It's Friday, what are today's rumor for the next UofA coach?

[carey]

No clue. Years of mediocrity is my guess. Theus, Greenberg, or Pastner I guess.

 

[Lefty]

Looks like Miller is staying at Xavier.
http://community.foxsports.com/blogs/goodmanonfox

 

[MaoTosiFanClub]

From the article, it sounds like Livengood has worked the search long and hard, doing everything right.

Okay, now we all know you have a hard-on for Lute Olson and are chomping at the bit to blame him for this debacle despite the fact he hasn't coached at Arizona in over two years. But saying an AD with 5 months to prepare and a war chest to give out still hasn't found a coach (let alone one that is serious about coaching Arizona) is doing everything right shows a complete lack of understanding.

He contacted the big boys through surrogates quietly behind the scenes and was rebuffed over and over.

Define quietly. Almost every coach in the country was rumored by one media outlet or another to have been contacted for this job over the course of the year. He just made a spectacle of himself and the university and embarrassed every Arizona fan with this Miller and Floyd disasters and I can almost guarantee neither of them were all that interested in the gig.

Most of you fans kept posting with certainty the ******* had done none of this. Now Miller is being offered a very nice package of moulah.

Livengood finally upped his offer because he was told if this hire failed he was going to get fired.

If he doesn't take it, what next?

Should be Pastner, but if Livengood is making the decision it will be a lameduck that we'll fire in two years.

 

[splitsecond]

Looks like Miller is staying at Xavier.
http://community.foxsports.com/blogs/goodmanonfox

You have to wonder what kind of motivations cause a person to turn down 2 mil a year, and stay living in the armpit that is Philadelphia.

 

[MaoTosiFanClub]

You have to wonder what kind of motivations cause a person to turn down 2 mil a year, and stay living in the armpit that is Philadelphia.

I thnk XU matched his offer or came close to it (which I admittedly didn't think they could do) and he's staying in Cincinnati. This would be coach #3 that played Livengood to get a nice, fat raise.

 

[Lefty]

Hire Pastner and see what he can do. It can't get any worse than what Livengood has done the last four months. At least Josh wants to be here and he would work his butt off.

 

[MaoTosiFanClub]

Ideas:

1. Hire Pastner and fire Livengood so we "win the press conference"

2. Freeze Lute until we have a cure for old age

 

[splitsecond]

Ideas:

1. Hire Pastner and fire Livengood so we "win the press conference"

2. Freeze Lute until we have a cure for old age

i support both of these options

 

[Lefty]

For some good news, the UofA spring game went very well. The team has depth and Scott looks to be a little ahead of Foles. This is going to be Stoops' best defense and if the offense can score 20+ points a game, the Cats will be winning many games.

 

[MaoTosiFanClub]

It's a sad state of affairs when Mike Stoops is carrying the flag for Arizona Athletics.

 

[overseascardfan]

http://msn.foxsports.com/cbk/story/...r-turns-down-'Zona-to-stay-at-Xavier?MSNHPHMA


Logically Pastner should be next in line but Goodman seems to think Jim Boylen of Utah in the next target. Personally I am shocked that Miller turned down the loot but like Mao said it was probably because Xavier matched or gave him a raise.

We need to bring in Pastner or Theus at least we know they'll say yes and will bring in some recruits.

 

[Ryanwb]

Jim Livengood needs to go, he hasn't a clue

 

[Lefty]

Jim Livengood needs to go, he hasn't a clue

The guy is horrible. I would love to hear his sales pitch. I really believe Josh Pastner should be hired. He might not have the experience but he loves the UofA and can bring in players. He just needs the right assistants around him. Livengood needs to listen to the former players who are pushing for Josh. He would be a better hire than someone like Seth Greenberg. Plus, hiring Josh would not break the bank.

 

[AsUdUdE]

I thnk XU matched his offer or came close to it (which I admittedly didn't think they could do) and he's staying in Cincinnati. This would be coach #3 that played Livengood to get a nice, fat raise.

