Berry Tramel: Here's what kind of coach OU should hire

by Berry Tramel Published: March 15, 2011

The last time OU went looking for a basketball coach, I devised a 64-coach bracket and picked winners all the way down to the final two.

Georgia Tech's Paul Hewitt vs. Wichita State's Mark Turgeon. Hewitt won.

Nothing wrong with that. Two solid candidates. But I also failed to include a certain Jeff Capel in the field of 64. So don't come to me for guesses on who the Sooners will hire this time.

But I can offer insight on from where OU could and should court a coach.

The Sooners won't — and shouldn't — try to shock the world. They wouldn't want a bigger-than-life personality, like this sport often creates, even if they had the sales pitch and checkbook to attract one.

Wouldn't work. OU is a football school, and while Bob Stoops wouldn't care about sharing the spotlight, a basketball coach accustomed to being the biggest thing on campus would go screaming down Imhoff Road after two weeks on campus.

But here's what the Sooners could do to get an established, successful coach. Seek a winner from a big-time basketball school that doesn't play big-time football.

Like Marquette's Buzz Williams, who seems to be the consensus choice in the early soothsaying. But there are other examples.

Vanderbilt's Kevin Stallings. Memphis' Josh Pastner. Cincinnati's Mick Cronin. St. John's Steve Lavin. Georgetown's John Thompson III. Xavier's Chris Mack. Butler's Brad Stevens.

Those schools have either no or little football money and wouldn't likely win a bidding war with the Sooners.

Not that all or any of them would jump at an offer. Georgetown's a better basketball job than OU, and Thompson is a D.C. legacy. Lavin is married to a New York actress. Mack and Cronin are Cincinnati guys. Stevens is an Indianapolis folk hero.

by Berry Tramel
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