National college basketball media analysts have thrown out a half dozen or more names Washington State should consider in their quest to replace Ernie Kent.
The consensus is the Cougars are aiming to hire an up-and-comer willing and able to make the leap to the Power 6 ranks, and succeed. Oh yeah, whoever is hired should get a hefty pay raise, too.
Of course, some big names have been tossed around too. Rick Pitino? While the thought of hiring the national championship winning coach is intriguing, he comes with too much baggage and the allegations which forced his ouster from Louisville will send chills up your spine. The negative backlash nationally would be enormous.
Recognizing the perils of ‘going there,’ WSU president Kirk Schulz shot down any Pitino talk with one tweet on Saturday, responding ‘Not going to happen’ to the mere suggestion the Cougars should hire Pitino.
Thad Matta? He was the Ohio State coach when WSU AD Pat Chun was working in Columbus, so talk about the former Buckeyes coach probably has more legs. Matta is not as old as you think (52 in July) and led Ohio State for 13 seasons before health issues sparked his premature departure from OSU in June 2017.
Matta led Ohio State to two Final Fours and five Sweet 16s in nine NCAA tournament appearances. If Matta is healthy (a botched back surgery led to major issues with his feet and back), he might take a peek at WSU as a way to get back into the business.
If not Matta, then who? Two Mountain West coaches prominently mentioned are Utah State’s Craig Smith and Justin Hutson of Fresno State.
Smith, who served as an assistant at North Dakota State, Colorado State and Nebraska until a successful four-year stint as the head coach at South Dakota (2014-18), might have experienced a career-changing moment Saturday night when Utah State (28-6) earned MWC’s automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament by beating San Diego State in his first year with the Aggies.
So, while Chun might give Smith a call, he could be inclined to wait for the inevitable opportunity from a more established and nationally prominent program (translation: school that pays more money).
Fresno State gave the 47-year old Hutson his first college head coaching gig last year, and the Bulldogs finished 23-9 and reached the semifinals of the Mountain West Tournament before falling to Utah State.
Fresno State will likely get a NIT bid on Sunday.
Hutson, widely regarded as a great recruiter, was an assistant at Cal State Bakersfield (1998-2000), Cal Poly (2005-06), San Diego State (2006-11; 2013-18) and UNLV (2011-13) before taking over at Fresno State. Clearly, he has strong West Coast connections and could boost WSU’s recruiting efforts in California despite his lack of significant head coaching experience.
