I'm still all in for Thad Matta... that guy is a proven winner... would love to have him in Stillwater

(03-22-2024 08:12 AM)CaliforniaCowboy Wrote:  I'm still all in for Thad Matta... that guy is a proven winner... would love to have him in Stillwater

I agree Thad Matta has a great coaching pedigree ( 2 final 4’s w/ Oh St)
But he has deep routes & a luv for Butler
But His wife & oldest daughter R Butler grad’s
& his daughter Emily is/was and undergrad there

He had been out of coaching for 5 years after stepping down from Oh St for health issues (back & nerve issues in leg) B4 taking the Butler HC job in 2022

Most of his coaching history is around that area
Butler, Xavier, & Oh St
I think this is is last hurrah,

Ok St would hav to pony up much bigger $$$ to “entice” him to leave Butler vs ‘potential other candidates

I don’t think Ok St Prez Chad will go that route

(03-22-2024 09:16 AM)Ye ol Fool Wrote:  

(03-22-2024 08:12 AM)CaliforniaCowboy Wrote:  I'm still all in for Thad Matta... that guy is a proven winner... would love to have him in Stillwater

I agree Thad Matta has a great coaching pedigree ( 2 final 4’s w/ Oh St)
But he has deep routes & a luv for Butler
But His wife & oldest daughter R Butler grad’s
& his daughter Emily is/was and undergrad there

He had been out of coaching for 5 years after stepping down from Oh St for health issues (back & nerve issues in leg) B4 taking the Butler HC job in 2022

Most of his coaching history is around that area
Butler, Xavier, & Oh St
I think this is is last hurrah,

Ok St would hav to pony up much bigger $$$ to “entice” him to leave Butler vs ‘potential other candidates

I don’t think Ok St Prez Chad will go that route

it's only his 3rd season at Butler ever, but it is his Alma Mater. He was Assoc AD at Indiana between the tOSU job and getting back into coaching 2 years ago.

He's only 56, he's got a few more hurrah's left in him if he chooses.

He's making $3.5 million base salary right now, so I don't think our program will come up with the money to entice him away.


(and Chad is the AD, not the Prez)

(and Chad is the AD, not the Prez)
[/quote]

That's why I'm the Ye 'ol Fool

Yep Dr Kayse Shrum is the Prez of Ok St

CBS Sportsline indicates these coaches as "potential' coaching candidates for ok St
Texas A&M's Buzz Williams, Drake's Darian DeVries,
JMU's Mark Byington and USF's Amir Abdur-Rahim.

Bonus: West Virginia Top Coaching candidates:
Darian DeVries (Drake) as the leader,
with JMU's Mark Byington at No. 2.

Buzz Williams would be a great get for OSU, although Byingtom and Abdur Rahim would also be good hires. Can’t go wrong with any of those.

As West Virginia hires the Drake coach, OSU’s search reportedly is ‘a mess’. TW 3/24/24

As of mid-evening Sunday, there were unfilled high-major coaching jobs at Oklahoma State, Louisville, Stanford, Washington and Vanderbilt.

CBS college basketball writer Matt Norlander quoted a source who indicated that the Oklahoma State search “has been a mess.”

“This job is falling lower in the pecking order,” Norlander wrote.
Wren Baker is an Oklahoma native who attended OSU and was a member of Cowboy basketball coach Eddie Sutton’s support staff. During Baker’s involvement, the Cowboy program was 102-30 with four NCAA Tournament appearances, a trip to the 2004 Final Four and a run to the 2005 Sweet Sixteen.

Baker is known to be a loyal-and-true Oklahoma State grad, but on Sunday, he may have plunged a dagger into OSU’s process of identifying a new basketball coach.

Now the athletic director at West Virginia University, Baker reportedly has hired Drake’s Darian DeVries to coach the Mountaineers. It was believed that DeVries might have been a prominent figure in OSU athletic director Chad Weiberg’s search for a successor to Mike Boynton.

