MVC school looking for a new head coach?

[Nacho]

It appears that is exactly what Indiana State is going to be doing as Fox Sports is reporting McKenna has been offered and has accepted an assistant coaching position at Oregon with head coach and longtime friend Dana Altman.

Apparently there were rumors of this before but I hadn't heard them... its not often you see a coach leave a HC position for an assistants role...

http://community.foxsports.com/goodmanonfox/blog/2010/06/13/another_head_coaching_opening:_indiana_state_coach_leaves_for_oregon_assistant

[Big Mike]

WOW.....thats strange......must be a bump in pay with a longer contract time?

[bu fan 9]

He knows he can't win at Iny St. So he took the best job he could find.

[Braves4Life]

I think he realized that he has a MUCH better chance to be considered for a marquee BCS coaching job as a top Pac-10 assistant than as a head coach at a mid-major school that does not have a strong financial or fan commitment to basketball.

I also doubt there is much difference in pay when the whole Oregon financial package is considered.

[SFP]

You also have to take in consideration the notion of all the conference alignments will have on the non-super conference. You have to believe the Oregon job has much higher upside along with the ability to play in a conference that will be guaranteed to play at the highest level. In absolute terms if a major re-haul is done at the conference level where do you believe IndSt will stand. You would have to believe BU has a much better chance then they do and there must be considerable anxiety with our administration where we will end up when everything is done.

[tornado]

... its not often you see a coach leave a HC position for an assistants role...

it is not common, but ex-BU assistant Richie McKay just did it...and I suspect McKenna knows he'll struggle for years at Indiana State and still never have the same degree
of opportunity to jump to a big time position as he might as assistant at Oregon...
One guy said Bradley should have hired a guy as assistant who is the head coach at Binghamton - where they've had gobs of scandal and sleaze....

Remember - McKenna was someone's pick as MVC Coach of the Year...

http://www.mvc-sports.com/ViewArticle.dbml?SPSID=36371&SPID=2901&DB_OEM_ID=7600&ATCLID=204905474

[tornado]

Indiana State will promote assistant Greg Lansing to head coach..

[houstontxbrave]

I think he realized that he has a MUCH better chance to be considered for a marquee BCS coaching job as a top Pac-10 assistant than as a head coach at a mid-major school that does not have a strong financial or fan commitment to basketball.

I also doubt there is much difference in pay when the whole Oregon financial package is considered.

I think he would have a much better chance of a "marquee" BCS coaching job if he went out and won games at Indiana State in the MVC.

I guess if Im an Indiana State fan I would really wonder why exactly did McKenna ever leave the side of Altman? Looks to me like all he did was played ISU.

He knew coming in what the situation at ISU was and after what 3 years he bolts... very weak.

[basketball nut]

McKenna would not have had a problem moving up but not as fast. He was considered one of the better DII coaches when he was UNO. In fact Seth Nelson from Farmington played for him. He was also considered a very good coaching talent (was wishing he would have applied for BU when it was available but he didn't)
In all likely hood this will help both him and DA if they can turn Oregan around. He had already improved IN St from where it was and then help turn Oregon around will enhance his chances at a bigger school.

[tornado]

Altman's Oregon staff looks amazingly like McDermott's Creighton staff...
nothing but midwestern white guys, virtually no minority personnel & no Black coaches in any actual coaching or recruiting positions...

http://www.goducks.com/SportSelect.dbml?&DB_OEM_ID=500&SPID=235&SPSID=4293

http://www.gocreighton.com/SportSelect.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=1000&KEY=&SPID=69&SPSID=89378&&DB_OEM_ID=1000&KEY=

[SycamoreFanatic]

Former Assistant and now Head Coach Greg Lansing is an excellent choice. He was on Royce Waltman's staff, went to Iowa on Alford's staff, came back to Waltman's staff and stayed on thru the McKenna era. He is/was responsible for a lot of the recruits and the day to day practices, etc. He was the 2nd choice, by a hair, when McKenna was hired. No problems with this move at all.

GO SYCAMORES!

[PTownHawkeye]

Former Assistant and now Head Coach Greg Lansing is an excellent choice. He was on Royce Waltman's staff, went to Iowa on Alford's staff, came back to Waltman's staff and stayed on thru the McKenna era. He is/was responsible for a lot of the recruits and the day to day practices, etc. He was the 2nd choice, by a hair, when McKenna was hired. No problems with this move at all.

GO SYCAMORES!

I think Lansing will do a great job. I got to "job shadow" him for a day when I was in school at Iowa. Even though I detested Alford, Lansing was a pleasure to hang around with for a day. He was unfairly blamed for Alford's mistakes when he was at Iowa and I think he is deserving of this opportunity.

Great hire by InSU.

[Da Coach]

McKenna leaving Indiana State without facing media or returning calls-

http://tribstar.com/bigstory2/x1996927213/For-family-reasons-Indiana-State-made-effort-to-keep-coach-but-McKenna-decided-to-leave

Indiana State AD Ron Prettyman trie to work out a new contract deal with McKenna to keep him from leaving, but he wasn't interested.

An Omaha World Herald sports columnist, Tom Shatel, posted on his Twitter page that he heard McKenna was leaving Indiana State because they were "cutting his budget"-

http://twitter.com/tomshatelOWH/status/16109854341

The Indiana State AD denied this.

Also, a report on Indiana State's new coach, Greg Lansing-

http://tribstar.com/news/x1996927101/Lansing-takes-over-ISU-picks-new-coach-for-mens-basketball-program

However, no source at Indiana State was willing to confirm this officialy, or willing to speak publically.
A news conference is scheduled at noon today.

[tornado]

Indiana State will promote assistant Greg Lansing to head coach..

the next 4-6 weeks are the most important RECRUITING segment of the ENTIRE year for college coaches and recruiters...
So - it is NO SURPRISE that Indiana State was forced to make a hire immediately and not waste time doing a search, forming a committee, or doing interviews...
Had they been forced to go thru this period without a coach, they'd have been toast as far as making any headway with recruits in this critical period.

Since the coaches are restricted from seeing the players' games and AAU events all the way from the end of the school season until after the 4th of July -- and the fact that they make LOTS of contacts in the 2 weeks leading up to the July Evaluation Period...then they can watch the events from July 6-15 & 22-31...this makes this next 4-6 weeks critical in finding out who are your targets for the next couple years!!!


BTW -- note this...if anyone wonders why McKenna might leave a HEAD COACHING job to take an assistant spot...
here might be your answer...

HIS STARTING SALARY at Oregon is said to be $250,000 plus he is set to make even more
via bonus incentives and other deals...........plus....even more money as his contract progresses
down the road and he is given a 3-year agreement - something that's very unusual for an assistant
but with Oregon's money - I guess it's a drop in the bucket.
His salary at Indiana State was in the range of $200,000, so this is a pretty good increase...