Coaching Rumor Mill Has Plenty of Grist

By John Feinstein
Friday, March 30, 2007

ATLANTA

There is nothing quite like the lobby of the coaches hotel the Thursday before the Final Four.

The scene at once is part first day of camp, with old friends and adversaries greeting one another like long-lost brothers; part job fair, with the unemployed ready to pounce on any school with a job opening; part airport during the holidays, with coaches sprawled on chairs and couches waiting for their rooms to be ready.

"Those are all the reasons I never stay there," said Maryland Coach Gary Williams, who is staying two blocks away. "You can't get in your room; you can't get an elevator; you're constantly being grabbed by coaches wanting a job or guys just wanting to shake your hand. It wears you out."

More than anything though, the lobby is Rumor Central. If you talk to enough people, you might learn the whereabouts of the Lindbergh baby before nightfall.

"A guy from Kentucky just told me that my name had come up for the job," Syracuse Coach Jim Boeheim said, laughing. "I told him if Kentucky had about $8 million a year, I might consider it." He paused. "You know, actually, that's not true. I wouldn't take that job for $8 million a year."

Tubby Smith, who left Kentucky to take the Minnesota job a week ago, walked by as Boeheim was speaking. Someone asked him if he might take the Kentucky job, because every other coach in the country had been mentioned at some point. "Now that," he said, "would be a good rumor to start."

It might not be the craziest one before the week is over. Everywhere Smith turned, he was being congratulated -- not so much for becoming the coach at Minnesota as for no longer being the coach at Kentucky.

"Look at him," former South Carolina coach Eddie Fogler said. "I don't think I've ever seen him look so happy."

Of course, someone will get Smith's old job. Most people right now believe Kentucky will make a massive play -- the latest rumored number is $4 million a year -- for Florida Coach Billy Donovan once the Final Four is over. Most people expect Florida will match whatever Kentucky offers, and Donovan will turn it down.

Next in line, if you believe the whispers, is Texas Coach Rick Barnes -- except Barnes doesn't want the job either. Nor does Michigan State's Tom Izzo. Marquette's Tom Crean's name is also being tossed around. Memphis's John Calipari might be a fit, but he just signed a new long-term contract.

"So what?" South Carolina Coach Dave Odom said. "If that's who Kentucky wants, they can come up with the money to get him out."

Odom has been to 34 Final Fours, dating from Greensboro in 1974. He knows how the coaching musical chairs game works.

"It used to be that a school like Kentucky could just point a finger and say, 'I want you,' and they'd have their coach," he said. "It isn't true anymore. Florida can match anything they offer Billy Donovan. Look at Texas A&M. You think they're letting Billy Gillispie walk out the door for Arkansas? They haven't had basketball like this in 50 years. There are a lot of oil men down there. They'll find the money."

Not long after Odom's pronouncement, word began to make its way around the lobby: Texas A&M had given Gillispie a long-term extension at $2 million a year.

"Jackpot," Odom said. "Imagine that: $2 million a year at Texas A&M for basketball. We are about to enter the era of the $3 million-a-year basketball coach."

That era may begin next week when the bidding opens for Donovan, regardless of whether his team wins a second straight national title Monday. Donovan did not sign a long-term extension last year after winning the national championship, so he is in the wonderful position of being able to name his price. Or he might be able to get the Miami Heat job. He is close to Pat Riley, and if he wins a second straight title, this might be the time, at age 41, to consider the NBA.

Someone mentioned that maybe Riley, a Kentucky grad, might want to go coach his alma mater.

"Only if he can take Shaq with him," one coach said.

"Yeah, but if Shaq got hurt, Riley would need more knee surgery," another said.

The lobby can be a bit mean-spirited, though funny, too.

Other names being tossed around: Vanderbilt Coach Kevin Stallings appears to be the leader in the clubhouse right now for the Michigan job. Stallings played and coached at Purdue and has probably hit the ceiling at Vanderbilt, which was one shot (or one missed traveling call, depending on your point of view) from a region final. Stallings has won in one of the toughest jobs in the country, so why can't he win at Michigan?

As soon as the word spread about Gillispie staying at Texas A&M, another name began to float around for the Arkansas job: Florida State Coach Leonard Hamilton. Having been an assistant at Kentucky, Hamilton has ties to the Memphis area, a key recruiting outpost for Arkansas, a place dominated in recent years by Calipari. Someone even threw Tim Floyd's name out for Arkansas, noting his ties to Memphis from his days as the coach at New Orleans.

Steve Alford, newly minted as the coach at New Mexico, walked past the group that included Tubby Smith.

"So, you copied me, huh?" Smith said jokingly.

"Anything you do, I want to do, too," replied Alford, who left Iowa for his new job.

Alford was asked who he thought might succeed him at Iowa.

"No idea," he said, smiling.

Names started being bounced around: Crean?

"Don't think so," Alford said.

Several people brought up Chris Lowery, the coach at Southern Illinois.

"He's the kind of guy they probably should be looking at," Alford said, nodding in agreement.

Boeheim was asked if he had any idea who might get the job at South Florida, now a Big East school. He smiled.

"I'm just here trying to schedule road games for next year," he said. "My goal in life is to make the [tournament selection] committee happy."

Before he could launch into a tirade about his team being left out of the tournament, College of Charleston Coach Bobby Cremins walked up.

"Way to go, Jim," he said. "Way to tell those guys on the committee off."

"Can I play you on the road next year?" Boeheim asked.

He left the South Florida question unanswered. The answer, if you're following along, is Florida assistant coach Larry Shyatt.

There is, of course, still more to come as the weekend heats up. And Adolph Rupp may be in the mix at Kentucky.

Stay tuned.