Who won the coaching carousel? Grading the SEC men’s basketball coaching hires
South Carolina is expected to hire Chattanooga head coach Lamont Paris to replace Frank Martin in Columbia, per a Monday night report from Pete Thamel and Jeff Borzello of ESPN.
So where does potential Paris’ hiring rank among the Southeastern Conference coaching moves during the 2022 carousel? Let’s rank the hires.
1. Matt McMahon (Murray State) — LSU
McMahon had his name thrown around for just about every major college opening in America this cycle and with good reason.
He finishes his time at Murray State as the winningest head coach at the school since 1975, recruited Ja Morant and owns two of the Racers’ five second round NCAA tournament appearances.
There was some thought McMahon would land at South Carolina given, among other reasons, he and Gamecocks football coach Shane Beamer have been friends dating back to their time as graduate assistants at Tennessee. Instead, McMahon heads to Baton Rouge with LSU under a cloud of NCAA sanctions.
The Tigers fired Will Wade for a slew of major NCAA violations, and while it’s unclear what kind of punishment the school will face, it’s likely to be severe.
That said, LSU is one of the better basketball jobs in the league and will pay as such. McMahon is slated to make between $2.6 million and $3.2 million annually over the duration of his seven-year contract, per The Advocate.
This might take time for McMahon to build depending on how hard the NCAA cracks down, but he profiles like a home run if he’s given ample time.
2. Dennis Gates (Cleveland State) — Missouri
Yeah, you’re going to see a few names that South Carolina swung at on this list — Gates being the next one.
The former Cleveland State head coach’s track record included a 39-19 mark guiding the Vikings over his final two seasons and an NCAA tournament appearance in 2021. That’s not the world’s longest resume, but he’s well thought of in college basketball circles.
More than anything, though, I think Gates fits really nicely in the other Columbia.
Missouri is, on paper, more of a Midwest job than it is a Southeastern spot when compared with its SEC brethren. Gates was born in Chicago and worked as an assistant at Marquette and Northern Illinois early in his career. He’s also familiar with the South from his highly successful run next under Leonard Hamilton at Florida State.
Gates is the kind of coach who could’ve been a fit most places, but I think he’s a great match for first-year athletic director Desiree Reed-Francois. If McMahon is a home run, I think this is a double with room to grow.
3. Todd Golden (San Francisco) — Florida
Golden reached the NCAA tournament in 2022 despite having to compete with Gonzaga and St. Mary’s in his own league. That deserves praise in itself.
The former St. Mary’s guard is more of a West Coast guy by trade, but he’s coached enough places (Columbia and Auburn) that I think he can work out well at Florida. Throw in the fact the Gators are one of just four SEC teams to have made the Final Four since 2010 and there’s high-upside here.
I’m not totally convinced Golden wouldn’t have worked better at a Pac-12 school, thus causing me to slide this down my rankings a smidge. (I had this ahead of Jans at first glance.)
The biggest question here is what will appease the Gator faithful? Mike White (more on him in a second) was basically run out of town for not reaching Billy Donovan’s lofty standards. We’ll see if Florida’s newest coach can hit those marks.
Trepidation aside, Golden is a really sharp basketball mind with some previous SEC experience as an assistant. He’ll have all the resources to compete at a national level at UF.
4. Chris Jans (New Mexico State) — Mississippi State
To be clear, I love this hire for Mississippi State.
Jans was a proven winner over his time at New Mexico State and fits the blue-collar attitude needed to succeed in Starkville.
He finished his time in Las Cruces with three NCAA tournament berths and likely would’ve had a fourth had the 2020 tournament not been canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Jans was also wildly successful as a head coach at the junior college level in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
MSU has a better recent basketball history than most realize, having reached the postseason six times in eight years under Rick Stansbury between 2001 and 2009.
The program was a bit of a mess following the NCAA sanctions Stansbury left in his wake, but Ben Howland steadied the ship over his seven years at MSU — recording a winning record in all but two years and notching the Bulldogs’ first tournament appearance in a decade.
Jans was fired as the head coach job at Bowling Green in 2015 due to inappropriate behavior at a bar involving a woman. If the off-the-court issues are behind him, I think Jans can make MSU a steady presence in the top half of the league.
The only reason I ranked this hire below Golden is there’s a higher ceiling at Florida than MSU.
5. Mike White (Florida) — Georgia
Full disclosure: This was the hardest hire for me to peg.
It’s rare Georgia hires a sitting head coach from a power conference program, especially one as well-respected and established as White. However, Tom Crean came to Athens after a generally successful run at Indiana and was a complete train wreck.
White is certainly not as volatile as Crean and he did reach four NCAA tournaments (not including the canceled 2020 event), three second rounds and an Elite Eight over his seven years at UF.
The biggest knock on the former Ole Miss guard is that he never reached the heights Donovan did during his time at Florida. Fair or not, there’s something to be said for inheriting a program that went to three Elite Eights and a Final Four in the five years prior and never consistently replicating that success.
Despite where I ranked it, I like this hire and I think White will bring the Bulldogs legitimate name recognition in the college basketball world. I do wonder what the ceiling is considering Georgia last reached the Sweet 16 in 1996 and has made just three NCAA tournaments since 2002.
This may be the best hire in the cycle five years from now if White makes UGA a steady winner. It also might devolve into another middle-of-the-road run for a Georgia program under a coach that didn’t win big enough at a program with more resources than his new one.
6. Lamont Paris (Chattanooga) — South Carolina
That Paris is at the bottom of this list has as much to do with his new administration and what other SEC schools did than anything else.
South Carolina’s public flirtations with Sean Miller are well-documented and created a public relations mess when he headed to Xavier instead of Columbia. It’s also been reported USC courted McMahon, Gates, Furman head coach Bob Richey and former Gamecocks legend BJ Mckie.
Point being, Paris was pretty clearly not the No. 1 choice.
This isn’t to say the former Chattanooga head coach can’t have success at South Carolina. He worked for five years under Bo Ryan during Wisconsin’s run to the top of college basketball before being elevated to associate head coach — or the functional No. 2 — under Greg Gard in Madison.
Paris was literally one missed jumper away from upsetting Illinois in the first round of this year’s NCAA tournament. Is there more shine to this hire if the Mocs win that one and are into the second round or Sweet 16? Perhaps.
Combine a 65-28 record over his final three years at Chattanooga with a consistent ability to real in talent via the transfer portal, and I think Paris can be a good get for South Carolina.
The biggest problem here, though, is the search to land Paris — by most accounts — was not well-executed, and his resume is among the shortest of any of the SEC’s new men’s basketball hires.
This story was originally published March 22, 2022 at 12:21 PM.
