Here's a thought of mine, that it's very possible that Drexel may have rushed into things by hiring Zach Spiker.

Now this is not to say that Spiker is not a very good choice. But here's a possibility of how things could have played out.

The AD held their extensive search, and interviewed plenty of candidates...guys like Jim Rullo came through the door, and so did Arnold, Mason, etc. There were so national choices too. Spiker interviewed, and I'm sure many others did as well. Ingelsby was high on their list, but he couldn't interview because Notre Dame is still playing.'

Meanwhile, our enemies to the south are having lots of problems down there. The school has no permanent AD in place. Holden announced he transferring. Rumors are flying around that Corbett, Carter, and Johnson are also gone. Delaware as decided that they are not rushing into hiring a coach until they hire an AD. It looks like the new coach of Delaware will have to go through a rebuild similar to what Pat Skerry went through at Towson. The majority of their fan base might die of old age or natural causes before the Hens will have a chance to sniff double digit wins.

In order to avoid a similar disaster at Drexel, they realized that they could not wait for Ingelsby especially if ND goes to the Final Four. Rumors may have been swirling that many Drexel players were contemplating transferring as well. In order to put a stop to this, Zillmer had to pull the trigger fast. They liked what they saw of Spiker and were willing to pay his $140k buyout in order to save the program, so he could get in the door right away and help keep the current roster in tact.

This is total speculation, and I could be totally wrong about this, but this is my gut feeling as to what has happened.

I don't know that it was a panic move. Beyond Holden, the other three aren't necessarily leaving the Blue Hens, they just wanted to be able to depending how their coaching search turns out. There have been some reports that they don't expect to hire a new AD until May, which could result in hiring a new basketball coach in May as well if they continue their plan of hiring in that order. I'd expect those three would leave if it takes that long. Here, we really don't have all that many players that could transfer, save for Terrell, Sammy, Rashann, Austin and Tyshawn. Everyone else is either a senior or has already burned their redshirt year. You only get 5 years to play 4, unless you can get a waiver for a 6th due to injury (Fouch, Canady?) Spiker has said he tries to provide a system that the players like, so I'm not really worried about losing anyone except for maybe the incoming freshmen.

Maybe it was coming down to Ingelsby and Spiker and Ingelsby wanted to give Delaware time to get their house in order before deciding. Better to get Spiker now then risk losing him somewhere else (Cornell?) and then having Ingelsby go to Delaware. Then you end up with a panic hire.

I don't think it was a panic move. I would rather get the guy you want before he gets taken somewhere else and you are left scrambling. Names have been moving quite a bit on other jobs, sometimes it is worth the risk to pull the trigger early instead of waiting. Since you speculation is about Ingelsby, chance of us hiring him if competing with Delaware is likely slim. He has ties there and would prefer that than coming here. I think if we would have waited to try and get Ingelsby we would have left without a coach for far longer than we needed to. Up and coming coaches, like Spiker or Ingelsby, don't tend to stay available for very long.

Speaking of panic moves...JMU just hired one of their alums who had been an assistant under the past 3 failed administrations. Always interesting when someone fires their coach then goes out and hires one of his former assistants while retaining another one of those assistants. Their fans are thinking it is COA related as to why they couldn't get a better hire, as well as general cheapness of their administration. I don't believe we are offering COA, yet, and it did not seem to hamper us. It certainly appears JMU is trying to compete with Delaware for biggest dumpster fire in the conference.