The Harvard Business Review has a really interesting article up with the back story of how Coach K got the Olympic job and who really pushed him for it: Dean Smith, of all people.
There is a lot of really, really interesting detail in here, including the basic requirements Jerry Colangelo came up with for a coach: integrity, passion, transparency, and empathy.
They could always change that for the next time around, but assuming they don't, who does that rule out? You'd have to think integrity is a strike against Rick Pitino given his recent legal and family issues and, depending on what coaches know but don't repeat, possibly John Calipari as well. He certainly wasn't the most stable guy in the world with the Nets, which would tend to rule out transparency.
A couple of other names have come up in the general conversation: Doug Collins, Doc Rivers and of course Greg Popovich.
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- Dean Smith gave Coach K an Olympic-sized leg up in '05