Saw a good article basically highlighting that a "sure thing" hire is a very very rare thing in college hoops and that most hires can look terrible at first based on the facts. Here is the link to the full article and the more interesting excerpts about head coaches previous jobs below:
http://jimmcilvaine.sportsblog.com/post/628913/coach_shopping_during_march_madness.html
"-Florida's Billy Donovan was the head coach at Marshall and never made the NCAA tournament there
-UCLA's Steve Alford was the head coach at New Mexico and missed the NCAA tournament three times in six seasons
-Virginia's Tony Bennett just came off a 17-16 season at Washington State & a first-round loss in the NIT
-Michigan State's Tom Izzo was an assistant coach at MSU
-Iowa State's Fred Hoiberg had no prior coaching experience at all
-UConn's Kevin Ollie was an assistant coach for just two years under Jim Calhoun before being hired
-Arizona's Sean Miller is the rarity in this group both in terms of experience and success, having four consecutive NCAA appearances at Xavier before being hired
-As successful as he may have been earlier in his career, when San Diego State hired Steve Fisher, he was just one year removed from being fired at Michigan in the aftermath of an off-court scandal involving booster Ed Martin
-Baylor's Scott Drew had just one season of experience as a head coach at Valparaiso, where he lost in the first round of the NIT
-Wisconsin's Bo Ryan had just two years of head coaching experience at the Division 1 level and a losing conference record in the Horizon league with UW-Milwaukee
-Like Sean Miller, Kentucky's John Calipari also had an impressive resume, with over 400 career wins, Final Four appearances and NBA connections
-Louisville's Rick Pitino also had a stellar coaching resume with an NBA background and plenty of NCAA rings from different schools
-Tennessee's Cuonzo Martin had an 11-20 season, won the CIT and lost in the second round of the NIT in his three seasons at Missouri State, before he arrived in Knoxville.
-Michigan's John Beilein had 15 years of Division 1 head coaching experience, but only made the NCAA tournament four times and only made it past the first weekend twice.
While it's easy to say I cherry-picked some of the less-impressive elements of these coaching resumes and ignored some of their other impressive qualifications, isn't that basically what basketball fans do when they react to unfamiliar new hires with a healthy dose of skepticism? What about the fans who think Brad Underwood's single season of head coaching experience and brief tournament run at Stephen F. Austin warrants consideration, but have no clue who the top assistants are on Tom Izzo's staff?
Rare is the "home run hire" in college basketball universally evident from day one. Be patient with your new coach and trust the folks who hired him, especially if they've made good hires in the past or recognized that a change needed to be made and were willing to make it."
