Rumors are flying that Kansas Assistant Coach Barry Hinson has accepted the head coaching position at Southern Illinois and that KU Legend Danny Manning will take over for the Tulsa Golden Hurricane.
While this certainly could be a distraction, both coaches were seen stepping off the team bus in New Orleans. Coach Self indicated that Manning’s deal was anything but done but did verify that conversations took place.
More than anything, this is a testament to Bill Self. Good Assistants get head coaching jobs because of success with their former boss. The bigger loss here would be Manning because of his development of KU’s Big Uglies. Manning has been at KU since 2007 and has helped boost the NBA Resumes of Darnell Jackson, Sasha Kaun, Shady Arthur, Cole Aldrich, the Morri Twins, Thomas Robinson, and Jeff Withey.
Hinson had been Director of Basketball Operations and by all indications, was a helluva good guy and a great dresser to boot.
Sad to see Manning and Hinson go (I hate Goodbyes!) but Tulsa and another stop might be good training ground for Danny to eventually succeed his mentor Bill Self at Manning’s alma mater. After all, Self got his stripes in Tulsa (after Oral Roberts) and that’s turned out pretty well!
Rock Chalk!
It looks like Manning got the better gig. Southern Illinois has been awful the last couple of years.
You are correct. Alford was a helluva coach too. SMS has had some pretty good ones since the mid-90′s. Cuonzo Martin was solid before he recently left.
Teej,
Think Steve Alford coached that ’98 team. Barry never took an SMS team to the Big Dance. He got jobbed a couple of times and went to the NIT
Hinson coached at SMS and is a good coach. Took one of his teams to the Sweet 16 (think it was ’98) and gave Duke a run for their money before losing in that round. Looks like he is returning to the Missouri Valley.