Contrary to The Sporting News‘ report last night, The Winston-Salem Journal reports this morning that NC State may be focusing on West Virginia’s John Beilein:
The Sporting News reported that State has offered the job to Steve Lavin, who is an analyst for ESPN and a former coach at UCLA.
But sources close to the situation continued to point to West Virginia’s John Beilein.
Neither Lavin nor Beilein could be reached last night. Agent Dennis Coleman, who lists Beilein as one of his clients, declined to comment.
There is a lot going on here. As crazy as it sounds, we ask everyone to take a little breath and relax. This may drag out until the middle of next week. Honestly, since we are missing the AAU Weekend in Houston this weekend…does it really matter how long it takes now?
IF Lavin really has been offered the job as TSN is reporting, then why in the world has Lavin’s employer, ESPN, still has not reported the news? Why does every local media outlet (including Pack Pride and The Wolfpacker) not confirmed the offer? Interesting, isn’t it? I’m not saying that Lavin may not end up being the hire. I just think that this is interesting.
Additionally, it is very frustrating (and sad) that Fowler seems to have chosen to actively pursue the likes of Steve Lavin over Billy Gillispie and Frank Haith. Fowler has chosen not to pursue Frank Haith because Haith is not considered a strong “x&o coach”…yet we have chosen to pursue Steve Lavin, one of the worst “x&o” coaches in recent memory?
Wait…can I really call Lavin a coach if he hasn’t actually coached in three years? These are three years that Lavin couldn’t even procure an interview from Purdue, where he had been an assistant on some of Gene Keady’s best teams.
Ahhh…it must be Lavin’s strong cultural fit in the area that makes him more attractive than North Carolina native and former Wake Forest assistant, Frank Haith.
The WSJ article goes on to say:
Sources yesterday were convinced that Beilein was led to believe that it was his job for the taking, which is what makes The Sporting News report about Lavin even more intriguing.
One issue with Beilein could be a buyout of his contract at West Virginia. In 2004, Beilein signed a contract extension through the 2011-12 season, and various reports say that it includes a buyout clause of $500,000 for every year remaining on the contract.
Beilein was in the running for jobs at Missouri and Indiana earlier this spring, and the buyout clause may have cost him those opportunities.
Additionally, The News & Observer says that the search goes on. The N&O’s piece tried to present the search as moving forward at a normal pace while using the most extreme example of a coaching search (Virginia’s 2005 search) in recent years.
Classic journalism – no understanding of how the real world analyzes data. There have been six coaching searches in the ACC since the year 2000, and only one has gone longer than NC State’s. Yet, that is the one that the N&O holds up UVa as the only example? By the way, Dave Leitao was named as Virginia’s Head Coach on April 16th. Today is April 22nd.
