Posted on: April 4, 2011 12:24 am

Mizzou hires Frank Haith; Miami revels

HOUSTON -- In the most bizarre hire of this offseason, Missouri reportedly has hired Miami's Frank Haith -- a move that makes no sense, on any level, to anyone outside of Missouri AD Mike Alden's office.

The hire was confirmed by CBSSports.com's Gary Parrish. I'm writing it because he's busy, and I'm not. Who cares who writes it? Point is, Missouri panicked after being turned down by Matt Painter and went for a guy who wouldn't turn the school down.

Frank Haith had that going for him.

But not much else.

In seven years at Miami -- in a down era for the ACC -- Haith was 43-69 in league play and 129-101 overall. He went to one NCAA tournament, in 2008, and has gone 60-41 since. Known as a great recruiter under Rick Barnes at Texas, Haith hasn't shown that skill at Miami. Making you wonder if maybe the great recruiter at Texas was, you know, Rick Barnes.

Whatever the case, Miami fans were rejoicing on the Internet Sunday night to be done with Haith, and preparing for the Hurricanes' inevitable pursuit of Kansas State's Frank Martin -- who got his start in coaching in the Miami high school system and who is a force on the South Florida recruiting circuit to this day.

With Jacob Pullen graduating at Kansas State, the time could be right for Martin to go home. We'll see.

Category: NCAAB
Tags: Miami, Missouri
Posted on: March 31, 2011 5:41 am

Enough's enough -- N.C. State better than Mizzou

That's the million-dollar question of the moment: Which basketball job is the top one out there, Missouri or N.C. State?

Other than Oklahoma, those are the only major programs with an opening. And seeing how Oklahoma is a football school, well, like I said: Which basketball job is the top one out there, Missouri or N.C. State?

Here's another question:

How is this even a question?

Missouri has been to zero Final Fours. Ever. Apparently, like my man Michael Stipe of R.E.M. said, you can't get there from here. But you can get there from N.C. State, which has won two national titles.

If this were a math equation, it would be over. Two national titles is greater than zero Final Fours. No need for Euclid, folks.

But fine, it's a bit more complicated than that. There is the geography, what with N.C. State being a half-hour from Duke and North Carolina, while Missouri is the only BCS school in its state.

Which brings me back to that whole "zero Final Four" thing. It hasn't mattered for 60 years that Missouri was the only prime-time university in its state. So why will it start to matter now? Besides, Missouri has its own version of North Carolina or Duke: Kansas.

Both schools have an enormous bully (or two) located in the same neighborhood, and those bullies have a history of winning recruits, games, Final Four berths. One difference is, UNC's Roy Williams (61 in August) is approaching retirement age, and Duke's Mike Krzyzewski (64) is practically there already. They won't coach forever, whereas Kansas' Bill Self (48) might have another 15 years to go.

Another difference? N.C. State is in the heart of basketball country. North Carolina is a basketball state. The ACC is a basketball conference. Not so for Missouri as a state, or the Big 12 as a conference. That matters.

So too does the leadership. N.C. State has a new president and athletics director, both with deep ties and devotion to basketball. Missouri is still run by two of the guys -- Chancellor Brady Deaton, AD Mike Alden -- who fell in love with Quin Snyder and were the last to know it was time to get rid of him. Alden in particular would scare me as a boss, given the answer to this question: What's the biggest difference between Mike Alden and Mike Hamilton, the incompetent AD at Tennessee?

Hamilton never hired Quin Snyder over Bill Self.

Meanwhile, though, many in the media seem to think that it's a close call -- but that the Missouri job is better than N.C. State. Gary Parrish here at CBSSports.com is on record as saying Missouri is a better job.

Some don't think it's even close. This guy from the St. Louis paper wrote Wednesday about Shaka Smart and opined that, "If it comes down to North Carolina State vs. Missouri, I'd put the odds on Mizzou because it's a much better job than NC State."


Based on what, exactly?

Category: NCAAB