Six Degrees of a Coaching Change: Tracking the Coaching Carousel Part IV

On Tuesday, we started tracking the 2011 Coaching Carousel.

We've now reached Part IV, and by the end of the post, there will only be 12 coaching vacancies that we've yet to break down.

The most interesting aspect of Part IV are the names that you will recognize. Remember Jerry Wainwright? He landed on his feet after losing his job with DePaul (and battling prostate cancer). Heath Schroyer may have lost his job as the head coach at Wyoming, but he'll still be coaching in the Mountain West next season. Former Charlotte head coach Bobby Lutz even makes an appearance.

Its gets better. Can you guess how Jeff Capel's firing resulted in two former NBA players getting assistant coaching positions? Or where Texas hero Kenton Paulino is coaching now? Oh, and what coach went 28-74 in Alaska before getting hired in Florida?

I think I'm enjoying these posts too much. You can read Part I here, Part II here, and Part III here:


March 14th: Three coaches got the axe on the 14th. Its started with Jim Whitesell, who was fired after seven seasons at Loyola (IL). The Ramblers started out 8-2 and nearly beat Kansas State and Butler, but finished the season just 16-15 and 7-11 in the Horizon. Steve Roccaforte lost his job at Lamar after five seasons in Beaumont, TX. The Cardinals were just 7-9 in the Southland last season. And finally, there is Jeff Capel. Oklahoma gave the former Duke point guard his pink slip just two (dreadful) years after reaching the Elite 8 with Blake Griffin.

• March 28th: With Oklahoma's growing interest in Buzz Williams, Marquette locked up their head coach with a new seven year deal that has a very high buyout.


• April 1st: Lon Kruger finally gave into Oklahoma's advances, accepting a seven year, $16 million contract from the Sooners. Kruger had turned down offers from Arizona, Oregon, and USC in the past, but due to the current financial state of the Nevada school system -- meaning no raise for Kruger -- and the money that the Sooners put on the table, the former UNLV head coach had no choice but to accept the offer.
  
  
  • April 10th: Dave Rice, who played on Jerry Tarkanian's Final Four teams at UNLV, was hired to replace Kruger. Rice had spent the past six seasons on the staff of Dave Rose at BYU.
    
    
    • April 15th: Dave Rice's first hire at UNLV was grabbing Justin Hutson as his associate head coach. Hutson spent the previous five seasons in the same role at San Diego State.
    
    
    • April 26th: Sticking with the theme of MWC coaches, Rice's second hire to his staff was Heath Schroyer, who was fired as head coach at Wyoming back in February.
      
    
    
    • May 11th: Rice hired his former teammate Stacey Augmon as an assistant at UNLV to complete his staff.
    
    
    • June 28th: To replace Hutson on his staff, Steve Fisher hired former San Diego State star Tony Bland.
      
  
  
  • May 18th: Mark Pope, who spent last season as an assistant coach on the Wake Forest staff, was gets the chance to replace Rice at BYU.
  
  
  • June 23rd: Walt Corbean was promoted from director of basketball operations to assistant coach to replace Pope at Wake Forest. Jeff Nix was brought in to take Corbean's old role.


• April 5th: To replace Whitesell, the Ramblers stretched their arms down to St. Louis, where they hired Porter Moser, who had spent the past four seasons on Rick Majerus' staff. The last three he was the associate head coach.
  
  
  • April 8th: Moser's first hire with the Ramblers was Rodell Davis, who spent last season as an assistant at Providence on the staff of Keno Davis.
  
  
  • April 18th: Keeping with the Chicago theme, Moser hired Armon Gates, a Chicago native that spent the previous season with TCU.
  
  
  • June 2nd: Ben Braun replaced Gates on his staff with former SMU assistant Reggie Brown.
    


• April 6th: Pat Knight didn't even have to leave the state of Texas after getting fired by Texas Tech, as he was hired to replace Roccaforte at Lamar.
  
  
  • April 13th: Knight made his first two hires at Lamar. He pulled Kenton Paulino, a former Texas player, from UT where he spent the past three seasons as a special assistant. The second coach was Clif Carroll, who was at Collin College previously.
    
  
  
  • May 3rd: Knight completed his staff with Joseph Price, who was an assistant at Morehead State prior to coming to Lamar.
    

March 15th: Two coaches were fired on the 15th. The first was Steve Cleveland, who lost his job after six seasons at Fresno State. He went 14-17 last season. The second was much less surprising, as Sidney Lowe resigned after five entirely forgettable -- and no NCAA Tournaments -- with the NC State Wolfpack.

