What's up everybody, Skyler Allen here on between the
ears is our final episode here of the week.
And as promised, we're gonna talk about the West
Virginia men's basketball coaching, search some names to watch
. Uh, some names that I think are a
little forgotten about and some names that I think should
, uh, maybe give more consideration than maybe they
really are or kind of are. I guess we
don't really know at this point. Um, but
let's go ahead and kick right into it. Here's
a look at some of the candidates that I,
if I were run Baker. This is not me
reporting that these coaches have been tied to w or
vice versa. This is just my so-called wish list
to fire a Ren Baker. So let's go and
take a look at this list. All right.
So we've got 10 different coaches here on this list
as you probably have already seen it. Uh,
if you read my work, uh, or,
or check out our site daily, this is the
10 best candidates for the Wu head coaching job.
And I'm gonna kind of briefly go through these because
like I said, it's already up, it's been
up since the moment the season ended and I'm sure
a lot of you have already seen this, but
I wanted to kinda go, uh not so much
more into detail, but just kind of give a
brief reason as to why I have some of these
guys on the list and where they are so on
and so forth. So, um, and,
and kind of give more of a, a definitive
answer on all of these guys. So let's go
ahead and start here just right at the top with
number 10, Amir Abdur Rahim at US. F
Now, this is an interesting guy because he has
now coached at two places that typically don't win.
I mean, he had Kennesaw State even in his
first year. They went one in 28 as it
says right here in this article, he turns them
around, gets them to go to the, the
NCAA tournament by I think year three or four takes
the US F job and boom, they're a tournament
type level team. I mean, it's, it's
unbelievable the job that he has done at those two
places again, traditionally, just don't win. So
I don't know that if he's, if he's gonna
garner the interest of Brent Baker or maybe even the
other potential job openings out there, but he's gonna
be a big time up and coming head coach at
the, the high major level. So at some
point, I think you're gonna see a Amir Abdur
Rahim coaching at a big time program. I just
don't know if it's gonna be this off-season, uh
, is when he's gonna make that jump or not
. But I, I would expect it's probably a
couple more years away. So that's, that's kind
of my first name out there. That's kind of
unrealistic because I, I just think it's way too
early in his career. Niko Medved at Colorado State
. I'm not really that high on and I know
some of my, my West Virginia peers may disagree
with me on that, but I just don't see
it with Nico. And one of the reasons he's
on this list in large part, it's a big
reason is because he's been tied to West Virginia for
so damn long now you have to include them.
Um And I, I would think that of the
, as, as again, the, the raheem
is like the far fetched guy that's maybe a little
bit ahead. Uh We're, we're a little bit
ahead of the curve there, but Medved is probably
my, my la my very last guy in terms
of these nine that I think would make sense can
get the job. Um It's not that I don't
believe in them. I'm just not sold on.
I just don't know that he can win in the
big 12 consistently. He's been kind of ok.
I gue it's not like he's been lighting it up
at his recent stops. He's done well, but
I don't know, I, I just can't get
there on Niko Medved, Dustin Kearns. I'm kind
of in the same myspace with, with Kearns as
I am Medved and with Kearns, it's a little
bit more that there's not enough proven track record.
I, I want to see more before I would
be willing to commit to Kearns because this was really
the first year that he's had a season where they
just dominated and really came out and played like a
tournament level team just whether or not they win their
turn their conference championship or not. But my next
coach can't be somebody that has been kind of a
little bit over 500 for the most of his career
until deer. He takes my job. I just
can't do that. Um, Andy Kennedy and I
know this one's probably gonna bring a lot of noises
and grunts and moans and stuff from West Virginia fans
. Uh, obviously the Bob Huggins tie and he's
been a power five head coach before or high major
coach before. He's had success there. He's had
success at UAB turning them into a very solid program
. So he's, he's been a name that hasn't
been, as mentioned, I would say probably since
really the, the expedited coaching search last summer,
but I would still keep him on my radar.
He, the Blazers had a good year again.
He's got that experience. Like I said, he's
been a head coach for a number of years now
, at some point, I would feel like another
high major team is gonna come calling. I just
don't know if they're going to get him to,
to pry away from UAB. He loves it there
. But we'll see. Um, but I would
definitely have Andy Kennedy on my radar. Josh,
is we talked about this at length yesterday. I'm
not going to go on a whole spiel about this
, but again, just the situation that he was
handed, it's tough for him to have any sort
of success for anybody to have any sort of success
. If you give him a fair shot, I
think you probably get better results. But that's kind
of a tough thing to do. Um, you're
committing multiple, multiple years when you're hiring your next
tech coach, you can't just give it a one
year deal. Uh, so I, I don't
know. II, I think Josh, even though
the reason I have him high on this list is
really just because if we're just talking about potential,
I, I still think Josh is above Andy Kennedy
above Nico Medved. I, I really do because
he's been here. He's been here a decade and
a half, more than a decade and a half
. He knows what it takes to win here.
