Everybody’s talking about who the next Oklahoma State men’s basketball coach will be.
Here’s guessing the one guy we don’t hear much from about the subject until the hire’s done is Mike Holder.
Watch my latest video commentary or read below:
When Mike Holder next steps behind the podium at a hastily called press conference, he’ll be joined by the next men’s basketball coach at Oklahoma State.
Who will it be?
That, of course, is the million dollar question. Or the five or six million dollar question, depending on how deep you believe Boone Pickens’ pockets are.
I don’t pretend to have any great insight on who Holder will hire. Heck, listening to him earlier this week, the OSU athletic director didn’t have any great insight on the subject either. That could make for some interesting days ahead.
Many Cowboy fans are frustrated by Sean Sutton’s ouster. Their emotions run from consternation to out-and-out infuriation. Their reasons are varied. Some say two years just wasn’t enough time. Others say Sutton was showing signs of promise. Still others say the Sutton family deserved better for all that it has done for the university.
Truth is, even the angriest Cowboy fans will soften their stance if Holder hires a slam dunk of a coach. Go get a name. Go get an established guy or even a bright up and comer that everyone knows. Go make a splash hire, a hire that makes people sit up and say, “Wow,” and many sore feelings well be soothed.
But hire a guy that makes people furrow their brow and say, “Who?” and the grumbling and the rumbling from the orange-clad faithful will surely intensify.
This isn’t to say that Holder has to go get Bill Self or Billy Gillespie. Those two guys hold top-five jobs in college basketball, so the chances of luring them away from Kansas and Kentucky to Stillwater are, well, pretty much zero.
There are plenty of other big-time coaches. USC’s Tim Floyd. Minnesota’s Tubby Smith. Drake’s Keno Davis. Xavier’s Sean Miller. A coach like that would be good for OSU and great for Holder.
Make a good hire, and many of those Cowboy fans who are frustrated now will start to mellow. They still might not agree with Sutton being shown the door, but they will start to come around. To think the change might be worth it. To get excited about their basketball program again.
But if Holder makes a shoulder-shrug hire, he might have a full-fledged revolt on his hands. The new guy might very well be a qualified coach, might very well make people forget their anger one day, but in the short term, all will not be well in the OSU family.
Holder had better go out and find somebody good to stand next to him at that next press conference.