I'd be happy to see Porter fill the Mullins' vacancy by simply moving all the current staff up one seat; i.e., make Drew the top assistant, Matt second chair, promote Jevon to assistant coach from Director of B-ball Operations and London to DOBO from Video Coordinator, but if Porter chooses to look for outside candidates where should he look?

This is the place to suggest names and report rumors. I thought Keke White was an excellent early nomination by the way.

In the "Other" category I'm thinking of such things as AAU connections, ability to deliver a specific high value recruit, ability to teach positional (guard) skills, ability to teach one or more of the martial arts (for JCT), former Ramblers, etc.

And fyi, my prior poll on whether I should do this poll was my (and apparently only my) idea of a joke.

Let me throw out some names off the top of my head while I can't sleep:

Bobby Frasor, Marquise Kennedy's coach at Brother Rice. Played at North Carolina. Has some college coacing experience and Illinois Wolves connections.

Jim Maley, played at Northwestern, current coach at Conant. Former St. Laurence and Kenwood coach.

Christian Thomas, Rambler great and Porter favorite. Moved back to Chicago recently.

Doug Wojcik, Paxson's dad, currently at Michigan. Former head coach at Charleston.

Keke White, already mentioned by others.

Brandon Dunson, Nevada assistant, just followed Porter on Twitter.

Ben Richardson. Too soon but will happen
eventually.

JR Blount, talented Rambler guard who went on to coach at Drake under Medved and is now at Colorado State.

Barry Hinson, available.

Oddly enough, Whitesell might be a name to consider. He checks SOME boxes at least:

Head coaching experience (albeit for us)

Ties to the area (Coached at Lewis, and has spent a lot of time in the Midwest. Recruiting experience in the area. I think his wife is from here too.

Valley experience - at saint Louis for two years.

Experience with Majaris for a year - Porters coaching idol.

Currently helped build buffalo into a MAC Contender.

The question is how butt-hurt both sides are from his time at LU. Nobody is really left here from the previous regime though.

I don’t know that he would be my first choice but he brings a little to the table.

Porter seems well tied into the coaching fraternity. I think coaches will be filling his phone with texts and resumes, but I think he will promote from within and add an up and coming director of basketball operations or young assistant from a big program as an assistant.

I voted no in the poll on whether to have this poll, partly out of spite, but also because I'm sure Porter will make a good decision on this hire and it will probably be someone most of us have never heard of.

But if there's a martial arts instructor out there I'm all for it.

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MBB Scholarship Chart

Most of my votes are out of spite too. I don't ever vote on the issues, that's for sure.

Here's an interesting website I just came across which purports to rank college coaches in a variety of categories:

https://www.coachstat.net/about-us

Haven't delved into it yet but looks promising.

I think we should fill it with someone who has college coaching experience, assistant or head. If we hire someone like Ben Richardson, who I think will continue to play in Europe, we have a very inexperienced coaching staff. Coach Mamon only has 2 years at the college level. London has 3, but 2 of them were as a grad assistant, so there are limited responsibilities there. I think for recruiting purposes we need someone who has a few connections and is trusted by high school and AAU coaches.

I wonder if a guy like Kareem Richardson would be good. Played at Evansville. Has assistant coaching experience at all different levels of college basketball including a combined 7 years in the Valley, and he just got fired from the UMKC head coach position. He also had 3 guys on UMKC's roster that were from Chicago area on a few from the Kansas City area, both of which are big to us. And for a guy who's been coaching for 20+ years, he's still only 44.

So when I break this down....I want someone who can fill up the most factors
1.recruiting....(got to have players). Seems like Coach Mullins specialized in Chicago, Illinois ??? or is there another connection we want like JUCO
2. Teaching. ( we get developmental kids who need coaching and development) do not know who teaches what and if we need a specific area?
3. Knows the system or is bringing in knowledge of a new system. ( seems like PMs defense takes a while to learn)
4. someone who will be here for awhile, at least four years....no way to know..but is hungry to move on.

on a personal level...love to have guys connected to the program.

On the Score today Coach mentioned with what seemed like the utmost sincerity that he is extremely proud of his assistants that have moved on and gets that it is part of what happens.

Of your choices, I think I would most favor former coach on the rebound. I'm thinking Porter Moser at STL, Jim Whitesell at St. John's/Buffalo, and many more.

But there's one more choice..... how about the coaching father of a huge prospect? I don't follow recruiting well enough to know of a candidate, but if there's a qualified coach with a kid who looks like a Top 50 prospect, why not?