Coaching Rumors for Thursday

Some interesting news directly and indirectly impacting our program:

UGA interviews -- Chip Towers says that the Dawgs will meet with Oliver Purnell and Frank Haith in Detroit. My sources tell me that these are just two of many interviews the Dawgs will have today and tomorrow. I've also gotten the sense that Haith is on the list, but not the Plan B or C candidate that Andy Katz and others describe. Haith's agent is a miracle worker. He's managed to get the guy listed as a Plan B candidate for every open job in the country including the CFO position at General Motors. (Update: Not unexpectedly....Katz and Towers have better sources than me. That shouldn't shock you. lol. On the brightside, Haith is a good recruiter.)

Personally, I think Haith, Purnell, Sendek and Hamilton are all basically Chan Gailey with better suits. They'll win just enough games to make it hard to fire them after an inexplicable post-season loss in Boise. We could do worse than Sendek I guess, but he doesn't blow my skirt up.

Leonard Hamilton -- Hamilton is 61 years old, and he's about to get an extension from FSU. With only four career NCAA appearances and his advancing age, we're hearing that he's not a viable candidate. Despite media reports that he could be on the Plan B list. Hamilton's greatest strength is Atlanta area recruiting ties.

Memphis searching for a Pearl -- Tiger High may pursue Bruce Pearl with an offer for $21 million over seven years. I would expect UT to match any offer the Tigers make. It doesn't help UGA to have the Vols enter the coaching carousel this year.

Pearl Losing Ace Assistant -- The Boston Globe and ESPN are reporting that UT assistant Tony Jones appears headed to Boston University as head coach. Jones is described by some as an exceptional recruiter for the Vols. His departure from Knoxville is a good thing for UGA.

Arizona/USC/Pitt/UConn/Memphis Impact Us -- Arizona's move to pick up Tim Floyd from USC opens a slot for Jamie Dixon of Pitt. Dixon is an LA guy, and Andy Katz reports that his wife is a Trojan alum. If he leaves Pitt, Sean Miller of Xavier will likely step into that job. Also, there's the issue of Jim Calhoun's age and health. The 66 year old dual form cancer survivor has seen better days. There are rumors that Detroit is his swan song. UGA will be unable to have a meaningful discussion with Miller until the UConn, Memphis and Pitt situations sort themselves out. Miller may be a candidate at all three spots.

At this point, it's anyone's guess who we end up with, but I wouldn't freak over the names that are leaked. Yet.

PWD

Coaching Rumors for Thursday

Some interesting news directly and indirectly impacting our program:

UGA interviews -- Chip Towers says that the Dawgs will meet with Oliver Purnell and Frank Haith in Detroit. My sources tell me that these are just two of many interviews the Dawgs will have today and tomorrow. I've also gotten the sense that Haith is on the list, but not the Plan B or C candidate that Andy Katz and others describe. Haith's agent is a miracle worker. He's managed to get the guy listed as a Plan B candidate for every open job in the country including the CFO position at General Motors. (Update: Not unexpectedly....Katz and Towers have better sources than me. That shouldn't shock you. lol. On the brightside, Haith is a good recruiter.)

Personally, I think Haith, Purnell, Sendek and Hamilton are all basically Chan Gailey with better suits. They'll win just enough games to make it hard to fire them after an inexplicable post-season loss in Boise. We could do worse than Sendek I guess, but he doesn't blow my skirt up.

Leonard Hamilton -- Hamilton is 61 years old, and he's about to get an extension from FSU. With only four career NCAA appearances and his advancing age, we're hearing that he's not a viable candidate. Despite media reports that he could be on the Plan B list. Hamilton's greatest strength is Atlanta area recruiting ties.

Memphis searching for a Pearl -- Tiger High may pursue Bruce Pearl with an offer for $21 million over seven years. I would expect UT to match any offer the Tigers make. It doesn't help UGA to have the Vols enter the coaching carousel this year.

Pearl Losing Ace Assistant -- The Boston Globe and ESPN are reporting that UT assistant Tony Jones appears headed to Boston University as head coach. Jones is described by some as an exceptional recruiter for the Vols. His departure from Knoxville is a good thing for UGA.

Arizona/USC/Pitt/UConn/Memphis Impact Us -- Arizona's move to pick up Tim Floyd from USC opens a slot for Jamie Dixon of Pitt. Dixon is an LA guy, and Andy Katz reports that his wife is a Trojan alum. If he leaves Pitt, Sean Miller of Xavier will likely step into that job. Also, there's the issue of Jim Calhoun's age and health. The 66 year old dual form cancer survivor has seen better days. There are rumors that Detroit is his swan song. UGA will be unable to have a meaningful discussion with Miller until the UConn, Memphis and Pitt situations sort themselves out. Miller may be a candidate at all three spots.

At this point, it's anyone's guess who we end up with, but I wouldn't freak over the names that are leaked. Yet.

PWD

Baseball Coverage

UGA had two big wins against the Top 20 ranked Clemson Tigers this week, and we've got a gigantic series against the LSU Tigers this weekend in Athens. UGA is ranked #1 in multiple polls, and the Tigers are ranked as high as #2 in the Baseball America poll. This weekend is as big as it gets for college baseball fans in Athens, and this team is really fun to watch.

