There’s no way this decision was made Friday. The final decision obviously was. But South Florida has been back channeling this for at least a couple of weeks. On March 3 I was told that multiple people in the Lee Roy Selmon Center wanted change, they just didn’t know where VPMK stood. There have been some initial feelers put out there. That doesn’t necessarily mean they made the actual decision a week ago; they probably still could have turned back, but the groundwork has been laid for a little while on this. That’s how it works. You don’t start your coaching search the day you fire your coach.
As for a timetable, I previously reported that VPMK does not have one in mind at this time. He’s really going into this with an open mind. However there could be discussions with coaches as soon as this weekend. A source me that a two-hour conversation was held with one of the coaches on our hot board. He declined to say which one. The early stages of this are likely to take place on the phone and on Zoom. This is one thing that the pandemic changed that probably won’t go back. Eventually you’re going to get to the point of meeting the final few people in person, but you can do the introductory stuff via a video call.
People are throwing Frank Martin’s name around. Martin has led teams to two Elite Eight and one Final Four appearance. He has also had quite a few below .500 seasons in conference play. Including this season at UMass. He and Jose are bff and he is from Florida, but are those good enough reason to hire a coach?
The truth is, national people don’t really think about USF basketball. And they’re certainly not going to think USF can pull a current head coach from anywhere but a low-major. They may very well end up being right. I’m just saying that you shouldn’t read these lists (or even ours) and say “Well, we’re all screwed based on this list.”
Every search starts with a couple “It probably won’t happen, but you have to try” attempts. No school starts a search saying “You know what we want? A young guy most people haven’t heard of who hasn’t really proven himself yet.” The goal at the start of a coaching search is pretty much always a current head coach.
Saturday I said we could scratch Kennesaw State head coach Amir Abdur-Rahim. Right now it looks like Georgia Tech or California will be his destination. About an hour before the CUSA championship game began a source told me that it would take “a ton of money to get Dusty May to leave FAU for USF.” It’s a good source and he spoke with someone close to Coach May, so scratch him.
Several new names have come to me via sources and I’m trying to get in touch with those coaches, or someone close to them, to gauge interest in the USF job. The problem is that almost all of them are on flights home from conference tournaments today.
I can say that Chris Capko’s name is gaining some traction with key people at USF and so is Charlton “CY” Young.
Some names I've had mentioned, but I can pretty much tell you it ain't happening, are Paul Mills (Oral Roberts), Sam Cassell (Philadelphia 76ers assistant) Mark Turgeon (free agent and possibly headed to Wichita State).
It’s early in the search. Stay tuned.
As for a timetable, I previously reported that VPMK does not have one in mind at this time. He’s really going into this with an open mind. However there could be discussions with coaches as soon as this weekend. A source me that a two-hour conversation was held with one of the coaches on our hot board. He declined to say which one. The early stages of this are likely to take place on the phone and on Zoom. This is one thing that the pandemic changed that probably won’t go back. Eventually you’re going to get to the point of meeting the final few people in person, but you can do the introductory stuff via a video call.
People are throwing Frank Martin’s name around. Martin has led teams to two Elite Eight and one Final Four appearance. He has also had quite a few below .500 seasons in conference play. Including this season at UMass. He and Jose are bff and he is from Florida, but are those good enough reason to hire a coach?
The truth is, national people don’t really think about USF basketball. And they’re certainly not going to think USF can pull a current head coach from anywhere but a low-major. They may very well end up being right. I’m just saying that you shouldn’t read these lists (or even ours) and say “Well, we’re all screwed based on this list.”
Every search starts with a couple “It probably won’t happen, but you have to try” attempts. No school starts a search saying “You know what we want? A young guy most people haven’t heard of who hasn’t really proven himself yet.” The goal at the start of a coaching search is pretty much always a current head coach.
Saturday I said we could scratch Kennesaw State head coach Amir Abdur-Rahim. Right now it looks like Georgia Tech or California will be his destination. About an hour before the CUSA championship game began a source told me that it would take “a ton of money to get Dusty May to leave FAU for USF.” It’s a good source and he spoke with someone close to Coach May, so scratch him.
Several new names have come to me via sources and I’m trying to get in touch with those coaches, or someone close to them, to gauge interest in the USF job. The problem is that almost all of them are on flights home from conference tournaments today.
I can say that Chris Capko’s name is gaining some traction with key people at USF and so is Charlton “CY” Young.
Some names I've had mentioned, but I can pretty much tell you it ain't happening, are Paul Mills (Oral Roberts), Sam Cassell (Philadelphia 76ers assistant) Mark Turgeon (free agent and possibly headed to Wichita State).
It’s early in the search. Stay tuned.
