Here is how I would go about contacting potential replacements if I was in charge of the search. I know Gabe posted something similar, but figured you all might want a different person to argue with.
Tier I: Sean Miller. Considering Bill Self and Will Wade and Bruce Pearl are still coaching, I have zero moral qualms with hiring him. I don't think it's super realistic that he would say yes, but you never know until you try. He's won big and he should have plenty left in the tank.
Tier II: Somewhat realistic names I make say no: Steve Forbes, Buzz Williams, Mike White. Forbes almost certainly says no since he just signed a contract extension, and if he does want to leave, it would probably be for Louisville, but what the heck, give him a call. The fans would love him and he'd be fun to cover, I know that. Williams too, was never super likely and is probably less so now that he's about to take Texas A&M to the tournament, but he did work with Desiree Reed-Francois at Virginia Tech and was reportedly interested in the Missouri job when it was open in the past. White most likely will not get fired at Florida, but the fans in Gainesville might be a bit restless, so perhaps he looks for a soft landing spot rather than enter next season with a warm seat. He's proven he can get talent to campus, and while it's fair to wonder whether he's squeezed every drop out of that talent, the dude has been to the NCAA Tournament in four out of six seasons at Florida (that the tournament got played) and has won at least one game in all four tournament appearances, including an Elite Eight run in 2017. I have no idea if White would be interested, but he would seem on the surface like the most likely of this group.
Tier III: Splashy names I have seen brought up and would interest me, but I would have questions (listed in order of preference): Dana Altman, Porter Moser, TJ Otzelberger, Chris Mack. Altman probably doesn't belong in this tier. He has by far the best resume of this group. But I don't see how Mizzou can make the finances work. Plus, he's 63. Fair to wonder how much he has left in the tank. Moser and Otzelberger both showed they can win at the mid-major level and have gotten off to decent starts at high-majors, but there are some question marks with both. Moser inherited a solid program that is (probably) going to miss the NCAA Tournament. That said, he had to replace a lot of pieces from last season, and he did a decent job in the transfer portal, landing Jordan Goldwire from Duke and the Groves brothers. The biggest road block with him, I would think, is he's a guy that coached at one place for a long time and just uprooted 12 months ago. Doubt he would want to do it again. Otzelberger pulled off a miracle this year, transforming Iowa State from a two-win team into an NCAA Tournament team. But if we're being honest, he reminds me a whole lot of Cuonzo Martin, who pulled off a similarly impressive rebuild in year one at Mizzou. Like with Mizzou in Martin's first season, Iowa State has waned a bit down the stretch this year. Otzelberger all about defense — fans would have to learn to be okay watching 50-48 slobberknockers — and he hasn't yet done anything to show that his ceiling is higher than Cuonzo's. Last, we have Mack. I will say this in defense of Mack: Louisville is a complete mess. It has no President or AD, it has multiple scandals hovering that no doubt impacted recruiting and its fans have a very, very high bar for success. It's kind of the Auburn of college basketball. It's possible that no one could have stepped in there and done much better than Mack did. But two things give me pause. One, this year's Louisville team clearly had some major chemistry issues that went so far as players publicly feuding with Mack. That's a red flag. Two, his contract stated that his buyout should have been $12 million to get fired this year, and he ended up settling for $4.8 million. To me, you only give up $7.2 million if you're pretty worried that there are going to be significant ramifications from the investigation stemming from the Dino Gaudio extortion deal.
Tier IV: Mid-Major coaches: Grant McCasland, Niko Medved, Matt McMahon, Jeff Linder, Todd Golden, Darian DeVries. McCasland would be my top choice of this group. Yes his team just lost in the Sun Belt Tournament today, but he's sustained success across two seasons and has high-major assistant experience at Baylor, so he shouldn't be too overwhelmed by the jump. The rest aren't really in a particular order. Medved and Linder intrigue me because they have both shown the ability to build winning teams at places that are not typically used to winning. But I would have questions about their ability to recruit at the level necessary to win in the SEC. Same goes for McMahon. He's done an incredible job at Murray State and certainly got some talent there, but it's fair to point out that Murray State is a much better program than all but one other OVC school and Ja Morant was a once in a lifetime find. Golden would be young and exciting and bring fresh ideas, but he also stepped into a solid program at San Francisco and is very green. There's no floor there. DeVries is sort of the opposite: a long-time assistant at Creighton who fits the geographic footprint and has done a solid job at Drake. I think would probably continue to do a solid job at Mizzou but wouldn't really excite anyone and there's no guarantee he elevates the program.
Tier V: Kim English. I don't mean to be insulting to Kimmie by putting him in his own tier. There are other mid-major coaches I could list here. But I felt like I had to give my take on him. I think he's a very sharp guy who could absolutely get players, which is the most important quality of a head coach in my opinion. I think he has incredibly high upside, maybe the highest of anyone on this list, because he's young and he might want to stay at his alma mater forever if he wins there. At the same time, he's probably the most risky. He's only 33 and he just went 14-16 in his lone season as a head coach. It's not like George Mason was a dumpster fire before he took over, either. That team had been above .500 each of the past three seasons. I don't think Kim is quite ready yet. My general rule for hiring alums is this: Would this person be a candidate if he went to school anywhere else? I don't think Kim is there yet, at least not in my eyes.