As the Oklahoma State search has reached the 10-day mark, a comparably financed Big 12 rival — West Virginia — has executed what many will perceive as a splashy hire. The 48-year-old DeVries was the Drake head man for six seasons, leading the Bulldogs to three NCAA Tournament appearances.

On Thursday, the 10th-seeded Bulldogs of the Missouri Valley Conference were beaten 66-61 by Washington.

Texas A&M head coach Buzz Williams is rumored to have a connection to the OSU search. Also on Sunday, Danny Sprinkle’s Utah State squad was crushed 106-67 by Purdue, the top seed in the Midwest Region. Media reports have tied Sprinkle to the searches at OSU, Vandy and Washington.

Possible additional names on the OSU radar: Ben McCollum, the 42-year-old and extremely successful coach of the Division II Northwest Missouri State program; and Steve Lutz, the Western Kentucky coach whose squad was beaten by Marquette in an NCAA Tournament first-round contest. Lutz twice took Texas A&M-Corpus Christi teams to the NCAA Tournament.

If OSU can get Buzz Williams, that would be great.

Sent from my Pixel 7 Pro using Tapatalk

Byington to Vandy, that’s one less candidate for OSU

(03-25-2024 12:04 PM)BraveKnight Wrote:  Byington to Vandy, that’s one less candidate for OSU

Monday Madness NCAA B-Ball Coaching Hires so far.... 3/24/24

Kyle Smith (Wash St) to Stanford
Danny Sprinkle (Utah St) to Washington
Mark Byington (Jms Madison) to Vanderbilt

Vanderbilt closing means that the only high-major “profile” jobs
still on the table are Louisville, Oklahoma State and SMU.

3/27/24
HOOPSReport: Medved, Alford, Drew ‘In the Mix’ for Oklahoma State Vacancy
Three names to keep track of as OSU’s search continues on. by Marshall Scott

To this point, Oklahoma State’s hiring process has been kept mostly under wraps, but a trusted national reporter has finally provided a little insight.

Colorado State’s Niko Medved, Nevada’s Steve Alford and Grand Canyon’s Bryce Drew are “in the mix” for the Cowboys’ vacancy, according to Adam Zagoria.

Niko Medved
Medved led Colorado State to a 25-11 record this past season and an appearance in the NCAA Tournament, the Rams’ second since he took over in 2018.

The Rams ranked among the best nationally in assists per made field goal and 2-point field goal percentage while playing in a competitive Mountain West that saw six teams make the field. CSU was ranked as highly as the No. 13 team in the country this season.

Colorado State’s other Tournament appearance under Medved came in 2022 when he led the Rams to a 25-6 record. He has gone 117-75 (.609) as the Rams’ coach.

Before Colorado State, Medved coached Drake for one season, where the Bulldogs went 17-17.

Before that, Medved had a four-year stint at Furman that saw the Paladins go 62-71, earning a regular-season conference title for the 2016-17 season, a year Furman went 23-12.

Steve Alford
Among these three candidates, Alford has by far the most experience as a head coach.

Alford has made five Division-I stops and has led all of those teams to at least one NCAA Tournament appearance.

He led Nevada to a 26-8 record this past season, including a second-straight NCAA Tournament appearance. He has been with the Wolf Pack since 2019, accumulating a 96-59 (.619) record and those two tourney appearances.

He was at UCLA from 2013-2019, accumulating a 124-63 record while leading the Bruins to four NCAA Tournaments in those six seasons. UCLA made three Sweet 16s in four seasons under Alford.

Alford got to UCLA after a successful stint with New Mexico, where he had a 155-52 (.759) record in six seasons. He led the Lobos to three NCAA Tournaments, four Mountain West regular-season titles and two Mountain West tournament titles in that time.

He was at Iowa from 1999-2007, leading the Hawkeyes to three NCAA Tournaments during that eight-year stretch. Iowa won the Big Ten tournament twice during Alford’s time in Iowa City.

His first D-I job came at Missouri State, where Alford was 78-48 in four seasons. The Bears made the Tournament in Alford’s final year there.

Bryce Drew
The younger brother of Baylor coach Scott Drew, Bryce has led Grand Canyon to three NCAA Tournaments in his four years at the helm.

