(02-24-2020 07:02 PM)JMU1987UVA1998 Wrote:  Listened to local Sports radio here in RVA this morning and took exception to what I thought were critical comments about attendance at this past Saturday's W&M-JMU game.

I told the radio host who does play by play for one of our former CAA rivals that while we do probably suffer from an older group of season ticket holders, if you put a good product on the court attendance will improve. We talked a little more about former players in attendance Saturday and that a change was necessary at season's end.

I told both hosts I think we need to go after a proven winner at the Division II or Division III level. Bob Black said he thought a proven P5 or G5 assistant coach who was a good to great recruiter was where he thought we should look while the other radio host agreed with me about the admin going after a proven Division II or III HC.

Before the end of their two hour show, the radio host's color commentator sidekick for basketball games called in after sending in his list of candidates all of whom are Division I Assistant Coaches and saying any of the following five would be a good choice by JMU because they're great recruiters: Jamal Brunt who's on Mike Rhoades' staff at VCU and played for Mike Rhoades at Randolph-Macon; Carlin Hartman who's on Lon Kruger's staff at Oklahoma, was on Matt Brady's JMU staff for the 2009-2010 season and who played at Tulane; and three former UVa players: Anthony Solomon who's on Anthony Grant's staff at Dayton, Bryant Stith who's on Jeff Jones' staff at ODU (and was a successful high school basketball coach at Brunswick High School winning State Championships in 2011, 2012 and 2013) and Jason Williford who's on Tony Bennett's staff at UVa.

Of the list, Stith intrigues me the most of the two candidates along with Anthony Solomon who have been head coaches before. I think Stith probably wants his own college program. Not sure I see Williford leaving UVa for JMU after we struck out in our pursuit of Ron Sanchez when we hired Lou Rowe to replace Matt Brady. Jamal Brunt might be a candidate to replace Mike Jones if he leaves for a bigger job at Radford.

I'd also be interested in Randolph-Macon's Josh Merkel.

If we were to hire Solomon, we'd have come full circle since Lefty's firing. Soloman was a candidate when we hired Sherm. Maybe that would break the curse.

He looks like the proverbial lifer as a right hand man, other than his brief St. Bonnies stint. Great resume as an assistant though.