CSNbbs

UT job not a good fit for Anderson
Friday, March 25, 2005

It's easy to understand why Tennessee is interested in Mike Anderson.
Tennessee is searching for a new men's basketball coach. Redundant but true. Anderson is one of the best coaches who may be available.

It makes perfect sense that Tennessee would want to interview Anderson, which UT AD Mike Hamilton apparently did Wednesday night.

The Vols don't win consistently in men's basketball. Anderson - as a player, assistant and head coach - always has.

What's less clear than Tennessee's interest in Anderson is why the UAB coach would have any serious interest in Tennessee.

Beyond the dollars, it doesn't make much sense.

Not that Anderson will have a career decision to make in the next week. Talk to people at UAB, and there's not the same level of concern that he might leave as there was a year ago with the Auburn job.

Talk to people who know people in Tennessee, and the word is the school's real short list includes just two names: Creighton's Dana Altman and Wisconsin-Milwaukee's Bruce Pearl, the flavor of the month.

Anderson could become an option if Altman or Pearl don't work out. And even if the UAB coach isn't offered the position, he helps Tennessee head off any complaints about a lack of minority candidates.

If the Vols were smart - and insiders say they're a lot smarter when it comes to men's basketball than they were with a football coach as AD in Doug Dickey - Anderson would not be a fallback position.

He would be their first choice, and they'd be putting a full-court press on him. One reason: No other candidate on UT's list has his SEC experience.

Instead Tennessee talked to Altman and Charlotte coach Bobby Lutz before even asking permission to talk with Anderson. UAB's season ended Saturday, and Tennessee didn't make that request till Wednesday.

Not exactly a sense of urgency there.

If Anderson is smart, and the search progresses and he moves from an interview to an offer, he'll think long and hard before accepting it.

Conventional wisdom says the second job a coach takes is the most important decision of his career. The higher the salary and the profile, the greater the demands and the competition.

Tennessee could double Anderson's $600,000 annual salary if it wanted, but like the song says, mo' money, mo' problems.

For every positive about the UT job, like its membership in a conference that gets five or six NCAA bids every year, there's a drawback.

At Tennessee, men's basketball is no better than third in the pecking order behind football and women's basketball.

At Tennessee, a coach has to meet Kentucky-like expectations and fill a Kentucky-size arena with Vanderbilt-like tradition.

Ask Jerry Green. He won 20 games and went to the NCAA Tournament four straight years. Won two SEC East titles and shared one SEC championship. Reached the Sweet 16, matching the school's best NCAA Tournament run.

For his efforts, Tennessee fired him.

Anderson seems destined to return to the SEC, but this isn't the best place or time.

Better jobs await him down the road.


Kevin Scarbinsky's column appears Sunday, Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Write him at kscarbinsky@bhamnews.com.

In the words of the Fab Four, "Money can't buy me love."

Consider, Coach Mike, Big Orange will never love you like Gang Green does.

I dont know why everyone is so convinced CMA will ever leave. He's a young coach, yes, but if he builds the program and continues to increase attendance and donations continue to increase, I guarantee he'll get the raises he deserves. Maybe I have too much faith in CMA, but I dont think he's the type to always be looking for a step up.

I hope you're right because I agree with you on what CMA could do at UAB. However, the pessimist in me finds that it usually comes down to the highest bidder. What would truly cement him as a class act in my book (he's well on his way, already) would be to find that the orange put a truckload of dead presidents on the table and CMA walked away because he's got a pretty special gig already.

I normally like Scarbo's articles but the past two he's had about the UT coaching search and Anderson have pissed me off.

He's yet to name several good reasons of why Anderson should stay at UAB. Instead he's saying "don't take this job, wait for the next one and then leave UAB high and dry".

UAB can become just as dominant as a Gonzaga, Oklahoma St, Louisville, etc if he wants it to be. Those programs did not become powers because they were picked in a lottery at the formation of college basketball. They became dominant because of hard working people that believed they could turn those programs into basketball powers.

There's no reason why he should ever leave UAB. He'll have tons of support, basketball runs the show right now, and UAB as a whole is getting better and better at EVERYTHING.

amen brother!