Tier I: Sean Miller. Considering Bill Self and Will Wade and Bruce Pearl are still coaching, I have zero moral qualms with hiring him. I don't think it's super realistic that he would say yes, but you never know until you try. He's won big and he should have plenty left in the tank.
Tier II: Somewhat realistic names I make say no: Steve Forbes, Buzz Williams, Mike White. Forbes almost certainly says no since he just signed a contract extension, and if he does want to leave, it would probably be for Louisville, but what the heck, give him a call. The fans would love him and he'd be fun to cover, I know that. Williams too, was never super likely and is probably less so now that he's about to take Texas A&M to the tournament, but he did work with Desiree Reed-Francois at Virginia Tech and was reportedly interested in the Missouri job when it was open in the past. White most likely will not get fired at Florida, but the fans in Gainesville might be a bit restless, so perhaps he looks for a soft landing spot rather than enter next season with a warm seat. He's proven he can get talent to campus, and while it's fair to wonder whether he's squeezed every drop out of that talent, the dude has been to the NCAA Tournament in four out of six seasons at Florida (that the tournament got played) and has won at least one game in all four tournament appearances, including an Elite Eight run in 2017. I have no idea if White would be interested, but he would seem on the surface like the most likely of this group.
Tier III: Splashy names I have seen brought up and would interest me, but I would have questions (listed in order of preference): Dana Altman, Porter Moser, TJ Otzelberger, Chris Mack. Altman probably doesn't belong in this tier. He has by far the best resume of this group. But I don't see how Mizzou can make the finances work. Plus, he's 63. Fair to wonder how much he has left in the tank. Moser and Otzelberger both showed they can win at the mid-major level and have gotten off to decent starts at high-majors, but there are some question marks with both. Moser inherited a solid program that is (probably) going to miss the NCAA Tournament. That said, he had to replace a lot of pieces from last season, and he did a decent job in the transfer portal, landing Jordan Goldwire from Duke and the Groves brothers. The biggest road block with him, I would think, is he's a guy that coached at one place for a long time and just uprooted 12 months ago. Doubt he would want to do it again. Otzelberger pulled off a miracle this year, transforming Iowa State from a two-win team into an NCAA Tournament team. But if we're being honest, he reminds me a whole lot of Cuonzo Martin, who pulled off a similarly impressive rebuild in year one at Mizzou. Like with Mizzou in Martin's first season, Iowa State has waned a bit down the stretch this year. Otzelberger all about defense — fans would have to learn to be okay watching 50-48 slobberknockers — and he hasn't yet done anything to show that his ceiling is higher than Cuonzo's. Last, we have Mack. I will say this in defense of Mack: Louisville is a complete mess. It has no President or AD, it has multiple scandals hovering that no doubt impacted recruiting and its fans have a very, very high bar for success. It's kind of the Auburn of college basketball. It's possible that no one could have stepped in there and done much better than Mack did. But two things give me pause. One, this year's Louisville team clearly had some major chemistry issues that went so far as players publicly feuding with Mack. That's a red flag. Two, his contract stated that his buyout should have been $12 million to get fired this year, and he ended up settling for $4.8 million. To me, you only give up $7.2 million if you're pretty worried that there are going to be significant ramifications from the investigation stemming from the Dino Gaudio extortion deal.
Tier IV: Mid-Major coaches: Grant McCasland, Niko Medved, Matt McMahon, Jeff Linder, Todd Golden, Darian DeVries. McCasland would be my top choice of this group. Yes his team just lost in the Sun Belt Tournament today, but he's sustained success across two seasons and has high-major assistant experience at Baylor, so he shouldn't be too overwhelmed by the jump. The rest aren't really in a particular order. Medved and Linder intrigue me because they have both shown the ability to build winning teams at places that are not typically used to winning. But I would have questions about their ability to recruit at the level necessary to win in the SEC. Same goes for McMahon. He's done an incredible job at Murray State and certainly got some talent there, but it's fair to point out that Murray State is a much better program than all but one other OVC school and Ja Morant was a once in a lifetime find. Golden would be young and exciting and bring fresh ideas, but he also stepped into a solid program at San Francisco and is very green. There's no floor there. DeVries is sort of the opposite: a long-time assistant at Creighton who fits the geographic footprint and has done a solid job at Drake. I think would probably continue to do a solid job at Mizzou but wouldn't really excite anyone and there's no guarantee he elevates the program.
Tier V: Kim English. I don't mean to be insulting to Kimmie by putting him in his own tier. There are other mid-major coaches I could list here. But I felt like I had to give my take on him. I think he's a very sharp guy who could absolutely get players, which is the most important quality of a head coach in my opinion. I think he has incredibly high upside, maybe the highest of anyone on this list, because he's young and he might want to stay at his alma mater forever if he wins there. At the same time, he's probably the most risky. He's only 33 and he just went 14-16 in his lone season as a head coach. It's not like George Mason was a dumpster fire before he took over, either. That team had been above .500 each of the past three seasons. I don't think Kim is quite ready yet. My general rule for hiring alums is this: Would this person be a candidate if he went to school anywhere else? I don't think Kim is there yet, at least not in my eyes.
