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The name that I am hearing most, who meets the qualifications for the job, has MS ties, and really wants the job is Andy Kennedy, the current interim head coach at Cincy (he took over after Huggins was terminated). He has the Bearcats poised for an NCAA bid this season, doing an admirable job in coaching that team this season. And he is a proven good recruiter. The word is he wants to come "home" to Mississippi. I am hearing that he has already informed the Cincy AD that he will not be their head coach next season and will pursue other jobs.

Another name I am hearing who will likely be a strong candidate is Pelphrey at South Alabama.


I don't think Anderson at UAB is interested in the job, as he is likely looking for a move to a team that is a traditional basketball power. He will likely stay at UAB until that type of opportunity comes along. Plus, he was at Arkansas with Nolan, at the same time Nolan was making his absurd bi-annual racist rants against Ole Miss before every game between the two schools. After ridiculing Ole Miss for years, for the last approx. 5 years of Nolan's tenure at Arkansas, he could not beat UM and hated UM. I think Anderson still looks to Richardson as a mentor. Thus, Anderson has likely been brainwashed and would not likely be a good "fit" at UM ---too much of the wrong kind of attitude. I would be VERY surprised if Anderson became the top candidate and was interested in the job.

There are other names floating around out there, but these appear right now to be the two most serious and realistic contenders.

Who knows, once the search firm has completed its confidential search, we may be surprised to learn of an additional coach or two we had not thought of before who has the experience and would be a good fit at UM.

Despite what that idiot quoted in the CL article said earlier this week, the UM job is a good college basketball job. UM pays a very competitive salary and has traditionally given our basketball coaches plenty of time to develop the program, turn things around, etc. Barnes was at UM for 8 years. Evans was at UM for approx. 5-6 years, before he voluntarily left for supposedly greener pastures at Arizona State (note: he just got fired at ASU). Before Evans, was Ed Murphy, who was at UM much, much longer than he should have been. A good coach can win at UM, as proven by Evans and later Barnes (when he had enough talent). Also, with recent improvements to facilities in other sports at UM, it appears that basketball will likely be next (likely after the future NEZ expansion of VHS) to get a substantial facility upgrade, after a successful season or two and some momentum to get the fans/supporters back in the fold and fired up enough to donate money for such a cause. Tad Smith can be an intimidating place to play for opponents, when it is full of screaming, fired up Reb fans, like it was for about a 5-6 year stretch a few years ago.

MS has a decent to good recruiting base for college basketball ---although MS is somewhat overrated, IMO due to the large number of nonqualifiers and early entries to the NBA out of high school. There are not as many qualified and sufficiently talented MS high school players to recruit year in and year out, as some have stated. Just look at the current rosters of the SEC, and non-conference major conference schools, and you will see a notable lack of MS HS athletes dotting those rosters. UM currently has no MS HS athletes on its roster. MSU only has a handful.

The new coach will have to be able to recruit out of state to be successful, IMO.

I think the one key to being successful at Ole Miss as a BB coach is recruiting Memphis well, along with picking up some kids from Arkansas and of course Jackson. Memphis is a natural hot bed for BB talent. Calipari is obviously a solid recruiter so ya'll need someone who can charm like him. One huge advantage Ole Miss should have in recruiting Memphis is the weakness of Conferene USA now. They need a coach that can not only sell Oxford and UM, but the SEC. I actually think the success of O in bringing in big name football recruits from urban areas across the country will help with recruiting BB players from large cities.

I don't think Anderson at UAB is interested in the job, as he is likely looking for a move to a team that is a traditional basketball power. He will likely stay at UAB until that type of opportunity comes along.

Maybe since they burn churches (not chicken) at UAB he may be interested in leaving.

"Maybe since they burn churches (not chicken) at UAB he may be interested in leaving. "

Good point. But, if he is anything like Nolan, with that huge racial chip on his shoulder, I wouldn't want him at UM. Take that $#!+ somewhere else.

Add Mick Cronin of Murray State to the most likely hire list, along with Kennedy at Cincy, and Pelphrey at South Alabama.

Mick Cronin appears to be an early top candidate for the UM job.

A summary of his credentials:

**Recruiting coordinator for Bob Huggins' Bearcats for five years. All five classes ranked in Top 10.

**Recruiting coordinator/#1 assistant for Rick Pitino's Cardinals for two years. Both classes ranked in top 10.

**Named recruiter of the year by The Sporting News in 02-03.

**Two OVC titles in three years at Murray State, posting 28, 17 and 24 (so far) win seasons.

**Cut his teeth in the AAU ranks, as director of the Philadelphia (PA) High School All-Star Classic and a head coach in the Magic Johnson Roundball Classic. Also spent four years as a coach on the Five Star Teaching Camp.

