Friday, March 17, 2006

The Tournament and the AD Search

So, in my post below on the New Mexico AD search, I mentioned the two other finalists, Rick Hartzell at Northern Iowa and Jim Schaus at Wichita State. Both schools are in the NCAA tournament and SMU is . . . not.

Wichita State won yesterday by beating, er, shocking (!) Seton Hall, 86-66. Wichita State's HC is Mark Turgeon, who Schaus hired less than nine months after taking the Wichita State AD job.

Northern Iowa lost today to Georgetown, 54-49. This was Greg McDermott's Northern Iowa team's third consecutive trip to the Big Dance (did you know this?).

Now, you might think this means advantage Schaus in the "Who can pick the better coach?" department.

But not so fast! Hartzell was AD of Bucknell from 1988-1999. Bucknell beat Arkansas 59-55 here in Dallas. While AD at Bucknell, Hartzell hired Bucknell HC Pat Flannery. This is Bucknell's second consecutive NCAA appearance. Last year, remember, Bucknell beat Kansas. Also, Hartzell is a NCAA basketball referee. Do you think he knows how to identify a coach? Would anybody mind if Hartzell was picking coaches for SMU?

No comments: