[Fumblerooskies]

With biggest budget in Big South, money is no object in Flames' search for coach

By Chris Lang
Lynchburg News & Advance
March 5, 2007

Editor's note: N&A Liberty beat writer Chris Lang has been asked to step in Liberty athletics director Jeff Barber's shoes for a day. You're an AD trying to make a major splash with the hiring of a new men's basketball coach.

Your university chancellor has asked you to find a "Danny Rocco type," i.e. a talented assistant coach with plenty of major Division I experience with the ambition to grow a fledgling program into a consistent winner.

So, where do you start?

Liberty isn't a small-time basketball program by any means.

Just look at the budget.

The school spent $1.4 million on men's basketball in 2006, according to www.midmajority.com, a Web site dedicated to mid-major hoops. That's $270,000 more than Coastal Carolina, which has the No. 2 budget in the conference.

League power Winthrop is third at $1.04 million.

So one can understand why Barber feels the Flames have the resources to compete with Winthrop right away. The school can afford to pay a major-college assistant very good money to try to take Liberty's program to another level.

Virginia Commonwealth, which has a basketball budget of $1.8 million, made a splash by hiring former Florida assistant Anthony Grant, who immediately took the Rams to a Colonial Athletic Association regular-season title.

To a certain extent, money will not be an object in regards to this hire.

Now to the speculation, and let us be clear: pure speculation is all this story entails. The national search is in too early of a stage for Barber to have compiled a short list.

In no particular order:

Ritchie McKay

Why? Once recognized as one of the good young coaching minds in basketball, McKay helped restart the basketball program at Portland State before making stops at Colorado State and Oregon State.

Why not? New Mexico earned only one NCAA tournament berth under McKay, and that was when he had current Indiana Pacer Danny Granger on the team. He was fired several weeks ago, and though he wants to go to a smaller school, he hasn't stayed at any of his previous stops for very long.

Survey says: McKay was always a coach with his eye on greener pastures, at least until he got to New Mexico. This could be a potential Matt Doherty situation. Out of the business after losing his job at North Carolina, Doherty signed on at Florida Atlantic and bolted after a year.

Pete Gillen

Why? He hung around the Vines Center a lot last season, watching his former assistant Alexis Sherard working for the Flames. He's won at Xavier, and he coached God Shamgodd at Providence. Anyone who has coached God might fit in at LU.

Why not? He's been out of coaching for a year and hasn't shown a whole lot of interest in the Liberty gig.

Survey says: Gillen is 60 and doesn't fit the "Rocco" mold.

Ray Giacolletti

Why? Giacoletti helped build a program at Eastern Washington and led the Eagles to the NCAA tournament for the first time before leaving for Utah. He will resign at Utah at the end of the season after a three-year run with one NCAA appearance.

Why not? He's got chops, but he doesn't have much experience working on this side of the country. The farthest east he's coached was as an assistant at Illinois State in the late 1980s.

Survey says: Giacoletti is more likely to end up taking a job closer to the Pacific Ocean, where his recruiting ties are strong.

Steve Merfeld

Why? He led Hampton to one of the biggest NCAA tournament upsets in history in 2001. After the Pirates beat No. 2 seed Iowa State, Merfeld was famously carried off the floor by his players, a moment that is continually relived during CBS tourney promos. Plus, he coached under George Mason coach Jim Larranaga when the two were at Bowling Green.

Why not? He struggled mightily after jumping from the lightly regarded MEAC to the mid-major powerhouse Missouri Valley Conference. He resigned after five seasons at Evansville, compiling a 54-91 record.

Survey says: Could be an interesting candidate if he applied. He knows the state and would have more resources at his disposal at LU than he did at Hampton.

Rob Lanier

Why? Because basketball needs a Charlottesville pipeline too. Perhaps Sean Singletary would follow Lanier to Lynchburg, giving the Flames a monster of a backcourt.

Yeah, we know. Ha ha.

But seriously, Lanier has mid-major head coaching experience and succeeded current Georgia Tech head coach Paul Hewitt at Siena and led the Saints to an NCAA tournament and NIT berth in four years.

