The hot topic within the sports program at Ball State University is the search for the next men’s basketball coach after Tim Buckley and his assistants were relieved of their coaching positions. On BSUFans.com, the Ball State sports fan message board, just about every single person you can think of has been thrown out there. There also seems to be some who think Mike Davis, IU’s former coach, should be our next coach. I would say that is pretty unlikely, as he has voiced his issues with mid-majors in the past. Other names thrown out that are pretty unrealistic are Steve Lavin and Rick Majerus.
When we ran the Buckley reassignment story on Thursday, I put together a list of four names that could be possible replacements and I still think they’re four of the most realistic ones. In no particular order:
Ray McCallum - He seems to be the most popular choice. For those who don’t know, Ray coached here from 1993-2000 and took BSU to two NCAA Tournaments before leaving for the head coaching position at Houston. He also played here from 79-83 and is widely considered to be one of the two greatest players ever at Ball State (Bonzi Wells being the other).
Tracy Webster - Tracy played college basketball at the University of Wisconsin in the mid 90s and was a pretty solid Big Ten Player. This past year, he was an assistant coach for Bruce Weber at Illinois, but before that, he was Tim Buckley’s assistant here at Ball State from 2000-2003. He is also cousins with Ball State’s freshman point guard, Maurice Acker.
Rob Evans - To be honest, I do not know too much about him. He was recently fired from Arizona State after eight seasons. The connection is that Ball State’s Athletics Director, Tom Collins, came here from Arizona State in January. I don’t know what the connection is between them, if there is a bond there or if they hate each other, but time will tell.
Andy Kennedy - My personal favorite to be the next coach here at Ball State. He just completed his first season as interim coach at Cincinnati, where the team finished 19-12 and was snubbed of a deserving bid to the NCAA Tournament. Word is that Cincinnati will not retain him. Kennedy did a good job considering he was left very little time to prepare for the season after Bob Huggins was forced to resign, and he seems like he would be a good fit for the Ball State program.
submitted by Phil Friend, Sports Editor
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