In college basketball when you have success, it often means losing assistant coaches to head jobs elsewhere in the country. Florida already saw this last year with Kevin Hovde going to Columbia and John Andrzejek going to Campbell (both who had solid first seasons at difficult jobs, by the way) and it is quite possible they will see some losses this season as well. Here is a quick rundown of some of the jobs, or the caliber of jobs, Florida’s assistants could be looking for.
Carlin Hartman will be the trendiest name as the most experienced member of the staff and the associate head coach, and someone whose name has already been thrown around for some big jobs for the last couple of years. Given his experience at Oklahoma there was some thought he would be considered for that job if the Sooners chose to move on from Porter Moser, but he ultimately was retained. There was a run of high-major associates getting high-major head jobs a few years ago but that market has flipped, partially due to some poor performances such as with Kansas State and Jerome Tang, and the jobs available to Hartman could end up being more in the upper mid-major range. South Florida and Tulane are two to keep an eye on, with South Florida being a very attractive job to a lot of candidates at the moment.
Korey McCray, one of Florida’s top recruiters, has got some looks in the south where he is extremely connected in the grassroots space. Recently opened Georgia Southern is rumored to have interest in McCray, and this is the type of job he might be willing to jump for.
Dave Klatsky is an interesting candidate due to his experience at Colgate and NYU, as the Northeast is absolutely loaded with low and mid-major programs that would look to hire someone with his connections and pedigree. Siena is rumored to be looking at Klatsy, as well as Dartmouth–where Klatsky’s experience with high academic recruiting would be extremely valuable. With so many schools in the footprint where Klatsky would be considered, some dominoes for jobs that may not have even opened yet could fall that could make for some attractive options.
Jonathan Safir is also looking around for some head coaching positions and expressed interest in San Diego to get back to the west coast as well as some of the New York openings such as Siena to get closer to family. Safir doesn’t have a ton of years with “assistant coach” next to his name but has built a reputation around his innovative use of statistics and some programs could be drawn to the idea of a young coach with a different way of thinking.
In a past age of college basketball high-major assistants would jump at just about any head coaching opportunity, but things have changed. Salaries are higher than ever for assistants and Florida’s staff would make more than low-major head coaches, and with the changing climate of the sport there are a lot of tough jobs people might simply not be able to win at and some coaches won’t go to those places just to have a head coaching job like they once did. Florida has a fairly attractive pitch to keep these guys, but don’t be surprised if one or more do leave for head coaching jobs this cycle.