Coaching Search Update from Dave Glenn

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Virginia Commonwealth’s Shaka Smart continues to be the central figure in N.C. State’s search for a new basketball coach, according to multiple sources in the college basketball coaching community.
Smart, who will turn 34 on April 8, is 55-20 in two seasons at Virginia Commonwealth. The Rams will play Butler on Saturday at Houston in the Final Four of the NCAA Tournament…

…According to multiple sources, Wolfpack officials also are considering at least two additional candidates for the job. One of those candidates already has given preliminary approval of the basic framework of an agreement with NCSU.

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87 Responses to Coaching Search Update from Dave Glenn

  1. newt 03/30/2011 at 11:39 AM #

    For perspective; here is the Billy Donovan that UF hired…

    “Donovan’s first season as a head coach saw him turn around a Marshall team that had gone 9-18 the season before his arrival. The team doubled its wins from the previous year to go 18-9 and win the Southern Conference North Division.

    His first full recruiting class at Marshall included a high-profile local recruit, point guard Jason Williams. In Donovan’s second season, the team went 17-11, led the conference in scoring and three-point field goals.

    In two years at Marshall, he accumulated a 35–20 record and a conference division championship.”

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billy_Donovan#Marshall_University

    Doubtful that Donovan was UF’s first choice. These are the chances that big programs have to take.

  2. ringo 03/30/2011 at 11:42 AM #

    could be wrong but don’t see Smart getting 2+ million out of the gate.
    I’d bet 1.75 + big incentives is as high as we’d go with him. He turns that down and goes back to VCU he might get up to a little over a million with them, but he won’t be back in the national contender pic with VCU as quickly as he could with State.

  3. wolfie91 03/30/2011 at 11:46 AM #

    And I don’t get the reasoning that if we go mid-major then Yow has failed. I believe she’s worked hard at getting a name coach, perhaps even going back with an additional offer after receiving an initial no. The reality is that big names don’t move around that often and I am not sure that any AD in America could lure a big name here if Yow doesn’t do it.

    We need someone who will win here and make the job look more attractive if and when that person decides to leave.

  4. Wulfpack 03/30/2011 at 11:46 AM #

    Oh well. B list it is. Hope someone takes it soon.

  5. Rochester 03/30/2011 at 11:47 AM #

    eas, as to #4, Smart recruited nearly half the current VCU roster. He picked up Dareus Theus and Troy Daniels in the spring of ’09 after being named coach. He also recruited Juvonte Reddic, Rob Brandenberg, DJ Haley, and Toby Veal (juco), who joined the team this season. They aren’t the stars of the team, but Theus, Brandenberg, and Reddic have each seen double-figure minutes in most of the NCAAT run and the others have all played.

    As for the $4 million, that’s just a hyperbolic figure thrown out by the VCU AD. He could have said $20 million. His point was VCU can’t match the bigger schools in money, not that Smart expects $4 million.

  6. jbpackfan 03/30/2011 at 11:48 AM #

    We are going to pay a guy w/ 2 years of experience in the CAA $2.5 Mil based on 1 tourney run. After 2 middle-of-the-pack regular season finishes. Brilliant. Shaka may turn out to be a superstar, but 1 tourney run does not warrant this type of salary.

  7. StandUpAndHowl 03/30/2011 at 12:01 PM #

    Rumors and more rumors. Jacques Martin is in Raleigh today, maybe he’s interviewing for the State job.

  8. wolfpack15 03/30/2011 at 12:06 PM #

    Are you kidding me????? So in the coaching world NC STATE has become such a joke that all the big name coaches and a lot of the “B” list coaches have told us NO! So we are really talking about paying a coach at freaking VCU over $2 million a year to come coach the Wolfpack. And not to mention he finished 4th in his little high school conference this year. Thats just great!!! we might as well just cancel our basketball program if were that big of a joke and spend that money to make a different sport relevant bc our basketball program sure the hell isnt. If thats the case why the hell do we pay the money to lease the RBC Center? Its a wonderful place but nobody goes, we dont win in it, and we can’t use it as a tool to attract other coaches, so tell me why?
    It doesn’t matter…….don’t bother.

  9. graywolf 03/30/2011 at 12:19 PM #

    if smart is our #1 target and has been all along i will be very dissapointed. being a fan of nc state build character at least.

  10. quypack93 03/30/2011 at 12:24 PM #

    …and, as the story ends, wolfpacker15 just picks up his ball and goes home…

  11. wayofthemaster 03/30/2011 at 12:24 PM #

    Confused.

