I don’t recall an athletic department explaining in some detail how it conducts a coaching search, so I was intrigued to read how Oregon hired Kelly Graves away from Gonzaga.
He was one of three candidates interviewed in Nashville before the Women’s Final Four, according to GoDucks.com, which obviously didn’t identify the other two individuals.
But the story quoted Oregon senior woman administrator Lisa Mullen, who said that after Graves’ campus visit and meeting with Ducks players she got “a zillion text messages from them. They were really excited – ‘do whatever you have to do to get him here.’ ”
Graves was formally introduced last Tuesday, and what Oregon did to get him there included a six-year contract, ranging from a guarantee of $500,000 in his first two seasons to $550,000 per annum at the end of the deal. 
That information wasn’t in the official story, of course, but still, the details that have been made public are really interesting to note.
The story explains how Peterson and AD Rob Mullens formalized their decision to replace Paul Westhead even while the Ducks were in contention for a Women’s NIT berth.
After 14 seasons at Gonzaga, and after reportedly turning down Washington’s overtures three years ago, Graves is finally in the Pac 12, and one of the best mid-major programs may be looking internally for a new coach.
In his first announced staffing move Monday, Graves has raided in-state rival Oregon State for associate head coach Mark Campbell.
Campbell was a men’s assistant at St. Mary’s when Scott Rueck brought him to Corvallis four years ago and as they revived a nearly-dead program into an NCAA tournament team this season.
Campbell is married to Ashley Smith, a former point guard at Vanderbilt and Portland-area product. Her father is Brad Smith, a well-connected high school and youth coach from Oregon City, Ore. He’s the proprietor of the End of the Trail girls camps and youth events.
Update: An announcement on the new Gonzaga coach is to be made at 5 p.m. Spokane time Monday. The Spokane Spokesman-Review is reporting that a recruit has indicated the choice is current assistant Lisa Mispley Fortier.
Christy Smith returns to Arkansas
It would be really interesting if the story behind another high-profile hire this spring, Jimmy Dykes at Arkansas (as well as Tyler Summitt at Louisiana Tech) were recounted in such a way from those in charge, but I’m not going to hold my breath.
Dykes did announce today that he’s brought on former Razorbacks guard Christy Smith to become his lead assistant, and it’s hard to argue with this hire.
Smith had been an assistant at Purdue, in her hometown of West Lafayette, Ind., which she left to play for Gary Blair in Fayetteville and eventually led Arkansas to the 1998 Women’s Final Four.
Dykes retained Amber Shirey and Tari Cummings from Tom Collen’s staff.
Minnesota goes with Stollings
When he was the AD at Virginia Commonweath, Minnesota’s Norwood Teague was involved in the Villa 7 effort to identify and encouraging promising assistant coaches for top jobs.
That program has been more active on the men’s side, with Shaka Smart arguably the best-known name associated with the success of those seminars.
Teague and his former VCU hand, Mike Ellis, who’s heading up the Gophers’ basketball efforts, went back to their Richmond and Villa 7 roots to replace the fired Pam Borton.
They chose Rams’ head coach Marlene Stollings, who had been at VCU for two seasons, after a one-year stint at Winthrop.
As Patrick Reusse writes in the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, “there seems to be a perception that Teague and Ellis didn’t put much energy into this “national search.”
Teague discounted those notions, saying three candidates were interviewed.
He and Ellis took the same approach, however, that brought Richard Pitino on to succeed Tubby Smith. Writes Reusse:
A year later, followers of the men’s program seem to be unanimous in the opinion that young Pitino is an improvement over Tubby Smith. At a minimum, Stollings figures to be the same in comparison to Borton.
Time will tell whether both Minnesota moves bear out the success of the Villa 7 approach, or if they become examples of a process — and having the right connections — taking precedence over the flexibility to make the best coaching hire.
Marquette makes a move
After 23 seasons, including the last 18 as head coach, Terri Mitchell is being replaced at Marquette, which just hired Duke assistant Steve Wojciechowski to lead the men’s program left behind by Buzz Williams, who’s now at Virginia Tech.
The Mitchell news is a bit of a surprise, and was announced after the Women’s Final Four. But there’s an interim president and AD at the Milwaukee school as it adjusts to life in the reorganized Big East, which had only DePaul and St. John’s in the NCAA tournament.
Mitchell was 235-153 with the Golden Eagles, who reached the Women’s NIT and finished 22-11. They have been to the NCAAs three times in the last 11 seasons.
Rest in peace, Joe Curl
Houston has known since December that it would need to make a coaching hire when Todd Buchanan abruptly resigned.
The school still hasn’t made a decision — officials have been busy hiring Kelvin Sampson to coach the men’s team. Former assistant Wade Scott has been the interim head coach for the women since Buchanan stepped down.
On Monday, it was announced that Joe Curl, the retired Houston women’s coach who had been awaiting a heart transplant, died at the age of 59.
It wasn’t that long ago that the Cougars were one of the best stories in the game. Curl was the USBWA national coach of the year in 2004, and Chandi Jones (currently the UH director of BB operations) was an All-American.
Another player on that team, Sancho Lyttle of the Atlanta Dream, was just named the European club player of the year and she played a starring role as Galatasaray won the EuroLeague title on Sunday.
Houston has been abysmal in the last three seasons under Buchanan, and was 6-25 in the first season of the American Athletic Conference.
Curl’s passing, and his outstanding career at Houston, ought to inspire school officials to make a good decision and get the program back on track. The word is they’re nowhere close to making a hire, which is a shame.
Houston is in the middle of a recruiting hotbed, and while UH may not be able to compete with Texas, Texas A & M and Baylor for truly elite players, there’s enough there to be competitive with every other AAC school not named UConn.
Other notable coaching carousel moves
• These moves are a bit older than the others mentioned above, but ICYMI Jeff Mittie has been hired at Kansas State. Succeeding him at TCU is Reagan Pebley, who got Fresno State into the NCAAs.
• Georgetown has hired College of Charleston coach Natasha Adair to become its next head coach. She was an assistant for the Hoyas under Terri Williams-Flournoy and also was an assistant at Wake Forest.
• Kentucky coach Matthew Mitchell shook up his staff, dismissing assistants Jeff House and Shalon Pillow. After losing Kyra Elzy (Tennessee recruiting coordinator) and Matt Insell (Ole Miss HC) in the last two seasons, Mitchell has to act fast to replenish the supply of top-flight players Elzy and Insell brought to Lexington.
• Southern Utah coach JR Payne is leaving for Santa Clara after guiding the Thunderbirds to a school record 23 wins and a share of the Big Sky regular-season title.
• North Dakota State has hired Maren Walseth, a former Penn State player and an assistant to Coquese Washington for the last seven years, to succeed Carolyn DeHoff. Walseth is a native of Bloomington, Minn. The Bison won five Division II NCAA titles and were runners-up three times under Amy Ruley, but the program hasn’t gone to the DI dance since moving up in 2004.
• Binghamton has hired Linda Cimino, who has been head coach at DII Caldwell College for the last eight seasons.
• Also moving up from DII (Indiana, Pa.) is Tony Dow, appointed at Louisiana-Monroe.
• Jobs still to be filled at the Division I level: Rhode Island, Brown, Morehead State, and, because of vacancies caused by coaches being hired elsewhere, VCU, Fresno State, Southern Utah and College of Charleston.
,
