Housing markets are bottomed out, the country is at war, and Tim Duncan is still playing in the NBA.
Optimism appears to be a dying art, and Brittney Spears has somehow gone from being adventurously (read: pantylessly) single to frighteningly crazy in less than a year.
Things can’t get much worse dude.
If the times have got you down my friend, just get your hands on whatever the OSU athletic department was smoking when it recently paid headhunting firm Parker Executive Search $75,000 to begin looking for a new head basketball coach.
The department–remember, is so cash-strapped that they recently forced OSU students to cough up another 60 bucks a year under threat of losing student tickets at football games.
You may also recall that this is the same department that bought out the contract of one of the state’s highest paid public employees in Jay John, who managed to coach himself out of a job and into a paid vacation.
Seriously. . .the dude is making the salary of like 14 high school teachers to sit on his ass. (Update : No, he’s scouting for the Denver Nuggets)
One might assume that any organization facing these types of economic hardships might operate under a certain standard of fiscal responsibility.
Apparently such is not the style of Bob DeCarolis.
The Pump Brothers (yeah, the ones who brought Bruce Pearl to Tennessee) tried relentlessly to arrange a meeting with the athletic department. The Pumps offered to fly out. Apparently they even offered to reduce their fee to $10,000.
And then the AD gives them the proverbial middle finger–opting instead for the high powered Parker Executive Search consulting firm. (I’m wondering if it has anything to do with the NCAA’s prior inquiry into the Pump’s procurement of Final Four tickets to AAU coaches. . ?)
Parker is most widely known for bringing Billy Gillispie to Kentucky, and then moving Tubby Smith to Minnesota. Their credentials are superb, no doubt.
But they are crazy as hell if they think that Steve Alford, Randy Bennett, or Mike Dunlap would even entertain for one second any thoughts of coaching in Corvallis, as Oregonian beat writer Paul Buker is reporting.
Hell, why not go after Pat Riley? How about Nate McMillan or Ernie Kent?
Alford makes almost $1 million annually. Do they really think that OSU’s donor-lacking basketball program is prepared to buy out a contract like that-and then offer a raise?
. . . are they prepared to do that?
Head-hunting firms are relatively commonplace now in coaching searches, but it does Oregon State no good to retain expensive representation that will throw out big names, get everybody excited, and then let us all down.
I’d rather they were looking for guys like Keno Davis (Drake) than any of the names mentioned so far. He’s young, has the credentials (25-4 in this first season), and runs the same offense he learned under Pearl at Southern Indiana. He might possibly see the Oregon State gig as a way of getting his foot inside the Pac 10 door. I’m surprised with how little I’ve heard his name. Check Him out: here
Hey Chicken Little, add a percent to your 49% empty glass.
Alford’s contract has no buyout clause.
CV, did you mean 49% full? I wouldn’t want you to think I was being an optimist.
Joking, but you’re right on about Alford’s contract. I still don’t see it happening. My mistake. They’ve got to be a bit nervous down in UNM right now, but its not because of Oregon State.