Joel Maturi told Sports Headliners there will be an emphasis on hiring a basketball coach who can make Minnesota a winning team in the Big Ten Conference but other criteria will be part of the selection process, too.
During a recent interview the Gopher athletic director said he is looking for a coach “who hopefully would want” to end his career at Minnesota. Maturi knows Big Ten jobs are prestigious and he’s searching for a coach who isn’t using Minnesota as a career building experience to target another college or NBA position.
Maturi said the basketball program’s academic performance needs improving. He’s looking for a coach who provides leadership that translates into players graduating. He isn’t interested in a coach who “will cut corners” academically to win games.
The selection criteria, too, will include a coach who demonstrates an understanding of this market, whether it’s our climate challenges or the abundance of sports and entertainment options that challenge Gopher basketball for attention.
Maturi is looking for “somebody that likes kids.” He clarified that some coaches like kids more than others and he clearly is searching for a coach who can enjoy and invest in young people, as challenging as they can be.
Then Maturi talked about winning, describing it as “probably most important” among the criteria. “We believe Minnesota’s rightful place in basketball should be competing for championships, and we haven’t done that in a number of years,” he said. “We need to find the fit of the person who will do that. In doing that… re-energize the Barn (Williams Arena). …Get people to come back and that will make it if not the greatest, certainly one of the greatest places to watch college basketball that there is in the country.”
Maturi, of course, isn’t saying who is on his short list of candidates but here’s who I think might be: Flip Saunders of the Detroit Pistons, Tony Bennett of Washington State, Kevin Lowery of Southern Illinois, Sean Miller of Xavier, Lon Kruger of UNLV, Gregg Marshall of Winthrop, Jeff Bzdelik of Air Force, Reggie Theus of New Mexico State, Tom Crean of Marquette, Todd Lickliter of Butler, Kevin Stallings of Vanderbilt and Derek Wittenberg of Fordham.
Here’s who may not be on the list but perhaps should be: Eric Musselman of the Sacramento Kings, ex-Stanford coach Mike Montgomery, and former Timberwolves coach Dwane Casey. Footnotes: Musselman’s dad, Bill, vaulted the Gophers into big time basketball in the 1970s and maybe young Eric has had enough of the NBA (see Ron Artest bio). Montgomery was a wonder winning championships at academically oriented Stanford. Casey was once a highly regarded assistant coach at Kentucky and was 20-20 when fired in January by the Timberwolves.
Here’s who is on the no chance list: most of the basketball world including Bobby Knight, and anyone from the state including Gopher interim Jim Molinari and Winona State’s national championship coach Mike Leaf.
Final note: you can bet your mortgage there was no deal already in place last fall with Saunders when Gopher coach Dan Monson left the program.
Final, final note: the guess here is the new coach will be Miller or Lowery.