Two former college head coaches are close to getting their own programs again out West.
Kevin O'Neill, who coached at Marquette, Tennessee and Northwestern and has been in the NBA since 2000, is a leading candidate at Denver. Why Denver? After going 4-25 this past season, the school desperately wants to make a splash and for the right coach is willing to pay above normal Sun Belt salary standards.
Heath Schroyer, who coached Portland State from 2003-05 before resigning to join Steve Cleveland's staff at Fresno State, is the leading candidate at Wyoming. Why Wyoming? Schroyer's former boss at Portland State, Tom Burman, is the Cowboys' first-year athletics director.
Both candidates have their issues.
O'Neill is known as a nomad as well as one of the most volatile coaches in the business. Schroyer got Fresno State involved in the D1 Scheduling mess that cost Iowa State coach Wayne Morgan his job and had Fresno looking into the way its program scheduled games and recruited junior college players.
Elsewhere on the coaching carousel, multiple sources are telling CBS SportsLine.com the following:
• Don't discount Steve Alford going to New Mexico. Why would Alford leave Iowa for New Mexico? It's called "staying one step ahead of the posse." And after Alford failed to get Iowa into the NCAA or NIT this season, the posse is forming in Iowa City.
• Colorado plans to throw a ton of money at Air Force's Jeff Bzdelik.
• George Washington's Karl Hobbs is interested in South Florida.
• To be secure in his job, Michigan's Tommy Amaker had better win the NIT or come awfully close.
• Where would Tubby Smith go, if he were to leave Kentucky? Well, South Carolina came after him once. If that job opens, and the Gamecocks come after him again, watch it happen. ... And then watch Kentucky go hard for Texas A&M's Billy Gillispie.
