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Post by Jazzfan on Sept 29, 2009 18:49:44 GMT -5
September 29, 2009 Calhoun, UConn in talks for new deal By Andy Katz Connecticut is negotiating a long-term deal with Hall of Fame coach Jim Calhoun that could keep him at the school into his 70s, multiple sources confirmed to ESPN.com. The 67-year-old Calhoun is in the final year of his current six-year contract, which pays $1.6 million a year and expires on June 30, 2010. UConn athletic director Jeff Hathaway and Calhoun's agent, Jeff Schwartz, have had phone conversations throughout the summer and into the fall trying to finalize a deal, sources said. Hathaway confirmed to ESPN.com Tuesday through UConn spokesman Kyle Muncy that the two sides have been talking, but wouldn't divulge the terms under discussion, including length and money. Sources have told ESPN.com that the long-term deal would be a minimum of four years but could be as long as six. Calhoun is a two-time cancer survivor and is coming off a summer where he had to rehab eight broken ribs from a fall during his charity bike ride last June. Calhoun, who was inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in 2005, has coached Connecticut to two national championships (1999 and 2004) and three Final Fours, the third being last April when the Huskies lost to Michigan State in the national semifinals in Detroit. Calhoun, who is entering his 24th season in Storrs, has won 805 games in Division I, including 557 games at UConn. The Huskies are currently under an NCAA investigation because of possible ties to former agent and student manager Josh Nochimson and his involvement with former UConn student-athlete Nate Miles, who never played for the Huskies and was dismissed from school in October of 2008. The NCAA has yet to issue the university a notice of allegations. It remains unclear if or when the NCAA's enforcement staff will have enough evidence to deliver a notice of allegations. The Huskies lost senior starters A.J. Price and Jeff Adrien as well as junior center and co-Big East Player of the Year Hasheem Thabeet to the NBA draft. But they return a potential all-Big East backcourt in sophomore Kemba Walker and senior Jerome Dyson, who missed the final 12 games last season due to a knee injury. The Huskies also return senior forward Stanley Robinson and brought in a heralded class of newcomers led by forwards Ater Majok (eligible in mid-December), freshman Alex Oriakhi and Jamal Coombs-McDaniel. The Huskies have already picked up a key commitment for 2010 from 6-foot-4 guard Jeremy Lamb of Norcross, Ga. sports.espn.go.com/ncb/news/story?id=4516617
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Post by Jazzfan on Oct 1, 2009 16:41:52 GMT -5
October 1, 2009 Bowling Green, Orr agree to two-year extension BOWLING GREEN, Ohio (AP) -- Louis Orr has signed a two-year contract extension with Bowling Green to remain its men's basketball coach. The deal announced Thursday is through the 2013-14 season. Orr is entering his third year at Bowling Green. He led the Falcons to the Mid-American Conference regular season championship last year and the school's first appearance in the NIT since 2002, and was honored as the league's coach of the year. Orr spent five seasons coaching at Seton Hall before coming to Bowling Green. sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2009/basketball/ncaa/10/01/bowling.greene.ap/index.html
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Post by Jazzfan on Oct 1, 2009 16:51:41 GMT -5
October 1, 2009 Penn State, DeChellis agree to three-year extension STATE COLLEGE, Pa. (AP) -- Penn State gave basketball coach Ed DeChellis a three-year contract extension, rewarding him after the Nittany Lions won the NIT title last season. DeChellis is entering his seventh season in Happy Valley. The new deal announced Thursday keeps DeChellis under contract at his alma mater through the 2013-14 season. DeChellis led the Nittany Lions to a school-record 27 wins last season, ending with the program's first national postseason tournament title. Penn State also set a school record with 17 home wins. University policy is not to disclose terms of agreements. Records released by the school this spring showed DeChellis made more than $642,000 in base salary plus bonuses last year. sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2009/basketball/ncaa/10/01/dechellis.ap/index.html
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Post by Jazzfan on Oct 2, 2009 19:38:59 GMT -5
