MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[Next Man Up]

Another week with no announcement of the new NCC HC. This despite widespread speculation since at least a week ago today that a selection, known to many, had been made. However, the reason for the delay remains a mystery. Meanwhile, many from among the NCC basketball family continue to call and send notes in support of the peoples' choice. Could this unending support be causing some rethinking, and explain the delay? Probably not, but hope springs eternal.

My basketball "spider sense" (and past experiences in this EXACT situation) tells me that, with this playing out over an extended timeline like this, the candidate who received the initial offer has turned it down and NCC has moved on to their #2. Seems to me that of the four finalists, 3 of them would have immediately accepted the job (Figueroa, Kelly, Kmiec) and the other (Kennedy) would be a 50/50 proposition at best.

Seems you "spider sense" needs a little more sense. From the highlighted wording it appears you are not aware that Anthony Figueroa is who received the offer.
And while neither he nor NCC has "moved on" as yet, it appears that has become a real possibility. Based on a phone call I just received from Seattle, it seems the problem which has caused the delay is that the parties are quite far apart over the issue of compensation. In fact, the difference might be as much as $25K. In reality, Coach Figueroa is, not surprisingly, probably asking for more than he is worth, and NCC isn't offering as much as they should be. Is compromise possible? Will NCC just rescind the offer? Who knows?
The truth is, the Selection Committee has badly butchered the whole process until now. They have disrespected a member of their own family who for 12 years has been a dedicated, loyal, and successful student-athlete, graduate assistant, assistant coach and head assistant, learning for 12 years from one of the top 30 coaches in the history of D3 who went to the national tournament 15 times. If the parties do indeed move on, the logical and correct thing to do would be for the Selection Committee to offer the job to Vince Kmiec. Vince has received universal support from current players, past players, parents, alums, other NCC staff members, and boosters alike. People that go back to the 1950s who are deeply interwoven into the very fabric and atmosphere of North Central basketball. Certainly everyone who has been involved with NCC basketball since 2010 when Vince first appeared on campus. Vince wants this job, and he's prepared for it for 12 years. He has more than earned his shot. What more does the Selection Committee want? If an agreement can't be quickly reached with Coach Figueroa, the Committee should do the right thing and offer Vince the job. If an agreement is reached Vince would be a great top assistant as he has been for four years. Not continuing to have him in either capacity would prove disastrous to the NCC program on several fronts.

[itsnotmeitsyou]

Another week with no announcement of the new NCC HC. This despite widespread speculation since at least a week ago today that a selection, known to many, had been made. However, the reason for the delay remains a mystery. Meanwhile, many from among the NCC basketball family continue to call and send notes in support of the peoples' choice. Could this unending support be causing some rethinking, and explain the delay? Probably not, but hope springs eternal.

My basketball "spider sense" (and past experiences in this EXACT situation) tells me that, with this playing out over an extended timeline like this, the candidate who received the initial offer has turned it down and NCC has moved on to their #2. Seems to me that of the four finalists, 3 of them would have immediately accepted the job (Figueroa, Kelly, Kmiec) and the other (Kennedy) would be a 50/50 proposition at best.

Seems you "spider sense" needs a little more sense. From the highlighted wording it appears you are not aware that Anthony Figueroa is who received the offer.
And while neither he nor NCC has "moved on" as yet, it appears that has become a real possibility. Based on a phone call I just received from Seattle, it seems the problem which has caused the delay is that the parties are quite far apart over the issue of compensation. In fact, the difference might be as much as $25K. In reality, Coach Figueroa is, not surprisingly, probably asking for more than he is worth, and NCC isn't offering as much as they should be. Is compromise possible? Will NCC just rescind the offer? Who knows?
The truth is, the Selection Committee has badly butchered the whole process until now. They have disrespected a member of their own family who for 12 years has been a dedicated, loyal, and successful student-athlete, graduate assistant, assistant coach and head assistant, learning for 12 years from one of the top 30 coaches in the history of D3 who went to the national tournament 15 times. If the parties do indeed move on, the logical and correct thing to do would be for the Selection Committee to offer the job to Vince Kmiec. Vince has received universal support from current players, past players, parents, alums, other NCC staff members, and boosters alike. People that go back to the 1950s who are deeply interwoven into the very fabric and atmosphere of North Central basketball. Certainly everyone who has been involved with NCC basketball since 2010 when Vince first appeared on campus. Vince wants this job, and he's prepared for it for 12 years. He has more than earned his shot. What more does the Selection Committee want? If an agreement can't be quickly reached with Coach Figueroa, the Committee should do the right thing and offer Vince the job. If an agreement is reached Vince would be a great top assistant as he has been for four years. Not continuing to have him in either capacity would prove disastrous to the NCC program on several fronts.

My "spider sense" was exactly on point.

I would have ranked the candidates in a clearly different order than NCC and had Kmiec in a tie for 3rd.

[USee]

If this process works like most, the selection committee makes its recommendations to the AD and the AD makes the final choice. It doesn't always happen that the AD goes with the committees' choice. Again, I have no knowledge of the committee/AD dynamic at NCC but the AD is usually the person who decides.

[deepthroat]

Seriously, what's with the politicking?

[Next Man Up]

Seriously, what's with the politicking?

Seriously, read back through the last few pages and you might understand.

