Seems a lot of the walking wounded remain unavailable. And now Bulger appears to have reinjured his hamstring. Our dugout starting to look like a MASH ward. Need a strong outing from Devin with Ginther to close to salvage a game and return home a respectable 4-2 in the SEC. With all the LHHs in the SC lineup the matchups appear favorable for us.

On the commentary desk for the Fast Break channel on the March Madness app, talking about coaching in the NCAA tourney… something he certainly knows nothing about.

Idk about y’all, but if I just cleared $26 mil, you wouldn’t find me working the week after!

I still think the answer is right in front of us and has been for a while.

I know one of the arguments against him has been that nobody else is trying to hire him publicly. I don't get the logic but have seen that posted a few times.

@vuperior can help fact check this but he's won big time at every level he's been at and basketball is very much a sport that is predictive from one level to the next, so what gives? Why haven't we contacted him and more importantly, can that change?

It's starting to appear as though Dusty May is gone, Chris Mack is gone and from there the list of homeruns drops significantly save for Bucky McMillan. This fanbase would be so incredibly excited to see what this product would look like. I'm extremely confident that he would win here and win quickly.

So what am I missing? He's 40, it's not like he's 25. He's had success in a very good mid major conference. He won big time prior to that, even though it was in High School, but he won all the games he could at that level. This guy is a tireless worker and a proven winner.

This is our chance to hire him. If we miss out on this search, I truly believe he will get gobbled up by a P2 job very soon and will only enter Memorial Gym to kick our ass instead of the other way around.

I kind of feel like the only way he gets in the mix is if we miss a few more times (May and Mack had to be our top 2 targets).

Thoughts?

Oh, and hiring Bucky McMillan would instantly turn Candice's perception around for a lot of fans imho (not for all, but for a lot).

Vandy scores first, in the 2nd, 1-0.
Bulger reaches on an error LaNeve doubles him in.
No outs.
Bulger hurt and comes out.
Ground out.
Hewett HBP, runners 1st and 3rd..

Think it's hard to evaluate with Pavia and the two freshmen not being here yet but it does seem to be a very open competition.

Clark Lea on it:

"This is gonna be a long-term evaluation. So I don't want to rush to judgement on anyone. I think they've had flashes of some really strong play and obviously some mistakes that need to be cleaned up. The number one focus at that position is gonna be ball security and how we protect the ball."

Out of the guys on campus currently I'd probably handicap Johnson at the favorite, although I'd think Berlowitz is closer than you'd think. Berlowitz is bigger than I'd expected him to be and has transformed his body since he's been here. All the guys they have seem to fit the system they have in place. Dickey mentioned that he thought he fit well with what they wanted to do but needs to improve his ball security. Johnson seems to have some accuracy issues early but I'd attribute some of that to timing, which he alluded to in the presser today.

Need to see more before I make more generalizations but that's what I've got for now.

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With a boss like this down low and our lack of post presence?

?

This is how I see things as of 10:30 tonight.

- I think Dusty May (FAU) is their first choice. And I think that would be a hire beyond what anyone would have dreamed. But I think Michigan and Louisville are both targeting May and that's gonna be tough to beat those teams out.
- I'd watch Danny Sprinkle (Utah State) closely. They are playing TCU tonight in the NCAA tournament. He rebuilt his roster from scratch in Year 1, won the Mountain West and got an 8-seed. He's spent all his time out West/West Coast and perception is he can get the Washington job if he wants it.
- Mark Byington at James Madison is also on their list. JMU is 31-3 and probably going to upset Wisconsin tonight. I'd watch West Virginia for that one.
- I continue to hear Mitch Henderson's name come up (coach at Princeton).
- Not sure where they are with Kyle Smith (Washington State) or Darian DeVries (Drake) but I wouldn't rule those out.
- Feels like the Chris Mack ship has sailed or he's being slow-played. I'd lean more towards the former but it's a gut feeling based on some info and nothing I can prove.

There is a belief in some agent circles that money is a concern after what they're paying Stack to go away. But that also doesn't make much sense if you're targeting Dusty May, so I'm a little skeptical.

I"ll be tied up most of the day, so not sure what our coverage will look like as Joey has football this morning and Billy is out of town. This is the last of my super-crazy weeks so things should be a little more consistent after Easter.

Anyway, this is the game thread for Game 1.

Curious as to everyone’s thoughts now that we are 8 days in with no end in sight. We are performing this search with both hands tied behind our back due to our out of depth AD.

Per Matt Jones:

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Outside-the-box idea if Candice wants him. Strike a deal with UK's AD--we take over his contract (assuming there is no absurd buyout or other prohibitive clauses for 2030ish), they pay Stackhouse's buyout. Saves them about $10 million and they can bring in a fresh coach. We save $25 million and get a Hall of Fame Coach for a few years where he can build our program into something ultra-competitive where it will be attractive for the next guy. Just gotta get Cal to go along with it.

Cal gets to be with his daughter in the best city in the SEC. Give him ample NIL, reduce/eliminate transfer portal restrictions, get under UT's skin immediately. Lots of benefits. Win-win. Should make the guys who want a "high floor" guy foam at the mouth.

If Darius Garland never got hurt?

..."flops" in the tourney. Hate to see it.

Whoever our new head coach is (I think we will get a good one) i’m going to be very interested to see the quality of the staff our new coach assembles. In today’s very volatile basketball environment, you have to have a high-quality staff to recruit, build relationships etc at multiple levels (high school, transfer portal, roster retention etc.). I believe this was one of Stack’s ultimate downfalls. Unless I missed something, I don’t think any of stack’s assistance have gotten a new job yet, whereas Bryce’s top two assistants were scooped up by major programs (Gonzaga and Ohio state) within 48 hours.

So here is hoping we get a great new coach and a great new staff!!

After defeating Louisville the Blue Raiders get LSU next in Baton Rouge, and I believe they can beat the Tigers.