However, we don't cover every baseball game with recaps. It's just too time consuming.

Quinton and I have the bandwidth in our real jobs to combine to cover about 1 or 2 things at a time. Right now, it's the basketball coaching search for me. Quinton does a Monday or Tuesday recap of the weekend series, and he sets up the next week's series in an article each week. We also do a baseball poll blurb when we can.

It's not like we're totally oblivious to the Diamond Dawgs. In fact, I'll be attending one or two games on average for the rest of the season. We just don't have time for more coverage. If you want more baseball coverage, you should check DawgSports.com's exhaustive recaps. Kyle King is long winded in his baseball post-game articles, but if you want coverage he has most certainly got it.

Coverage of baseball will ramp up some after the Basketball Coaching Search and Spring Football end.

As for football....we haven't done much of anything on Spring Football. That's mainly because I'm bored to death by Spring Football this year. I haven't expected anything of interest to come out of Spring due to the overwhelming number of injuries, and the lack of position changes. And so far I'm right. The beat writers have the info here.

So that's why we cover what we cover right now.

PWD

Baseball Coverage

UGA had two big wins against the Top 20 ranked Clemson Tigers this week, and we've got a gigantic series against the LSU Tigers this weekend in Athens. UGA is ranked #1 in multiple polls, and the Tigers are ranked as high as #2 in the Baseball America poll. This weekend is as big as it gets for college baseball fans in Athens, and this team is really fun to watch.

However, we don't cover every baseball game with recaps. It's just too time consuming.

Quinton and I have the bandwidth in our real jobs to combine to cover about 1 or 2 things at a time. Right now, it's the basketball coaching search for me. Quinton does a Monday or Tuesday recap of the weekend series, and he sets up the next week's series in an article each week. We also do a baseball poll blurb when we can.

It's not like we're totally oblivious to the Diamond Dawgs. In fact, I'll be attending one or two games on average for the rest of the season. We just don't have time for more coverage. If you want more baseball coverage, you should check DawgSports.com's exhaustive recaps. Kyle King is long winded in his baseball post-game articles, but if you want coverage he has most certainly got it.

Coverage of baseball will ramp up some after the Basketball Coaching Search and Spring Football end.

As for football....we haven't done much of anything on Spring Football. That's mainly because I'm bored to death by Spring Football this year. I haven't expected anything of interest to come out of Spring due to the overwhelming number of injuries, and the lack of position changes. And so far I'm right. The beat writers have the info here.

So that's why we cover what we cover right now.

PWD

Speaking of Cocktails....

....as I could surely use one.  The Jacksonville Times-Union has a great look at the financials behind the World's Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party.  As Blutarsky said, the Jacksonville folks did a great job of presenting the numbers in a compelling way.  I still think there's no legitimate reason to move the game. 

The team won't beat the Gators by running from them.  They'll have to beat them running towards them.

As I said the other day, you think it's tough losing to the Gators in Jax?  Try dropping one to them in Athens or Atlanta.  Then you'll see what miserable really is.

PWD

Speaking of Cocktails....

....as I could surely use one.  The Jacksonville Times-Union has a great look at the financials behind the World's Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party.  As Blutarsky said, the Jacksonville folks did a great job of presenting the numbers in a compelling way.  I still think there's no legitimate reason to move the game. 

The team won't beat the Gators by running from them.  They'll have to beat them running towards them.

As I said the other day, you think it's tough losing to the Gators in Jax?  Try dropping one to them in Athens or Atlanta.  Then you'll see what miserable really is.

PWD

ESPN: Georgia Offers Anderson $2 million per year

UPDATE 4: He's staying at Missouri for $600,000 - 800,000 less per year in base pay than UGA offered. I'm not sure what Damon should've done different. He offered a quality, qualified candidate 300 percent more money than he was currently getting, 50 percent more than his current employer counter offered with, AND roughly the same amount that UK paid their coach last year. Geez. As for the leak, it wasn't our end. We had no incentive to leak. All the leaks started in Memphis.

Here's the official statement from Mizzou. here's the money line:

Financial details of Anderson's seven-year deal will be released at a later date upon complete execution of the contract.

I read that to mean, he hasn't signed anything. So, he could STILL end up at Memphis if they offer $3 million a year as rumored. He's just not coming here.

UPDATE 3: KC Star lists what Big 12 coaches make. If you're wondering, Anderson's rumored offer in SEC terms would put him third behind Calipari's offer and Donovan. Pearl would be fourth at $1.6 million.

UPDATE 2: Towers talked with Jimmy Sexton, Anderson's agent. Sexton says no offer from UGA yet. Sexton is legendary at working over all parties in situations like this. He's an artist. This is his true medium.

UPDATE: I desperately want Anderson, and I'm not sure we can get him if Memphis throws a staggering offer at him. But I'll say this. Anyone that doesn't think UGA is serious about putting a winning product on the court after we offer more than $2 million a year for a b-ball coach has their head lodged squarely in their rectum. The rumored six year $14 million offer to Anderson would be roughly the equivalent aggregate salary that we've paid all our head basketball coaches for the past 30-35 years combined.

PWD