Channel Two dropped four names today, one of them is pretty familiar. The names mentioned were Bruce Peal, Fran Fraschilla, Seth Greenberg, and Bobby Hurley.
I'd like to point out that the first time the name Seth Greenberg appeared is was right here on Bull Run. I used a very scientific process which involved a series conin flips involving various state coins and a table with the logo's of every ACC and Big East team. Then when that turned nothing up I search for high major coaches who had decent records and had been out of coaching for a couple of years
Bull Run List of Potential Coaching Candidates - Bull Run
Greenberg is an interesting choice. An older established and accomplished coach who hails from New York City played his college ball from Fairleigh Dickinson in New Jersey.Most recently he coached for the Virginia Tech Hokies men's basketball team. In 2004–05, earning the team a first-round bye in the ACC Tournament and their first post-season tournament appearance since 1996 with a trip to the National Invitation Tournament (NIT).
He never took the Hookies to the dance but he twice took Long Beach State to the dace back in the mid 90's. He brings experience as a head coach in California, South Florida, and Virginia. The down side might be his interest and, if he is interested, the potential price tag.
Fran Fraschilla has been the head coach at Manhattan, St. John's University and University of New Mexico, before joining ESPN as broadcast analyst in 2002. He currently serves as a game analyst, mostly on Big 12 action, and as a studio analyst for ESPN college basketball programming. He also covers the NBA Draft, focusing mostly on foreign players. (Thank you Wiki)
During his nine years of coaching he had just one losing season, went to the dance three times and went to the NIT five times. It's a heck of a resume but he has not coached in more than a decade!
Bobby Hurley was a ball player for Duke and had a decent run in the NBA. As far as coaching goes he joined with Rhode Island in 2010 after getting his start with on his brothers staff at Wagner College.. That's about it... No seriously that is *everything* he has done as a coach.
Let's see... Complete lack of head coaching experience and a whopping three years of assistant coaching experience at schools that are no more relevant the UB. Let's put it this way, Turner Battle has a resume that blows this guy out of the water!
Bruce Peal most recently served as head coach of the University of Tennessee Volunteers men's team. He graduated of Boston College and got his first job assistant basketball coach from his Alma Mater. He was the first coach to lead the Volunteers to a national #1 ranking.
Pearl currently serves as an occasional analyst for College Basketball on ESPN.... Because....
In the summer of 2008, Pearl invited high school junior Aaron Craft and members of his family to a cookout at his Knoxville home while Craft was on an unofficial visit to Tennessee. Thats a huge no no... At the cookout Pearl encouraged all those in attendance not to tell anyone about it. When the NCAA began an investigation of the affair, Pearl not only lied about the cookout, but told Craft's father to lie as well.
So telling lies to the NCAA and telling others to do so is the kind of thing that invites the governing body to break out their boom stick, and so they did.
Pearl was hit with a three-year show-cause penalty for his unethical conduct in lying to the NCAA. This means he cant have anything to do with recruiting by any NCAA school until august of 2014.So Pearl has been biding his time until he can get back into the game and that time is coming quick. It won't be long before he is trying to break back into the high majors.
The upside here? In Ten years as a division one coach he went dancing eight times, made it to the elite eight once and the sweet sixteen twice. The other huge part is that UB's recruiting needs are somewhat light right now. They return everyone contributor but Watson next year and even then most of the talent on the roster is pretty young. So he would miss one signing class, the class of 2014.
None of these names make a ton of sense, and the fact one matched up a SWAG I put up the day after UB let go of Witherspoon I'm not sure just how serious any of these names is.
You have a guy with no experience, a guy prohibited from recruiting, a guy that has not coached in a decade, and Seth Greenberg. I'm really hoping this is not the short list.