re: Too early to start discussing Bball changes??

What's Jones' current contract?

A few names to toss out...

1. Kermit Davis - he's the "inside" hire given the time he spent as an assistant to Brady, and it's certainly tempting to dismiss him as a candidate because it would make sense to have a clean break with LSU's mediocre history, but the fact is Davis has done extremely well at Middle Tennessee. He beat Michigan State in the tournament last year and this year he's beaten the stew out of both Vanderbilt and Ole Miss on the way to a 10-3 start. He's got another strong team which could well make a run in the Dance, and if they keep to their current level of play this would be the fifth year in the last six they've won at least 24 games.

Alleva is actually capable of hiring Kermit Davis. It's terrible that you have to limit your coaching search to candidates who would crawl here or else Alleva would be assured of f**king up the hire, but given that as the circumstance we're in, we could still end up with a considerably-better-than-average coach with this one.

Next, coaches you'd have to get rid of Joe Alleva and hire a decent replacement AD in order to land...

2. Archie Miller, Dayton - Miller is likely going to be THE hot name among young "mid-major" coaches coming up, and as such you might find yourself in a dreaded bidding war in order to hire him. You might have to go as high as $2.5 million to reel him in, which constitutes a million-dollar investment in the basketball program. Alleva will not make that investment, and he isn't capable of closing the deal with a high-powered professional like Miller in any event. But whoever gets Miller is getting a superstar. When he gets to a place with real resources he's going to pile up victories like his brother Sean does at Arizona.

3. Randy Bennett, St. Mary's - This is going to be the 10th straight season Bennett has won 20 games in, and it might be the best team he's had. And unlike Miller he's a guy you might be able to get for what Jones makes. But this guy is a hard-arse competitor and a pro - to pull him halfway across the country to a place he's got no connections to would take impressing the hell out of him as to the athletic department he'd be joining, so you'd better have somebody doing the hiring who can do that.

4. Ed Cooley, Providence - Cooley's done a hell of a good job building a program back up that had fallen down, and they're very good again this year. But he's already making $1.6 million, so if you want him you'll have to buy him. Again, Alleva can't and won't do it.

5. Will Wade, VCU - Wade completely outcoached Jones when his team won an 85-74 game against LSU in the Bahamas earlier this year despite having a lot less talent. He's a killer of a coach, and young - only 34. Wade built the Tennessee-Chattanooga program after some quality assistant stints under Oliver Purnell at Clemson, Tommy Amaker at Harvard and Shaka Smart at VCU; in two years he went 18-15 and 22-10 before getting hired to replace Smart. Last year he was 25-11 and made it to the 2nd round of the tournament. VCU is paying him a nice chunk of change right now, though - he's at $1 million a year. Smart was getting $1.8 million before he left, so it's going to take at least that to move him.

And now, for some mid-major coaches who are gettable, but carry some risk to them.

Ideally, what you want if you're going to hire a mid-major coach is a guy who's either been at his current school long enough to have built a program and either sustained it or rebuilt it after graduating his people - or he's been at two different programs and built twice, to prove it's not just Curley Hallman riding Brett Favre to a bigger job. Some of these guys have done that, others haven't.

6. Steve Forbes, East Tennessee State - Forbes won 24 games his first year and he's got a strong club again this year, but what makes him an interesting hire is two things - first, that he's had a couple of junior college programs that won big, and second, that he's been an assistant who was a huge recruiting ace - with Gregg Marshall at Wichita State, with Bruce Pearl at Tennessee, with Billy Gillespie at Texas A&M. Forbes is an "aggressive" recruiter, but he's a hell of a coach and he wins.

7. King Rice, Monmouth - Rice was Dean Smith's point guard at North Carolina from 1987-91, and following that he was an assistant at Oregon, Illinois State, Providence and Vanderbilt before getting the Monmouth job. He struggled for three years, then went 18-15 before breaking out last year with a 28-8 team. He's 10-2 so far this year, with the only losses coming at South Carolina and Syracuse. He plays a very up-tempo game which could be interesting here.

8. Matt McCall, Tennessee-Chattanooga - McCall took over for Wade at UTC last year and ran their win total from 22 games up to 29, and he's got another good team this year. They're 9-3 and beat Tennessee earlier, almost knocking Vanderbilt off a couple of days ago. McCall was Billy Donovan's lead recruiter at Florida as well, so he's capable of bringing in top talent if he's at a program where that's possible.

9. Dana Ford, Tennessee State - Ford is a bit of a new name, having come out of nowhere last year to win 20 games at a place where wins aren't usually easy to come by. That 20 wins was up from five in his first year in 2014-15. Ford is also interesting because he's another Gregg Marshall protege, having coached for him at Winthrop and Wichita State. So far Tennessee State is 8-3. They gave Duke all they wanted the other day. Ford's teams play some in-your-face defense, which would be a nice change. He's only 32 years old.

10. Eric Musselman, Nevada - We can assume Musselman would come to LSU, but if he wins the Mountain West this year like it looks like he might, he could be a hot name and therefore ungettable with Alleva making the hire. Musselman spent a year being ignored by Johnny Jones on the LSU bench, but he's a great coach who even had some success as an NBA head man. Hell, maybe it ought to be the Pelicans trying to hire him instead of LSU.

No dice on Dan Majerle?

Too early to consider a coaching change as long as Alleva is AD.

Great post Scott! Thanks for the effort you put into that!

What about the Iona coach? They've been pretty good the past few years. Might be a realistic choice too??

We need someone who talks like us, is from Louisiana and loves gumbo. Otherwise, we shouldn't interview them.......

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What about the Iona coach? They've been pretty good the past few years. Might be a realistic choice too??

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The thing about Cluess at Iona is he's a little old. I think he's like 58.

Kermit is 57, but Kermit's got more connections down this way. You hire an old coach who's never worked anywhere near Louisiana...I worry about a fit.

That said, Larranaga was a bit long in the tooth when Miami hired him from George Mason, and he was a New York guy, and he's done great at Miami, so you never know.

I guess this thread is anchored for some reason. Not allowed to speculate I guess

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Our current Head Clown makes me yearn for Brady

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Yes, wasn't a fan of the "Beatles Steamroller", but compared to who's currently wandering around the sidelines in a foggy daze, "Steamer" was Adolf Rupp!...................