Clemson pursued Mississippi State's Rick Stansbury, only to be rejected, which may turn out to be a lucky break.
Gary Parrish reports that Clemson appears to be focusing now on Wright State's Brad Brownell and that they might strike a deal within days.
Wright State is in the Horizon League with Butler, and they finished second this season behind the Bulldogs and have generally been competitive with Butler.
If we're Clemson fans, we're much happier with the notion of Brownell rather than Stansbury. By the way, we're pretty sure he was Wilmington's coach when they very nearly upset Maryland in 2003. His first season at Wilmington so Seahawks finished 15-15; since then, Brownell is one of the 19 games each season. That may not sound like much, but it's a lot harder to do in the CAA and the Horizon League than in a bigger conference.
Coincidentally, like Brad Stevens, Brownell is a graduate of DePauw.
Meanwhile, up in Winston-Salem, Ron Wellman appears to be close with Jeff Bzdelik, who could be announced Wednesday.
Bzdelik has taken some criticism for running a Princeton-based offense, but it's worth noting that he did a nice job with the Nuggets, where he turned in a 26 game improvement, taking them from 17-65 to 43-39. Nobody in the NBA runs a Princeton-based offense, so presumably he has some other tricks up his sleeve. And no doubt, Wellman remembers that his Air Force team beat the holy crap out of Skip Prosser's Wake Forest.
- Mississippi State coach turns down Clemson
- Wake talks with Buffs' Bzdelik about coaching job
- Wake to compound mistake
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