LibertyJoe wrote:Hey I know this was talked abut earlier but it was basically dropped, what about Russ pennell, a christian coach who took arizona to the sweet 16. And he will be at the final four.
I’m a big fan of Russ Pennell. I have watched him all season, and I can say that it was remarkable that he pulled this team back together. Lute Olson retired the first week of the season after being out the prior season due to health reasons. A number of players came back because they thought Lute was going to be the coach. Coach Pennell was the right man for the job as he took a bad situation and salvaged a season and put AZ into the tournament for the 25th year in a row. U of A teams for the last few years were polluted with “me-first” players. He changed that – and he was only an interim coach. He knew he was never going to get the permanent job, but he never complained. He just coached. This is one of the classiest individuals in college basketball.
Would he move back east? Who knows? Is he interested? Not sure. I understand it’s a long-shot, but I want to put his name out there as I hope he will be on Jeff Barber’s radar. They will both be in Detroit this weekend. I know that folks in the AD read these boards; JJ even posts. Hopefully, they’ll consider this. It can’t hurt.
http://www.tucsoncitizen.com/daily/sports/111969.php