Thread: Rick Majerus
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Old 03-31-2006, 07:29 PM
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ASU_Husker ASU_Husker is offline
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Join Date: Oct 2005
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Sorry for the x3 post, but here is the Rivals ASUDevils.com insider article on it:

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Quote:
Arizona State's search for a new basketball coach continues into the start of Final Four Weekend. There are currently six candiates generating significant discussion.

Lisa Love will be in attendance at the Final Four, where presumably she will be making additional interviews of candidates still under consideration for the position.

Here is a detailed capsule of each coach who has been prominently mentioned and remains a legitimate possibility.

Randy Bennett is widely considered to be one of the top mid-major program heads in the west. In his first head coaching job after years as Lorenzo Romar's top assistant at Saint Louis and Pepperdine, Bennett took over a Saint Mary's team in 2001 that went 2-27 the year before and had an RPI of 315 (out of 319). Just four seasons later, he guided the Gaels to a 25-win season, which included a 15-1 record at home and a No. 10 seed in the NCAA Tournament. Bennett is a Mesa, Arizona native whose father Tom coached at Mesa College and Gilbert High. His 2005-06 squad had four new starters and went 17-12. It is believed that the 43 year-old Bennett would jump at an offer to coach at ASU.

Mike Davis recently stepped down after six season as head coach at Indiana, where he replaced Bobby Knight. In his first three seasons on the job he led the Hoosiers to three straight 20-plus win seasons and NCAA Tournament berths in each year. This season he again took his squad to the Big Dance, where they advanced to the second round. Davis went 115-79 (.593) overall and 55-41 in league play at the school. He is known as a players' coach and uses an offensive system that is more common in the NBA than in college. Pressure associated with the heft of the Indiana job and the significance of replacing Knight was a constant factor for Davis and he said he wanted to start anew somewhere else.

Larry Krystkowiak took over the head coaching position at his alma mater Montana prior to the 2004-05 season and promptly led the Grizzlies to their first winning season in three years and an NCAA Tournament berth, a feat they repeateded in his second season. The Big Sky conference winners then beat Nevada as a 12 seed. Krystkowiak played for former Stanford and current Golden State Warriors coach Mike Montgomery at Montana. In fact, Krystkowiak is the school's all-time scoring and rebounding record holder. He is the only player to be named Big Sky Player of the Year three times. The 41 year-old went on to play nine seasons in the NBA before beginning his coaching career

Having just concluded his 12th season at the helm of Creighton, Dana Altman might be the only mid-major coach in the country with the ability to say his program has won 20 games or more in eight straight seasons and earned six NCAA Tournament appearances over that period. The 47 year-old coach is one of the great minds in college basketball, a magna cum laude graduate from Eastern New Mexico. The year before he was hired by Creighton, the team went 7-22. Two years later they were a .500 ballclub and two years after that they were 18-10 and in the NIT. Altman has had many opportunities to move up to the high major ranks but he has repeatedly maintained that he is happy where he is at.

Mark Fox is considered another of the up-and-coming young mid-major coaches. He blends a keen eye for talent and ability to recruit and land players that are, frankly, too talented to be playing basketball in a mid-major conference for a team like Nevada. These players have included NBA first-round pick Kirk Snyder, Kevin Pickney and Nick Fazekas, a likely future NBA first-round pick who was evaluated by the previous Arizona State staff but not offered a scholarship. Fox is one of the smartest basketball coaches at any level, a magna cum laude graduate of Eastern New Mexico University where he played, and a Masters degree recipient in Athletics Administration and Sports Psychology from Kansas.

Lionel Hollins was a Sporting News All-American at Arizona State in 1975 after transferring to the program from Dixie Junior College. As a star guard, he led the Sun Devils to a NCAA Regional Final in his final year in Tempe and was the sixth pick of the 1975 draft. Hollins played for 10 years in the NBA and participated in three NBA finals. He was an assistant coach with the Phoenix Suns for seven years before joining the Vancouver/Memphis Grizzlies. He was an interim head coach for the team in Vancouver for 60 games in 1999-2000 and also was a head coach in the IBL and USBL for short stints. He has expressed interest in the ASU opening though he has no experience coaching at the college level.
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