Iowa State didn’t waste any time.
Iowa State has hired Northern Iowa coach Greg McDermott, a source close to McDermott said Tuesday.
McDermott replaces Wayne Morgan, who was fired last Friday.
McDermott is from Iowa, and everyone figured he would be nabbed by Iowa when Indiana came calling for Steve Alford. The problem for Iowa, Indiana hasn’t acted yet.
As of late Tuesday morning, Indiana still hadn’t contacted Iowa’s Steve Alford while Missouri’s search for Quin Snyder’s replacement was moving along molasses-like as well. Can you believe that? Five weeks into their coaching searches, Indiana and Missouri are still doing their due diligence. Iowa State, meanwhile, has done a firing and a hiring, and soon Greg McDermott will be kicking Iowa’s and Indiana’s butts for available recruits.
That, of course, meant that neither could Iowa. Iowa State did not hesitate, and McDermott took the sure job over the potential one.
Now, moving to Arizona State, Coach Dixon and a Pitt extension. Well, no news, but just some other things. I agree with a lot of the comments about the Arizona State job not being as good as Pitt in terms of situation, facilities, exposure, etc. Let’s also consider the fanbase and what it would take.
Dumb hires happen. Passionless Steve Robinson to apathetic Florida State in 1998 comes to mind. So does city slicker Pat Kennedy to Montana in 2002. But if dumb hires happen this year — and they will — it won’t be without warning.
Ten for Tuesday presents 10 potential hires that shouldn’t happen
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6. Lon Kruger to Arizona State: Arizona State basketball is such a sleeping giant, it would take major pizzazz to deliver the wakeup call. Kruger? The only thing he has in common with pizzazz are the zzzzzz’s. (Sleeping noise — get it?) Kruger is a solid X-and-O coach, but he’s not going to excite anyone about Arizona State. Not boosters, not recruits, not television executives and, most important, not me.
Coach Dixon’s come a long way this season from his first two as far as showing something resembling a personality to the public. He hasn’t come that far to be leading the invigoration of the fanbase and do the rubber chicken circuit to alumni groups for ASU.
Now as to Dixon and Pitt, this may simply be a useless piece of information that happens to be a coincidence, but consider this nugget regarding the Sweet 16 teams (ESPN Insider):
Compared to the 65 teams that started the 2006 tourney, the Sweet 16 teams are:
Led by coaches with more tourney experience (7.1 to 5.7 years on average)
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Compared to 21 years’ worth of Sweet 16 groups, the 2006 field:
Is relatively inexperienced in the coaching ranks, with the six fewest average years of tourney trips (7.1) and the fourth fewest average Elite Eight appearances (1.4)
Just a casual look at the list of teams that are in the Sweet 16 shows that 10 teams (Memphis, UConn, Villanova, WVU, Duke, BC, Texas, Florida, Gonzaga, UCLA) are headed by coaches who have taken teams to the NCAA 4 or more times. Experience in the post-season may not matter as much as it once did, but it still counts for something.
If Pitt were to let Dixon leave, is anyone that confident that Pitt would really and successfully hire someone not only better than Dixon but more experienced (not to mention more expensive)? If you are frustrated with Pitt not getting as far as they could, are you that sure someone new would?
