Auburn's next basketball coach will find a roster full of inexperience

[AUChizad]

http://blog.al.com/press-register-sports/2010/03/auburns_next_basketball_coach.html

Auburn's next basketball coach will find a roster full of inexperience

By Evan Woodbery
March 16, 2010, 6:28AM

AUBURN -- Whoever is hired to be Auburn's next basketball coach will face a rebuilding task as daunting as the one Jeff Lebo faced in 2005.


 Lebo was fired Friday after finishing his fifth losing SEC season in six years. His successor will inherit a team loaded with promising youngsters, but lacking significant experience at virtually every position.

 
 Auburn's five departing seniors -- DeWayne Reed, Tay Waller, Lucas Hargrove, Brendon Knox and Johnnie Lett -- were on the floor nearly 4,000 minutes of basketball (62 percent of the time). They accounted for 68.7 percent of the Tigers' points, 61.4 percent of individual rebounds and 68 percent of assists.


 The incoming class, which contains four freshmen and two junior college players, could make or break the new coach's early success.

 
 Canton, Ga., center Shawn Kemp is the biggest name of the class -- both for his heritage (his namesake is a former NBA star) and his size.

 
 But the two junior college players could also provide immediate help, especially point guard Anthony Salter, a Tallahassee, Fla., native who went to junior college in Iowa.

 
 Frankie Sullivan is Auburn's top returning player, and he will be thrust into a leadership role as a junior. Earnest Ross, Kenny Gabriel, Andre Malone and Ty Armstrong were role players this year, but will have to score more points and play more minutes next season.

 
 Auburn Athletic Director Jay Jacobs has cautioned that his search for a new coach won't be completed quickly.

 
 His search for a new football coach in 2008 was methodical and by the book. Jacobs insisted on going "through the front door" with every candidate, formally requesting permission to conduct interviews before approaching a coach.

 
 Although the search for a new baseball coach in the summer of 2008 garnered much less attention, Jacobs was equally deliberate before hiring John Pawlowski from the College of Charleston. That search lasted nearly a month and Jacobs said he interviewed roughly a dozen candidates.

 
 He probably won't have the luxury to be that patient for a higher-profile men's basketball job, but it's considered standard practice to wait out at least the first round of the NCAA tournament.

 If nothing else, that will buy Jacobs some time to gather names and conduct under-the-radar interviews of candidates who are no longer participating in the postseason.

 
 Gene Chizik emerged almost out of nowhere as a candidate for Auburn's football position, and was formally hired 24 hours later. Jacobs hinted in a note to fans over the weekend that many of the guesses at his candidate list could be equally wrong this time around.

 
 "Rumor and speculation will be rampant in the coming days," Jacobs wrote. "As in past searches, much, if not most, of what you may read or hear will be wrong. We will not refute rumors or comment on who will or won't be considered or who has or hasn't been interviewed. Our sole goal is to find the right man for Auburn."