Indiana will hire Tom Crean from Marquette as the next head man for the Hoosiers. You better hope there’s another Dwyane Wade in the pipeline for Crean there, Hoosier fans (Crean has a 1-3 NCAA record w/o D-Wade; 4-2 with).

Update: nearly 36 hrs after posting, this rumor of Knight going to WKU has yet to die. There’s still not much coming out of the MSM, but the message board chatter refuses to give up on the assertion that Knight met with WKU officials in Bowling Green, Ky, last night. Stay tuned to this one.

Update #2:  Finally debunked here.  But the rumor had legs, that’s for sure! 

Normally, I wouldn’t make a separate post for a single link to a story from another site (especially one at ESPN, which doesn’t need any more hype), but I figured you might be busy watching games and may not notice this. Apparently, Andy Katz has been busy covering the rest of the college basketball world as he spoke with Lute Olson about his sabaticcal along with several other issues.

For those who don’t care to read the rather long article, here’s a quick summary:
– Took the season off to deal with stress relating to a divorce from his second wife (his first wife died of 47 years died of cancer in 2001).
– Olson will be the head coach next year and intends to fulfill the rest of his contract through 2011 and did not mention any plans of stopping after that.
– Arizona is going back on its previous oral commitment to name interim coach Kevin O’Neill as Olson’s eventual successor. O’Neill hasn’t decided what he is doing next year although he still has one year left on his contract as Lute’s assistant.
– The Wildcats will go back to their roots as a running team instead of the half-court offense that O’Neill installed this year.
– According to the article, it seems like Jerryd Bayless is seriously considering leaving while Chase Buddinger is probably returning.
– Lute is healthy contrary to previous reports, but had to stay quiet on the issue during his leave because of Arizona laws.
– He thinks they can contend for the 2009 national title.

I’ll avoid commenting on Lute’s personal life and health other than to say that he is in a lot better shape (based on what the article says) than most guys his age I have seen.

The more interesting thing is how the Arizona athletic department is basically going back on their word. I can understand wanting to go with Olson because he is a legend particularly in that area of the country. I just don’t understand why they would give O’Neill a commitment back in December. Even though the Wildcats were playing well at the point of the verbal commitment, the AD should know enough to realize that a coach’s performance isn’t judged in December.

The other thing I found interesting is that Olson expects to contend for the 2009 title. I guess I wouldn’t expect him to say that he doesn’t expect to contend, but going from a bubble team to champion is a stretch. It all depends on whether Bayless and Buddinger return. Going to a wide-open offense would definitely utilize their talents more than a half-court offense. I know everybody is really high on Bayless, but personally I like Buddinger’s game more and I think he will end up being a very good pro. If both come back and they add their excellent recruiting class, they will be a darkhorse contender as they lost a lot of very close games. In either case, it’s good to have Lute (and hopefully Arizona) back, but I hope that O’Neill gets a good job because this smells a lot like what Miami and Pat Riley did to Stan Van Gundy although Olson had a much better reason for taking time off.

Normally, a mid-year resignation at a mid-major school wouldn’t inspire us to blog about it, but normally, 71-yr old coaches with 798 wins on the resume aren’t taking over mid-majors on an interim basis either.

CBS Sportsline reported today that, after Jessie Evans’ stepdown at the University of San Francisco, Sutton will be taking over as the interim coach of the USF program, effective immediately. USF has gotten off to a moribund 4-8 start this year, losing five of its last six games.

We really can’t figure this one out at all. How did USF even know that Sutton was available? Why is Sutton available? Didn’t he retire from Oklahoma St. two years ago? How effective can a 71-yr old coach with absolutely no ties to a program or region be? Did he already blow through the millions OSU paid him? We’re sitting here scratching our heads.

The only thing we can think is that Sutton is attracted to some of the great do-your-own-thing bars down in the Tenderloin district – the Bambuddha Lounge comes to mind – and with SF being a veritable parking nightmare, the likelihood of yet another embarrassing Sutton DUI is minimal. Or maybe Sutton was wanting for some of the cross-cultural delights that Baghdad by the Bay has to offer? We figure the dude’s totally gonna be rocking leather niprings at next year’s Folsom Street Fair.

Update: Apparently Sutton took the USF job sight-unseen, having never stepped foot on the campus. Sutton stated that he returned because he’s given up drinking and that he wanted to win 800 games before he retired.  Evans’ status is one of a leave of absence, with no further information given as to his future at the school.