Calling their bluff: October extensions ploys for blue chipsOct. 2, 2009 By Gary Parrish What's the best sign that it's recruiting season? Contract extensions, baby! Penn State and Bowling Green each announced extensions Thursday, and earlier this week UConn leaked a story that Jim Calhoun is in discussions to remain with the Huskies forever and always (or something like that). The motives are as obvious as they are hilarious. I mean, seriously, can you think of one legitimate reason for a school to be hammering out an extension for a basketball coach in October? No coach is on the verge of accepting another job. No coach has one foot out the door. Practice starts in two weeks. So unless a coach is involved in a scandal, he's going to be coaching at the school where he currently resides. Thus, extensions are completely unnecessary, except for how they can help send a message to prospects (real or otherwise) that a particular school is committed to a particular coach (and vice versa) as November's National Signing Day draws near. That's why they're announced or leaked now, and the UConn story was the best. It made headlines just days after a pair of top 10 national recruits -- Tobias Harris and Josh Selby -- eliminated the Huskies from their lists of possible destinations. Harris and Selby haven't spoken specifically about why they eliminated UConn. But it's common knowledge that some schools recruiting against the Huskies have stressed to prospects that Calhoun is a 67-year-old man who has battled cancer twice, and that he's coming off a season marred by the start of an ongoing NCAA investigation. Translation: "You can sign with UConn if you want, kid. But you don't really think you're going to be playing for Jim Calhoun once you get there, do you? He's on his way out." Next thing you know, we have breaking news: Calhoun, UConn in talks for new deal Of course they are. Which is not to suggest Calhoun and UConn aren't really in talks for a new deal; I'm certain the story is true, and that a deal will get done. It's just that the timing -- only days after Harris and Selby eliminated UConn from contention/only a month or so before National Signing Day -- is awful convenient, and beyond that there's this: Contract extensions in college basketball rarely mean a damn thing. That's the part most fail to realize. The extensions aren't typically worth the news releases on which they're announced. For instance, take a look at Penn State's release from Thursday: Penn State has extended the contract of Nittany Lion Basketball coach Ed DeChellis, adding three years to the extension he received in 2006. Tim Curley, Director of Athletics, announced that he and DeChellis have agreed on a contract replacing his current pact that will keep him at the helm of the Nittany Lion program through the 2013-14 season." Sounds great, doesn't it? The only problem is that I can assure you there's nothing in DeChellis' contract that will absolutely "keep him at the helm of the Nittany Lion program through the 2013-14 season." Sure, DeChellis might remain at Penn State that long; he certainly made progress last season. But this extension won't prevent him from leaving before 2014 if he wants to leave before 2014, and it won't keep Penn State from removing him before 2014 if it wants to remove him before 2014. That's not how contracts work. Furthermore, the buyout often remains the same when coaches are extended, in which case the extra years mean nothing. That's why the details of the contract are crucial. But most recruits don't know the details, and many wouldn't even think to ask about them. All they see is the headline on their favorite website or the blurb on the bottom of their television screen, and they assume that something significant has happened between the coach and school they're considering. More likely, almost nothing has changed. The coach will still stay until he wants to leave or is told to leave. And some extension announced for PR purposes won't matter at all. www.cbssports.com/collegebasketball/story/12299756
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Post by Jazzfan on Oct 2, 2009 19:51:13 GMT -5
October 2, 2009 Spiker replaces fired CrewsBy Andy Katz Army will hire Cornell assistant coach Zach Spiker to replace fired Jim Crews, a source close to the situation told ESPN.com. The source said the 33-year-old Spiker and Army athletic director Kevin Anderson agreed on the terms of a deal late Thursday as Spiker was finishing up his on-campus interview. Anderson fired Crews last month after what Anderson termed an "overreaching incident." Spiker has been instrumental during his five years under Steve Donahue in the revival of Cornell basketball. The Big Red have gone 50-20 recently in the Ivy, won the last two league championships, been to the NCAA tournament two years in a row and are the favorite yet again. Spiker wasn't on Anderson's original interview list last week in Chicago but Donahue called Anderson and let him know that Spiker was in Chicago recruiting, according to a source. Anderson had said he was looking for a fresh face, someone who could motivate young cadets the way the late Maggie Dixon did with the women's team. Dixon was a DePaul assistant when she was hired and led the Black Knights to an improbable Patriot League title and NCAA tournament berth in her one season in 2005-06. Dixon died of a heart condition on April 6, 2006. Like Dixon, Spiker never served in the military or coached a military academy. Spiker is expected to retain the three current assistants on the staff. Anderson said last week Army would honor the contracts. Spiker is at West Point this weekend and an announcement could be forthcoming at the Army football game once the contract is signed. sports.espn.go.com/ncb/news/story?id=4527261
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Post by bballraider on Oct 8, 2009 0:02:26 GMT -5
