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New goal: Mutual feelings | Looking for genuine interest in its job, Oregon turns its lonely eyes toward coaches at Marquette and Dayton

By Bob Clark

The Register-Guard

Appeared in print: Friday, Apr 23, 2010

Oregon’s coaching search has made a significant adjustment, with an emphasis now placed on candidates who definitely are interested in the job, rather than attempting to interest coaches with high national profiles in Oregon.

Two different sources indicated Pat Kilkenny, the former UO director of athletics who is conducting the search, has grown “frustrated” with the process that has led to rejections from at least four coaches. He is known to have made formal offers to Pittsburgh’s Jamie Dixon and Butler’s Brad Stevens, and had serious talks with both Mark Turgeon of Texas A&M and Missouri’s Mark Anderson.

Where might this lead Kilkenny? He is known to have spent time in Dallas this week and is now reportedly in Indianapolis. Neither of those sites is necessarily meaningful beyond being large enough that a prospective coach could meet Kilkenny and not be noticed by his own fans or media, or could explain his presence as being on a recruiting mission if spotted.

The search is in its sixth week since the firing of Ernie Kent was announced. Two UO players have declared their intent to transfer, saying part of their reason is concern over the length of time it has taken to find a new coach and a third Duck, Josh Crittle, confirmed Thursday that he is looking into destinations for a possible transfer, as was earlier reported.

“I received my release so I can explore all my options,” Crittle said in a statement released by the UO media services department. “I wanted to be able to contact other schools. I haven’t made any decisions on where I will be next year.”

Earlier, fellow sophomores Drew Wiley, who has committed to Boise State, and Matt Humphrey indicated their intent to transfer.

In this adjustment of candidates, who might fit into Kilkenny’s criteria of being an established coach, and willing to leave for Oregon?

There reportedly are two Midwest possibilities in Marquette’s Buzz Williams and Dayton’s Brian Gregory.

.......

It’s not known if Kilkenny has spoken to Williams, but a coach with knowledge of the search said a prominent former coach has been using contacts at Nike to push for Oregon to interview Williams, who reportedly makes about $800,000 in annual salary.

Williams was of interest to DePaul, Iowa and St. John’s in their searches but told one interviewer, “I’ll be here as long as they’ll have me.”

The 43-year-old Gregory has been at Dayton for seven seasons, compiling a 150-80 record, including 25-12 this season when the Flyers defeated North Carolina for the NIT championship. Dayton also has made two NCAA appearances in Gregory’s tenure.

Gregory was believed to be of primary interest to Iowa in its search but wanted any contact delayed until the end of his team’s season, and Iowa officials decided not to wait that long. Gregory also turned down attempts by DePaul to interview him while Dayton’s season was still under way.

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More in the article. Either of these guys would be great choices. I am guessing that Gregory would be more realistic than Williams, since Marquette is probably a better job than Oregon.


And it looks like Oregon is going to play Duke this year in Portland at the Rose Garden.
http://www.registerguard.com/csp/cms/si ... -ducks.csp

Ducks might see Duke

Oregon’s new basketball coach is likely to have a very challenging game early in his first season with a matchup against Duke, this season’s national champion.

Sources close to both programs acknowledged that the game is close to being finalized, though Oregon not having a coach or a permanent director of athletics has complicated the negotiations.

The game would be played at the Rose Garden in Portland, and the tentative date is Nov. 27, the Saturday after Thanksgiving. That wouldn’t conflict with football because Oregon’s game for that weekend against Arizona at Autzen Stadium is scheduled for Friday.

Duke’s primary motivation for playing the game is to bring Kyle Singler to his home region for a game. That’s the usual promise made during recruiting to prospective Duke players, and Singler, a senior next season, has never played in Oregon as a Blue Devil. Singler announced earlier this week that he would return for his senior season rather than declare for the NBA draft, though he was expected to be a first-round selection.

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More in the article. Thought this might happen. Should be cool to see the Singler brothers compete against each other, though Duke will likely destroy us. Would have been awesome if the game could have been in Eugene.

I don't know who it is, but they keep bringing up Brian Gregory from Dayton. He doesn't have the name recognition as the others we have gone after, but he seems to have learned from some of the best coaches in the college game (Heathcote and Izzo) and has done fairly decent at a small school like Dayton. I wouldn't mind Williams since his teams play hard and are very fundamentally sound on the defensive end, but I have a hard time believing he'll come here. If we offer him, I say he's just going to get a contract extension and raise out of it. Gregory seems to be the best bet out of those 2.

Now thats what they should have gone after from the
very start. Just because you have alot of money to
offer and a new stadium, and nike in our back yard
doesn't mean the top coaches will leave their positions
to come to Oregon.
Brian Gregory ive mentioned here before. 150-80 at Dayton
is a very good record. He has been an assistant for Izzo before.
His teams play very hard and they play defense. I believe he
would be a very good hire.
Don't know much about the Marquette coach but his teams
play very hard also. If we would have started here and found
someone that wants to come here we would have had a coach
weeks ago.

