Bill Self or Billy G to Okla St?

Reports are that Bill Self will be contacted to replace Sean Sutton at Okla St., but that if he says no (likely), Billy Gillespie is willing to listen to leaving Kentucky. The latter is not under contract at Kentucky.

Thoughts? Interesting, as I pointed out earlier, that Okla St seems to be getting better names than IU could get -no offense to Crean or the great program at IU. It's just that Okla St doesn't have the skeletons to clean out of the closet right now.

 

I don't personally think that Billy G is any better than Crean. His name status shot up by being at UK. I would put Crean and G equal at best. If I had to pick one, I'd pick Crean easily. IU did a good job by hiring him. Not the best hire they could get, but a good one. I'm optimistic he'll do well there, but I'm not 100% yet.

That said, I still believe that OK ST can get some people to listen that IU could not because of the clouds surrounding the program in Bloomington these days. Ten years ago the IU job easily was a higher job than OK ST. Now, it's a toss-up, and there are many that I talk to that would argue I'm being generous and biased because of my affection for IU.

It seems OK ST can financially lure people that others cannot. I don't think Sean Miller's buyout would be a problem for them should they go his way. Personally, I have only heard that their list consists of the two names we're talking about.

One thing to remember about Self: he currently makes $1.4 million per year. That puts him well behind the big names in basketball. He may feel he deserves big name pay now that he has won a national title. Will OK ST give him more than KU? Will KU be able to match it? Will they want to?

And never discount the power of alma mater. Sometimes that can be an X factor if the money is equal. Personally, I'd say Self stays at KU after they bump his salary. Then it's going to be interesting to see what transpires in terms of who OK ST would go after and if they did lure Billy Clyde Gillespie, who the heck would UK get? Who would KU get if Self did leave? What happens if OK ST can't get either of the two? Well, that's not so big because there are plenty of big fish out there. Someone is going to be sorry if they don't snatch up Miller (No, I'm not his agent) or Drake's Keno Davis or VCU's Anthony Grant. And for OK ST, here's a wild name to throw out: Bobby Knight. He loved Henry Iba. You don't think he'd relish that history?

 

Self is staying at KU.

I don't think UK would come after Pelph yet. They still think they could get a marquee name. However, I believe Pelph was SEC coach of the year in my book.