None of those names really excite me, but then again I don't know if there's really one who would. Auburn -- for whatever reason you want to use -- is not in a position to draw a top-flight coach. Blame apathy, fanbase, facilities (not anymore), tradition, location, coaching, clueless AD, whatever makes you happy but the reality is that Auburn just isn't an attractive job.
We're going to have to find somebody looking for the next rung on the ladder and hope that he'll find enough to like about AU to stick around for a while.
At some point I'd hope we'd get back to having a program that's relatively competitive.
At the moment, however, I'd settle for a coach who could bring the following to the table:
1) Enthusiasm. It would be nice to have a coach who could energize the team and make people realize Auburn has a basketball team. Lebo rarely ventured out, he had zero relationship with the high school coaches in the state (something that was also apparent after two years) and he was an underwhelming recruiter.
2) Confidence. I'm sick of mealy mouth, "we really tried hard and I hope we get better.." I want somebody who has the nuts to say what he WILL do.
3) Fundamentals. I never saw a cohesive philosophy of offense, defense or gameplanning with Lebo. We consistently shot free throws like the ball was square, the "run and gun" was nothing but reckless backyard ball and we rarely had any effective ball movement. Everything was sloppy and poorly executed.
Auburn basketball is in about the same situation as Auburn football circa 1980. The wrong hire then could have plunged us into a Mississippi State-esque abyss from which we might never have recovered. I shudder to think of what could have happened had we hired some of the others under consideration at the time.
I keep hearing about how people trust Jacobs to make the right hire because Chizik "turned out so well" but spunk on a cracker, people, he's been there one season and had moderate success. It's WAY too early to turn that spigot of love on. This is a critical hire for anybody who gives half a damn about AU basketball.
The right guy resurrects the program in two years. The wrong guy will just extend the misery of the last six years (which any fool knows should have been three, max).
FWIW, I'm beginning to think Alabama made a poor selection in Anthony "Just because he's black" Grant. He doesn't bring much enthusiasm to the program, he hasn't made any real inroads with the high school coaches, he doesn't seem to have a lot of confidence and Bama's fundamentals were hardly better than Auburn's.
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