Rumor mill

[crazy horse]

I don't get the hoopla over McCasland either. I'll defer to the basketball experts whether he is an upgrade from Jank. I just don't see any top recruit changing their college choice to SMU because of him.

The last job search we were fishing in deep waters before landing Brown. Now we seem content with a cane pole in Turtle Creek.

[mustangxc]

McCasland has done very well at UNT and let's be honest, UNT has zero basketball tradition and is in a 1 bid CUSA. Getting to the NCAA tournament and NIT in that league and another first place finish which would have guaranteed at least another NIT if not an NCAA bid in the COVID shortened season is very impressive. He is also a former Scott Drew assistant and while I would never want to play for Drew, he turned Baylor from nothing and murder ravaged sanctions to national champions. We could find another up and comer that might have some Texas ties, but none of these coaches are going to excite you on signing day. It's more a case of a Sonny Dykes who was a logical hire and proved to be a great hire over time.

In terms of superstar coaches, the only one that would fill that bill that we could possibly lure is once again Rick Pitino. Aside from him, the big fish like John Calipari are not coming and our other options are retreads like Ben Howland, Mark Turgeon, Avery Johnson, or maybe even a Fran Fraschilla who lives in Dallas and is very familiar with the program. I wouldn't hire Fran but would at least inquire with him or hit him up for suggestions.

[PerunaPunch]

Bring back Larry whoΓÇÖd rock it in the NIL era.

[SoCal_Pony]

the fact that Jank was fired so quickly tells me it was obviously pre-planned. That being the case, if McCasland was indeed our 1st choice, it is extremely perplexing why he hasn’t signed yet. He wants too much $$$….they didn’t know this a month ago?????

Contrast this to how TCU pursued Sonny. He was effectively in the bag weeks before it became public.

I donΓÇÖt know if SMU has a bigger fish or not, but if they do, why bring up rumors of NTSU or ACU coaches???

If they donΓÇÖt have a bigger fish, then this has the makings of a cluster ****

[mustangxc]

My thoughts exactly SoCal. It is precisely why I'd rather keep Jankovich for 3 more years and get rid of Hart, the single biggest issue plaguing SMU athletics.

[sadderbudweiser]

LOL.... 48 hours in and we have a panic thread!

[redpony]

LOL.... 48 hours in and we have a panic thread!

No panic. Just surprised so little activity. Especially after having a new fball coach 48 minutes after the old one left.

Agree that we need a LB 2.0 but doubt if that will happen. Time to see what little rickey will do- go big or continue with mediocrity and hire a 'nobody'.

[mustangxc]

Not panic, but if our fans have been clamoring for change the last 4 years and waited for the contract to expire so as to not have to pay any buyout money and all of a sudden money is an object in hiring what is said to be our primary target, what are we doing? There is clearly no alignment between the AD, President, and BMDs. If that is the case, why not keep Jankovich. If we aren't all in, I at least prefer regular NIT bids to what we were the 30 years before Larry Brown.

[ponyboy]

The last job search we were fishing in deep waters before landing Brown. Now we seem content with a cane pole in Turtle Creek.

[Otto]

Bring back Larry whoΓÇÖd rock it in the NIL era.

The guys who would "kill it in the NIL era" from LBS staff are Jerrance Howard and Ulrich Maligi - both now at UT

[Lefty]

Contrast this to how TCU pursued Sonny. He was effectively in the bag weeks before it became public.

Maybe McCasland is simply the anti-Sonny, and didn't negotiate with one school while still under contract to another.

No panic. Just surprised so little activity. Especially after having a new fball coach 48 minutes after the old one left.

Agree that we need a LB 2.0 but doubt if that will happen. Time to see what little rickey will do- go big or continue with mediocrity and hire a 'nobody'.

Let's go ahead and retire the Pitino talk. Iona is paying him more than $5 million per year. No way SMU more than doubles Rhett Lashlee's salary for anyone in any position on campus.

[PonyTime]

Agree - Pitino is not coming (They should have made a run at him two years ago though).

And remember - Larry Brown signed on when we were headed to the Big East Conference. We were going to be playing Villanova, Notre Dame, Georgetown, Louisville, UConn, Providence, UCF, Houston, Rutgers, Cincy, SDSU, Boise, UCF, etc.

Our Conference now will have none of those teams. Replaced with UTSA, North Texas, Rice, Tulane, Charlotte, FAU, UAB.

I am starting to think that 2012 was the pinnacle of SMU sports in this century. For about 5 min were were big time.

[crazy horse]

No panic here either. Just comparing this search to others. Surely Jank's retirement was no surprise, so I thought they would likely have a replacement lined up. Rumors suggested the UNT coach which to me seemed a little underwhelming. I would think our big money guys have had plenty of time to "fish" this year for the right one. Hopefully, the delay means that he is still coaching in a tournament. I would be fine with that.

[tristatecoog]

https://amp.kansas.com/sports/college/b ... 24499.html

Tang is making $2.1M per year at KSU and hired Maligi away from UT where he was making $400k. Tang also hired a top assistant from UNT, not Grant.

[MDJenkins]

What all of you are forgetting is that we have an incompetent buffoon with Lil Ricky Hart at the helm. He should have been working behind the scenes to have all of his ducks in a row for a seamless transition with the new coach. The guy represents a comedy of errors and missteps at every turn. ItΓÇÖs arrogance at its worst.