Friday morning, I woke up to Twitter blowing up over the firing of UT's head basketball coach, Donnie Tyndall.
ESPN reported, The Tennessee Volunteers fired men's basketball coach Donnie Tyndall after one season Friday, though athletic director Dave Hart says the university never would have hired him if they knew the details of his unethical conduct at Southern Miss program during his tenure there.
Hart fired Tyndall on Friday after details of his activities at Southern Miss were revealed in an NCAA investigation, though UT officials have said they did their due diligence of vetting Tyndall's background before hiring him.
A source with direct knowledge told ESPN's Andy Katz that Tyndall will be accused by the NCAA, under the new coach control policy, of financial and academic violations.
That's some deep stuff Donnie. Good luck. Now, I'm no voodoo witch doctor or anything, but if I was, I would take this awful curse of coaching mishaps off of Tennessee immediately. We have had an impressively awful three different basketball coaches in four years. And did Dave Hart really do THAT good of a job checking Tyndall's background? I mean the guy brought us bad press from the NCAA almost immediately after he was hired. That's some weak sauce Dave. Weak sauce. Honestly, maybe you are the one that needs to go, but I won't talk about how I feel on that subject now.
By no means is UT basketball a top job prospect for coaches but it's time for Dave Hart and the gang to find someone who can stay for a little longer than our previous two coaches.
Right off the bat, students and fans were pulling for a return from VFL Bruce Pearl, who took the Vols to the NCAA Tournament all five years as head coach, 2005-2011. In fact, even the day after I heard was a petition being signed for fans to buy out Pearl's contract at Auburn so he can make the return. The logic is that Pearl misses UT and wants to come back. He had an emotional return to Knoxville during the regular season in January and even himself, has expressed interest in the job, said Bleacher Report. This is probably an unlikely hire but if it happened, Vol fans would wet themselves over a Pearl return.
Other than that, its unlikely that someone like VCU's Shaka Smart or Wichita State's Gregg Marshall would make the commitment to Knoxville because they probably are content with the well performing programs they have built at their respective schools. They have also both turned down some big name jobs in the past so it would strike curiosity in me if they decided to come to Rocky Top, however, their names keep getting tossed around and if one of those big fish bit, it would also be massive grabs for the Vols.
Realistically, Dave Hart will probably need to look at some other low key names with clean records. Belmont's Rick Byrd actually applied and interviewed for the UT job in 2011 when Pearl was fired. He has reached the NCAA Tournament 7 of the last 10 years and been coaching at Belmont for 30 years, however he is about to turn 63, so his age may be a large issue as he will probably have to use a walker to get up and down the court and probably leave the game every 10 minutes to pee.
Archie Miller from Dayton is one of the hottest prospects out there. He's taken the Flyers to the "Big Dance" the last three years, two of which, he made it to at least the Sweet Sixteen. This would also be a huge grab for the Vols, however he just signed a contract extension through 2022, so yikes.
The two I like the best are Ben Jacobsen from Northern Iowa and Brad Underwood from SF Austin. Jacobsen for starters has taken the Panthers to an NCAA appearance all six years of coaching and this year went 31-4. Underwood on the other hand, went 61-8 in his only two seasons with SF Austin. Also, the Lumberjacks have a filthy pressure defense that has ranked top ten in turnover both of Underwood's years there, and he would bring that "scrap" with him. Either one of these guys would make for a great young name to lead the Vols.
Let's be real though for a second Dave. The main concern for most of us is that the name duo of football and basketball coaches has to be prime. That's probably why I like Ben and Brad a lot. Either one of those guys fits the bill and think of the name match ups to compliment Butch Jones: "Butch and Brad" or "Butch and Ben". Those sound a million times better than "Butch and Donnie". Sounds like the name of a bakery... Butch and Donnie's Sweet Delights. No chill.