**Son of legendary Ohio high school coach, Hep Cronin.




IMO, any of these three candidates would be a good hire for UM and could win and take UM to the NCAA tourney on a regular basis. It looks like this is a good year to be shopping for a new head coach. And since no one in their right mind could accuse UM of having a quick trigger with respect to the termination of Rod Barnes ( 4 straight losing seasons ---no other SEC school would have tolerated that type of poor performance), there appears to be no real controversy surrounding this decision. Anyone trying to stir the pot on this coaching change would have to have some outside agenda.

They need to hire Coach Dildy

America's Best Dressed basketball coach, Lafayette Stribling, is available.

Current UM assistant coach Dildy will be considered for the job according to Pete Boone. He can recruit. But, can he coach on the floor? Personally, at this point, I think UM needs to go in another direction for this critical hire.


Another good candidate who has emerged is Northwestern State Coach Mike McConathy, whose team upset Iowa yesterday. Contact is being made to see if there is mutual interest. The early plan is for the UM "search party" to fly to Michigan tomorrow to scout McConathy's team in the second round of the NCAA tourney.

Here is McConathy's bio from the NW State web site:

Mike McConathy
Championship Basketball - With a Purpose ...

That is the mission statement for Northwestern State Basketball under Coach Mike McConathy and in just four short years he has made this come to fruition. Here are some facts to prove it.

- 14 of his student-athletes have received their diplomas in four years
- 2001 NCAA Tournament, Midwest Regional
- 2001 Southland Conference Tournament Champions
- Two Southland Conference Championship Game appearences in four years
- First team since 1992 to wins its first-ever NCAA Tournament game
- Five national televion appearences in four years
- NSU is 6-2 in postseason play during March under Coach Mike
- Demon players have been featured in SLAM magazine, Basketball Times, DirectTV.com, the official NCAA Final Four Program and in stories carried nationwide by the Associated Press
- The Demons' NCAA Tournament win was the "Sportscenter Showcase" for March 13, 2001
- The most highly regarded recruiting class in 2000 (ranked No. 90 nationally, ahead of programs such as UCLA, Syracuse and Stanford, by Basketball Times)in school history
- The Demons have traveled to Hawaii, Las Vegas, New Mexico, Wyoming, Ohio, and Chicago
Coaching Experience: To borrow a line from the classic basketball movie "Hoosiers," Mike McConathy won't ever get caught watching the paint dry.

By now at the outset of his fifth season as head basketball coach at Northwestern State, it's obvious that McConathy lacks only one move in the reportoire. He never stands still.

A master of multi-tasking McConathy is a whirlwind of action and achievement whose work ethic traces back decades to his family's farm in hilly Bienville Parish, where his father and uncles chores did their chores before they used horses and bicyles to make the six-mile plus trip to basketball practice and games.

Work, in the McConathy mindset, is a very honorable thing. Time is priceless. Don't waste it. Make the most of it.

Coach Mike sure does.

Two years after taking over an ailing Demon basketball program, he had Northwestern State making its first-ever trip to the NCAA Tournament. The debut was a smash hit. The Demons won their first-ever NCAA Tournament game and became media darlings for the week in Dayton, Ohio, attracting nationwide attention.

Not bad for a guy who only a couple of years earlier drove his team's bus to road games, and supplemented his income with a thriving lawncare business in his hometown of Bossier City.

That was part of being the founding coach of the Bossier Parish Community College program, where he won 352 games in 16 seasons before getting the call to return Demon basketball to the kind of glory it enjoyed in the 1950's when his father Johnny McConathy was an All-American at Northwestern.

Less than two years after he was hired, the man known to players, fans adn many as "Coach Mike" had accomplished that, and then some.

The stunning turnaround of Demon basketball came as no surprise to those who know "Coach Mike" the best -- his former players and the legion of friends in Shreveport-Bossier.

McConathy won 20 games or more 11 of his 16 seasons as head coach at Bossier Parish Community College, starting the program from stratch in 1983. They didn't had a gym or dormitories, but his teams posted at least 23 wins each of the last seven seasons, and were in the top 10 fo the final national junior college Top 25 rankings in each of his last three seasons.

His overall 352-159 (.69) record at Bossier Parish included a remarkable 185-48 (.79) mark since the start of the 1992-93 season.

His last six teams won Miss-Lou Conference championships. His 1998-99 club was 26-5 and ranked eigth nationally, a year after the team posted a 27-3 record and finished with a national ranking of 3.

A key to McConathy's success is his ultra-humble approach to life and his life's work, shaping young men into achievement-oriented, positive people while building winning basketball teams.

