Basketball Coaching Hot Board: March 15th
With the news of Cuonzo Martin leaving Cal to become the next head coach of Missouri, Cal is left with another head coaching search on their hands in 2017. Like the football coaching search, they hope to finish it quick and decisively to help close out a 2017 recruiting class that will have to replace six players. This board will be updated as frequently as news is heard.
UPDATE (3/16): A couple of new names have been added to the list in Theo Robertson and Brian Shaw
Eric Musselman - Nevada Head Coach
Resume: Musselman has done solid work in Reno, taking Nevada from a 9 win team in 2014-15 to a CIT winning team in 2015-16 (24-14 overall) and a 12 seed in this year's NCAA Tournament after winning the Mountain West. He has a host of coaching experience, notably as the head coach of the Warriors and Kings, and as an assistant for the Memphis Grizzlies, Arizona State and LSU.
Why Musselman: He's experienced, has recruiting chops (as shown by bringing the Martin twins in as transfers from NC State), and has been in the Bay Area before. He still apparently has a house in Danville. Plus, a reportedly low buyout from his contract would ostensibly make him easier to pry away.
Why Not Musselman: Would he be willing to leave Nevada after only two years of building it up into a relative threat, while recruiting extremely well? There's also concern about hiring a mid-major coach as opposed to an assistant from a Power-5 school, a debate the football coaching search went through.
Randy Bennett - St. Mary's Head Coach
Resume: Bennett has turned a small school in Moraga into a nationally recognized mid-major in 16 seasons of coaching the Gaels. He's made the tournament six times, developing a strong pipeline from Australia and developing some NBA guards in Patty Mills and Matthew Dellavadova.
Why Bennett: Already has the experience of being in the Bay Area for years, could compete with almost any team in the country with the resources at St. Mary's. He has had consistently winning squads at St. Mary's, and could ostensibly do more with the resources Cal provides.
Why not Bennett: Again, would Bennett want to leave a job that he's become associated with, for the relative uncertainty of Cal. He built St. Mary's from a 2-win team to something special in short order, so there is definitely sentiment there. Overtures have been made to him before and he hasn't taken them, so why now?
Dennis Gates - Assistant Coach, Florida State
Resume: If the Bears want to gamble on a young assistant, they may look into the past at the former "Sheriff", Dennis Gates. Gates is the top recruiter at Florida State at the moment, helping to pull in two top ten recruiting classes in 2016 and 2015, as well as four consecutive top 15 recruiting classes. He was an academically focused player at Cal, making the Pac-10 first team all-academic team, as well as winning the 2002 Pac-10 Medal of Honor (given to the Pac-10 Universities Top Graduating Student-Athlete)
Why Gates: He's a young talented assistant with excellent recruiting chops, experience at a power five school, has Cal ties, and has experienced Cal as a player first hand, something that would help him relate to recruits.
Why Not Gates: Experience as a head coach is lacking for Gates, as well as being an associate head coach. It would be a gamble, and if they were to go down that route, what kind experience would he be able to wrangle up with his assistants?
Russell Turner - UC Irvine Head Coach
Resume: Has led UC Irvine to the top of their conference, and NIT or NCAA bids three out of the last four years. He coached under Mike Montgomery at Stanford and has had five consecutive 20+ win seasons.
Why Turner: West Coast ties again, and the pedigree of coaching under Montgomery and his offensive setups would be a breath of fresh air after seeing an offense get continually bogged down by post double teams and turnovers.
Why Not Turner: The hire wouldn't exactly move the needle, and while Turner is a good coach, his recruiting skills may not be up to the level that's wanted in order to keep together this recruiting class.
Rod Barnes - CSU-Bakersfield Head Coach
Resume: He's beaten Cal twice in two attempts, including in Cuonzo Martin's final game as head coach. He's also taken a CSU-Bakersfield program to the NCAA tournament and the top of their conference in four years since they moved into the WAC.
Why Barnes: Plays a similar style of defense, with more swarming as opposed to tight man defense in the half-court. The swarming can force a lot of turnovers, as Bakersfield ranked 8th in the country in rate of forcing those. Barnes has head coaching experience at Ole Miss as well, so he's been a part of a major conference program.
Why not Barnes: He's had two good years at CSU-Bakersfield, which followed four very average years there. His best years at Ole Miss were his first four, then the last few fell off.