Why not? Siena wasn't in great shape when Lanier left. The Saints skidded to a 6-24 record in his last year and he was fired.

Survey says: A dogged recruiter who landed some big names at previous stops at Texas, Rutgers and St. Bonaventure, Lanier is worth keeping an eye on. He was mentioned as candidate for openings last year.

Stephon Leary

Why? He's a former Liberty player and assistant who is trying to help Palm Beach Atlantic make the transition from Division II to Division I. He helped recruit several key players during Randy Dunton's tenure at LU.

Why not? There's just very little experience here. He's never coached in a major conference as an assistant or head coach.

Survey says: The keep-it-in-the-family factor is there, but the experience isn't.

Mark Kline

Why? A former VCU assistant who followed Jeff Capel to Oklahoma, Cline also has worked at Old Dominion and Virginia Tech. His recruiting ties in the state are strong.

Why not? After moving halfway across the country to work for Capel at OU, would he want to move again?

Survey says: If anything, Kline is familiar with Liberty's personnel. The Sooners beat Liberty in LU's season opener this year. Kline has a decent amount of major conference experience and at 41 could be ready for his first head coaching gig.

http://www.newsadvance.com/servlet/Sate ... 7439&path=

[Fumblerooskies]

Chris, I am interested if you, as AD, would look at any of the Assistant Coaches at S. Carolina? Specifically, Duckett?

[PAmedic]

and who, if anyone- is JB using to assist in the search process, Lou Holtz-style?

other coaches or ADs?

[LUconn]

That is a great article.

[Chris Lang]

Chris, I am interested if you, as AD, would look at any of the Assistant Coaches at S. Carolina? Specifically, Duckett?

I started running out of space, so some people I would have looked at didn't make it in. I did look at Duckett, and well, yes, I could see where Mr. Barber would be interested. That said, there will be a lot of options, not just recently dismissed head coaches, so I would expect it will take a few weeks for the dominos to fall. I talked to JF yesterday and he said that there has been a lot of interest in the job, but he wouldn't go into specifics. So no official "short list" yet to report on. With so many teams with assistant coaches who could be potential candidates still playing, I wouldn't expect a "short list" until at least after conference tournaments are done.

[PAmedic]

oooh oooh, me me: MR LANG: over here!

(hand waving)

WHO, if anyone, IS HELPING JB making this decision?

[Fumblerooskies]

Thanks, Chris. That is a great article, and lack of funds certainly cannot be used as an excuse for lack of succes by whomever LU brings in.

[bigsmooth]

nice article chris. i am surprised about the budget. we should be able to bring in a top quality coach.

[nickrichard]

[
he coached God Shamgodd at Providence. Anyone who has coached God might fit in at LU.

Line of the day

[TIMSCAR20]

2 things Chris: 1st Mark Cline spells his name with a C and secondly, someone should have told you ( ) that Todd Cline, Mark's brother played at Liberty during its early division 1 years when Mark was playing for Wake Forest.

[Stevev]

I remember a Cline playing center for LU but I think he only stayed for 1 year in our first year as a division 1 program with Bailey Alston, Coleman, and yourself at the point.

It is nice to know that we are willing to put up some money to get a coach with some credentials and lead us into the future (hopefully a future beyond the Big South). Like someone here said earlier you can't use the lack of money to explain the lack of success on the court. Hopefully we can increase the hoops budget to be able to compete agains't higher level competition consistently. I can't wait till we make our decision on who we are going to bring in here.

[kel varson]

Great article! Thanks.

[jcmanson]

A very nice article from Chris. I am starting to get excited to see who we are going to hire.

[TDDance234]

As always, great article. Lang, you da' man.

[Cider Jim]

That is a great article.

Especially since Sly wrote most of it. I'm mostly kidding, Chris, but surely you tapped into Sly's expertise with the list of potential coaches he has posted, right? It would have been nice for you to "give credit where credit is due" and even mention the FF message board in your article.

[Chris Lang]

2 things Chris: 1st Mark Cline spells his name with a C and secondly, someone should have told you ( ) that Todd Cline, Mark's brother played at Liberty during its early division 1 years when Mark was playing for Wake Forest.

