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

And here we are, with the conclusion of our five part series tracking the 2011 Coaching Carousel.

Part V may actually have the two biggest names to change jobs during the offseason in Bruce Pearl and Gary Williams. What's crazier, however, is just how long the coaching carousel truly lasts. A lot of these assistant coaching positions are still not filled. And with the July recruiting period kicking off today, that could cause problems for some of these schools.

Be sure to reach Part I, Part II, Part III, and Part IV as well.


March 19th: After 25 years at the helm of Alabama A&M, Vann Pettaway's tenure had finally run its course. The Bulldogs had posted losing records the past five seasons, missed the SWAC Tournament once and lost in the first round the other four years. Three of those first rounds losses came to rival Alabama State.

• May 26th: After 68 days without a head coach, Alabama A&M promoted Willie Hayes, who was an assistant with the program for 16 years, to head coach.
  

March 22nd: Tennessee head coach Bruce Pearl, who had had his head on the chopping block for an entire season, finally had the guillotine drop. Ironically enough, the final straw didn't have to do with the investigation surrounding Pearl's lies to the NCAA regarding the barbecue with Aaron Craft, but a violation that he committed after he had been given a penalty by Tennessee.

• March 27th: Tennessee AD Mike Hamilton made a surprising hire, plucking Cuonzo Martin from Missouri State. Martin had been the head coach with the Bears for three seasons, where he took them from 3-15 in the MVC to the top of the conference this past season.


• April 1st: To replace Martin, Missouri State once again tapped into the Purdue pipeline, hiring Boilermaker assistant Paul Lusk. Lusk accepted the job just two days after Matt Painter turned down the head coaching job at Missouri.
  
  
  • April 5th: Paul Lusk's first hire with the Bears was Patrick Baldwin, who had previously spent the past seven seasons on the staff of Jim Whitesell at Loyola-Chicago. Whitesell lost his job back in March.
  
  
  • April 6th: Lusk's second hire was Kyle Smithpeters, who spent the past four seasons at a JuCo in Illinois. Lusk kept Steve Woodberry on the staff as well.
    


• April 18th: Five days after Purdue assistant coach Mike Jackson resigned, stemming from a drinking and driving incident in February, Matt Painter hired Micah Shrewsberry away from Butler.


• May 3rd: To replace Lusk, Matt Painter completed his staff by hiring Duquesne assistant coach Greg Gary. Gary was once a head coach at Centenary.


• May 6th: To replace Shrewsberry, Brad Stevens hired Michael Lewis away from Loyola-Chicago, whose new head coach Porter Moser had hired to recruit Indiana.

March 23rd: Two coaches lost their jobs on the 23rd. The first was Mike Sutton, who spent nine years as the head coach at Tennessee Tech. Sutton wasn't fired. He retired, in part, due to his continuing battle with Guillain-Barre Syndrome. The other, Kerry Rupp, was fired after a last place finish in his fourth season at Louisiana Tech.

• March 23rd: Tennessee Tech didn't have to go to far to replace Sutton. Steve Payne, who had spent the past nine seasons as the associate head coach, was promoted to head coach.
  
  
  • June 7th: Payne completed his staff at Tennessee Tech -- and replaced the assistant position he left vacated with the promotion -- by hiring David Boyden, who was previously on the Western Kentucky staff.


• March 30th: Rupp was replaced with Michael White. White, who was once a point guard at Ole Miss, had spent the past five seasons as Andy Kennedy's top assistant with the Rebels.
  
  
  • April 13th: White announced his staff, but only made one new hire. While Dusty May and Derrick Jones were kept on as assistant coaches, Isaac Brown was hired as an assistant coach from Arkansas State, where he was the associate head coach.
  
  
• April 11th: Andy Kennedy had to rebuild his staff this off-season. The first changes came on the 11th. Al Pinkins was hired away from Middle Tennessee State while Bill Armstrong was promoted to assistant coach from director of basketball operations.


• April 15th: Pinkins was replaced on Middle Tennessee State's staff by Monte Towe. He was previously the associate head coach at NC State.


• May 13th: Kennedy completed his staff by hiring former Florida International head coach Sergio Rouco.

March 30th: After eight seasons at the helm of UC-Davis -- in which he led the Aggies from D-II to D-I -- Gary Stewart stepped down to pursue administrative duties in the school's athletic department. For the second time in three years, UC-Davis didn't qualify for the Big West tournament.

• May 5th: To replace Stewart, UC-Davis hired Jim Les, who lost his job as the head coach at Bradley in March. Part of the reason that Les was hired is that his son, Tyler, is a freshman at the school.
  

April 2nd: Southern announced that they were firing their head coach Rob Spivery. The decision was made on March 18th. After leading the Jaguars to the NCAA Tournament in 2006 in his first season, Spivery's teams never found the same success. He went 4-26 this past season.

• April 22nd: Southern announced the hiring of Roman Banks, their new head coach. Banks had spent the previous eight years at Southeastern Louisiana, the last five of which were as the associate head coach.
  
  
  • May 27th: Banks hired Ryan Price, who was formerly an assistant at Arkansas-Fort Smith.
  
  
  • June 5th: Banks completed his staff by hiring Morris Scott from Grambling State and Sheldon Jones, who spent the past five seasons with the Jaguars.
    

