Maryland rejected by Miller, Dixon, Stevens & Brey in less than 24 hours

Coaching Carousel College Basketball59

“Sean Miller Staying at Arizona”

Does that headline look familiar to anyone?

Talk about a public spurning?! A very different rejection when the whole world knows that you had a meeting and the guy turns you down before your process even gets going.

Link

Sean Miller is staying at Arizona.

Miller told FOXSports.com he has decided to remain in Tucson, just hours after meeting with Maryland athletic director Kevin Anderson in Las Vegas.

For those keeping score — Miller’s flirtation and conversations with NC State lasted weeks before he ultimately backed away after a program-launching-style run into the the NCAA Tournament. His flirtation with Maryland lasted a day.

But, that doesn’t seem to have any impact on the manner in which this is reported by one of the ultimate douches in all of college basketball. Check out Jeff Goodman’s positioning of theses developments in the following quote:

Miller, 42, was thought to be leaning towards going to Maryland, a job he had also held in high regard, but a strong relationship with Arizona athletic director Greg Byrne and success in recruiting were critical in remaining in Tucson.

REALLY, Jeff? He was ‘thought to be leaning towards going to Maryland?’ Really? Thought by whom? Oh yes…the well educated, ill informed stenographers media. Got it!

Those thoughts did last very long, did they?

If the media is nailing this search correctly, then Maryland does not have much to worry about as they Terps still have some big names on their list.

Pittsburgh’s Jamie Dixon, Arizona’s Sean Miller, Notre Dame’s Mike Brey and Villanova’s Jay Wright are expected to rank high on Maryland’s target list as it looks to replace basketball coach Gary Williams, who announced his retirement Thursday, The Washington Post reported today.

Citing college basketball sources across the country and those close to Maryland’s athletic department, The Post reported that the focus of first-year athletic director Kevin Anderson initially will focus on that foursome.

However, the newspaper added that others who could be in the mix include Gonzaga coach Mark Few, a friend of Williams for some time, Minnesota coach Tubby Smith, whose name seems to pop up in connection with virtually every high-profile opening, and Virginia Commonwealth coach Shaka Smart, fresh off an appearance in the Final Four.

Surely all of these coaches will be excited to jump jobs now that they entire world knows that they are (at least) second choice?!

Maybe not. Word is now leaking that both Dixon and Wright may have said ‘no thanks’ to the Terps. None of us can wait for all of the smart alecs in the media to start with their cute little tweets!!!

Additionally, the Washington Post is reporting:

[Mike] Brey will meet with Maryland officials on Sunday to discuss the vacant men’s basketball head coaching position, according to a source close to Brey and to the Maryland athletic department who was not authorized to speak on the record.

Don’t know how Brey feels about being fourth choice (after Dixon and Wright)…but, it looks like we’ll soon see. Personally, this job and process feels like “Tubby Time” to me. But, sooner or later a coach with Tubby’s resume would have a hard time being 5th or 6th choice.

It has been a VERY BUSY weekend for an ‘off-season’ weekend in May as we’ve seen developments in NC State Baseball, basketball recruiting and with the UNC Football scandal. So, please feel welcome to take some time to use the conversations on our message forums available by clicking here to stay on top of everything!!

———-

Want to ask a football question to Phil Simms, Boomer Esiason, Chris Collinsworth and Howie Long? You might even win a once in a lifetime trip. Just click here!

We appreciate all your help and hope to make Men’s Wearhouse a frequent sponsor of Big Lead Sports year round draft coverage.

