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Jeff Goodman, ESPN Insider 6y

The best, worst and most shocking moves in the college hoops coaching carousel

Men's College Basketball, UConn Huskies

There are still a half-dozen jobs open (Chicago State, Delaware State, Detroit, FIU, St, Peter's and UNC-Asheville), but all of the big jobs have been filled. At least for now there aren't any power conference jobs open.

It's time to dissect the best, worst and most surprising moves, and which coach made the smartest move by jumping.

Here's the full breakdown of the 2018 coaching carousel: 

Best hire
UConn replacing Kevin Ollie with Dan Hurley. Ollie could not keep the Huskies relevant the past few years. Hurley turned around programs at Wagner and Rhode Island. Hurley will bring some Jim Calhoun-like tenacity to Storrs, and he displayed the ability to both coach and recruit in his time at URI. He also has hired a quality staff with former UConn assistant Tom Moore, Kimani Young and Kenya Hunter. This may take some time and patience, since there's not much talent in Storrs right now. Hurley, though, should get the Huskies back to where people are talking about them again.

Worst hire
Cal State Northridge president Dianne Harrison hiring Mark Gottfried. Northridge is a mess. Former athletic director Brandon Martin was fired following a verbal altercation with Reggie Theus after he informed Theus his tenure as head coach was over. As for Gottfried, this is a coach who has been subpoenaed as part of the federal investigation into corruption in college basketball from his time at NC State. That should have been enough to pass on Gottfried, but then throw in the fact that he's hiring soon-to-be 80-year-old Jim Harrick (who has his own questionable past) on his staff. 

Biggest no-brainer
Chris Mack to Louisville. From the day that Rick Pitino was jettisoned, Mack was the clear-cut leader. Let's forget about the fact that his wife, Christi, is from Louisville. He fits because he has already had success recruiting in the Midwest. He took the Musketeers to the Elite Eight in 2017. Plus, he had Xavier as a No. 1 seed this year. In his nine seasons as head coach, he's gone to the NCAA tournament eight times.

Most surprising
Maine parting ways with Bob Walsh and then hiring the school's former women's coach, Richard Barron, on the same day. Here's the crazy aspect: Barron was a special assistant to the athletic director when he got hired as the men's coach. Barron coached the women's team from 2011 to 2017, but had to step away due to medical issues in 2017.

Coolest hire
Barron bringing on Edniesha Curry to his staff. Curry becomes one of the few women to have held a full-time assistant spot in a men's program. Barron told ESPN that Curry worked with him for two years on the women's staff and spent last season in the NBA's development program. "She doesn't need me or anyone to defend her ability," Barron told ESPN. "She can do it herself. She's completely qualified and capable of doing the job." Other women to have held assistant spots in men's college basketball include Bernadette Mattox (Kentucky), Jennifer Johnston (Oakland) and Stephanie Ready (Coppin State).

Jury out
Georgia tabbing Tom Crean to replace Mark Fox. Crean will work, that's for sure. But he also went to the NCAA tournament just four times in nine years at Indiana. In his defense, Crean did inherit an unenviable situation. Still he went only twice in his final four years in Bloomington. We'll see what kind of staff Crean puts together. That will be imperative for him to succeed at Georgia.

Late save
Pittsburgh athletic director Heather Lyke swung and missed on Dan Hurley and a couple of others (Thad Matta, Tom Crean) before winding up with Duke assistant and former Oklahoma head coach Jeff Capel. It's an interesting hire, especially with Lyke having such a strong background in compliance and Capel being the head coach at Oklahoma when the school was hit with major violations. But Lyke also salvaged what could have been a complete mess by hiring a guy who has helped recruit high-end talent and highly rated players to Oklahoma and Duke. He also desperately wanted an ACC head job.

Rolling the dice
Memphis fired Tubby Smith, who has plenty of experience, to hire Penny Hardaway, who has zero college experience. However, it wasn't working with Smith, so the administration decided to make a move and hire the former Memphis star. The good news is Hardaway has been coaching high school and AAU programs in Memphis. This is still a major risk. Will Hardaway put the time into recruiting? Will his staff be strong enough? Mike Miller comes on board with no coaching experience. There's a push for Hardaway to hire Larry Brown -- even with all his baggage. This is a risky hire, but probably worth it considering where the program is currently.

Next man up
Two athletic directors opted to promote assistants after interviewing outside candidates: Xavier athletic director Greg Christopher went with Travis Steele, who was Mack's right-hand man over the past nine years. Rhode Island athletic director Thorr Bjorn decided to elevate David Cox, who was on Hurley's staff and also recruited the majority of the current players and incoming recruits. Three more lower-profile programs that also hired from within were San Diego with Sam Scholl, Florida Gulf Coast with Michael Fly and Nicholls with Austin Claunch. If it's not broke, why change it?

Baffling hire
It's not often that someone gets a head Division I gig from a job as the director of recruiting/program development. But that's what went down with UMBC's Griff Aldrich, who was hired to be the head coach at Longwood. Aldrich's résumé also includes being the managing director and CFO of an investment firm before his arrival at UMBC.

Moving ... at last
Joe Dooley's name has been mentioned for openings as much as anyone's over the past few years. He left FGCU to return to East Carolina (he was the ECU head coach from 1995 to '99). At FGCU, he competed for a spot in the NCAA tournament every year. He heads off to an East Carolina program that hasn't been to the NCAA tournament since 1993. He will get a heftier paycheck, though.

Smartest move
Have you seen the view from the Pepperdine campus? There likely isn't a better one in Division I. Lorenzo Romar is a seasoned veteran. He left Arizona, where the basketball program is mired in controversy, to become a head coach again in Malibu, California. 

Earned it
Nick McDevitt left UNC-Asheville for Middle Tennessee. McDevitt lost three of his top players to high-major programs in recent years. Still, he managed to find a way to go to the NCAA tournament in 2016. He finished at the top of the Big South the past two years. McDevitt was paid $150,000 at Asheville. Now he'll earn $800,000 per season.

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