April 6th: Charles Ramsey got the axe from Eastern Michigan after six seasons at the helm. His record was 68-118 in those six seasons, with his best year coming in 2009-2010. EMU was 9-22 last season, 5-11 in the MAC.

• April 21st: Rob Murphy, who was an assistant with Syracuse, replaced Ramsey as the head coach at EMU. Murphy spent six years as a coach in the Detroit Public School League.


• May 5th: Mike Brown was the first hire by Murphy as an assistant on the Eastern Michigan staff. He spent the past two years as an assistant on South Alabama.


• June 1st: Kevin Mondro was Murphy's second hire. Mondro lost his job at Loyola-Chicago when Jim Whitesell was fired.


• June 13th: Dominique Taylor replaced Brown on the staff at South Alabama. He came from a JuCo.


• June 13th: The strangest hire of the offseason was Benny White, who left Dave Bing's mayoral staff in Detroit to fill out Murphy's staff.
  

April 25th: In a bit of a surprising move, new George Washington AD Patrick Nero fired Karl Hobbs. Hobbs had been at the helm of the Colonials for the past ten seasons. But after three consecutive NCAA Tournaments, GW has finished above .500 just twice in the past four seasons.

• May 9th: GW announced the hiring of Vermont head coach Mike Lonergan. Lonergan has deep DC ties, having spent his entire life in the area with the exception of his six years with the Catamounts.
  
  
  • May 26th: Lonergan made his first hire at GW, bringing Hajj Turner with him from UVM to fill the role of associate head coach.
  
  
  • June 2nd: Lonergan completed his staff. He hired Pete Strickland, who lost his job after Sidney Lowe lost his job at NC State, and Kevin Sutton, who spent eight seasons as the head coach at Montaverde Academy in Florida.
    


• May 20th: To replace Lonergan, Vermont promoted John Becker. Becker had spent five years in the UVM program, the past three as an assistant coach.
  
  
  • May 20th: Becker held onto Matt O'Brien, but has yet to fill the rest of his staff.
  
  
  • June 16th: Vermont hired former Maine assistant coach Chris Markwood.

May 5th: In a move that shocked just about everyone, Gary Williams announced his retirement from the University of Maryland. There were a number of factors that went into Williams' decision -- his age, his recent marriage, Jordan Williams going pro -- but more than anything, he just appeared to be done coaching.

• May 7th: Maryland showed interest in Sean Miller, but the Arizona head coach was able to work his way into a contract extension with the Wildcats.
  


• May 9th: It was a whirlwind couple of days for Maryland, but after swinging on missing on a couple of candidates, the Terps made a very good hire in Texas A&M head coach Mark Turgeon. Turgeon had built the Aggies into a perennial contender in the Big 12.
  
  
  • May 16th: Mark Turgeon hit a homerun with his first two assistant hirings. By pulling in Dalonte Hill and Bino Ransom, he locked up the DC (Hill) to Baltimore (Ranosm) recruiting corridor.
  
  
  • May 18th: Turgeon completed his staff by hiring Scott Spinelli, his longtime assistant at Texas A&M.
  
  
  • June 10th: To replace Hill, Kansas State head coach Frank Martin shuffled his coaching staff. Specifically, Lamont Evans was promoted to a full-time assistant.


• May 13th: With the Texas A&M job open, the Aggies looked into hiring Gregg Marshall from Wichita State. Marshall balked, and got an extension out of the Shockers.


• May 15th: A&M made a very good hire by snagging Billy Kennedy from Murray State. The Racers have a pretty solid reputation for churning out high-majors coaches.
  
  
  • May 20th: Kennedy's first hire at A&M was Glynn Cyprien. Cyprien had spent the past two seasons as Josh Pastner's lead assistant at Memphis.
  
  
  • June 7th: Kennedy's second hire was former Kansas assistant coach Kyle Keller. Keller had been with the Jayhawks for the past three years.


• May 16th: Former Maryland signee Sterling Gibbs, who left the school after Williams retired, committed to Texas.


• May 19th: Ransom and Hill made their first impact on the recruiting trail by convincing Baltimore native Nick Faust to remain committed to the Terps.


• May 23rd: To replace Kennedy, Murray State promoted assistant coach Steve Prohm.
  
  
  • May 25th: Prohm's first hire at A&M was William Small, who spent last season in the same position at UTEP. He got the job with the Miners because of his associated with Rashanti Harris, a four-star recruit that was never able to get eligible at UTEP.
  
  
  • June 3rd: To replace Small, UTEP head coach hired alum and former NBA player Greg Foster.
  
  
  • June 6th: Prohm's second hire was Matt McMahon, a longtime assistant for Buzz Peterson that spent the 2010 season at UNC-Wilmington.
  
  
  • June 14th: Prohm completed his staff by hiring James Kane from Alabama, where he had spent the past two years as a video coordinator.


• June 4th: Martin Breunig, who was the third Maryland recruit to consider leaving the school in the wake of Williams retirement, finally settled on Washington.

May 20th: Seth Greenberg's brother Brad Greenberg retired from his gig as the head coach at Radford a year after a scandal came to light involving improper benefits given to an ineligible player.

• June 15th: Radford replaced Greenberg with VCU assistant coach Mike Jones.