Jeez. I'm editing errors into my own stories now. That's inexcuseable.

[LUconn]

That is a great article.

Especially since Sly wrote most of it. I'm mostly kidding, Chris, but surely you tapped into Sly's expertise with the list of potential coaches he has posted, right? It would have been nice for you to "give credit where credit is due" and even mention the FF message board in your article.

would that be beat writer suicide? Pretty close to it.

[TDDance234]

That's it, Chris. You're going to have to hire Scar as your new personal editor. Just don't look at him directly, the glare off his head is blinding.

[GOAT]

That was a nice article Chris Lang, like the reference to God Sham God who I actually played against a few times on the AAU circuit back n d day. I vote for former flam Jason Allison aka FAT Leg as LU's next head coach. Scar, you might get a tickle out of that. Karl Hess would help, he could influence the refs at least. On another note having played for Jeff Meyer and Randy Dunton I wish Randy the best in his endeavors. I will always be in debted to him and Coach Meyer from a basketball perspective and from personal relationships.

Coach Dunton will be just fine, I know that Liberty is where he wanted to retire and as he use to say it's the greatest job in D 1 but somethings you just gotta let go and let God.

Congrats to Larry Blair aka the 2nd best Larry to come outta of LU for all of his accomplishments and I hope he has a successful playing career in the pros if given the opportunity

[TIMSCAR20]

GOAT! WOW I am so happy to see you back in the mix. BTW SORO is registered now too. Could we get a possible mid 90's reunion on Flamefans? You are right about Larry Blair being the 2nd best Larry. My vote is for my teammate Larry Burton Jr otherwise known as BJ Burton. He was booted for a stolen Credit Card incident in 91 or he would have had the Larry legend status. So you are 3rd (Just kidding man).

[Sly Fox]

There you go making me add to my already bloated candidates list, Chris. Nicely done putting the search out into the public eye in Lynchburg. This is a story that would've never run in the paper just five years ago at the N&A.

[olldflame]

GOAT,

After lurking on this board for a couple of months, I couldn't resist responding to your first post with mine. As a flame fan since 1974, it wasn't too hard to determine your ID from your post, but I'll leave it for others to figure out for themselves if they haven't already. I'll just say that IMHO you were half of the best backcourt LU has ever had (and I go back to the days of Ed Gomes and Mike Goad).

I know there are some here who disagree, but I believe strongly that LU had the right coach here for 16 years and were idiots to chase him off. I was one of the first people to meet JM when he arrived on campus as a baby-faced 26 year old. I was the supervisor over the campus custodians, and had the wonderful responsibility of trying to maintain the ridiculous bargain-basement floor in the older section of what is now the Schilling Building. It was less than a quarter inch thick layer of some sort of vinyl paint on top of bare concrete, and was peeling off around the edges of the court. He took the program from NCCAA to NAIA to Division II to Division I, and from facilities which were less than high school level to the Vines Center. Some people may complain about the Vines, and it could use some dressing up, but I think it's safe to say that the vast majority of mid-major programs would love to have it. JM was far from a dynamic personality, and in fact was so low key he made RD look like a regular Pete Gillen by comparison, but he was extremely organized and I don't think anyone outworked him. In addition to the success his program enjoyed on the court, his last few years represented what was without question the apex of fan support for LU hoops, both on campus and in the community.

It's probably safe to say he's better off now where he is, and wouldn't consider coming back for any amount of money, but if I were AD, I'd make the offer anyway.

[TIMSCAR20]

Oldflame, what about Alston/Scarborough or Woodson/Blair? Or Hildebrand/Toomer? Ok I agree with you actually. I think White/Jackson could have been the best though.

[TIMSCAR20]

btw we all know who GOAT is. Greatest. Of. All. Time. His id was on the old Firehouse board as well.

[olldflame]

I remember BJ Burton SCAR, and agree he was on his way to being a really good one. I think he was perhaps the beginning of RD's obsession with the concept of a tall (6'4"+) PG; an obsession which culminated in the effort to force Brew's square peg into that round hole.