About StateFans

'StateFansNation' is the shared profile used by any/all of the dozen or so authors that contribute to the blog. You may not always agree with us, but you will have little doubt about where we stand on most issues. Please follow us on Twitter and FaceBook

Coaching Carousel College Basketball

59 Responses to Maryland rejected by Miller, Dixon, Stevens & Brey in less than 24 hours

  1. Tampa-Pack 05/08/2011 at 6:25 AM #

    I’m glad this happened – because I hate Maryland – but also to avoid the huge slab in the face such a move would have caused. Glad to hear he really considered our job for a significant amount of time, but told Md “NO” right away. Helps restore/confirm our importance in the basketball world somewhat. Extra happy the meeting was reported upon, so everyone else knows they were 2nd (at best) fiddle. Now if the media would follow the rest of the search with the same “passion” they covered ours…

  2. wolfonthehill 05/08/2011 at 6:49 AM #

    1 – It’s a hell of a lot more fun to watch this happen at/to other schools.
    2 – It really is odd timing to jump… it seems as if the coaches who wanted to jump already did, since there’s no logical reason something would open up in May. Unless the hiring program is UCLA, Dook, unc-ch, Kansas, or Kentucky, I think it’s gonna be tough to get anyone off the list that’s been thrown out – or the next 5-10 guys in line, either. Will be interesting to watch.

  3. tuckerdorm1983 05/08/2011 at 6:59 AM #

    If I were maryland, I would not travel down the same road we did at N.C. State. If a coach refused us, then there is almost no chance he would go to MD, unless something drastically had changed for the coach. Ergo:
    Shaka Smart no
    Sean Miller no
    Brad Stevens no
    Billy Donovan no
    etc. etc.

    maybe Jay Wright
    maybe Tubby Smith
    maybe ??????

    gary should have retired the day after MD last game. Waiting several months put the program behind the eight ball

  4. State Fan 05/08/2011 at 7:13 AM #

    “A great job”, “A top-10 job”, “The plum job of this off-season”? I don’t think so, Jeff.

  5. tvp1 05/08/2011 at 7:54 AM #

    HEISMAN

  6. choppack1 05/08/2011 at 7:58 AM #

    Good. In addition to being a kick in the nuts he would have done really well there.

  7. Tampa-Pack 05/08/2011 at 8:02 AM #

    Similar to our search, most of the national media types appear to be throwing darts to see what sticks. Since they are already down to their 4th choice, it is becoming almost a duplication of our search (with probably less serious consideration from the big time coaches). Good opportunity to view their new AD against the one they wanted gone so badly in a very similar situation. We’ll see who they ultimately get, but I’m predicting if it isn’t Brey (who it appears we never had serious mutual interest in) their new coaches resume will be significantly less impressive than MG’s.

  8. StateFans 05/08/2011 at 8:21 AM #

    Difference is that we weren’t truly publicly spurned by so many. A lot of it was made up — like Gregg Marshall telling us no (and that he was offered almost 100% more than was the general ballpark of what we would have paid him if we had chosen to move forward.)

    This stuff is confirmed stuff out in the public domain.

  9. packgrad2000 05/08/2011 at 8:25 AM #

    I could possibly see Shaka taking this. When he told us no, he was just coming off an extremely adrenaline charged run to the Final Four, and then his grandfather died. His emotions were going crazy when he had to make a huge lifetime coaching decision. For all we know, after things settled down, he said to himself, “What the heck did I just do?” And now he possibly has another chance at an ACC program. Just speculation though.

  10. Tampa-Pack 05/08/2011 at 8:30 AM #

    ^Statefansnation – I agree, and that was kind of what I meant, but didn’t say it so well. Our AD handled the “rejections” much better than theirs has to date. And so far our AD ran a much better search process. Each of theirs has been public – more similar to the Fowler search than the search Yow ran. They might get a better candidate for other reasons, but they could also end up with someone with a much worse resume as well.

    It is very interesting to watch it play out for someone else. 🙂

  11. packalum44 05/08/2011 at 8:45 AM #

    “like Gregg Marshall telling us no”

    I assumed he was the coach that “revered” UNX and Dook during the interview and Yow decided he was a p—-y and never offered. If it was not Gregg anyone know who it was?