[cciwman]

Reading back through just provides cryptic statements which does not explain the true issues.  Is this an issue with not hiring a NCC man or supposed Figuroa who is the supposed coach offered?  I believe I read someone state they were fine with him or one of the NCC guys. 

[markerickson]

I infrequently visit this place and so maybe the answer to my questions appear on pgs XX.  Do people know the composition (names/titles) of the search committee?  Is it normal to have a committee present its top pick to the AD?  I presume the AD had a spot on the committee and thus participated in the interviews.

[Gregory Sager]

If it seems cryptic, cciwman, maybe it'll help if we spell out what we've seen in this room thus far.

As best as I can tell, the "true issues" are this:

* Anthony Figueroa, the highly-successful head men's basketball coach of downstate juco Parkland College, was offered the NCC head coaching job about ten days or so ago. Figueroa has no four-year-college head coaching experience, but he has served as an assistant in the D3 ranks, most notably at Millikin during the Marc Smith era. Figueroa also played for, and graduated from, Millikin a couple of decades ago after transferring there from Chicago State.

It is not a secret that Figueroa has been offered the job. Multiple unrelated sources both in this room and on Twitter have disclosed that fact, and that disclosure's been going on for days now.

* Next Man Up, who has been a North Central men's basketball insider throughout the Todd Raridon era, wants Raridon's top assistant, Vince Kmiec, to get the job, and has relentlessly politicked for him on this board -- although until a couple of days ago he had refrained from identifying Kmiec by name, for whatever reason. By "relentlessly politicked" I mean that, after laying out the case for Kmiec (a sound one, I should add), he's reposted it several times, leading me (at least) to conclude that he's less concerned with swaying this board's regular readership, since we all read his first post and are thus aware of his case for Kmiec, and is more concerned with reaching someone with influence over the hiring. Politicking for Kmiec in this space does absolutely no good, of course -- the idea that an online fan discussion board could sway a hiring committee member or an AD is ludicrous -- but he's just as entitled to post whatever he likes as is anyone else.

Or perhaps he's not relentlessly politicking, but is simply posting the same thing over and over again out of emotional desperation over the thought that the powers that be might hire the wrong guy. That's entirely understandable, and could also explain his repetitive posting. Of course, I'm speculating. Only Next Man Up can explain why he keeps posting the case for Kmiec.

Finally, in fairness to him, he's also referred to Figueroa as "a good man, and a good coach." He's made no bones about the fact that his Plan B is for Figueroa to retain Kmiec as NCC's second chair.

* Next Man Up, who does have the best NCC men's basketball sources of anyone who posts here, posted on Saturday that the school's delay in announcing the hiring of Figueroa is attibutable to the fact that Figueroa and the school don't see eye-to-eye at this point on how much he should get paid to run the Cardinals men's basketball program. The hiring process is thus still in a state of limbo until: a) Figueroa and North Central agree upon a compensation package; b) North Central withdraws its offer and moves on to the next candidate it's willing to hire; or c) Figueroa withdraws his candidacy, and NCC moves on to the next guy in line. That seems to be where we stand right now.

[Gregory Sager]

Incidentally, if when the smoke clears Todd Kelly doesn't get the North Central job, I'd love to see him get the Benedictine job. That's not because hiring Kelly would serve as a strongly anti-racist statement by Benedictine University in the aftermath of the Keith Bunkenburg fiasco -- although it obviously would -- but simply because Kelly is a proven coach with a successful NACC head coaching background who would be a smart hire by BU. Plus, it would add a ton of spice to the Maple Ave./Chicago Ave. neighborhood rivalry between BU and NCC if their respective head coaches were former Millikin teammates and long-time friends.

(And the idea that Chicagoland D3 men's basketball would then have a bona-fide Tim Littrell coaching tree kinda makes me chuckle. )

[WUPHF]

Fun, but otherwise meaningless fact: Anthony Figueroa coached as an assistant at Lackawanna College in Scranton, Pennsylvania.

Todd Kelly to Benedictine, I like that.

[Gregory Sager]

Fun, but otherwise meaningless fact: Anthony Figueroa coached as an assistant at Lackawanna College in Scranton, Pennsylvania.

It's meaningful to Office fans like us who are always looking to get our scrant on.

(I wonder if Figueroa was in charge of quabity control while he was on the Lackawanna staff?)

[cciwman]

Gregory Sager, thanks for the recap and dotting a few i(s).

From your summary, it appears the loyalty to a Cardinal has provided much of the fire.  Besides the delay on coming to terms on contract and not being a D3 head coach in the past, I don't see a negative in Figuroa.  Just looked him up and see annual trips to the Juco National Championships lately where there are no at-large bids.  So he has coached a team annually to win the big game to earn a bid, and they did it. 

[WUPHF]

It's meaningful to Office fans like us who are always looking to get our scrant on.

I must have posted this years ago, but for anyone who has not see the Ringer's A Complete Breakdown of 'The Office' Basketball Game, this is a must watch.  Office fans for sure.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iH8qgFmiISM&t=65s

[USee]

Interestingly, Q tweeted this last week:

"Just had a long talk with someone closely connected with the North Central athletic dept, and wow, there is a lot of stuff going on.  Not gonna tweet details out of respect for all the great people there, but holy smokes."

I'm guessing his source is NOT Next Man up!

[Pat Coleman]

There are definitely a lot of people talking about this hiring process, the people involved, and the non-athletics people involved in athletics at North Central.