Grand Canyon was 30-5 this past season, winning both the WAC regular season and conference tournament. In total with the Antelopes, Drew has won two WAC regular seasons and three WAC tournaments.

His only experience as a high-major coach came with Vanderbilt from 2016 to 2019. The Commodores went 40-59 in that stretch, making the Tournament in Drew’s first season.

Drew got his start as a head coach by taking over at Valparaiso for his father. In five seasons with the Beacons, Drew went 124-49, leading Valpo to a pair of NCAA Tournaments, four Horizon League regular-season titles and two Horizon League tournament crowns.

Drew’s 2023-24 squad was among the nation’s best at getting to the foul line and ranked in the top 10 nationally in effective field-goal percentage defense and 2-point percentage defense

(03-25-2024 12:04 PM)BraveKnight Wrote:  Byington to Vandy, that’s one less candidate for OSU

I hope he got a big buyout as Vandy is just a tough place at which to win.

03/28/24. OK St B Ball Coach search/Hiring UPDATE

Steve Lutz (WKU) & former (Txs Corpus Christie ) coach is the “New” favorite

Rumor: AD Chad flew to Phoenix & visited w/???
++John Lucas 3rd, Asst Coach, Phoenix Suns (Former Ok St player)
++Bryce Drew @ Grand Canyon

Speculation:
Why did AD Chad pull the plug on former Ok St coach Boyton quickly? (If he had waited until April 1st, the buyout would have been significantly lower)

Apparently many feel AD Chad had a name or two in mind that he wanted:
Danny Sprinkle (Utah St) to Washington
Darian DeVries (Drake) to WVU
& Lost Both

(03-28-2024 07:06 AM)Ye ol Fool Wrote:  03/28/24. OK St B Ball Coach search/Hiring UPDATE

Steve Lutz (WKU) & former (Txs Corpus Christie ) coach is the “New” favorite

Rumor: AD Chad flew to Phoenix & visited w/???
++John Lucas 3rd, Asst Coach, Phoenix Suns (Former Ok St player)
++Bryce Drew @ Grand Canyon

Speculation:
Why did AD Chad pull the plug on former Ok St coach Boyton quickly? (If he had waited until April 1st, the buyout would have been significantly lower)

Apparently many feel AD Chad had a name or two in mind that he wanted:
Danny Sprinkle (Utah St) to Washington
Darian DeVries (Drake) to WVU
& Lost Both

UGH....

a guy with only 3 years as a HC? No thank you. Lucas, no HC experience. Drew? Maybe, but....

the speculation is totally false. Weisberg pulled the plug when he did because 1) he wanted to get a start on the search as soon as possible with so many big programs also looking for a HC, and 2) Spring break was starting and the campus would be closed so the players could not enter the portal that Monday.

He did not "lose" anybody because he did not offer to hire any of them.

Pistols Firing, a respected Oklahoma State Blog, is reporting that Western Kentucky Coach Steve Lutz is emerging as a serious candidate. OSU Athletic Director Chad Weiberg has interviewed Lutz as well as Grand Canyon Coach Bryce Drew according to Pokes Report site.

On the early termination of Coach Boyton which caused a loss of substantial money, AD Weiberg felt it was necessary to start the coaching search early in order to hold the current roaster as well as to be able to make an effort to sign portal players.

Apparent OSU choice Steve Lutz has a history that resembles Brad Underwood’s. Bill Haisten. Tulsa World Sports Columnist & Writer

First reaction to the apparent hiring at Oklahoma State of basketball coach Steve Lutz: It reminds me of OSU’s Brad Underwood hiring of eight years ago.
Lutz is 51. Underwood was 52 when he arrived in Stillwater as Travis Ford’s successor in 2016.

Lutz is a grinder who worked on staffs at Incarnate Word and Garden City Community College before finally getting a major-college head-coaching opportunity.

Before Underwood became a nationally known head coach at Illinois, Oklahoma State and Stephen F. Austin (where he was 89-14 and recorded two NCAA Tournament victories in three seasons), he twice was a junior-college head coach and worked as an assistant at Western Illinois, Kansas State and South Carolina.

