College Basketball Coaching Carousel: Flip Saunders Rejects Minnesota, Craig Neal to New Mexico?
By Jason McIntyre
UCLA hired Steve Alford Saturday. Who replaces Alford in New Mexico? The players want Craig Neal, who was Alford’s top assistant for the last six years. This makes sense. A Top 20 team all season that will retain everyone (unless Tony Snell goes to the NBA) doesn’t need to do something dramatic. I’m all for keeping Neal.
Minnesota, which obviously didn’t land Shaka Smart, has reportedly been rejected by NBA retread Flip Saunders. Despite end-of-days chatter from an ink stained wretch in Minnesota, this isn’t a bad thing. The guy’s never spent a day as a college coach and he’s 58. Not a big loss at all.
Nobody seems to have any clue what USC is doing. There appears to be more interest in Spring Football than who USC is going to hire to try and turn around a struggling program that hasn’t been to the Sweet 16 since 2007. Florida Gulf Coast’s Andy Enfield has surfaced as a candidate, according to the LA Daily News.