lillurk

No news is good news on that front, partner

“Search firm talked to one candidate ~10 days ago” does not equal “neither search firm nor athletic department will take to other candidate now”

“Will Wade wants the IU job above all other openings but can’t even get an interview” is not evidence of an incompetent search, it’s evidence that the search is complete

Tyme has been hinting that Wade wants the IU job. I think at least he’d like to drive his price up

Right, the exception is 1) private schools or 2) schools with slow FOIA response times and/or 3) in states with less strict open records laws. Thus there has been some mystery this cycle about Drew and Otz, probably others.

Tend to agree, I guess I was saying setting aside location, a small school like Nova makes some sense to me for McCollum though he may feel differently

Seems like Collins will be interested, I think McCollum might be too (just a hunch).

Totally sensible to me that, adjacent to @8bucks question earlier and adding to @Trish’s answer, you’d have regional scouts camped out at tournaments and execs either popping in to one for a day or maybe catching one near their team. Not sure how normal it would be to go to 3 in 4 days (if this were to happen) even if one of the three was to watch family play. Maybe it is! Seems at least a little atypical to me, not trying to stir the pot though.

Saturday rooting guide: VCU over Loyola Chicago Memphis over Tulane UC San Diego over UC Irvine Boise State over Colorado State (not bolded because either winner is probably a bid thief, but BSU has an outside shot at an at-large; other games are obvious bid thieves)

I wouldn’t make tooooo much of his presence, as suggested by my earlier comment that scouts and execs are fond of tourneys. But I noticed this too.

Can’t speak for BS specifically but tournaments are a great way to see a lot of players in a short period with minimal travel. As a bonus the games have clearer stakes than regular season games and the neutral court setting mitigates potential home/road effects, so yes, plenty of executives and scouts are typically at them

Won’t be awake when the bottom 3 end I don’t think, but the first 4 went our way. My hunch is Texas is out and IU oughta be ahead of UNC; if so we need to worry about bid thieves but there aren’t many left.

Duke doing us no favors.

WVU seems squarely on the bubble to me so there’s a chance Iowa could make this happen very quickly if WVU is left out in the cold and DeVries really is their guy

Listen I am not building my theory on what IT says

Not to defend IT here but both the assertions you mentioned were pretty obviously laughable at the time they were posted. On more substantial matters the jury is mostly still out.

DeVries is an Iowa native like McCollum and has spent much of his career there or nearby — no insight about his preference to return but I think that’s the theory, regardless of relative job quality in a vacuum.

Hypothetically, if Scott Dolson had fostered a relationship with someone not currently coaching over years, had a deal or framework in place with that candidate, hired a search firm for cover/private comms/backups etc., and the candidate’s agent was his wife, it would probably look a lot like this search has. I’m not positive that’s the case. But until some of our best-connected posters change their tunes, I think it’s still in play.

More seriously McCollum seems perfect for a spot like Iowa where his D2 experience is probably great prep for recruiting and developing with fewer resources than your competitors. Not to say he couldn’t win at a higher level but if you’ve got to “moneyball” your situation he’s got a good pedigree. DeVries might too! But I don’t know if Iowa wants to eat that buyout.

Well I have bad news for him.

To expand on my answer: Doyel is annoying but ALSO just a classic newspaper sports section columnist. If you banish Doyel he gets replaced with someone very similar. HH are uniquely bad and if they weren’t in the IU media ecosystem someone else would probably step into the one beneficial role they’ve played, access interviewing, without all the bad things they’ve brought.

I think the “IU admin is unique” argument is overplayed from both sides — there are some historic anomalies related to singular leaders we all know (Brand, McRobbie, etc.) but those folks are gone. M Every admin is unique but other universities are bureaucratic and have a breadth of stakeholders who are only somewhat aligned. KwaC is not the only person around here w/higher ed experience. Some of us even have experience with multiple institutions ;)

Hysterics 8 days a week

Right but the point is the same, if Shaka himself spoke to a person who works for Turnkey then IU, Shaka, Kw/aC all have plausible deniability that IU didn’t interview him.

My guess is she’s being technical and Turnkey, the search firm, spoke with Smart (or even his agent), so technically a contractor did, not IU