I sat with Keelon Lawson two years ago, inside a coffee shop two miles from the Memphis campus, and we talked for a while about his sons, his dreams, and how his sons could maybe help him reach his dreams. It was mid-afternoon. And what was clear to me by the end of that conversation was that this state-championship winning high school coach was determined to become a Division I assistant, and it was obvious that Lawson knew the heralded basketball prospects doubling as his children were the keys to making it happen.
"If you hire me, I'm automatically bringing you [multiple elite prospects]," Lawson said. "Automatically. And there are coaches sitting on benches right now who can't do that."
So, if nothing else, give Keelon Lawson this: he's been upfront from the jump.
You can think he's wrong, and he knows some of you do. But he put a deal on the table for every high-major program in the country two years ago -- hire me, get my sons -- and Memphis quickly accepted the deal. Keelon Lawson was hired two months after he and I had that conversation in that coffee shop. Less than a week after that, McDonald's All-American Dedric Lawson joined brother K.J. Lawson and publicly committed to the Tigers. They became the highlights of a top-10 recruiting class for Memphis coach Josh Pastner.
As you probably know, Pastner is no longer Memphis' coach.
Sources have told CBS Sports that the Memphis administration pushed Pastner to aggressively pursue other jobs this offseason or risk a humiliating mid-season firing next season, at which point Pastner's career that took a hard turn for the worse over the past two years would be further, and possibly forever, damaged. So Pastner did as his bosses instructed. And after Georgia Tech athletic director Mike Bobinski was rejected by several candidates -- among them Valpo's Bryce Drew, who instead took the Vanderbilt job -- Pastner was able to secure a multiyear offer from Georgia Tech.
Memphis agreed to pay Pastner $1.25 million as additional encouragement to take the job.
So, yes, Memphis literally paid Pastner to leave for Georgia Tech.
Meantime, Keelon Lawson remained at Memphis.
One of his sons, Dedric Lawson, who averaged 15.8 points and 9.3 rebounds as a freshman, had already announced, even before Pastner left, that he would, like basically every other underclassman, enter the NBA Draft without hiring an agent. But then, surprisingly, without ever even working out for a team, and two days before Memphis hired Pastner's replacement, Dedric Lawson announced he was withdrawing from the draft and returning to Memphis to play with his brother for at least one more season.
So why did this happen?
Sources have told CBS Sports that it was the direct result of Keelon Lawson leaving a meeting with the Memphis administration under the impression that he'd remain on staff in a coaching position regardless of whom Memphis hired to replace Pastner. Whether Memphis officials explicitly promised anything is unclear. But what's clear is that Keelon Lawson believed Memphis did. So Dedric Lawson withdrew from the NBA Draft.
And then Memphis hired Tubby Smith.
Smith and Lawson met shortly after Smith was hired, and sources told CBS Sports that Smith promised Lawson a spot but did not guarantee it would be in a coaching role. Problem is, Memphis would need to apply for a waiver from the NCAA to move Lawson into a non-coaching role because of a rule that prohibits schools from having people connected to prospects in non-coaching roles within two years of said prospects enrolling.
Would the NCAA grant such a waiver?
Who knows?
But it also might not matter. Because sources have told CBS Sports that Keelon Lawson doesn't want a non-coaching position. He wants to be an assistant just like he's been the past two seasons. So if you were wondering why Dedric Lawson filed paperwork earlier this week to actually enter the NBA Draft after previously announcing he would not enter the NBA Draft, now you know. It was a not-so-subtle move designed to send the following message: keep my dad in a coaching role or else.
Consequently, Tubby Smith is already facing his first big dilemma at Memphis.
Smith can stand firm and hire the staff he intended to hire. But sources told CBS Sports that Smith standing firm will likely lead to Dedric Lawson remaining in the NBA Draft and K.J. Lawson transferring, which would leave Memphis without its top two returning scorers. And, it should be noted, the Lawson's little brother, Chandler Lawson, is a consensus top 10 prospect in the Class of 2019. So Smith standing firm would also end any chance Memphis has of ever enrolling the player many believe is the best of the Lawson brothers.
What will Smith do?
That remains undetermined.
But unless Smith thinks he can hire an assistant who will secure two starters for next season, including one All-American candidate, and also give him the inside track to land the next great prospect from the city, frankly, this seems like an easy decision. It's less than ideal, clearly. I'm not suggesting otherwise. But there seems to only be two options:
Option A: keep Keelon Lawson in a coaching position, keep Dedric Lawson and K.J. Lawson in school, and remain the leading candidate to eventually land Chandler Lawson.
Option B: hire three assistants not named Keelon Lawson, lose Dedric Lawson to the draft, K.J. Lawson to a transfer, and eliminate yourself from contention for Chandler Lawson.
If those are really the only two options, I'd go Option A every time.
And I suspect most coaches would, too.
NOTES FROM AROUND THE COUNTRY
Texas point guard Isaiah Taylor announced Thursday that he's hiring an agent and remaining in the NBA Draft, which is a huge blow to Shaka Smart and exactly what I wrote about earlier this week. In that column, I noted how on-the-fence prospects who could sensibly stay or go often shape coaching careers. For proof, just think about where, say, Indiana coach Tom Crean could theoretically be right now if Yogi Ferrell would've last year made the same decision Isaiah Taylor just made. Ferrell's decision to return to IU lifted Crean from preseason hot-seat lists to an outright Big Ten championship. And now Taylor's decision to leave Texas could be the difference between Smart making the NCAA Tournament for the seventh straight season and missing the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2010.
Cal freshman Ivan Rabb is the only player in my latest NBA Mock Draft who still hasn't announced whether he'll make himself available for the NBA Draft or return to college. A source told CBS Sports on Friday that Rabb remains unsure of his plans and that no announcement, either way, is scheduled. The deadline for underclassmen to file paperwork with the NBA is Sunday night.
A source told CBS Sports on Friday morning that Oklahoma assistant Chris Crutchfield has interviewed for the opening at New Mexico State. If Crutchfield gets the job, that'll mean all three assistants who were on Lon Kruger's staff this past season would've parlayed the Sooners' success into Division I head coaching jobs. Assistant Steve Henson already got the UT-San Antonio job. Fellow OU assistant Lew Hill is now UT Rio Grande Valley's head coach.
FINAL THOUGHT: North Carolina State announced this week that Heath Schroyer will resign as UT-Martin's head coach to become an assistant on Mark Gottfried's staff.
Simply put, it's mostly a money grab.
Schroyer agreed to a two-year deal worth $310,000 per year, which basically amounts to a 50-percent raise and also highlights the widening gap between the haves and have-nots in college sports. Once upon a time, assistant coaches could only make so much. But now Kenny Payne earns roughly $700,000 per year at Kentucky, and North Carolina State can buy UT-Martin's head coach and make him an assistant. Which is precisely why it's silly to suggest Power 5 is a term reserved only for football. Truth is, the Power 5 leagues are increasing revenue and pulling away from everybody else. And that's having an effect on all sports, men's basketball included.
