Coaching Search to Get Even More Complicated

By Sean · Thursday, March 22, 2007 · 1:08 AM |  Share | 1 Comment 

When the Michigan basketball head coach job opened up over the weekend it was said by many to be the nation’s premiere vacancy. With a real opportunity to look across the country at everyone, Michigan appeared to have the chance to worry more about who to hire rather than other schools trying to go after the same person. That will be changing as Iowa coach Steve Alford is likely headed to New Mexico to coach the Lobos, opening up a third coaching vacancy in the Big Ten.

Iowa’s Steve Alford is expected to tell his players at a last-minute team meeting today that he’s leaving to become the next head coach at the University of New Mexico, a source told The Daily Iowan Wednesday night.

An agreement between Alford and the Mountain West Conference school hadn’t been finalized publicly as of late Wednesday night, but New Mexico officials were granted permission to talk with the Hawkeye basketball coach and could announce the hiring as soon as Friday, according to reports in the Albuquerque Tribune and ESPN.com.

Alford leaving Iowa will have a big effect on Michigan’s search as it creates another opening for potential candidates to look at. Many Iowa fans are very glad to see Alford go and already are coming up with lists of candidates just as us Michigan fans did over the weekend. Some of the lists I’ve seen are nearly the same as original ones posted on Michigan message boards.

Basically, the biggest thing the Iowa vacancy will do is give coaches that are looking to move up some variety. Iowa and Michigan are similar in some respects but greatly different in others. The question is which situation is better? If a coach was offered by both and wanted by both, where does he go? I’m not sure what the answer to that is and my liking of Michigan wouldn’t allow me to say Iowa, but that’s beside the point. With two jobs open it could also up the salary of the new coach coming in as well. Again, if both Iowa and Michigan wanted the same guy, then a bidding war could start. U-M can’t go too high either. I’d say the spending stops around $1.5-1.75 million per year, and that’s a stretch already. The more realistic range for Michigan to offer to a new coach is in the neighborhood of $1-1.2 million.

Since I’m already on the subject of the coaching vacancy, I’ll use this post to mention the emerging candidates. Many are putting their own short lists out there, but everyone is unsure of the most important list of them all: Bill Martin’s. It is up to him and currently speculation suggests that the following coaches are being looked at the most: John Beilein (West Virginia), Chris Lowery (Southern Illinois), Sean Miller (Xavier), and Tubby Smith (Kentucky).

I’ll elaborate on those names briefly. Beilein has a large buyout that could end up turning Michigan away. If Martin wanted him enough then I’m sure there would be a way to facilitate the cost of it, but it could be something that gives one of the other names an advantage. Lowery and Miller are two young guys that both have had success at mid-major programs. Honestly, I think both are very good coaches but what worries me is that they inherited programs that were already successful. Obviously it takes a good coach to continue that success, but neither had to work from the ground up as they would really have to do at Michigan. The final name and the biggest of the four is Tubby Smith. The only way Tubby Smith ends up at Michigan is if he is fired by Kentucky or just gets sick of the situation and leaves. His contract is pretty large right now in Michigan’s terms, so he would take a pay cut by coming to Ann Arbor unless he was fired. I certainly think Tubby Smith would bring success to Michigan, so we’ll have to keep an eye on the situation in Lexington as it definitely has an effect on the one in Ann Arbor.

Again, I stress that this is speculation at this point. So many names have been put out there that other candidates could emerge out of nowhere. Plus, there are a few other names out there that are still coaching in the tournament that could be contacted. Trust me, this is only going to get more interesting as time goes on. There’s no question about that. Just stay tuned and keep checking in daily for updates.