Almost immediately after it was announced on March 14 that Mike Boynton would not be retained as the Oklahoma State basketball coach, several friends and associates weighed in with their text-messaged nominations of possible candidates.

Among the very first of those messages was one shared by Claremore Sequoyah coach Tim Bart, a basketball lifer who has known Lutz since the late ’90s.
“Steve Lutz would be a great hire,” Bart wrote. “Former assistant at SMU, Creighton and Purdue. Perfect fit.”

I glanced at Lutz’s bio and saw that he is an accomplished coach with an interesting background, but rarely heard his name mentioned during the two full weeks of OSU athletic director Chad Weiberg’s search — the most airtight search I’ve ever attempted to cover.

The word “attempted” is emphasized because there were no leaks in the Weiberg process. Typically informed sources were uninformed as Weiberg’s movements were covered by layers of secrecy.
Either in a substantial way or in brief references, I wrote about Danny Sprinkle, Darian DeVries, Johnny Dawkins, Paul Mills, Steve Alford, John Lucas III, Bryce Drew, Doug Gottlieb and Ben McCollum.

Ultimately, however, Bart seems to have been correct when he endorsed Lutz as a “perfect fit” coach.
While Oklahoma State has not officially acknowledged a hiring, there are strong indications that Lutz soon will be introduced as the 21st head coach in the program’s history, the 11th since Mr. Iba retired in 1970 and the fifth since the Eddie Sutton era ended in 2006.

It was known that Weiberg had a strong preference for candidates with head-coaching experience, and Lutz does have that — albeit only three seasons of experience.

They’ve been three special seasons, though: Each of his two Texas A&M-Corpus Christi teams was the Southland Conference Tournament champion and secured a First Four role in the NCAA Tournament.

As Western Kentucky’s first-year coach this season, Lutz led the Hilltoppers to the Conference USA Tournament championship. As an NCAA Tournament 15 seed, Western Kentucky was eliminated last week by Marquette.

“Oh, yeah — it’s a great hire. It’s a no-brainer,” Bart said of the OSU-Lutz marriage. “I know his character and how he worked to reach this level. He’s been a head coach for three seasons — at two non-blueblood schools – and he took all three of those teams to the NCAA Tournament. Amazing.”

“I’ve known Steve for 26 years. I would run into him at the junior college national tournament. We always stayed in contact. He went to Creighton with (coach Greg McDermott), and then to Purdue with (coach Matt Painter). It took Steve forever to finally get a (head-coaching position), but he’s been incredible.”

The 2023-24 OSU season should have been the eighth with Underwood as the head coach. In 2016, his Cowboys rallied from an 0-6 start in Big 12 play to prevail in nine of their next 12 games. They wound up with a 10 seed in the NCAA Tournament, falling 92-91 to Michigan.

The next day, Underwood announced that he was headed to Illinois, where he would score a six-year, $18 million contract. At OSU, he had been the Big 12’s lowest-paid coach at slightly less than $1.5 million.

Underwood and then-athletic director Mike Holder couldn’t get on the same page with regard to compensation, so Underwood executed a shocking departure to Champaign, Illinois.
Instead of having coached at OSU for eight seasons, Underwood has been at Illinois for seven. Each of his last four Fighting Illini teams has been on the NCAA Tournament bracket, and on Thursday night, Illinois was matched with Iowa State in a Sweet Sixteen battle.
At some point soon, it is expected that Weiberg will confirm that he has hired a coach — Lutz — whose track record bears a strong resemblance to Underwood’s.

“Steve is soft-spoken. Witty. Engaging. Very intelligent. Very humble. Zero ego,” Bart said. “Every time I’ve ever reached out to him — boom, he gets right back to me. He never forgets where he came from, and how he had to work his way up the ladder.

“I’ve never heard anyone say a hateful, mean, cross word about him, ever. You don’t see that very often in the coaching profession.”
“I think the Oklahoma State people will really like him,” Bart concluded. “He’s an Oklahoma State type of guy, I promise you.”