And then there were two…
Via ESPN:
Southern Illinois coach Chris Lowery was tired of the coaching carousel, and he wanted to get off.
But he had to make sure the Salukis were willing to pay him market value.
That’s why he decided against pursuing further any situation in the Big Ten — such as the coaching vacancies at Iowa and Michigan — and Saturday accepted a seven-year deal worth $750,000 annually.
The coaching carousel comment is a little tired, but with the new deal Lowery did receive nearly a 100% increase in his base pay from $255,000 to $500,000. That should help Lowery deal with the trauma of having teams from major conferences interview him for jobs that could be worth double the amount of money and would offer him a shot at winning a national championship.
Lowery was my top choice for the Michigan job opening and I think he would have done well in Ann Arbor. The only concern people express regarding Lowery is that he maintained a very good program. So they wonder if he can build a program on his own. Well, as the head coach at Missouri Southern State, where he coached for three years, he took the team to the final four of the Division II tournament in 2000. The dude can coach.
So this is yet another sign that John Beilein could be announced shortly as the new Michigan men’s basketball coach. University of Michigan beat reporter Nathan Fenno reports on the committee that has helped Michigan AD Bill Martin develop the field of candidates he will consider for the job opening.
While Michigan athletic director Bill Martin is in Atlanta at the Final Four this weekend conducting interviews for the open men’s basketball job, a clandestine four-man committee helped bring the search to this point.
Marty Bodnar, Greg Harden, Tim McCormick and Ted Spencer make up the committee that has advised Martin on the search during the last two weeks, multiple sources told The News.
Two members of the committee and the secretary of a third confirmed their roles when contacted by The News. Multiple sources with direct knowledge of the committee verified the identities of its four members.
When Martin made the decision to hire Tommy Amaker he used a 10 person committee, so obviously he felt having that much involvement was counterproductive. This time around half of the people who are involved work in the athletic department, while another is the executive director of undergraduate admissions.
Mark Snyder from the Free Press has an article on Beilein’s coaching career and offensive philosophy. The article has some good quotes from other coaches and current players regarding Beilein.
Jim Carty writes about the benefit of using a search committee to guage a candidate’s interest prior to formally asking for permission to interview a coach.
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