Men's Basketball Update please...

[Guest DickVitale]

Who are they interviewing? WHEN are they going to hire? Are they waiting on the NBA season to end to see who is available? (just joking)...Whats going on on Proctor St. in PA??!

[team first]

yea, keep us updated

[LamarStatesports]

The process continues. The final list of applicants (and there's probably more filtering in) numbered more than 50, including high school coaches and college and university assistants and a head coach or two.

That list has been cut down to about a dozen. The committee currently is selecting a short list of candidates to invite in for an interview. I expect the final decision to made by the end of the month.

Sorry I don't have more information for you. It's unfortunate that the PA News got a very abbreviated list of candidates and then published it. Most of the people on that list didn't make the cut-down from 50.

I will have more to report by the middle of next week.

[Trad]

LamarState: It looks like it is okay to disagree with a news reporter for reporting a story your school(person privy to list) had given him. It appears that you don't mind people that disagree as long as it is not involving any of your school employee's.

  I really do not think any school will "hang anyone out to dry" for trying to better themselves. How do you think the head coaches got their jobs if they did not first work their way up?

  Reporting on the status of school functions is great, but your opinion is subject to review, respectfully.

  I really do not mind being disagreed with, but the put downs on a personnel level is not necessary.

[Guest DickVitale]

LamarState, I can answer that one, and the answer is ABSOLUTELY!  Whether they will admit it or not, employers HATE it when their coaches go out and apply for other jobs "behind their backs"..Sounds crazy, but it is so true...The worst thing a coach, particularly a head coach, can do is apply for another job and NOT get it..Its always a gamble...As for the assistants that apply, there are some head coaches that would take that as a guy wanting to advance, however, at the same time there are some that would look at it as him wanting out, or even being disloyal in a sense...I know it sounds silly, but that is just human nature...Schools DO NOT LIKE performing coaching searches, but in this business, it is a reality...Hope that bit of insight was helpful.

[Trad]

Sigh...Where to begin.

  "What we have here is a failure to communicate". Quote from  the movie Cool Hand Luke.

  Mr. Vitale if it sounds crazy and silly then it more than likely is. Not only is it silly and crazy to think this, it is more than likely illegal also. To retaleate against a person for applying for another job outside the work place is a big big mistake. It is descrimanatory at best.

  LamarState, let me make this perfectly clear. Your coaches, teachers, school adminastrators, janitors, parking lot attendants, police officers and the schools dog catcher can do their job anyway, any how, in any order they want. This does not mean I will agree or except the results of their work.

  You ramble so much.

  1st. If Lamar State College was not responsible for giving the list to the P.A News, Who was? Do you ecpect me to believe they broke into the school after hours or went through your trash to get the information? Or did they torture someone to get the information about the list. No, maybe they used extortion.

  2nd. Bottom line. Is the school responsible for keeping this information private or is it the job of newspaper to keep this private? Maybe the person at the school that released the list to the newspaper had no idea it had the potential to be made plublic. No, no I am sure the person that gave the list to the paper asked that the list be kept a secret just like the school told all of the peple that had the list in the first place.

  3.If you beleive the people on this list are going to be hung out to dry with their present employers because someone at your school leaked a list to a newspaper, are you afraid of being sued by the whole list of 13? I mean a suit filed against the newspaper. No one at your school leaked a list of 13 to the P.A.News to be plublished, stick to this story and you will be okay. Great, now I even want to file suit.

  4.Play games with you? You are good at it? Another misconception.

  5.Go ahead and put me down, call me names, take your ball and go home.

  6.But thanks for the information about the coaching situation. You are the best at that.

  7.Your opinions are great, give me more.

  8.This is all I have time for at the present time, we will talk later.

[Trad]

Good post LamarState, at least I can understand a little more your rational, not that I agree with it but will understand more why you think that it is the job of the persons receiving information to keep it private. Now, is this how you would react if you were a head coach and your assistant applied for a job as a head coach at another school? There is a big difference if that same assistant applied for your job which he did not. Mr. Vitale is this how you were taught by your head coach dad to handle rouge assistants? It is not right it is not legal and it's not the kind of head coach I would want to work for in the first place.