When we saw the news today that the “Big Nasty” is retiring from the NBA and returning to the college ranks to become an assistant coach for Arkansas Baptist College, our easily distracted brains floated back to reflect on what we believe was one of the top half-dozen or so college careers of the 90s. 

Nolan Richardson’s “40 Minutes of Hell” Arkansas teams of Corliss Williamson, Scotty Thurman, Corey Beck (who in completely unrelated news, was shot on Sunday!) and others represented more than a gimmicky name, they represented an ethos.  An ethos mandating that they would run and substitute and run some more with the express purpose of ramming the ball down your throat until you got so tired from the harassing and pressing and constant stream of 6’5 defenders hawking you all over the court, that you simply succumbed to their collective will and gave it up.  They could make excellent teams look downright silly when the 40MoH avalanche gained momentum – ask Richard Williams (Feb. 20, 1993 – Arkansas 115, Mississippi St. 58) or Norm Stewart (Dec. 2, 1993 – Arkansas 120, Missouri 68) about that.  In those days, Arkansas basketball was absolutely must-watch tv for fans because if you watched Frasier instead, you might miss a display of Al Dillard 35-foot bombs and Big Nasty’s pirouettes into a timeout after a patented 11-0 run by the Hawgs.  These were also Nolan’s last great teams before he deteriorated into a paranoid and raving lunatic retired.   

This take-no-prisoners attitude derived as much from the Big Nasty as it did from the coach.  One look at his shaved dome and lips curled into a snarl as he sought to molest another rebound or eviscerate another defender in the post (using every inch of his 6’7 frame) was all you needed to see that this guy meant business.  When a bucket was needed (he was a career 58% shooter), the ball would enter into his surehanded mitts, who, for those short on memory, had the touch and agility of Glen “Big Baby” Davis with a far greater passion and understanding of the game (this is one case where given nicknames seem appropriate).  We’ll never forget how he utterly abused the much-taller, longer and athletic Rasheed Wallace in the second half (19 of his game-high 21 pts) of the 1995 national semifinals, leading the Hawgs from seven down at halftime to a seven-point victory.  It was the kind of performance that separates champions from pretenders at that level, and Big Nasty backed down to nobody. 

In three seasons at Arkansas, Corliss and friends won the national championship in 1994 and lost to the eventual national champions the other two years (1993 – lost to UNC in OT; 1995 – lost to UCLA in the title game).    They went 85-19 including a sparkling 13-2 NCAA record during this period.  Big Nasty was the team leader and best player, averaging 19 ppg and 7 rpg in just under 30 minutes.  He was drafted in the first round of the 1995 NBA Draft, and re-focused his game on the perimeter to utilize his stature and quickness over the next several years.  He ultimately played twelve seasons in the L, garnering a reputation as a great locker-room presence, and earning Sixth Man of the Year in 2002 plus an NBA title with the Pistons in 2004.  We’re not completely sure, but we think he is one of only three players so far who won NCAA titles in the 1990s and later won an NBA title (Rip Hamilton – UConn (99), Pistons (04) and Nazr Mohammed – UK (96, 98), Spurs (05)).

Welcome back to the college game, Big Nasty.  We wish you well.   

Update:  Always a nice guy off the court, we found this clip of Big Nasty playing along with the interviewer (and rockin’ the fly Jesus shirt) at a charity bowling tournament.   One question – who is the white guy and who is the black guy here?

In one of the more shocking developments of our nascent blog’s young life, we’ve noticed that a mid-April entry deriding Tommy Amaker‘s arrival at Harvard as some sort of savior is regularly in the blog’s Top 10 posts every month.  Now, we don’t know who is behind this peculiar phenomenon, but we can posit a few guesses.

1. Are Michigan fans so disgusted with Amaker that they’re still spitefully searching for him only to piss on his virtual grave?

2. Are Harvard fans so enamored with him…  wait a minute, there are Harvard fans?

3. Are Duke fans so unapologetically overzealous for Coach K to sprout a successful coaching tree that they’re driving the hits?  Hmm, perhaps a Quin Snyder/Pete Gaudet/Jeff Capel post would answer that question.

Frankly, we think it’s Amaker himself.  After all, he hasn’t had much to do all summer other than prep for his Promise Keepers revival coaching clinic.   Yes, friends, for only $65 per person you too can learn how to walk around with a cool halo effect surrounding your head and torso.  (major h/t to The Realests for this find) 

So what’s the o/u on number of glowing (sorry, that was rancid) articles we’ll see about Amaker succeeding at Harvard this preseason?  We’ll set the number at four.  Any takers?