Pre-NCAA Tournament Quick Hitters
Quick hitters as we near the first round of the NCAA Tournament:
- Who knew that James Madison was such a hot job? Quite a few names have surfaced for it thus far. Mike Jarvis has been mentioned prominently and is very interested, while Duquesne’s Ron Everhart and Vermont’s Mike Lonergan have been mentioned as well. Also in the mix, according to sources, are Matt Brady (Marist), Steve Donohue (Cornell) and Jeff Jones (American).
- Oklahoma head coach Jeff Capel is the hot name for South Carolina right now, as he grew up in North Carolina. He’s likely to be tough to pry away from Oklahoma, and another name that’s come up is Davidson’s Bob McKillop. Anthony Grant’s name has been mentioned, but reports have indicated that LSU is the more likely destination for the current VCU mentor.
- A number of names have been mentioned for Providence, with a few surfacing well before Tim Welsh was fired. The hot names have been former Boston College and Ohio State head coach Jim O’Brien, George Mason head coach and PC alum Jim Larranaga and Ohio’s Tim O’Shea. Among the others that have been mentioned, Kent State’s Jim Christian would make sense since he has been in the area before as a URI alum.
- It’s pretty much a given now that Dan Dakich won’t be the head coach at Indiana beyond the NCAA Tournament. Washington State’s Tony Bennett remains the big name there, and Scott Drew might be a sleeper possibility with his resurrection of Baylor. How about Wright State head coach Brad Brownell? He grew up in Indiana, knows Bob Knight, has done nothing but win and is squeaky clean, the last of which is crucial right now. Brownell could have had a job in a conference like the Big Ten after what he did at UNC-Wilmington, but opted to take a lateral move because he wanted out of Wilmington. He’s certainly earned his chance to get a shot at that level.
- A sleeper for Oregon State that was suggested recently: Old Dominion’s Blaine Taylor. Whether or not he would be interested is unknown, but he would certainly be an out-of-the-box choice and has roots out west. Taylor is a Montana alum and also spent seven seasons as their head coach, taking them to the NCAA Tournament twice and the NIT another time. He also has experience in the Pac-10 as a former Stanford assistant under Mike Montgomery. More recently, he has built Old Dominion into a consistent postseason team, as the Monarchs are in their fourth straight postseason right now, and he’s a solid coach that doesn’t get the pub he deserves.
- Things are now set for the Hoop Mountain Greater Boston All-Star Games coming up on Saturday, March 22 at Harvard. It starts with the senior game at 6 p.m., whose participants include Stevie Mejia (headed to Rhode Island), Jake O’Brien (Boston University), Andrew Van Nest (Harvard), Jamal Turner (Fairfield) and David Rufful (Dartmouth). Following that will be the underclassman game at 8 p.m., featuring Louisville commit Mike Marra, Connecticut commits Alex Oriakhi and Jamal Coombs, along with Nate Lubick, Evan Smotrycz, Kyle Casey, Tucker Halpern, Darryl Cato-Bishop, Nadir Tharpe, Ben Crenca and Shabazz Napier among others.
- The Houston Kingwood Classic always has a big field, but this year it may have outdone itself. Demand for the event has been so high that the organizers had to shut off registration on Monday, more than a month before it begins. As of this past weekend, they were ahead of last year’s record turnout. It’s safe to say that the Kingwood Classic is cementing its position as the best spring tournament.
