Victories by underdogs on the first weekend of the NCAA Tournament slowed the pace of the on-going coaching search at Georgia Tech, according to multiple sources in the college basketball coaching community.
Tech’s list of candidates includes three head coaches whose teams, all with double-digit seeds, advanced with upset victories to reach the Sweet 16: Richmond’s Chris Mooney, Virginia Commonwealth’s Shaka Smart and Marquette’s Buzz Williams.
The Yellow Jackets’ list also includes other candidates, some of whom are not involved in the NCAA Tournament. Tech athletic director Dan Radakovich has said the school’s search also may involve assistant coaches.
Also on twitter from Dave Glenn:
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DG will have an update shortly on the N.C.State coaching search at www.accsports.com
Also, I think it is safe to say that the NC State coaching search is facing the same issues. If the first target on your list is someone like a “Sean Miller” or a “Brad Stevens”, then do you wait for Arizona and Butler to lose or do you go ahead and negotiate/offer candidates who might be #3-#4 on our list whose teams have been eliminated from the NCAA tournament(like a “Rick Barnes” or a “Mark Turgeon”? If you make the latter coaches wait until your first choices say no, then will they remove themselves from consideration because they don’t want to be perceived as the 3rd or 4th choice?
It is a really tough situation for Yow to manage.