IU Names Committee for Coaching Search

Yesterday, IU put out a press release to announce they had formed a 10-person committee to perform a nationwide search for a new coach.

The head of the committee will be Harry Gonso who was the QB for IU's Rose Bowl team. Basically, that means he's old.

Other recognizable names on the committee include Greenspan (pictured throwing up in his mouth a little bit), Wayne Radford, Jerry Yeagley, Grace Calhoun (IU Athletics Compliance), and Bruce Jaffee (faculty representative on athletics committee).

The rest of the committee is rounded out with some other stiffs from the IU Alumni Association, the IU Varsity Club, the IU vice president for engagement (whatever the hell that is), and the dean of the graduate school.

So what do you think of this committee?

I'm not so sure about it. First of all, what in the world do most of these people know about hiring a college basketball coach?

And who will be accountable for the hire?

Personally, I'd like to see this hiring decision made by Greenspan. I know he is not the most popular person in Bloomington right now, but it is an Athletic Director's job to hire coaches and oversee the athletics department. At Indiana, that basically means you are overseeing the men's basketball program.

I'm fine with getting input from a committee, but I want the decision to lie in the hands of the Athletic Director. That's his job.

As for Greenspan himself, I would have been perfectly fine with him getting canned with Sampson. However, other than the Sampson debacle, he has some pretty good decisions and accomplishments to his name, including Terry Hoeppner and the facilities that are currently under construction. Even with the Sampson hire, I still think it was reasonable to believe that Kelvin Sampson would not do the same damn thing that got him into trouble at Oklahoma. So, if Kelvin could have just put the cell phone down, that hire would probably be looking pretty good as well.

I guess I'm just not really sure how a faculty member, the vice president of engagement, and an IU Varsity Club member are really all that helpful in hiring a college basketball coach. Hell, I'd like to think that I could add value as a committee member, but the truth is that I don't spend all day everyday involved in this stuff (even though it might seem that way sometimes). I want the decision made by someone whose job is to know what to look for in a coach and that's the athletic director.

Again, get input from a committee, but the decision should be made by the Athletic Director with a stamp of approval from his boss (the President or whoever Greenspan's boss is). If it doesn't work out, Greenspan is gone. No questions asked. Well, if it doesn't work out, there won't even be a program anymore so I guess it won't matter.

I also thought it was curious that IU would put out a press release to announce this committee and nationwide search.

First of all, I'm hoping Greenspan and his team have been working on this ever since Sampson was fired.

Second, I don't think it's any big secret that Dakich is not a candidate for this position, but does it really help motivate the guy to announce the nationwide search right before their NCAA tournament game? I'm fine that the committee has been formed and is getting underway, but do they really need a press release this week?

Finally, Mac Jurko & Harry had this story as a post-commercial tease yesterday. I thought it was kind of interesting that they would be dangling this story as a tease to keep you around for the other side of the commercial, but it turns out that they were just kind of making fun of IU for feeling the need to announce a nationwide search. They were saying that they thought IU's coaching search was going to range from Evansville to Fort Wayne until IU announced it's nationwide search.

Anyway, so what do you think of this 10-person committee for the coaching search?