And if the hire can get done this weekend, (With one of these 2 coaches) there is still a possibility of salvaging a commit from one of the Terrences... (As the wide eyed little kid said, "It could happen!")

Both of these coaches would be good hires.

Not sure this is the best year to play Duke. We'll probably lose for 50. I don't know anything about Williams, but I suppose Gregory would be good. Can he recruit though? No doubt he could coach, but would he be successful in the pac-10?

I don't see either of these coaches being drasctily more realistic than Stevens or Anderson. Don't get your hopes up.

jayduck wrote:I don't see either of these coaches being drasctily more realistic than Stevens or Anderson. Don't get your hopes up.

according to the register rag Kilkenny is looking at coaches that have
interest in Oregon. it may be that they have shown an interest. who's to
know. this process has taken awhile. so who really knows anything. all tho
we do know we are without a coach.

Williams would be the better hire, but also probably less likely to take the job than Gregory.

Gregory isn't all that likely to take it either. He just brought in the best recruiting class he's had at Dayton.

The problem is that both guys are set up with nice situations for next year. These are guys that might have said yes a few weeks ago, but with our situation getting more difficult, are more likely to pass. We should have moved quickly onto names like this, but at this point, they are in better situations.

When looking at a coach right now, just ask yourself, "do we need this coach more than he needs us?" If the answer is yes, the odds aren't great he's going to take the job.

duckfan22 wrote:

jayduck wrote:I don't see either of these coaches being drasctily more realistic than Stevens or Anderson. Don't get your hopes up.

according to the register rag Kilkenny is looking at coaches that have
interest in Oregon. it may be that they have shown an interest. who's to
know. this process has taken awhile. so who really knows anything. all tho
we do know we are without a coach.

The RG is simply making assumptions based on the "lesser stature" of the names involved.

jayduck wrote:Williams would be the better hire, but also probably less likely to take the job than Gregory.

Gregory isn't all that likely to take it either. He just brought in the best recruiting class he's had at Dayton.

The problem is that both guys are set up with nice situations for next year. These are guys that might have said yes a few weeks ago, but with our situation getting more difficult, are more likely to pass. We should have moved quickly onto names like this, but at this point, they are in better situations.

When looking at a coach right now, just ask yourself, "do we need this coach more than he needs us?" If the answer is yes, the odds aren't great he's going to take the job.

I agree. i doubt we get either. If they have interviewed Terry Porter then
he has shown an interest. Just pull the trigger and give him the chance.
i think it would be a good hire also.

I'd love to see Williams come, but this was from a couple weeks ago:

http://www.jsonline.com/sports/goldenea ... 81442.html

"Williams vows to stay true to MU"

"Here's the thing: My title has changed. My W-2 has changed. But my heart hasn't changed," he said. "This is a business that's full of egos, full of media-savvy people, full of exposure, full of money, and a lot of time that changes people. I don't want my title, I don't want my income to ever change who I am.

"I understand the evolution of how coaches change and how the media and the power hungriness of it all changes people. But I refuse to let it change me. I know I'll get older and I'll handle it better, I hope, but I don't ever want to change what I believe in my heart to be right.

"I'll be here as long as they'll have me here."

Here's a current thread from one of Marquette's sites:

http://www.muscoop.com/index.php?acti...e;topic=20298.0

duckgrad99 wrote:Not sure this is the best year to play Duke. We'll probably lose for 50. I don't know anything about Williams, but I suppose Gregory would be good. Can he recruit though? No doubt he could coach, but would he be successful in the pac-10?

Payne can recruit. We need someone that can coach.

woundedknees wrote:I'd love to see Williams come, but this was from a couple weeks ago:

http://www.jsonline.com/sports/goldenea ... 81442.html

"Williams vows to stay true to MU"

"Here's the thing: My title has changed. My W-2 has changed. But my heart hasn't changed," he said. "This is a business that's full of egos, full of media-savvy people, full of exposure, full of money, and a lot of time that changes people. I don't want my title, I don't want my income to ever change who I am.

"I understand the evolution of how coaches change and how the media and the power hungriness of it all changes people. But I refuse to let it change me. I know I'll get older and I'll handle it better, I hope, but I don't ever want to change what I believe in my heart to be right.

"I'll be here as long as they'll have me here."

Here's a current thread from one of Marquette's sites:

http://www.muscoop.com/index.php?acti...e;topic=20298.0

Gregory seems the more likely of the 2 since Williams seems satisfied with the Marquette job, which is actually one of the better jobs in the country due to it's past history and Big East affiliation.

duckfan22 wrote:Now thats what they should have gone after from the
very start. Just because you have alot of money to
offer and a new stadium, and nike in our back yard
doesn't mean the top coaches will leave their positions
to come to Oregon.
Brian Gregory ive mentioned here before. 150-80 at Dayton
is a very good record. He has been an assistant for Izzo before.
His teams play very hard and they play defense. I believe he
would be a very good hire.
Don't know much about the Marquette coach but his teams
play very hard also. If we would have started here and found
someone that wants to come here we would have had a coach
weeks ago.

Both of these guys refused to consider other positions while their team were stil playing... Hence the apparent 'lack of interest'.