Two-thirds of the three coaching candidates that have emerged at the forefront of the coaching search from our perspective, ever since we reported that Butler head coach Chris Holtmann was no longer a likely candidate, have lost in the NCAA Tournament.
UNC Wilmington and head coach Kevin Keatts started hot but blew a 15-point first half lead to Virginia and eventually lost 76-71. VCU, led by head coach Will Wade, was the somewhat the opposite. The Rams led 18-17 before Saint Mary’s blitzed them and built a 17-point lead at 46-29 before the first half was over. Saint Mary’s eventually won 85-77.
Both teams though showed impressive fight and effort. UNCW fell behind by 10 to Virginia midway through the second half but battled back to within two points with a little over a minute left. VCU came back to within two points, and then margin hovered around five points on multiple occasions against Saint Mary’s.
Head coach Archie Miller leads Dayton onto the floor Friday night in a daunting draw. Even if it gets past a first-round showdown with Wichita State, a likely second-round showdown with Kentucky looms. Thus it is more likely than not that after this weekend, NC State will be in a position to begin getting (perhaps quickly) into the formal aspects of the coaching search.
Here is a summary of where things stand with each of those three:
• Aside from Gregg Doyel’s tweet which may have spun some renewed optimism, the truth is at this point is not a whole lot of folks are expecting Miller to seriously entertain the NC State job. However, we return to a theme we reported in one of our earlier posts when the job search opened up.
To date, nobody from the Miller clan has come out and shot down the speculation on the job like the Miller patriarch did six years ago when Sean Miller at Arizona was believed to be NCSU’s dream candidate. There is also no question that Miller’s wife, also a NC State graduate, is pushing for him to meet with NC State officials. As we noted then and we repeat now, until that type of story emerges, we will believe that Archie Miller will at least give NCSU a listen, which our sources have indicated is all that athletics director Debbie Yow wants. At this point though there are no indications whether or not Miller will meet with NCSU.
What you still hear mostly surrounding Miller is, paraphrasing, “I don’t think he’ll take the job.” Reasons why simply center around Ohio State and perhaps Indiana. If either job were not looming openings then we suspect there might a chance that the chatter about a Miller homecoming to NC State would be different. He is also expected to get a raise to about $3 million a year at Dayton if he remains there.
We have said for a few years that Sean Miller has his eyes on the UNC job, and that could influence Archie Miller’s thinking.
Archie Miller remains a natural leading candidate: alum and former assistant; has coached under proven winners (to varying degrees) Sean Miller, Herb Sendek and Thad Matta and has coached six years at an established mid-major and led them to four straight NCAA Tournaments with an Elite Eight appearance in there. That is the blueprint profile of a leading candidate. We have also heard that both Wade and Keatts know that Miller is first on the pecking order.
• Keatts’ name and stock has risen fairly impressively over the past couple of weeks. There is a concern, for instance, that he might emerge as a leading contender with the Illinois opening. The worries around that job pertain to Illinois having deeper pockets to spend than NC State (up to a reported $4.5-$4.8 million per year).
Some sources have suggested to us that NC State and Keatts have already talked, and after digging around we basically ended up at a point where the best answer we got is that could not be confirmed or denied.
There is also strong speculation that Keatts has growing support among prominent NC State backers.
• Very little has been ascertained about Wade lately and that’s probably because that’s how Wade would prefer it. The feeling is that Wade plays his card closer to the vest.
Wade is more calculating and has to ponder what is the right move for him in the context of at age 34, he’s got 30-plus years of coaching ahead of him. He also had a front row seat for former boss Shaka Smart, who was around 33 years old when NC State went after him six years ago.
It seems that depending on the day, strong sources think it’s Wade over Keatts or Keatts over Wade. What that tells us is that they like both so much it’s hard to pick one over another. The tie-breaker will clearly be who covets the job the most.
We’ve talked in the past about the profile of a darkhorse candidate. Could now former-Indiana coach Tom Crean be that type? After nine years at Marquette that included a Final Four appearance, he experienced an all-time rebuild at Indiana. After three painful seasons (28-66 overall record and 8-46 in the Big Ten), he led Indiana to four NCAA Tournaments, including three Sweet 16s, and a pair of Big Ten regular season triumphs in the next five seasons. He won at least 27 games three out of those five seasons. At all but a few colleges, that would be enough to get a contract extension, but Indiana fans want more and think they can get more. With the right coach, that could prove to be true, but the wrong hire could further erase memories of past glory.
However, a first-round NIT loss this season led to his firing. Crean has a background with Adidas, which has invested a lot of money into NC State.
