Can we rename this thread "Coaching Search Master Thread (in the event that oscar Crashes and burns)"
Would be nice to focus the oscar hate in one thread and leave the rest BB forum to the optimists.
I'm pretty undecided about the oscar hire until we get a couple years down the road, but here's my first candidate:
Rob Jeter, UW-Milwaukee Head Coach.
When I was a youngster I went to a couple Bo Ryan camps and really liked Jeter. This man knows the game and can flat-out coach your socks off. He was head recruiter for Bucky under Bo Ryan for 5 seasons(I think). Landed good recruiting classes but nothing amazing. alando tucker, devin harris, brian butch, kammron taylor were the biggest names. Record at UW-Milwaukee looks deceptively mediocre, keep in mind there are 6 other D1 basketball schools within 100 miles of UW-M(Badgers, Marquette, UW-GB, Depaul, Loyola Chicago, and Illinois Chicago) and UW-M is about the worst of the UW state schools in regards to academics, so recruiting is pretty much a nightmare. oscar pearl only recruited successfully because he's a crook, and Jeter went to second round of NCAA with a solid core of Pearl leftovers anyway. Struggled for a couple years after Pearl players were gone, but now has the program winning again. 2011 Horizon League Coach of the Year, 2x Horizon League Champs.
Obviously not a Bill Self-type resume, but expect him to get picked up within the next few years by a bigger mid-major that suddenly finds itself without a coach or a struggling power-conference team.
Edit: for what its worth, I forgot to mention he is competing with Fighting Illini for Chicago/Milwaukee recruits as well. so UW-M competes directly for local recruits with 2 big 10 schools, 2 big east, and 3 horizon league