With the NBA All-Star break coming up this weekend it’s expected that Detroit coach Flip Saunders will be back in town to visit his family. He is also expected to be introduced at the Gopher-Ohio State basketball game on Sunday along with others associated with the Big Ten champion 1982 Minnesota team. Saunders was an assistant coach on the team and the University is recognizing the 25th anniversary of that group.
While in town will Saunders meet with Minnesota athletic director Joel Maturi about the Gopher basketball job? Hard to say but I doubt the timing and circumstances are right for the meeting. Remember, it’s difficult to keep such meetings secretive and Saunders is under contract with the Pistons. (He has two years remaining after this season.)
Saunders is under pressure to not appear like he’s on his way out as Detroit’s coach. A basketball source told me that in 2005 then Pistons coach Larry Brown made it known he might have interest in the presidency of the Cleveland Cavs. That reportedly angered Pistons owner Bill Davidson and even though Detroit made it to the NBA finals it was long before decided that Brown would not be kept on as coach for the next season.
Neither the Gophers nor Saunders have to negotiate the Minnesota job in February. More likely talks will begin later. No one knowledgeable I talk with disagrees that Saunders is the Gophers’ first choice and most think he could be interested in the job.
In the meantime, other names the Gophers should consider are former Stanford coach Mike Montgomery and Washington State’s Tony Bennett.
Montgomery was at Stanford for 18 seasons and is the school’s most successful coach ever. His teams enjoyed top 10 rankings, won four Pacific 10 Conference championships and participated in the NCAA tournament 12 times. His winning percentage of .702 is based on 393 wins, 167 losses.
Bennett (not to be confused with the 80-year-old music icon) is in his first season with Washington State, a school that is more often a burial ground for ambitious coaches rather than a launching pad. Bennett, 37, has the Cougars ranked 10th in the Associated Press national poll with a 21-4 record.
He has ties to the Midwest having played at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay and grown up under his dad, coaching legend Dick Bennett who revived a long dead basketball program at UW-Madison before finishing his career at Washington State. Known for his integrity and character, the 37-year-old Bennett once was an assistant coach at Wisconsin where he recruited Devin Harris (now starring with the NBA’S Dallas Mavericks) and Alando Tucker, one of the nation’s top players at Wisconsin this season.