After all is said and done, guess who the front runners are for next year – Duke, Kentucky, Arizona and North Carolina. No matter how much things change, many things stay the same.
Congratulations to Kevin Ollie and his tough bunch on the NCAA title. You have to feel good when a former player earns his job the old-fashioned way by working up the coaching ranks after an NBA career full of 10-day contracts. With an NCAA title in his back pocket, Ollie could do some great things. He probably isn’t done yet.
Speaking of coaches…
Ernie Kent, Kelvin Sampson and Bruce Pearl are back at Washington State, Houston and Auburn, respectively.
I knew I was getting old when Jason Gardner, the point guard from Arizona (who I swear was in their lineup just a week ago), is now the head coach at IUPUI.
Longtime Duke assistant Steve Wojciechowski finally gets his own program and it is a good one at Marquette.
UNC-Wilmington’s Buzz Petersen wanted a change and got it, as did another now-former Tennessee coach in Cuonzo Martin. With Martin taking the Vols to the Sweet 16, then taking himself to Berkeley for the Cal job, there’s no doubt that the coaching carousel still has many stops to make.
One guy I have my eye on is Danny Manning. He did a nice job getting Tulsa to the NCAA tournament, which got him the Wake Forest job. Wake hasn’t been to the Big Dance since 2010 and has one NCAA tourney win in the past 10 years. Now the Deacons have to battle Pitt, Notre Dame, Louisville and Syracuse in addition to their old friends down on Tobacco Road. Danny is known for that miracle way back in 1988. He’ll need to come up with another one to compete in the loaded ACC.
Next stop: Indianapolis
We will see you back here in the fall, when the road to Indianapolis begins. Look for new Final Four sites for 2017-2020 to be announced in November, and it is time for one to head west to Phoenix. The West hasn’t hosted the Final Four since 1995 in the Kingdome. It is time and Phoenix is proven and ready.
– Bill Frieder
Former Michigan and Arizona State head coach Bill Frieder is an analyst for WestwoodOne’s coverage of NCAA Basketball. In his weekly blog Boxed Out, Bill scours the box scores to bring you interesting stories from the world of college basketball.