Army basketball: Spiker plots turnaround New coach already talking March By Justin RodriguezTimes Herald-Record October 07, 2009 West Point — Army athletic director Kevin Anderson worked the phone like a telemarketer during his search for a new men's basketball coach. And one of the people Anderson reached out to was Oregon State coach Craig Robinson, also known as President Barack Obama's brother-in-law. Like so many other coaches, Robinson mentioned a Division I assistant that would make a fine candidate — Cornell assistant Zach Spiker. As the head coach at Brown, Robinson regularly found recruits he thought nobody else knew about, at least until he arrived to the high school gym and had to share the bleachers with Spiker. Army hopes Spiker's drive translates into something people at West Point have been pining for the last quarter century — a winning season. The Black Knights officially introduced Spiker, 33, on Tuesday, and he took some time to answer some of our questions. You had six hours to prepare for your Army interview: How did you pull it off? "It was a whirlwind, that's the key phrase that's being used. We just used that word now. It seems any phone call or text I get starts with the word whirlwind. Six hours might be a little high, but, in some ways, I might have preferred it that way. I didn't have to come up with any gimmicks, I just showed up from the recruiting trail, and Kevin Anderson and I had a conversation. I had no idea where it would go from there." Army hasn't had a winning season since 1984-85 — how does Zach Spiker turn that around? "Our goal is to give maximum effort in practice every day and, hopefully, we can turn it around. Before we can worry about long-term records and droughts, we're gonna worry about things these guys can control." You have some key returnees. How about a winning season this year? "We'd like to do that, but the immediate goal we talked about for this group is that we want to be playing our best basketball in March, so we have a chance to advance. Hey, maybe we learn as we go. But I'd like to think, in the first round of the Patriot League tournament, we are playing our best basketball. We can put together a great 72 hours and make this a special season." Some say Army has become a coaching graveyard. Your take? "My take is that this is an opportunity for myself and my family to be a part of something very, very special. I think people will see that when we have some success. They will look back and say this was a real special time, instead of whatever we are calling that era now." If you could face any college coach in a big game?
"The coaches that I admire, I don't want to face in a game, because they are really good. I don't even know, I'm sorry. A coach I'd like to learn from, that I haven't worked for, is Brad Brownell of Wright State."Best advice you have ever received during your career? "It was over the phone, just a couple of days ago. It was to continue to work like you are an assistant coach. That was from Izzy Metz, an assistant at Hobart. (Cornell coach) Steve Donohue prides himself on that. He says, 'Hey, we are all in this together. Let's recruit some players.' That's a pretty good motto." When does Army win the Patriot League title and go to the NCAA tournament? "No way I would guarantee anything. But if we are playing our best basketball in March, we can win it. I know they have been to the semifinals and we want to continue to get better and improve." www.recordonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20091007/SPORTS36/910070349/-1/SPORTS
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Post by Jazzfan on Oct 14, 2009 19:02:37 GMT -5
Wednesday October 14, 2009 Wake Forest gives coach Gaudio two-year extension WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. (AP) -- Wake Forest has given coach Dino Gaudio a contract extension through the 2013-14 season. School officials said Wednesday in conjunction with the team's preseason media day that Gaudio's deal was extended two more seasons. Details of the contract were not available because the private school generally does not discuss them. Gaudio has gone 41-20 with one week at No. 1 nationally and one berth in the NCAA tournament. The longtime assistant to Skip Prosser was hired in August 2007, two weeks after his mentor died of an apparent heart attack. sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2009/basketball/ncaa/10/14/gaudio.ap/index.html
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Post by Nutt House on Nov 15, 2009 12:55:23 GMT -5
BYU coach Rose signs new five-year contractNov. 13, 2009 PROVO, Utah -- BYU coach Dave Rose has signed a new five-year contract. Athletic director Tom Holmoe says the deal keeps Rose with the Cougars until the 2013-14 season. It replaces the deal Rose signed in 2007. Terms were not disclosed. Rose has led the Cougars to at least 20 wins in each of his four seasons since taking over as coach. The Cougars have won three straight Mountain West Conference regular-season titles and made it to the past three NCAA tournaments. www.cbssports.com/collegebasketball/story/12513680/byu-coach-rose-signs-new-five-year-contract
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