Coaching Carousal Part 2010-05: Musical Chairs, Chicago Style

Illinois-Chicago Finds a Coach
The University of Illinois-Chicago (UIC) is the third Division 1 Chicago university to hire a head coach this off season. The Flames introduced their choice, Wisconsin Assistant Howard Moore, earlier today (August 23). Moore, an assistant on Bo Ryan's staff at Wisconsin for the past five years grew up on Chicago's west side and attended Chicago public schools before continuing his education at Wisconsin. UIC, by hiring Moore, filled the last Division 1 head coaching vacancy this off season. The book however, may have another line or two to write before the page is turned; the Coaching Carousal often pauses once or twice during the off season, and in fact there was an 11 day pause running (roughly) from July 12, when Chicago State filled their head coaching job, to July 23, when UIC's long-time Head Coach Jimmy Collins announced his retirement (effective August 30). It took UIC about 28 days to find their Head Coach, a far cry from Chicago State's 84 day coaching search. Not the longest of the current cycle (discounting the Jared Grasso's interim appointment), that distinction belongs to Fordham of the A-10, but long enough for a few bloggers around Chicago to identify who would fill the job as one of the mysteries of the Chicago off season. Tracy Dildy's appointment seemed to raise almost as many questions as it settled, as Dildy, the Associate Head Coach at the University of Illinois-Chicago and a well-traveled 20 coaching veteran and UIC alum, was the presumed successor to Illinois-Chicago's well-liked Jimmy Collins. Dildy suggested that lack of a succession reaffirmation from the UIC administration was a factor in his taking the Chicago State job.

By the Numbers...
The 2010 cycle has to date produced 53 vacancies. By vacancy I mean that when the position becomes available -- for whatever reason -- it is vacant. Should an interim coach be appointed (universally true for in-season vacancies, as ADs seem unwilling, for the obvious reasons, to conduct a full-on job search, but occasionally true when the position is vacated in the off season), whether the interim coach is appointed head coach, or passed over in favor of another candidate, the vacancy counts as one. The job search period "begins" when the vacancy is announced and "ends" when a permanent appointment is announced. Clearly this adds several days (timing) to a number of searches, but it provides consistent parameters for the search. The average job search (including the in-season vacancies) was 23.6 days with a standard deviation of nearly a month (28.1 days). That is a large variation, derived largely (but not exclusively) from the in-season vacancies. Exclude the searches for in-season vacancies and the average search time drops to 15.9 days -- just over two weeks. The standard deviation drops dramatically down to a below-the-average 14.9 days, suggesting there was, for most searches, less variation in the length of the search than originally thought. Many of those lengthier searches then, can be attributed to reluctance to fix on a replacement during the season. The Chicago State coaching search, can now be seen as an outlier. Those punctuated questions raised by local media then, were not the product of an overanxious media. The explanation for the overlong search, given the timing between Dildy's acceptance of the Chicago State job and Jimmy Collins' retirement announcement from UIC, becomes clear.

And Then There Is...
Dan Hanner over at Yet Another Basketball Blog posted (yet another?...sorry Dan I could not force my fingers to stop) coaching-related study he conducted this summer. Using data from Ken Pomeroy's web site, Dan compiled and ranked all head coaches (seven years minimum Division 1) for luck and consistency. The coaches (134 of them) are presented in "luckiest to unluckiest" order. Of the eight current Big East coaches (though for Oliver Purnell, who has not actually coached a game with DePaul yet, should not be included) whose careers span the last seven seasons, Syracuse's Jim Boeheim is the "luckiest", while South Florida's Stan Heath is the "unluckiest". Villanova's Jay Wright, whose luck stat, -0.039, suggests he is modestly unlucky, is ranked #64 and second among the Big East (and first among the Big 5) coaches. Coach Wright's consistency stat is 19.5 (the lower, the "more consistent"), ranking him #41 overall among the 134 coaches. Pomeroy provides the numbers, though he does not use them in his rating system. In a very welcomed (to this blogger) development, Dan has been posting pretty consistently this summer. His entire series about Division 1 coaching is worth a long look.

Coaching Carousal Part 2010-04: Last Call? Not.

Chicago State Finds a Head Coach...and UIC Loses One
The irony is that one guy, former University of Illinois-Chicago Associate Head Coach Tracy Dildy, triggered the chain reaction. The last D1 coaching vacancy (as of July 11) was filled July 12 when Chicago State introduced Tracy Dildy as the Flames' 12^th head coach in their 35 year history as a D1 program. Though the search, which lasted 84 days and stretched across three monthes, was not the longest of the 2010 season, Chicago sports fans and those closer to the programs involved hinted that the process was taking longer than appeared necessary. "Something was up" became the mantra among public school insiders and bloggers. DePaul's interim head coach Tracy Webster, cut lose after Oliver Purnell was hired to head the Blue Demon program, had been mentioned early and often as a strong candidate for the Chicago State job. By the early June the preliminary interviews, a round that included Webster and Dildy among others, concluded with no announcement; the process lost momentum as a Cone of Silence drifted, almost unnoticed, over prospective employer (Chicago State) and prospective employees (the candidates).

Tracy Dildy, a career assistant coach and native Chicagoan, played ball for UIC in the late 1980s. When his eligibility ran out he put down the basketball and picked up the clipboard, serving as the Student Manager in his last year of college. Earning his degree in Education from UIC in 1991, he was promoted to an Assistant Coach by UIC Head Coach Bob Hallberg. Moving on to Ball State in 1994, then back to Chicago in 1997, where he helped assemble a series of legendary recruiting classes for DePaul, Dildy established his reputation as a recruiter. After five years at DePaul he left to toil in the vineyards of the SEC, first at Auburn then at Ole Miss. A mid-decade stop in UAB, where he helped head coach Mike Davis assemble another notable class, put him on the UIC's coach Jimmy Collins' radar. Collins brought him back to Chicago (and his alma mater) with the intent, as Dildy himself told ESPN-Chicago blogger Scott Powers, "...to be the next coach (at UIC)...that was to me by a couple people that I would be that guy...". Sometime between July, 2007 and July, 2010 the Plan changed; when Chicago State offered, Dildy eventually accepted. And eight days after the Chicago State press conference, Jimmy Collins decided to retire after all. John Templon over at Chicago College has the background on four candidates with two additional names, while ESPN Chicago's Steve Powers mentions three-four names as well. Fired Oregon Coach Ernie Kent is on both blogger's list.

By the Numbers...
Indiana State's Kevin McKenna created the 52^nd vacancy in the 2010 (extended) season when he resigned on June 14 to join Dana Altman's staff in Oregon. Sycamore AD Ron Prettyman wasted no time as he promoted assistant coach Greg Lansing to the first chair the next day. Lansing, an assistant coach who played his college ball at the University of South Dakota, did two stints on the Indiana State staff (a seven year turn as an assistant at Iowa intervening) before rising to the first chair. Given his history with the Terre Haute, Indiana school and his experience as an assistant coach, Lansing was a safe choice consistent with the timing and circumstances of McKenna's resignation. Jimmy Collins' July 23^rd announcement might create the 53^rdvacancy...if no vacancy is created in the interim. If the past three off seasons are an accurate guide, expect one beyond UIC, most likely arising from exigent circumstances. In the past three years two coaching changes came from deaths, either a player or a coach, one from possible player abuse and another from an arrest (criminal complaint) in the period from late July to the end of September. There were two other vacancies created when coaches left very late (July or later) in the cycle to take other positions.