Gotta say.. At some point you may have to look at the UofA job and admit it is simply not that attractive to ANYONE of consequence right now.... You could use the excuse of UK had money, and Pitnio wasn't going to leave because he didn't want it to seem like he was running away, or Capel just got more money...

But the bottom line is when everyone is spurning the Cats, you can't just blame JL and the canadates, I think it is clear, the UofA job is not looked on as highly as most of you guys have been claiming for the last 6 months...

 

[MaoTosiFanClub]

Gotta say.. At some point you may have to look at the UofA job and admit it is simply not that attractive to ANYONE of consequence right now.... You could use the excuse of UK had money, and Pitnio wasn't going to leave because he didn't want it to seem like he was running away, or Capel just got more money...

Pitino had no interest in the job, not sure why you keep bringing up his name as I've been saying that for awhile. Nobody had a chance to compete with UK, that money was ridiculous. Not sure what happened with Capel but once he got an extension he was out.

But the bottom line is when everyone is spurning the Cats, you can't just blame JL and the canadates, I think it is clear, the UofA job is not looked on as highly as most of you guys have been claiming for the last 6 months...

Apparently making 25 straight NCAA Tournaments and offering more money than any other program on the West Coast doesn't buy you any clout these days.

The Arizona job is fine, we just have a very poor athletic director.

 

[DWKB]

Reasons aside from JL that the UofA is having trouble filling the job:


1) Lute Olsen. Despite the fact that O'Neill and Pennell have been coaching the team, Lute is still the guy the new hire is following. Cliche is that nobody wants to follow "the man" and Lute is and always will be "the man" at UofA.

2) Lack of coaching tree branches. There aren't any or enough guys who've coached at UofA as asst. or players turned coaches who see the job as a homecoming. Lack of ties to the school takes away any emotional drive for the job.

3) West Coast bias: The lack of knowledge of the west coast recruiting scene causes the candidates to stay away for fear of not competing. Players want to play for coaches now more than schools and a new coach is an unknown despite the UofA school name.

4) TV contract: Not being on ESPN?


There are probably more, and the ones I'm listing are just reaching for stuff. It's all just guessing for guessing's sake at this point.

 

[Dback Jon]

So why doesn't Lute have a coaching tree? Did he just not develop good assistants?

 

[Russ Smith]

The question on Miller is as discussed here is he turning it down because he wants to stat at Xavier, or because he thinks he could get the UCONN job if Calhoun quits? I have to say I know Calhoun is getting old and has some health concerns but anybody taking that job had better do their due diligence it sure looks to me like Calhoun got caught redhanded breaking recruiting rules and decided I'm too old to go through this NCAA investigation process I'm getting out while I'm ahead?

If you noticed Calhoun won't even comment on the allegations now and CBS gave him a complete free pass bending over backwards to suggest UCONN will be cleared of all charges despite CBS having no factual basis to suggest that. I gotta believe any coach they talk to if Calhoun quits is going to be concerned about probation because they now have 2 kids who signed with UCONN that were involved with that agent and 2 is enough to establish the dreaded lack of institutional control.

All that leads me to suspect Miller stayed because he likes Xavier not because he wants to wait for UCONN, if true that's bad for UA.

 

[MaoTosiFanClub]

So why doesn't Lute have a coaching tree? Did he just not develop good assistants?

Lute was like Coach K up until the last few years - it was his show and his assistants were along for the ride. They probably didn't learn all that much under his watch.

Pastner is the best option in his coaching tree right now and who I believe should be the next head coach. And as a supporter of Arizona Athletics, I've let Robert Shelton and Jim Livengood know as much.

I think Miller takes a Big East gig like St. John's next season. I think Calhoun is too stubborn to walk away right now.

 

[MaoTosiFanClub]

Not sure what changed here, but I hope this isn't some tease or sick joke.

http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketball/news?slug=dw-miller040609&prov=yhoo&type=lgns