Brad Brownell, head coach at UNC-Wilmington, reportedly interviewed for the basketball opening at Ball State today. His team tied George Mason for the CAA championship this year and won the conference tournament. They were a 9th seed and lost to George Washington in the NCAA in an overtime.
Wow. That's odd that a CAA coach would move to Ball State. I would guess that having GMU reach the final four will raise the ante of CAA coaches that reach NCAA tournament. I would think Ball State would be paying top dollar right now for a CAA coach. This must be a negotiating tactic to get a pay raise by this guy.
Brownell has Indiana connections being from Evansville and going to college at DePauw so that's one explanation for a possible move.
A lot of coaches have expressed interest in the Ball State job. Why not? Best arena in the MAC. MAC freshman of the year Mo Acker at PG. Stovall and Mills back next year ... probably a good launching-pad for a Big 10 job.
BSU should be a veyr good MAC coaching job. But it's going to have to pay head coaches more than $131K per year.
Yes, Ball State is one of the top five coaching jobs in the MAC. The midwest ties explain a bit too. Acker is transfering to Marquette and that's a shame for Ball State. Ball State's won a lot of MAC titles, but is snakebit the last few years.
Reports that Acker is transferring to Marquette were premature. Acker said today that he has not made up his mind, that he wants to see who the new Ball State coach will be and to talk to him and get a feel of what things will be like.
Quote:BSU should be a veyr good MAC coaching job. But it's going to have to pay head coaches more than $131K per year.
Well, two things...
1. That was Buckley's base salary, and he didn't meet any of the incentives that would have driven that figure higher. (Three losing seasons in the past four will have that effect).
2. That was the salary from a contract signed in 2002, with a different AD and a different university president. And there has been no reason since that time to give Buckley a raise. All indications are that BSU will be willing to pay significantly more for this hire.