  12. cWOhLFrPAiCKs 05/08/2011 at 8:53 AM #

    ^Possibly Wojo? Not sure if he ever got a call from Yow, but I would imagine he would have had a hard time going against K for a few more years. Wojo is who I assumed it was when I first heard that.

  13. Lunatic Fringe 05/08/2011 at 8:57 AM #

    Eagerly awaits an article by ANYONE that says Maryland is bad job due to high expectations of fans and having to play Duke/UNC each year. I expect I will be waiting a while.

  14. wolfpackdawg 05/08/2011 at 9:00 AM #

    This is awesome:

    goodmanonfox Jeff Goodman
    Sources told FOXSports.com that Maryland AD Kevin Anderson may target Butler’s Brad Stevens next.
    about 8 hours ago

    LMAO.

  15. ADVENTUROO 05/08/2011 at 9:04 AM #

    The UNC fans should HOPE that Maryland ends up with a reasonably good coach at a reasonably good cost. Word on the street from some UNX’er is that Old Roy’s ego was getting bruised when we threw around the high dollar numbers. Thus, if MD has the audicity to pay their coach MORE than old Two Ringer, the UNX faithful will see a jump in ticket prices and their Billy Goat Club dues.

    When I went to bed, he was “A’COMING”. Then I got up, could not sleep and did a little reading and then he was “ON THE FENCE….but leanin’ on A STAYING….”

    NOW, it is close to official as it gets….

    Obviously he has studied the films of Butchie and Cali and learned the art of being wooed and then raising his price for his services….

    Looks like the Arizona AD done took a bag full of money (maybe he got lucky) to Vegas and done brung home the “Miller”. The AZ faithful will be happy until next year…then the dance will begin again…..contract extensions do NOT come without significant BA$E salary increases when you are young and winning…

    Really glad that Miller is NOT going to be here….now let’s don’t start the Shaka Shag thing again…that boy’s wife if PG and he’s staying at VCU….

  16. StandUpAndHowl 05/08/2011 at 9:31 AM #

    Thank you very, very much Sean Miller!

  17. StateFans 05/08/2011 at 9:42 AM #

    Another hour…another Heisman —

    Brad Stevens not interested in Maryland’s job

  18. Lunatic Fringe 05/08/2011 at 10:17 AM #

    Two Public Heismans – It’s got to be time for an article now detailing why no one wants to go to Maryland.

  19. Lunatic Fringe 05/08/2011 at 10:20 AM #

    *Correction* Three Heismans

  20. Lunatic Fringe 05/08/2011 at 10:25 AM #

    SM two raises in one offseason is pretty impressive.

  21. TNWolf 05/08/2011 at 11:05 AM #

    Would love to see Brey award them another Heisman. Where to they turn then, Chuck Driesell? Actually, I wouldn’t mind them getting Brey either. Maybe it’s sick, but I’m starting to enjoy this search.

  22. Lunatic Fringe 05/08/2011 at 11:35 AM #

    Brey was a coach that was never discussed by teams with open positions, for good reasons in my opinion, so this could be him just getting his delayed raise from ND since he was not able to cash in earlier with the other open positions.

  23. Packfan28 05/08/2011 at 11:51 AM #

    Damn, all these guys saying ‘no thanks” to one of the top jobs in the country? I’m stunned.

  24. haze 05/08/2011 at 12:13 PM #

    Hard to hire a good coach, no matter who you are. State & MD are pretty similar jobs, so this is pretty much par for the course but somewhat modified by the timing and public/private nature of the two searches.

    MD needs to land the quality fallback and hurry about it. If they can do that and do that quickly, then this is still a reasonable search. If the public shutdowns continue (assuming all are products of authentic interest… I think we all know that such rejections are not always real), then it’s gonna get ugly.

    Mark Gottfried, thanks for being that quality fallback for us. The fright of the “letter” cannot be over stated.

  25. gotohe11carolina 05/08/2011 at 12:20 PM #

    Bruce Pearl anyone?

    Anyone?

1 2 3

Leave a Reply