SFN continues to monitor the rampant speculation, but as we’ve mentioned previously, we have no reason to buy into the credibility of any of it, and as a result, there’s nothing new of value to report this evening.
The only thing we’ve really confirmed today is that Jeff Goodman is a “Heisman”-caliber idiot. Here’s a few of his Tweets about our coaching search (link):
N.C. State’s Debbie Yow being given the Heisman by several candidates thus far. She may be waiting now to win the presser with Shaka Smart.
The question, though, is whether Shaka Smart would even take the N.C. State job. I’m told it wouldn’t be a no-brainer for him.
N.C. State fans are delusional if they think it’s been only Rick Barnes and Sean Miller that have given Debbie Yow the Heisman.
Sources told me that a coach in the A-10, Conference-USA and another one in the Big 12 have said “thanks, but no thanks” to NC State.
The coaching search game doesn’t work as with official offers. It’s a search firm guy throwing out a number and seeing if there’s interest.
In at least three occasions in addition to Barnes and Miller, coaches said they weren’t interested and didn’t move forward.
I still don’t understand why it matters whether people turn jobs down. Perfect example: Sean Miller. He was way down line of options at AZ.
Obviously, since there’s no info coming from Yow’s office, Goodman’s sources are probably all coaches, or more precisely, their agents. Coaches are notoriously egomaniacs, and it’s not only strategic but also feels good for them to publicly express their disinterest in a job they haven’t been offered, and it makes Goodman feel good to use Twitter to let us all know how little he thinks of the N.C. State job.
But, it’s no secret that the chatter surrounding Billy Donovan has seemed to pick up some momentum today, and perhaps Donovan is the “knockout hire” Tim Brando mentioned yesterday. It’s easy for Yow to keep her own folks under wraps, but once you begin negotiating with another coach, you have no control over how well that program contains leaks. So, if this is truly happening, the nerve-racking silence is probably because Florida wants it contained as much as Yow so that they can quickly move on their top target (perhaps even Shaka Smart, who was an assistant under Donovan before he went to VCU).
We found this interesting “March Stipulation” included in Donovan’s contract (Orlando Sentinel link):
If Donovan leaves the school without cause, he must pay the school $500,000. If the school fires Donovan without cause, he receives $2.5 million for every year left on his contract. This is big time — and it could have caused the 16-month holdup. If the Gators were to fire Donovan in two years, he’d receive around $7.5 million. This shows the Gators are serious about Donovan’s stability. However, there’s a window from March 1 to April 1 of any year when both parties can walk away clean, no monetary issues. Interesting.
So…if we have made an offer to Donovan, then we should know by Thursday afternoon, right? After that, we can be fairly certain that Shaka Smart is our main focus.
In the meantime, speculate away on the SFN Forums.