He understands what works, what doesn't work better than
any of these other guys on the list. And
that's including the ones in front of him. But
this is as high as I could go with Josh
. So I would say six for Josh, but
that's just my thoughts on that. Uh, Steve
Forbes, another name that probably hasn't come up as
much since that search last summer. But I would
still keep him on my list. I mean,
he has turned Wake Forest into a really respectable program
. He was a hell of a coach at East
Tennessee State and I just, I think he gets
the most of what he has to work with and
that's what makes it feel like a perfect fit almost
with West Virginia because he's not gonna get four and
five star talents. He might get a four star
every now and then. But for the most part
, he's gonna have to bank on the development of
players and that's, that's just seems like what Steve
Forbes has done really well at both of his head
coaching stints, uh stops. So Wake Forest,
I don't think that they, they're gonna be able
to pony up the money to keep him if West
Virginia offered. So I think it's an easy,
it's an easy get if you wanna talk about getting
into a bidding war or anything like that. I
don't think you have to really worry about it.
Um It's just a matter of not a matter of
whether or not you feel like he's a fit.
So I love Steve Forbes. Maybe not as high
up on the list for others, but I like
him a lot. Mark Byington. He is the
guy that I believe is out in front right now
. Um, and I think he's been out in
front for a little while, but I'm, I
, I'm gaining more confidence in him. I'm just
, I'm a little hesitant. Um, James Madison
is a tough place to win. I mean,
let's, let's give him credit for that. He's
, he's from this region. So if that matters
to you, um, then he checks that box
. But, um, I don't know, I
like him but again, not maybe quite as much
as some of these other guys on the list.
Now, number three is gonna be very controversial if
you haven't seen this list before. Yeah, that's
right. Dusty May Florida, Atlantic. And I
know on many people's lists or fans wish list,
they probably have him number one. Let's be honest
. I think he's a little overrated. Just,
just a little, not a lot. I think
he's a really good coach, but I think he's
been given a lot more credit for what he's done
, maybe what he deserves. Yes, he took
this team deep into the tournament last year, got
him to the final four. Got it. But
this year's team is kind of underwhelmed a little bit
. They've lost some games. They probably shouldn't have
. I think a lot of people thought they maybe
not run the table in regular season but they come
damn near close and they really didn't. And before
the final four run last year, they weren't this
20 win team all the time. So it's hard
to really say, you know, you strike lightning
once. I, I don't know this year if
they're gonna get that far in the tournament. But
we'll see. Um, but I think he's a
hell of a coach. I, I really do
. I think a lot of them, I just
think the other two guys on this list should be
viewed a little bit higher and that is dry.
And Devry at Drake and Pat Kelsey at Charleston.
These two guys, it's really hard. And the
reason why I've mentioned them together is because I really
think it's one, a, one b they've accomplished
a lot at both of their programs. Devry has
been at Drake for six years. Um, and
you can see the numbers here 25 or more in
five of the LA, uh, in five,
in four of the last five seasons. Um,
or excuse me, in each of the last five
seasons. He's won 25 or more games. He
knows how to coach offense defensively. I think it's
a little skewed with the numbers there with all the
overtime games that they've had. I think if you
take those down to the regulation numbers, it'd be
a little bit more interesting. Maybe that's something we'll
do if we start breaking these coaches down by individuals
. Um, and then Pat Kelsey, I mean
, he has just had a long, long streak
of winning, been a head coach for 11 years
now, both of Winthrop and Charleston, he's been
a winner virtually every single year had 20 plus wins
. Tons of on, on tons of occasions.
He's 57 and 11 over the last two years at
Charleston young energetic coach that has a lot of experience
for his age. So those are kind of my
10 that I feel, um, should be in
consideration, feel different about guys from Amir Abdur Rahim
all the way down to Pat Kelsey. And I'm
sure there's a few names out there that, you
know, I probably should be talking about and we
may bring up here on the show like Shaheen Holloway
at Seton Hall is one that got some attention,
Chris Jan at Mississippi State, I believe John Rothstein
or somebody I can't remember who it was, um
threw their name out. There may have been uh
Borzello at ESPN, but there's, there's gonna be
a lot of names on here and I, and
I think there's probably gonna be a couple that we
end up hearing about that were really never mentioned until
this upcoming week. So it'll be interesting to see
where they go if there's any reports, uh or
if we get news of who's gonna interview for the
job, it'll be interesting. So let us know
in the comment section who you think should be the
next wu head coach. Let us know also who
you think on this list should be the next coach
or maybe on this list shouldn't be even considered.
So, let me know and don't, don't take
it easy on Josh out. We've already gone there
. I already put my reasoning out there for that
. I understand he's not gonna get the job.
Let's let's keep it easy on Josh, but that'll
do it for me here today on Mountaineers now is
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