Thud!

Hopes come crashing down, once again, as Mike Anderson turns down a million dollar raise to coach here. Its not overly suprising. I was more suprised that he appeared to show interest, last week, to be honest. I never thought he would be on our list. Anderson is my favorite coach in the game, though, so this one definitely stings. We won't do better than him.

Not that we have to do better than him, to be successful. Some of the names we are hearing now, however, definitely are not better. Mark Gottfried is the latest name they are throwing around. Yes, Mark Gottfried with some baggage. Yes, Mark Gottfried, forced out of his alma mater midway through last season in part because of results like the 30 point beating Oregon's 8 win team gave him in the Maui Invitational.

It was only one game, and Gottfried's entire tenure at Alabama wasn't as bad as that last year might have made it seem, but still he's a pretty medicore hire. 7 tournaments in 13 years is nice, and better than what Ernie did, but not outstanding. They were a middle of the road SEC team for most of his tenure, and he did go as far as the Elite 8 one year in the tournament. He's probably a better coach than Ernie, despite the results of the last head to head meeting. With that said there are advantages at coaching your alma mater. Ernie had some here, and Gottfried did at 'Bama. Its hard to say if he would be any more successful than Ernie, better coach or not.