I first wrote about the Bruce Pearl rumors on Saturday when Pearl’s picture appeared on the front page of Hawkeye Report. Iowa fans continue to speculate on who will be their next coach. The Hawkeye State has a nice short list of candidates for the Iowa job. Dana Altman is listed as the favorite but Bruce Pearl is a close second. They cite the negatives of hiring Pearl as money (which I agree with) and Pearl’s “tendency to implode down the stretch”. I think the second point is a pretty unfair assessment if you look at Pearl’s success. I can think of only a few occasions where it’s happened under Pearl and none of them match the meltdown against OSU. However, I still believe the lack of a dominant big man hurts us in our half court offense. I think you could also classify it as a lack of experience in a big game atmosphere away from home.
In my search for rumors on Bruce Pearl today, I ran across this article titled Free Bruce Pearl. This blogger begs Iowa’s AD to “open up the checkbook”. He even has a photoshopped pic of Pearl painted yellow with a big “I” on his chest.
At the other extreme , I found Bruce Pearl is Satan which speaks for itself. And yes it’s by an Illinois fan. How did you guess?
In other coaching news, Stan Heath was fired from Arkansas today and FOX is reporting that he will be replaced by Texas A&M coach Billy Gillispie who, they claim, has already agreed in principle. Gillisipe has been rumored for several other jobs at bigger programs so this news surprises me if it turns out to be true. There is some speculation that Heath could end up at Michigan.
In Kentucky, fans are making their list of who is who in the college basketball world. We may be able to narrow it down some since Pitino is not interested in returning (did anyone really think that was going to happen?). KentuckySportsRadio.com has a nice breakdown on the possible candidates. Regardless of the long list, Wildcat fans only seem to want to talk about Billy Donovan. Doesn’t everyone know that Donovan just bought a horse farm in Lexington? It’s only a matter of time. I’ve heard that he may skip the Final Four and just head straight to Lexington. Of course I am kidding, but I don’t think that would surprise Kentucky fans one bit. At this point, I am not willing to bet against Donovan giving them a look.
For what it’s worth, Jimmy Hyams thinks that John Calipari will be Kentucky’s next coach. Looks like Calipari signed a contract extension with Memphis through the year 2012.
In other coaching news,Vols assistant coach Tony Jones is being mentioned for the open Marshall job. Jones denied that he had been officially contacted about the job but refused to comment when asked if he had been unofficially contacted.