GH Column: Gophers Basketball Coaching Candidates: 10 Coaches Teague Could Covet

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With the news that Tubby Smith is out as head coach at the University of Minnesota, all eyes will turn to Gophers AD Norwod Teague. Teague and Senior Associate Athletic Director Mike Ellis will define their tenure with the hire they make. Both come to Minnesota with a heavy pedigree in basketball. Teague is a North Carolina grad and was the AD at VCU when he first hired Anthony Grant and followed that up with the well-documented hire of Shaka Smart. Ellis was a student manager under Dean Smith at UNC and was a long time basketball assistant at VCU before joining the administration under Teague at VCU.

The stakes are much higher at Minnesota than VCU, but the opportunity is greater as well. You don't fire an NCAA Championship winning head coach like Tubby Smith and not swing for the fences with his replacement. These guys will go big. This is their chance to make their mark on the U's athletic department and will set the tone for their tenure at the U.

We expect that they have already done a great deal of due dilligence in anticipation of this move. We don't expect this coaching search to drag on and wouldn't be surprised if a new hire is named within a week or two, max.

Here is a list of 10 coaches we expect Teague and Ellis could have on their short list:

http://www.gopherhole.com/news_article/show/240405?referrer_id=388419
 

Great work; Pastner and Wright both interesting from that list, and both have been eliminated from the tournament which would make them available to verbally commit
 

I'd love it to be Marshall, and I just refuse to believe that Shaka would come here, unless big BIG bucks become involved.
 

Who on this list would you want the Gophers to hire?
 

I bet Tubby goes elsewhere and looks good..making MN look stupid with this decision.
 


Smart
Pastner
Marshall
Williams

in that order from this list
 



Would not want to touch Pastner or most of these guys. To be honest, even though Shaka is the flavor of the day, I have doubts that his style will translate into B1G wins. One of the reasons he sticks around VCU is that he does not have to face high major talent every night. Makes coaching a lot easier.

The B1G connection is intriguing and the teacher/student thing provided an interesting future. My question about the assistants in general is whether they can handle our crappy facilities and adminsitration, especially if they came from MSU or someplace like that.

I also like the idea of a long termer if at all possible. Marshall is a great choice, but I would say he does not have the midwest connections needed to succeed at the B1G level.

It leads me to only one conclusion: Flip. Local ties, national name, and has reasons other than money for taking the job and not likely to leave in the middle of the night.
 



I want a coach who has a offense and defense in mind when recruiting, but also one who can change on the fly according to what can help the team win. For example I followed Colorado State a lot this year. Miles had a motion offense. Eustachy come in and tries to change to his offense. The senior captains on the team told him they all like the motion better. Eustachy let them play the motion and they had their best season in like 20 years. This doesn't sound like much, but it is.
 


Josh Pastner is off the list - he signed a new deal with Memphis today.

Go Gophers!!
 




BleedGopher said:
Josh Pastner is off the list - he signed a new deal with Memphis today.

Go Gophers!!
Click to expand...

That's funny. Just about 20 minutes ago, Common Man said that's who his sources said would be the hire. Pretty sure he wasn't joking either.
 

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