Florida and Louisville play assistant merry-go-round

The coaching carousel was mellower than usual this spring.

Not only did the big names like Shaka Smart, Chris Mooney, and Brad Stevens avoid jumping to bigger jobs, but schools like Missouri, NC State, and now Miami have had, or are having, trouble filling their head coaching position. As of today, there are still 11 available head coaching positions, but after Miami, the best available job is ... IUPUI? Eastern Michigan? Princeton?

That said, the assistant coaching carousel, if there is such a thing, is just starting to heat up.

Yesterday, Billy Donovan hired John Pelphrey, the former Arkansas head coach and longtime Gator assistant, and Norm Roberts, who spent the year as an analyst after losing his job as the head coach at St. John's. He had too. He lost all three of his assistants this offseason. Larry Shyatt took the head coaching gig at Wyoming, while Richard Pitino (Louisville) and Rob Lanier (Texas) left for other assistant positions.

Donovan has a great track record with assistants -- Anthony Grant, Shaka Smart, and Donnie Jones immediately come to mind, along with Pelphrey -- and it will be interesting to see who the third member of his staff will be.

That isn't the most intriguing assistant coach movement, however.

It may be more interesting to see what happens at Louisville.

The Cardinals lost assistant Steve Masiello -- who was instrumental in landing guys like Edgar Sosa, Samardo Samuels, Earl Clark and Francisco Garcia and this year Wayne Blackshear -- to Manhattan where he will be replacing Barry Rohrssen as the Jaspers head coach. What's more, there are now reports that Tim Fuller is leaving Louisville to take an assistant coaching position at Missouri -- he's very close with Frank Haith. Fuller played an integral role in the Cardinals landing a commitment from Rodney Purvis, a top five player in the class of 2012.

Pitino has reportedly already hired his son (as a "coach-in-waiting"?), so it will be interesting to see if Louisville can hold on to the commitment from Purvis.