    Smart couldn’t have been on Yow’s radar during the season, or at the time Sid resigned.

    So if he doesn’t make this recent run, who would we be down to at this point?

    Marshall? Brey?

    Yuck.

  12. Hungwolf 03/30/2011 at 12:27 PM #

    DG doesn’t know anything, trust me. How vague a statement. DG “NCSU looking at Smart along with 2 other candidates with one having agreed in principle.” I bet we could get a 100 coaches and asst coaches to agree in principle to making 2+ million a year. Hell Oliver Purnel agreed in principle the day the job opened! And we not the only ones looking at Smart! A very small group of people know what is going on and they’re not leaking anything to the media especially DG.

  13. Wolfman 9806 03/30/2011 at 12:33 PM #

    I’m sure that K and Roy hope we hire “Shaka Khan.” He’s not even the best B-list coach available!

  14. kyjelly 03/30/2011 at 12:34 PM #

    How could Smart have been on top of her list when no one knew who he was 3 weeks ago? This is not really looking good at all.

  15. quypack93 03/30/2011 at 12:38 PM #

    how is the C-lister working out for Arizona? Some just never learn;-)) and how is the solid, bcs conference experienced, proven winner, builder, wood chopper extraordinaire working out for Arizona State?

  16. mwcric 03/30/2011 at 12:38 PM #

    This is absolutely ridiculous. IF this, IF that…the bottom line is Smart DID make a tournament run, he IS in the Final Four and he COULD win a national title. Jesus Christ, what more do you want? No wonder the fan base is eviscerated in the national media. I think too many people overanalyzed Yow’s presser way too much and took every single one of her words very literally. Gee, what about Thad Matta? Bill Self? Jim Calhoun? Jim Boeheim? Hell, what about Phil Jackson or Greg Popovich or Doc Rivers? Smart is unbeaten in two years of post-season play. His team was ridiculed for even getting an NCAA tourney invite, got in as an 11 seed, and won five games against Pac-10, Big East, Big 10, ACC and Big 12 competition. Yes he’s finished in the lower part of his conference’s upper echelon in first two years, but he’s righted the ship in the post-season. Let’s see, who else was known for doing that? Some kind named Valvano or something like that.
    Folks are insisting on a “big name” even though the precedent for a big name leaving one power conference school to go to another is very low – especially if you remove the coaches who moved due to having a previous relationship with the school they went to. And NC State does not have a precedent for bungling mid-major hires – this is the biggest misconception on this site and it’s driving me nuts. Herb Sendek is it! He is the only one! Les Robinson does not count – as I’ve said before, he was not brought in to coach as much as to oversee a total program makeover and be the sacrificial lamb in the process. And nobody is sorry to see Sendek gone, me included, but get a grip – the program wasn’t a disaster, it was just an underachiever. According to the ESPN/Sagarin ratings, State was the 34th-best program of the 2000s, and fifth-best ACC program of that time. To act like we’ve gone 8-24 season after season is crazy.
    We need a coach who can analyze talent, get players to buy into his system, make in-game and in-season adjustments as necessary, and continue to compete for quality recruits. If you were going to give Yow the benefit of the doubt for picking the right “big name,” why are you not willing to give her that same benefit in picking a mid-major coach? That route sure didn’t seem to hurt Boston College or Clemson this season. But Virginia hired a power conference guy. How’s that working out so far?

  17. wolpfack 03/30/2011 at 12:38 PM #

    Good grief people! Can we just call this The Comedy Hour instead of Coaching Search Updates! Here is what I’ve garnered from reading everything over the past couple weeks:
    1) We know nothing, we’re speculating on everything
    2) “Reporters” know nothing, they’re speculating on everything
    3) Rumors are aplenty, facts are few and far between
    4) We can speculate on what a coach will do once they’re here…and you can use past performance as 1 of many pieces of data in your analysis, but you can’t let it be the only thing you look at. While it is an indicator of success, its not the only thing…While we can assume away that Smart or Barnes or Miller or god knows who else will or won’t succeed here, we won’t know until they get here and hit the ground running. I think all of the coaches could be successful here, but there are millions of factors in play…stop getting hung up one what so and so’s record was and what it means, you’re looking at only part of the picture.

    They sky’s not falling…reread 1, 2, and 3, take a deep breathe and wait this out…we don’t have incompetents running the ship, they will make the best decision of the best people that are available and interested.

