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From Matt Norlander of CBS:

Out: Rob Lanier
With SMU moving from the American Athletic Conference to the ACC in a few months, this job now qualifies as high-major. In a stunner, SMU fired Rob Lanier after two seasons ΓÇö and coming off a 20-13 campaign, including an NIT appearance. SMU is headed to the ACC this summer; the firing by AD Rick Hart has been lampooned by many around the sport in the ensuing hours since it happened. The belief is that SMU will be able to reel in a bigger name to match with its conference upgrade. We'll see. Initial speculation has Will Wade and Steve Lutz as targets. What's undeniable: SMU is an odd fit in the ACC, completely geographically isolated, and not that appealing in its current state to a lot of coaches who will be contacted. Still, the money will exceed north of $3 million annually and it is going be competitive in NIL.

Steve Lutz, while not a household name is certainly an interesting candidate. He was at SMU as an assistant to Matt Doherty so he's a "known" and he's the right age (at 51, been around long enough to be an experienced guy and still has plenty of years ahead of him). In his 3 years as a HC, he's taken his teams to the NCAAs each and every year. The question for him (and anyone we bring in for that matter) is can he upgrade the roster and bring a team together in year one to be competitive in the ACC? He's done it, albeit at a lower level in the Southland and CUSA, in his 1st year at 2 different schools.

Will Wade has certainly had success but has also been embroiled in controversy. That move would surprise me but what do I know?

Charleston Pony wrote:From Matt Norlander of CBS:

Out: Rob Lanier
With SMU moving from the American Athletic Conference to the ACC in a few months, this job now qualifies as high-major. In a stunner, SMU fired Rob Lanier after two seasons ΓÇö and coming off a 20-13 campaign, including an NIT appearance. SMU is headed to the ACC this summer; the firing by AD Rick Hart has been lampooned by many around the sport in the ensuing hours since it happened. The belief is that SMU will be able to reel in a bigger name to match with its conference upgrade. We'll see. Initial speculation has Will Wade and Steve Lutz as targets. What's undeniable: SMU is an odd fit in the ACC, completely geographically isolated, and not that appealing in its current state to a lot of coaches who will be contacted. Still, the money will exceed north of $3 million annually and it is going be competitive in NIL.

Honestly why quote/promote this jackwagon, who misrepresents the impressiveness of the NIT appearance and then just whinges about SMU not belonging in the ACC.

Someone will be coaching SMU against Duke and Carolina next season. It wonΓÇÖt be Norlander.

Dukie wrote:Honestly why quote/promote this jackwagon, who misrepresents the impressiveness of the NIT appearance and then just whinges about SMU not belonging in the ACC.

Someone will be coaching SMU against Duke and Carolina next season. It wonΓÇÖt be Norlander.

He's not the only one. This from ESPN (maybe all these guys are getting their information from Ponyfans.com) :


In a bit of a stunner midway through the first day of the NCAA tournament, SMU informed coach Rob Lanier he was out after just two seasons at the helm. The Mustangs struggled in his first season but improved by 10 wins in his second season, winning 20 games before losing Wednesday in the NIT.

In the school's official announcement for the coaching change, athletic director Rick Hart cited the school's investment in basketball, its NIL opportunities and its move to the ACC as reasons why it should be competing with the best. Reading between the lines -- and based on a few conversations with industry sources this afternoon -- it sounds like SMU is going to pursue some big-name coaches in an attempt to win immediately in the ACC.

Three names have been buzzing for the job in the short time since it opened: Arkansas' Eric Musselman, McNeese Coboys's Will Wade and Western Kentucky's Steve Lutz.

Musselman just finished his worst season since arriving in Fayetteville, going 16-17 and ending a streak of three straight Sweet 16 appearances. Wade just orchestrated one of the biggest single-season turnarounds in college basketball history, taking McNeese from 11-23 to 30-3 and the NCAA tournament in his first season.

Lutz isn't as big a name as the other two, but he has high-major experience from his time as an assistant under Matt Painter and Greg McDermott and is in the NCAA tournament for the third straight season after leading Texas A&M-Corpus Christi to the Dance in 2022 and 2023. He also has deep ties in the state of Texas and was an assistant under Matt Doherty at SMU from 2006-10.

Charleston Pony wrote:

Dukie wrote:Honestly why quote/promote this jackwagon, who misrepresents the impressiveness of the NIT appearance and then just whinges about SMU not belonging in the ACC.