  Ask me basketball questions, disagree with my opinions, have conversation in general but personnel questions I am not going to answer. Thank you very much.

  Let me set the record straight LamarState: Correct me when I am wrong. But was it you that brought up the P.A.News in this thread? Did I inject a tirade against a newspaper for doing there job? Was it Trad that decided to talk about a topic other than the one the thread was suppose to be about. Stop acting like you had nothing to do with the change of topic when it was you that did it.

  Let's take a look at a recent head coach in this area that applied for another head coaching position at a Houston school. Larry Neuman, I am sure you are familiar with this story. The NISD retaliated against him by giving him a 12k (around) dollar a year raise. Thank you very much NISD, you did the right thing for the right reason.

[DP#1FAN]

LamarState, I can answer that one, and the answer is ABSOLUTELY!  Whether they will admit it or not, employers HATE it when their coaches go out and apply for other jobs "behind their backs"..Sounds crazy, but it is so true...The worst thing a coach, particularly a head coach, can do is apply for another job and NOT get it..Its always a gamble...As for the assistants that apply, there are some head coaches that would take that as a guy wanting to advance, however, at the same time there are some that would look at it as him wanting out, or even being disloyal in a sense...I know it sounds silly, but that is just human nature...Schools DO NOT LIKE performing coaching searches, but in this business, it is a reality...Hope that bit of insight was helpful.

Very well said!

[Trad]

Moderator you should not in courage bad behavior. What happens if Mr. Vitale does become the head coach of the Seahawks and the moderating business gets bad and you end up as one of his assistants? Would you expect Mr. Vitale as a head coach to do to you what you think is a great post? Perhaps as a head coach you could get your assistants to sign a contract that said they would stay your assistant forever and they could not look for another job. You guys act like none of these head coaches ever applied for a job before.

  By the way, how do you know that all these applicants applied behind anyones back?

  Likeing it or not is not the issue here, it's the punishment that you believe is attached to an applicant being outed by a news paper that I am having a hard time understanding. That was freely given to  the P.A.News by the school itself. If there is fault to be blamed, which I do not believe there was one to begin with, try the person that gave out the list to begin with.

[DP#1FAN]

Young man he is just stating how things work in the coaching business. It is a little strange but that is how it works. If you are on the team I have made a few games this year and with a lot of off-season work you all can be very competitive next year so that being said spend more time in off-season training and less time worrying about something you have no controll over. It will make you a much better player. Best of luck next year to all the players and the new coach or coaches.

[Trad]

Finally a discussion about a topic with any insults. I do not consider myself an unreasonable person, some may disagree. I like your approach and logic, both of you.

  From where I was coming from it was a position that no one did anything wrong. I could not understand how a person could lose his job over the handling of the list of potential coaches.

  I see now that I was mistaken the whole time. LamarState was almost right to begin with. By the fact that Lamar P.A. gave the list to a newspaper knowing it had the potential to be made public was a disservice to the school and to the names on the list. As a result of the list being made public I am convinced we now have 13 people that put there trust in an institution to protect their names and their job, and we didn't do that. We let them down. What are we going to do about it now? Not our finest hour. Perhaps a phone call to apologize followed up by a letter letting them know of the mistake just in case they do not know and do receive grief for it later.

  I want you to know that you guys are shattering my faith in my fellow man.

 

[DP#1FAN]

Trad go practice now the season will be here soon.  Remember you never know who you coach maybe. I'm sure some of your fellow man is practicing right now. 

[Trad]

That's what I like about you guys, so encouraging and so full of wisdom. I really do not like basketball, I am more of a baseball guy.

[LamarStatesports]

Getting back to the point of this thread, here's the latest on the coaching search.

The committee is conducting phone interviews with 10 candidates and should complete those interviews tomorrow.

