I listened to Kevin Harlan and I think he made a valuable point in analyzing our imminent coaching search. The biggest knock on mid major coaches is the fact that regardless of what even MVC fans say, there is a BIG difference in recruiting to a "mid-major" school and a BCS school. I still rank success as a head coach as very high, but I think we must also look at where some of these guys have been in their careers.
Some of the popular names out there seem to be McDermott, Lowery, Capel, Jeter, Hobbs (probably the biggest longshot on the list.).
Of that group, McDermott has certainly had the most sustained success as he's working on his 3rd straight NCAA appearance and he built the program at UNI from the ground up. However, the biggest knock on McDermott would be that he's never coached at a BCS school and also played at UNI. Does that mean he shouldn't be considered? No way, but it certainly has to be factored in.
Lowery is an intriguing prospect, but doesn't have a ton of experience. This is only his 5th year coaching at a D1 school, 2nd year as a head coach, and he also played at SIU. He did have one year at Illinois, so he does have a year of experience benig an assistant at a BCS school.
Capel has the major Duke experience as a player, but is maybe the least experienced as a coach. Only got started in 00 at ODU, then moved to VCU and has experienced some success as their head coach over 4 years.
Jeter is very inexperienced as a head coach, but has been around quite a bit and moved up as an assistant from Marquette to UW Milwaukee, to being the associate head coach at Wisconsin. He had 4 years of experience there before getting his first job at UW Milwaukee (replacing Pearl) and has them on top of the Horizon League.
Carl Hobbs is IMO the best choice b/c of quality experience building a program (into a Top 10 team) that was a mess at GW after being an assistant at one of the Top 5 programs of the last decade or so. The biggest knock would be that he's an east coast guy.
So looking at the list I might revise my earlier projections and put them in this order (for the midmajor candidates):
Hobbs
Jeter
McDermott
Lowery
Capel
Feel free to add others to this list and add or counter point the discussion.
As a proclaimed Woolite, I'm still all for a change. There is no miracle in store for this team, though I'll admit I'd like to see another 2 or 3 wins and for these kids to get to play a little postseason in the NIT.