Someone will be coaching SMU against Duke and Carolina next season. It wonΓÇÖt be Norlander.

He's not the only one. This from ESPN (maybe all these guys are getting their information from Ponyfans.com) :


In a bit of a stunner midway through the first day of the NCAA tournament, SMU informed coach Rob Lanier he was out after just two seasons at the helm. The Mustangs struggled in his first season but improved by 10 wins in his second season, winning 20 games before losing Wednesday in the NIT.

In the school's official announcement for the coaching change, athletic director Rick Hart cited the school's investment in basketball, its NIL opportunities and its move to the ACC as reasons why it should be competing with the best. Reading between the lines -- and based on a few conversations with industry sources this afternoon -- it sounds like SMU is going to pursue some big-name coaches in an attempt to win immediately in the ACC.

Three names have been buzzing for the job in the short time since it opened: Arkansas' Eric Musselman, McNeese Coboys's Will Wade and Western Kentucky's Steve Lutz.

Musselman just finished his worst season since arriving in Fayetteville, going 16-17 and ending a streak of three straight Sweet 16 appearances. Wade just orchestrated one of the biggest single-season turnarounds in college basketball history, taking McNeese from 11-23 to 30-3 and the NCAA tournament in his first season.

Lutz isn't as big a name as the other two, but he has high-major experience from his time as an assistant under Matt Painter and Greg McDermott and is in the NCAA tournament for the third straight season after leading Texas A&M-Corpus Christi to the Dance in 2022 and 2023. He also has deep ties in the state of Texas and was an assistant under Matt Doherty at SMU from 2006-10.

I donΓÇÖt agree with your characterization of this (nameless) quote as affirming that ΓÇ£[NorlanderΓÇÖs] not the only one.ΓÇ¥ Calling it a ΓÇ£stunnerΓÇ¥ is not much of a judgment, and the ΓÇ£NIT seasonΓÇ¥ reference is another clue this person is not paying close attention.

Beyond ΓÇ£stunner,ΓÇ¥ which they also appear to tie to the timing, nothing negative about firing Lanier is in the quote.

Dukie wrote:Beyond ΓÇ£stunner,ΓÇ¥ which they also appear to tie to the timing, nothing negative about firing Lanier is in the quote.

I'm not interested in anything beyond the names of potential candidates being thrown around and both CBS and ESPN have mentioned Wade, Lutz & Musselman who were some of the names being thrown around on Ponyfans. Surprise they haven't mentioned Smart but considering he's still got a horse in the post season race...

Is our possible headcoach still coaching in the tourney

That would be nice.

Lanier has a job before we make a hire. Stamford made a hire, Michigan and Washington too. If we don’t hit a home run it will be an (unsurprising) disappointment…

White Helmet wrote:Lanier has a job before we make a hire. Stamford made a hire, Michigan and Washington too. If we don’t hit a home run it will be an (unsurprising) disappointment…

Rice jumping on Lanier so quickly made me think of the Sonny Dykes/Rhett Lashlee announcements

indianmustang wrote:Is our possible headcoach still coaching in the tourney

The June Jones scenario revisited? They did a great job keeping that quiet

If our coach is still in the tourney he is probably an assistant.

If SMU is going for a "home run hire" we better have a Circle of Champions willing to compete. If this list is even close to accurate, a top 10 caliber coach will command north of $4 million annually

https://sports.usatoday.com/ncaa/salari ... ball/coach

Charleston Pony wrote:If SMU is going for a "home run hire" we better have a Circle of Champions willing to compete. If this list is even close to accurate, a top 10 caliber coach will command north of $4 million annually

https://sports.usatoday.com/ncaa/salari ... ball/coach

How about ruffling feathers and hiring Clemson coach

indianmustang wrote:

Charleston Pony wrote:If SMU is going for a "home run hire" we better have a Circle of Champions willing to compete. If this list is even close to accurate, a top 10 caliber coach will command north of $4 million annually

https://sports.usatoday.com/ncaa/salari ... ball/coach

How about ruffling feathers and hiring Clemson coach

Remember when SMU beat Brownell's Clemson team in the NIT semifinals? He was on the ropes after following that season with 2 years of missing out on any post season play. Since that time his teams have gone on to break Clemson's 59 year losing streak at UNC and has become the all time winningest coach in Clemson history but he's never finished better than 3rd in the ACC...possibly because of Clemson's reputation as a "football school"?