That list then will be cut to 2-5 candidates, who will be invited to come for a campus tour and an in-person interview in the next couple of weeks. The athletic director hopes to announce the new coach before the end of the month.

The 10 candidates all have impressive credentials. The hardest task will be deciding which one is the right fit.

I'm not going to publish their names. I will give you a description of them that won't tell you who they are, but will tell you at what level they currently are coaching.

The 10 candidates are:

two NCAA D-I university top assistant coaches from Texas

two NCAA D-I university assistant coaches from Arkansas and Idaho

one NCAA D-II university assistant coach from North Carolina

one NAIA D-I college head coach from Texas

one D-I junior college head coach from Kansas

one D-I junior college associate head coach from Texas

one D-I junior college assistant coach from Kansas

one D-III junior college head coach from Texas

I'll let you know what comes next.

[DP#1FAN]

Thanks for the info, gives us some names if and when.

[CHSOwls24]

Have they decided on a coach yet?

[LamarStatesports]

No announcement yet......the process continues.

After five hours of telephone inteviews with the 10 candidates on the short list, the committee pared that list down to seven applicants. The athletic director and two members of the committee will check references for those candidates during the early part of the week. Then, 3-5 of them will be invited in for a campus tour and an in-person interview.

The face-to-face interviews with the candidates will be a lot more enlightening than the telephone interviews. It's easy to answer general questions on the phone. It's a lot tougher to answer more specific questions in person.

The short list contains candidates who all have strong resumes and credentials. It's a matter of finding a coach who will be the right fit for the program now and for the future of the program.

The timeline still calls for an announcement of the next head coach before the end of the month. Everyone is in agreement that the sooner the better because valuable recruiting time is slipping away.

But as I previously noted, this is an important decision that isn't just about 2008-09. It's about the next five years or so of Lamar State's program, which is taking a giant step in joining a Division I conference that is acknowledged to be one of the top juco conferences in the nation. So the decision won't be rushed even though time is going by.

Just about all of the candidates said one of the reasons they wanted to come to Lamar State was the opportunity to compete in Region XIV.

Thanks for your interest. I'll keep you posted. I should have more information by Thursday or Friday.

[LamarStatesports]

Here's an update on who's left on the list as of Friday afternoon:

two NCAA D-I university top assistant coaches from Texas

one NCAA D-I university top assistant coach from Arkansas

one NCAA D-II university assistant coach from North Carolina

one D-I junior college associate head coach from Texas

one D-I junior college assistant coach from Kansas

one D-III junior college head coach from Texas

[Guest DickVitale]

Are Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton vying to be the head mens basketball coach at Lamar State, too or something? What is the deal?? They are taking WAY too long to make a selection...really.

[LamarStatesports]

No, Hillary and Barack aren't in the running for the Lamar State job, and neither is DickieV. I kept waiting for him to apply, but I understand that he is holding out for a call from the big show.

What might be "too long" to some people is "just right" for the college, which is making a decision that will be pivotal to the continued progress of the men's basketball program.

After reference calls, the list of seven candidates, any of which would be excellent coaches to lead the program, were ranked 1-7 and the first three on the list were invited to come for a personal interview. The No. 2 candidate had accepted another assistant coach job at a junior college only about 45 minutes from where he was living. So, the fourth person on list was invited.

Here's where it stands. Three finalists will visit the campus this week, beginning today, for personal interviews. The announcement of the new head coach should come by the middle of next week, depending on the availablity of the new coach.

[Guest DickVitale]

Yes, you are RIGHT!! ...Dickie V (ME) is waiting on the "big show" call!  I was always told by one of my mentors (Andre Boutte) that if a college wants you to be their coach, they will call you...Apparently, I have some work to do before I get that call from the BIG SHOW, and I am still quite young in the business at 33...HOWEVER, if a coach that I know accepts the job, then I will put in a call to let him know that I would like to work with him..I jumped on my last college job without looking, and left a good HS head coaching job in the process, so I have learned to be cautious and selective...Thanks LamarStateSports for the update!!