Joe Pasternack - Arizona Associate Head Coach
Resume: A former Cal assistant under Ben Braun, Pasternack has been with Arizona since 2011, after University of New Orleans decided to not play at the division one level (before returning and making the tournament this year). He's been a key recruiter for the Wildcats, with west coast ties, and has been a part of them getting six consecutive top ten recruiting classes
Why Pasternack: High level recruiting, worked on a team that is consistently at the top of the conference and putting out NBA prospects, has been at Cal before, knows the system, has prior head coaching experience along with dealing with a tumultuous situation at UNO. He's also been the lead recruiter for a number of high level prospects, Lauri Markkanen being the most recent big get.
Why Not Pasternack: Concerns of how much he has played into the success of Arizona since he's been there, as Sean Miller is a driving force for them.
Chris Mack - Xavier Head Coach
Resume: Longtime coach at Xavier, under Sean Miller, before taking the head job in 2009. He was a finalist for the Cal job the last time it opened after Mike Montgomery retired. Six out of his eight seasons at Xavier have earned an NCAA tournament birth.
Why Mack: He was a finalist for the job the last time it came open, and he's been successful ever since. He's only had one season of less than 20 wins, with three appearances in the Sweet 16.
Why Not Mack: Mack played at Xavier during his undergrad years, and his wife and family are all from the state of Ohio. His willingness to go away from home has to be a big question.
Wyking Jones - Cal Interim Head Coach
Resume: Coached on a staff at Louisville that won a national title in 2013, has been an assistant for the Bears the past two seasons, along with prior experience coaching some talented teams at New Mexico, and also at Pepperdine.
Why Wyking: Continuity with the players and recruiting, the recruiting side being a big deal due to having to fill those six slots in the 2017 class. He's also from California, and has recruited in the state for most of his coaching career.
Why Not Wyking: Lack of head coaching experience is one of the bigger factors here. While Cal has been a solid team the past two years, they haven't made the leap to great even with the talent that has been here, and a moribund offense didn't help this year either.
Larry Krystkowiak - Utah Head Coach
Resume: Former NBA forward, most notably with the Bulls, Mike Montgomery protege, and similar to Montgomery in getting the most out of his players. Took Utah from a pile of scraps to a perennial Pac-12 contender, with multiple 20 win seasons, after a rough first two years.
Why Krystkowiak: He's probably done one of the best jobs in the country turning around a Utah squad, and he's done well in recruiting by getting guys like Jacob Poeltl and Jordan Loveridge on board. He kept the Utah offense efficient even after Poeltl left.
Why Not Krystkowiak: He's probably not leaving Utah any time soon, unless he's made an offer that he can't refuse, something that the Cal AD doesn't have the money for.
Theo Robertson - Los Angeles Lakers Player Development Coach
Resume: A four year player for the Bears from 2006-2010 and a former director of basketball operations from 2012 to 2014, Robertson represents an out of left field choice for the Bears. Robertson spent two years with Golden State under Steve Kerr, before moving down to LA for the chance to be on Luke Walton's staff with the Lakers, where he has worked on-court with the team during practice, as well as coaching the summer league team.
Why Robertson: This would be a move based on potential, a big time gamble on a youthful candidate who would be willing to come back to lead his alma mater. He's from the area, playing his high school ball at De La Salle, and absorbing experience from some great Warriors teams was extremely helpful in Robertson's development as a coach.
Why not Robertson: Similar reasoning to the above. It's a gamble to go after a guy who has no experience as a head coach or even an associate head coach. The Cal AD may be looking for someone with a bit more experience.
Brian Shaw - Associate Head Coach of the Los Angeles Lakers
Resume: Tons of NBA experience, playing and coaching, playing fourteen NBA seasons, including his final four with the Shaq-Kobe Lakers. He's a native of Oakland, coming from Bishop O'Dowd, and coached under notables like Phil Jackson and Frank Vogel. He is respected in coaching circles and by his former teammates, including Shaq, who said that Shaw was the player he respected the most in his career.
Why Shaw: A Bay Area native with five NBA rings (three as a player, two as a coach) is a massive asset when it comes to recruiting at home, giving potential players an immediate connection. He has a ton of coaching experience, to go along with NBA experience and was thought to be the heir apparent to Phil Jackson in LA before the job was given to Mike Brown.
Why Not Shaw: He's never coached at the college level before, and his stint as the head coach of the Denver Nuggets did not go well, with Shaw having trouble relating to some of the younger players on the team and generally had trouble connecting, which would be an even bigger issue at the college level.