Let's get into the big ones!

- Louisville hired Kenny Payne. Great hire-- not just because he has a lot of promise as a head coach, but because he's one of the more beloved figures in Louisville history. Rumors that they'll also hire Nolan Smith from Duke, son of another Louisville champion Derek Smith, shows they're really going all in on keeping it in family. Which I think is really, really smart. It's going to be a tough couple years for Louisville with looming sanctions coming. I doubt they'll be able to recruit well, I doubt they'll achieve to normal Louisville standards. But if they can try to build a "it's us against the world" thing and develop talent from within, they can weather the storm.

- Georgia stole Mike White from Florida, a move I would generously refer to as "optimistic." Mike White hasn't impressed me at all as a high-major coach the last few years. Without his one Elite Eight run (which was built on the backs of players already on the roster when he arrived), he'd be safely considered a bust. And, truthfully, I think Tom Crean is a better coach. So if Crean can't win and convince winning players to stay at Georgia... how is Mike White going to do it? I think there's a lot of upside for this to be a straight-up disaster.

- Meanwhile, Florida gets to replace Mike White with Todd Golden, a significant upgrade imo. Anyone who watched San Francisco this year knows that Golden's got the goods-- Kyle Smith did a terrific job at San Francisco (and is currently doing a really good job at Washington State), and Golden had San Francisco doing *even better,* competing with Gonzaga and St. Mary's way more than they should've given the roster, and they almost took down a more-athletic Murray State team. Maybe there's a world in which Golden falls under the umbrella of "better suited to mid major ball than the big leagues," but for a guy that young with that much upside, I think Florida's doing the right thing swinging the bat with him.

- Missouri is hiring Dennis Gates, which... look, I think Gates is a good, relatively young coach. Cleveland State's certainly been pretty scrappy the last two years. But I also happen to think Mizzou is a *really* good program with the right coach at the helm, and I have some questions why Gates was the guy they'd target compared to some of the bigger names being mentioned. Gates was having to do some rebuilding at Cleveland State, that's true... but Cleveland State was a top 100 program as recently as 2015, and they haven't cracked top 150 under Gates yet. Also, Gates is going to play a no-offense, try-to-win-on-defense kind of style, which, if Mizzou wanted to see that style of play... why not just keep Cuonzo? I think unless you see obvious upside for your new coach to be better than your old one, then you shouldn't let the old one go. So if Gates was who they were targeting... why?

Like, I think Jerome Tang, the top assistant at Baylor, would be a slam dunk. I think targeting mid-major guys like Grant McCasland or Matt McMahon who have more established success at the mid-major level would've been slam dunks. And, obviously, if you're hiring a "mystery box" coach based on potential fit with your program... why not go with Kim English? I wasn't super impressed with what George Mason did this year, but I'm not convinced that Gates definitively has a better upside than English. I worry that Mizzou just went with Gates because the other guys would've wanted more money, and Gates was the best coach available at the price they wanted to pay. Which, fair enough, I guess... but Mizzou should open the pocketbooks, because they shouldn't be as irrelevant as they've been the last decade. They haven't won an NCAA Tournament game since *2010.* Go for a splashier hire!

- Maryland is heavily rumored to be hiring Kevin Willard. Similar to the Gates hire, I have no idea why *this* is the guy you go for. Especially with Maryland's absolutely insane fanbase. I think he's a good coach on the whole, but he's won a grand total of one NCAA Tournament game in the last decade plus at Seton Hall, and outside of one three-way shared Big East title, he's never finished better than 3rd in the Big East. What gives Maryland the confidence that he's the guy to take Maryland back to genuine national relevance in a Big Ten that is increasingly competitive and stacked with good/interesting coaches? This just feels like the sort of hire to keep you as a perennial bubble team/high NIT seed, at best. Maybe I'm wrong, and maybe Willard has some recruiting mastery hidden in his pocket that he's never truly displayed consistently at Seton Hall... but again, I think this is a missed opportunity.

- Xavier hiring Sean Miller back is a slam dunk. Travis Steele *sucked,* and Sean Miller, while he never got over the hump at Arizona, is at bare minimum the sort of coach that can help you compete for Big East titles and good tournament seeds. Unless he faces ramifications from the NCAA for the stuff at Arizona (which I don't *think* he will, but who knows?), then I love this hire.

- Same for Rhode Island hiring Archie Miller. I was never really convinced that Archie was The Guy for IU, because Archie's rep at Dayton was always built on "he got a lot out of minimal talent/injured roster due to some clever scheming and strong motivation," but, like... I think he only won the A10 once while there. Those sorts of guys just don't scream blue blood to me. (Then again, I really liked Chris Mack for the position, and that didn't exactly work out at Louisville, so what the hell do I know, lol.) I think he's a *perfect* mid-major coach. He'll snag some transfers on rep and he'll get them working hard. Wouldn't be surprised to see the Rams dancing in the next, like, 2 years.

- Mississippi State just announced today they're replacing Ben Howland with Chris Jans, and frankly, I'm in love with this hire. He's done a fantastic job at New Mexico State (if 2020's dance isn't cancelled, he'd have danced four out of his five years there!), and the win over UConn (and the near-win over Auburn in 2019) and everything he's done with Teddy Allen this year shows that he can compete at a high level and integrate transfers well, which Miss St will have to do to be anything resembling relevant in the short-term. He's also shifted styles a lot during his time, showing some nice flexibility as a coach and some dexterity with his Xs and Os. Maybe he's another "elite mid-major guy who can't rescue a high-major program" guy, but again, this is the sort of swing that mediocre high-major programs should be taking, because the upside is massive, and the downside is probably still not much lower than they already are.

Other jobs still open:

LSU (losing all their player talent, sanctions coming down the pipeline, this is gonna be a tough position for LSU to fill imo)
Kansas State (parting ways with Bruce Weber is a classic "be careful what you wish for" unless they already know who their guy is)
South Carolina (see above comments, but replace the name "Bruce Weber" with "Frank Martin")

Notable schools keeping their coach, astonishingly: Stanford, NC State, Pitt, Georgetown.

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