Here We Go Again

I have been dreading this day for over a year.  Ever since Danero Thomas hit that buzzer beater to defeat Vanderbilt in the first round of last year's NCAA tournament, I knew that it was only a matter of time before a larger school that could offer a larger salary would come knocking on Billy Kennedy's door.  Yesterday Texas A&M and their sacks full of cash lured Coach Kennedy away from one the best coaching jobs in the country.  Kennedy had just signed a contract extension that would have raised his salary to $225,000, which pales in comparison to the $1.3 to $1.5 million that A&M was reportedly offering.  I wish him the best of luck in his new job and now have a new favorite team in the Big 12 Conference.  Hopefully he will have more success that his predecessors.

Ron Greene (1978-1985) was before my time but is a good place to start.  His MSU record was 119-78, 63-35 in the OVC.  He won 3 regular season titles and reached the NIT 3 times winning 2 games.  He left Murray State for Indiana State where his teams went 31-79.  He later coached both Calloway County and Murray High.

Steve Newton (1985-1991) was 116-65 with a 57-21 OVC record.  He won 4 regular season and 3 tournament titles.  In 1988 he beat NC State in the NCAA tournament then lost by 3 to the eventual national champions Kansas.  That was the closest game that Kansas played in the tournament which, in my opinion, makes MSU the national runners-up that year.  In 1990 the 16th seeded Racers took #1 seeded Michigan State to overtime.  No 16 seed has ever come closer to beating a 1.  He had an NIT appearance to go along with his 3 times in NCAA.  Newton left Murray for South Carolina.  His record there was 20-35.

Scott Edgar (1991-1995) 74-40, 48-14, 3 regular season titles, 2 tournament titles.  He left Murray for Duquesne University, where he went 29-55.  Later he coached at SEMO going 15-48.  He is currently the head coach of Eastern Oklahoma State College.

Mark Gottfried (1995-1998) 68-24, 40-12, 3 regular season, 2 tournament.  His 210-131 record at Alabama looks good but he went 83-82 in the SEC.  The Tide reached the post season 8 of his 10 1/2 seasons.  They reached the elite eight in 2004 and for 2 weeks in 2002 was the #1 ranked team in the nation.  He was recently hired to coach NC State.

Tevester Anderson (1998-2003) 103-52, 50-24, 2 regular season, 2 tournament.  Anderson then went to Jackson State where his record is 112-115.

Mick Cronin (2003-2006) 69-24, 42-10, 1 regular season, 2 tournament.  Cronin is 87-76 at Cincinnati and won a game in the NCAA tournament this year.

Billy Kennedy (2006-2011) 107-53, 70-24, 2 regular season, 1 tournament.  That is the second highest winning percentage of anyone to coach 100 games behind only Carlisle Cutchin (267-101) who started it all back in 1925.

So far none of our former coaches been able to establish a program that compares with the one that they left.  Murray State has had 24 consecutive winning seasons, the fourth longest streak in the nation.  We will continue to win no matter who the new coach is.  But we will never reach the national success of a Gonzaga unless we can get a coach who will spurn the bigger schools to build the program at Murray.  I do not know how much Mark Few makes at Gonzaga but I am sure that he could at least double it if he was willing to leave.

That is why I would like to put in a plug for John Pelphrey.  He has had only moderate success as a head coach, 149-126 at South Alabama and Arkansas, but I think he would be a good fit for us.  He is from Kentucky and already has a bank account full of SEC money.  That is the perfect resume to get a long term coach.