That time of the year

With the success of the mid-majors such as Southern Illinois and Butler (2 straight years) some big schools are looking around and starting to grow impatient. When that happens a few things are sure to follow. Heads will roll, check books will open, and John Beilein's name will be mentioned. From ESPN about the newly vacant Michigan job and the candidates:

According to ESPN.com's Andy Katz, some of the names up for consideration to replace Amaker include Washington State's Tony Bennett, Southern Illinois' Chris Lowery, former Golden State Warriors coach Mike Montgomery, UNLV's Lon Kruger, West Virginia's John Beilein, Xavier's Sean Miller and Cal's Ben Braun, as well as ESPN analysts Rick Majerus and Steve Lavin.

Katz also reported that Kentucky coach Tubby Smith could be a candidate, if he's available.

I left the Kentucky part of the quote in because if God closes a door he opens a window. If Kentucky were to fire Smith it could eliminate the Michigan job, but also open up Kentucky. As shown in the state W2, Beilein makes at least $850k per year here. So why is he constantly in the rumor mill? Well he is a great coach that is in the twilight of his career in a great basketball conference; only WVU will always be a football first school. You don't think he has an ego and wants to be the GUY just once at a big school? He could make more, have more exposure, he isn't from West Virginia, and almost took the NC State job last year. In addition, Beilein doesn't talk about the job offers for better or worse fueling the paranoia. The other side is that WVU is extremely patient with coaches so he could be here for life and the recruiting has started to pick up. He would be returning a young team that has shown flashes of greatness (UCLA) and should only improve.

In a way it is flattering that so many other schools are interested in our coaches all the time. I mean it's way better than constantly talking about firing an inadequate coach, but just like the guy that married over his head it does begin to grate after a while. It's cool that you think my wife has a killer rack buddy, but please quit staring at it in front of me all of the time. I mean C'mon.