No detail is too small for McConathy, who always has the big picture in mind. Prather Coliseum is a radically different place than it was when he arrived in March 1999, from the "Builders of Tradition" display in the locker room to the championhship banners hanging in a refurbished arena with a brand-new playing court.

Most apparent is the warm, nurturing environment around the Demon program. It's condusive to learning, to growing, and to having fun - and to having unprecedented, unexpected success. Time-tested, Coach Mike's principles are sure to pay dividends again soon.
Playing Experience: The younger McConathy was inducted into the Louisiana Association of Basketball Coaches Hall of Fame for his career as a high scoring guard at Louisiana Tech from 1973-77. McConathy was a gym rat. One of his personal workouts involved shooting baskets in the dark. Ofter accompanying his for those odd-hours sessions was his college roommate, Tim Floyd, today the head coach of the NBA's New Orleans Hornets. The hard work paid off. Among his 2,007 career points were 45, still the Prather Coliseum single-game record, against Northwestern in his senior year.
Personal: His father, Johnny, won All-America honors at Northwestern in 1952, when he set a school single-season scoring record by averaging 21.6 points per game. Mr. John McConathy is one of only three men's basketbasll players to ever have their number retired. His father and two uncles, George and Leslie, are enshrined in the university's Graduate "N" Club Hall of Fame in recognition of their basketball exploits for the Demons in the late 1940's and 1950's. Two decades later, McConathy is again making a big mark in Prather Coliseum, this time to the benefit of the Demons. After all, as he says: "I am where I'm supposed to be."

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IMO, any of the four top candidates ---Kennedy, Cronin, Pelphrey, and McConathy ----would be a step up for our basketball program. IMO, Pete Boone/UM is doing a good job in this search for a basketball coach. Credit is due to the UMAA staff for hiring the national coaching search firm to assist in this process, which has likely contributed heavily to the professional way the search has been conducted so far.

Mike Davis, the former coach of Indiana, is apparently interested in the job from some reports I have heard. However, I do not see his name being mentioned by any sources as a top candidate for the job. Davis and Barnes were very good friends.

From all accounts, the final four in the search appears to be Kennedy, Pelphrey, Cronin, and Dildy. All are highly interested in the job, and each appears qualified, with each having certain strengths and weaknesses. All four will be interviewed this week, with Boone and the search committee expected to make a hiring decision soon afterward.

There may be another coach or two being privately interviewed, by request, to maintain confidentiality.

Boone better let Dildy have the position, if he plans on keeping his best player on campus.

GH22, we lost 12 of our last 13 with the current players. I don't think Boone or the committee is going to let player threats to quit influence their decision on this critical hire.

Dildy needs to develop his head coaching skills at a mid-major program for a few years, before realistically expecting to land a head coaching job in the SEC or any other major conference. He may be a serious candidate for the job in the future, in the event the new coach we hire does not pan out.

I think Dildy is being interviewed at this time as a curtesy to him and the players, and I suppose as an ultimate backup plan in the unlikely event that the interviews with the other 3 public candidates, and with any private candidates, do not yield a new head coach. I like Dildy. He is a good recruiter. But, he lacks head coaching experience and it is the floor coaching, IMO, that is the primary reason UM has experienced 4 straight losing seasons. His weakness is our current weakness. Thus, I just do not see him right now as the best fit for UM. And based upon his recent public comments about the situation, I think he understands where he stands in the coaching search and will still think highly of Ole Miss even if he is not hired. I don't think he wants to burn this future bridge, nor does Ole Miss.

My personal preference, at this point, is Andy Kennedy of Cincinnati. I think he has all the attributes we are looking for ---a good floor coach, as well as a proven good recruiter, with some head coaching experience (although only 1 year as HC). Next in line, as my preference, would be Mick Cronin. After him, Pelphrey. If we have to settle for Dildy, I will be disappointed ---although Dildy could be an upgrade from Barnes, provided he brings in the right assistants. Dildy is the riskiest hire at this point, IMO.

Well, I'm not sure so whether or not UM can go into a mid-major conference and be able to compete with those boys.

I understand what you are saying, but Barnes wasn't much of a coach, only thing that's carried him this far was signing the provine posse that year.

the best player on campus had to sit out this past year.....

You're best player is Dwayne Curtis, and he played last season.

pml..

so you feel that the problem the last 4 years has been barnes lack of coaching ability?? thats not the way i see it..

i'd say the biggest problem has been the lack of recuriting.. the last few years barnes didn't brang in any sho nuff hosses, players or whatever you want to call'em..

just look at this last year.. not one player on the roster from mississippi.. that too me is unacceptable..