That said, the early word during the search was that candidates like Crean (or Mississippi State’s Ben Howland) would be long shots. Winthrop coach Pat Kelsey could be that darkhorse guy if it gets that far.
UNC Wilmington and head coach Kevin Keatts started hot but blew a 15-point first half lead to Virginia and eventually lost 76-71. VCU, led by head coach Will Wade, was the somewhat the opposite. The Rams led 18-17 before Saint Mary’s blitzed them and built a 17-point lead at 46-29 before the first half was over. Saint Mary’s eventually won 85-77.
Both teams though showed impressive fight and effort. UNCW fell behind by 10 to Virginia midway through the second half but battled back to within two points with a little over a minute left. VCU came back to within two points, and then margin hovered around five points on multiple occasions against Saint Mary’s.
Head coach Archie Miller leads Dayton onto the floor Friday night in a daunting draw. Even if it gets past a first-round showdown with Wichita State, a likely second-round showdown with Kentucky looms. Thus it is more likely than not that after this weekend, NC State will be in a position to begin getting (perhaps quickly) into the formal aspects of the coaching search.
Here is a summary of where things stand with each of those three:
• Aside from Gregg Doyel’s tweet which may have spun some renewed optimism, the truth is at this point is not a whole lot of folks are expecting Miller to seriously entertain the NC State job. However, we return to a theme we reported in one of our earlier posts when the job search opened up.
To date, nobody from the Miller clan has come out and shot down the speculation on the job like the Miller patriarch did six years ago when Sean Miller at Arizona was believed to be NCSU’s dream candidate. There is also no question that Miller’s wife, also a NC State graduate, is pushing for him to meet with NC State officials. As we noted then and we repeat now, until that type of story emerges, we will believe that Archie Miller will at least give NCSU a listen, which our sources have indicated is all that athletics director Debbie Yow wants. At this point though there are no indications whether or not Miller will meet with NCSU.
What you still hear mostly surrounding Miller is, paraphrasing, “I don’t think he’ll take the job.” Reasons why simply center around Ohio State and perhaps Indiana. If either job were not looming openings then we suspect there might a chance that the chatter about a Miller homecoming to NC State would be different. He is also expected to get a raise to about $3 million a year at Dayton if he remains there.
We have said for a few years that Sean Miller has his eyes on the UNC job, and that could influence Archie Miller’s thinking.
Archie Miller remains a natural leading candidate: alum and former assistant; has coached under proven winners (to varying degrees) Sean Miller, Herb Sendek and Thad Matta and has coached six years at an established mid-major and led them to four straight NCAA Tournaments with an Elite Eight appearance in there. That is the blueprint profile of a leading candidate. We have also heard that both Wade and Keatts know that Miller is first on the pecking order.
• Keatts’ name and stock has risen fairly impressively over the past couple of weeks. There is a concern, for instance, that he might emerge as a leading contender with the Illinois opening. The worries around that job pertain to Illinois having deeper pockets to spend than NC State (up to a reported $4.5-$4.8 million per year).
Some sources have suggested to us that NC State and Keatts have already talked, and after digging around we basically ended up at a point where the best answer we got is that could not be confirmed or denied.
There is also strong speculation that Keatts has growing support among prominent NC State backers.
• Very little has been ascertained about Wade lately and that’s probably because that’s how Wade would prefer it. The feeling is that Wade plays his card closer to the vest.
Wade is more calculating and has to ponder what is the right move for him in the context of at age 34, he’s got 30-plus years of coaching ahead of him. He also had a front row seat for former boss Shaka Smart, who was around 33 years old when NC State went after him six years ago.
It seems that depending on the day, strong sources think it’s Wade over Keatts or Keatts over Wade. What that tells us is that they like both so much it’s hard to pick one over another. The tie-breaker will clearly be who covets the job the most.
•••
We’ve talked in the past about the profile of a darkhorse candidate. Could now former-Indiana coach Tom Crean be that type? After nine years at Marquette that included a Final Four appearance, he experienced an all-time rebuild at Indiana. After three painful seasons (28-66 overall record and 8-46 in the Big Ten), he led Indiana to four NCAA Tournaments, including three Sweet 16s, and a pair of Big Ten regular season triumphs in the next five seasons. He won at least 27 games three out of those five seasons. At all but a few colleges, that would be enough to get a contract extension, but Indiana fans want more and think they can get more. With the right coach, that could prove to be true, but the wrong hire could further erase memories of past glory.
However, a first-round NIT loss this season led to his firing. Crean has a background with Adidas, which has invested a lot of money into NC State.
That said, the early word during the search was that candidates like Crean (or Mississippi State’s Ben Howland) would be long shots. Winthrop coach Pat Kelsey could be that darkhorse guy if it gets that far.