  18. wolfie91 03/30/2011 at 12:39 PM #

    Smart may not have been at the top but I don’t think it’s unreasonable to think that he was at least on the list.

  19. wolpfack 03/30/2011 at 12:41 PM #

    son of an edit button!

  20. Bowlpack 03/30/2011 at 12:43 PM #

    ^Wolfpack15. You sound like a petulant Carolina fan. Shame. In regard to Shaka Smart: He also beat some pretty stiff competition on the way to the Final 4 this year. Rick Barnes, Billy Donovan, Roy Williams, Mike Kryzewski and our hero Sean Miller couldn’t manage that. He has proven to me that he can win big games and I would be very happy if he were are next coach. In fact, would be fine with just about anyone that we’ve discussed on here. That’s not settling. We’ve been talking about some outstanding basketball coaches and with K and Roy in the twilight of their careers, our next coach will be positioned to be the next big name in the ACC.

    The fact of the matter is that nobody outside of the search actually knows anything. Anything that we say is speculation and the information coming from the media is hyperbole meant to incite conversation around the topic and increase web traffic. We’ve become easy targets the last few years as our passion is easily exploited and the media has picked up on this (see Greg Doyel). Calm down, act like you’ve been there before and stop crying because everything is going to be okay.

  21. hball57 03/30/2011 at 12:43 PM #

    Just because many of you didn’t know who Shaka Smart was at the beginning of the tournament doesn’t mean Debbie Yow didn’t know who he was. And Debbie Yow said in her press conference that the Coaches experience would determine his salary. Didn’t VCU’s AD say that VCU couldn’t match a salary that a larger school could offer? Come on people – read the whole article (don’t just look at the pictures)!

  22. wufpaxno1 03/30/2011 at 12:44 PM #

    First off, everything that we have heard to date has been speculation and rumor. All we have heard is that “sources say”, or some dad say’s, we have not heard anything directly from DY or any of the coaches in question. So as far as I am concerned, exactly NO options are off the table at this time and to assume so is ludicrous.

    Secondly, the argument that Shaka Smart is just some two year mid major coach that has had a lucky tournament run is worse than ludicrous and shows a very low basketball IQ on the part of anyone expressing this opinion.
    VCU has won five straight to get to the final four and all of them, except one, by double digit margins over very good teams. What Smart has done has been nothing short of genius when it comes to game planning and in game adjustments. This man can flat out coach… period! Beyond that he is one heck of a motivator, getting the most out of each of his kids.
    Isn’t that the very definition of what we, or anyone else, would want in a coach, putting his team in the best position to win and then getting their full attention and effort?

    Shaka Smart has the perfect last name; he is a very intelligent coach, played point guard in college, and graduated Magna Cum Laude.

    Finally, the dollar amounts being tossed around are pure speculation at this time. We have a top 15 coaching job. Being able to come into the ACC, go head to head with the best coaches and programs historically in the country, at a school with grade A+ facilities and fans is as big an incentive as the money. And with Smart, you will never have to worry about him wanting to leave to coach at his Alma mater.

  23. ringo 03/30/2011 at 12:46 PM #

    why does it matter if he was on the list or not? He is now due to changes taking place before our eyes. I can’t believe some of you guys are really that dense. He is doing a remarkable coaching job and is a media darling. Exactly what we need. If he runs Butler off the court Saturday like he did Purdue, Georgetown, Kansas, etc…holy hell!

  24. packalum44 03/30/2011 at 12:51 PM #

    If Smart wins another game or two, the more it will cost, but the bigger his legend and the better the recruiting.

    I assume we have no competition???

  25. mwcric 03/30/2011 at 12:57 PM #

    You’re right ringo. I can’t wait to see what people say if the guy is a national champion next week at this time. “Well, he’s only won ONE title! He’s not worthy of us!”

    And here’s some perspective. Fan darling Rick Barnes is 6-5 in the NCAA tournament over the last five years (know what Sendek was in his last five years here? 5-5), has finished 3rd, tied for 1st, fourth, sixth and second in the Big 12 regular season, has ONE conference tournament championship is his ENTIRE coaching career and has three first-place regular season finishes in 24 years. He has three Sweet 16s, one Elight Eight and one Final Four, and I would guess that in each of those instances (with the exception of his Sweet 16 run with Clemson) that he never had to beat a higher seed to advance. He certainly was never a bubble 11 seed in those instances.

    So if getting hot at the right time is no big deal, how come Barnes has seldom done it in nearly a quarter-century of coaching?

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