• March 27th: With interest rising in Chris Mooney, Richmond opened up their pocket books for the coach that has taken the Spider program to the top of the Atlantic 10. Mooney was given a 10 year deal that will keep him in Richmond until 2021.


• April 4th: Mooney wasn't the only coach in the city of Richmond to get a contract extension. After leading VCU to the Final Four, the Rams inked Shaka Smart to an eight year deal with $1.2 million annually. Its unclear how much interest Smart had in NC State, but the interest that programs like the Wolfpack had in Smart was a large factor in the extension he received.


• April 4th: With the job opening at NC State, Cincinnati decided to lock up the man that had built their program back to relevance by signing an extension with Mick Cronin.


• April 5th: NC State AD Debbie Yow finally landed a head coach as she pulled Mark Gottfried out of the ESPN studios. Gottfried's last job was with Alabama, where he was fired in 2008 after 11 seasons at the helm.
  
  
  • April 6th: Gottfried didn't waste any time building his coaching staff, hiring Orlando Early, who was an assistant with Gottfried at Alabama. He most recently was on Darrin Horn's staff at South Carolina.
  
  
  • April 8th: Gottfried's second hire with the Wolfpack is a name that many North Carolina residents will be familiar with -- he hired former Charlotte head coach Bobby Lutz, who spent last season at Iowa State.
  
  
  • April 14th: Gottfried's final hire with the Wolfpack was Rob Hoxley. Hoxley has worked with Lutz multiple times during his career, but spent last season as an assistant with Middle Tennessee State.
  
  
  • April 15th: To replace Lutz, Fred Hoiberg hired Cornell Mann, who most recently was on Brian Gregory's staff at Dayton.
  
  
  • April 26th: Gottfried lost one of the three prize freshmen that Sidney Lowe added in his final recruiting class at NC State as Ryan Harrow decided to transfer. Harrow eventually transferred to Kentucky.
  
  
  • May 16th: Gottfried may have lost Harrow, but he added an even more important piece when he landed top 25 recruit and Raliegh native Torian Graham, a member of the class of 2012. The key to Gottfried's success at NC State is going to be recruiting in his backyard. Rodney Purvis, who de-committed from Louisville, and TJ Warren are both studs in the class of 2012 and considering the Wolfpack.
  
  
  • May 26th: To replace Early on his staff at South Carolina, Darrin Horn promoted Cypheus Bunton to the role of assistant while hiring Justin Phelps as director of basketball operations.


• April 7th: Fresno State made a quality hire as their head coach by tapping into the Rick Barnes' pipeline and hiring Rodney Terry to lead their program. Terry had spent the previous nine seasons with the Longhorns.
  
  
  • April 26th: Terry made his first hire as Fresno State's head coach, landing former Miami assistant Michael Schwartz, who was out of a job when Frank Haith went to Missouri.
  
  
  • May 9th: Terry made his most interesting hire, inking former DePaul head coach Jerry Wainwright. Terry had worked as an assistant for Wainwright at UNC-Wilmington.
  
  
  • May 10th: Terry's final hire was Byron Jones, who spent last season as an assistant at Winston-Salem State.

March 16th: After 13 years at Colgate, the mediocrity that was the tenure of Emmett Davis finally ended. Davis went 7-23 in his final season, but that doesn't mean his career is over. Davis got a job in May with Tulsa.

• April 25th: To replace Davis, Colgate hired Matt Langel, a 32 year old who spent the past five seasons as an assistant on Fran Dunphy's staff at Temple. Langel was a 1,000 point scorer at Penn.


• June 7th: To replace Langel, Dunphy hired Dwayne Killings. Killings was on the Temple staff from 2006-2009 as an assistant director of basketball operations before spending last season under Pat Chambers at Boston University.


• June 8th: Langel completed his staff at Colgate. He hired Dave Klatsky from the Stevens Institute, Terrell Ivory from Davidson (where he was the director of basketball operations), and Michael McGarvey from Ursinus College.

March 18th: Florida A&M fired head coach Eugene Harris after four underwhelming seasons. Harris was 46-80 in his four seasons, with the last three years producing 20 or more losses.

• May 5th: Clemon Johnson, a former player at Florida A&M, was hired to replace Harris. It will be quite a change for Johnson, who spent the past four seasons at Alaska-Fairbanks, where he compiled a 28-74 record.