Woody Woodrum names candidates

Woody Woodrum of the Herd Insider (http://www.goherd.com/) has listed possible candidates to repalce departing men's basketball coach Donnie Jones:

Names expected to be thrown out for a new coach would include Mike D'Antoni, currently the head coach of the New York Knicks after serving a similar position with the Phoenix Suns. D'Antoni was a point guard for the Herd in 1970-73.

Current top MU assistant Shawn Finney has head coaching experience, having led the Tulane program in Conference USA and worked for Tubby Smith at Tulsa, also a member of C-USA, and Kentucky. He is a native of Mullens, W.Va. and an alum of Fairmont State (W.Va.) University.

The current coach at Tulsa is Doug Wojcik, a native of Wheeling, W.Va. and an alum of Wheeling Central Catholic High School and the Naval Academy, where he played with David Robinson.

Jeff Battle is currently an assistant coach at Wake Forest University in the ACC and is also a former Marshall point guard from 1981-85.

A former Marshall assistant is now the head coach at West Virginia State University in Institute, W.Va. in Brian Poore. Poore worked at Marshall for White and has coached the Yellow Jackets to WVIAC titles in the state's premier Division II league.

Another state coach with a great deal of success is Bob Bolen at Mountain State University in Beckley, W.Va. The NAIA school has won a national championship under Bolen and is a yearly participant in the NAIA National Tournament in Kansas City, Mo., where Marshall won its only national championship in basketball under Coach Cam Henderson in 1946-47. Bolen was named the NAIA National Coach of the Year this season.

A coach Marshall Director of Athletics Mike Hamrick, hired in the summer of 2009, is familiar with is current UNLV assistant Steve Henson. Henson is in his sixth year as assistant coach at UNLV, where Hamrick was A.D. before returning to his alma mater last summer. In the summer of 2007, he was recognized as one of the top 25 assistant coaches in the country by Rivals.com. Henson, a six-season NBA veteran, came to UNLV to work for current Rebels head coach Lon Kruger in the spring of 2004 after spending one year as an assistant coach at the University of South Florida. Prior to working at USF, he spent time as an assistant coach as well as an advance scout for the NBA's Atlanta Hawks from 2001-03 working under Kruger and then Terry Stotts. Henson, 41, also worked for Kruger at the University of Illinois as an assistant coach in 1999-2000. A four-year starter at Kansas State University from 1986-90, Henson was a two-time honorable mention All-American and earned All-Big Eight Conference honors as a junior and senior. He played in the NBA for the Milwaukee Bucks, who drafted Henson in the second round out of K-State in 1990, as well as the Atlanta Hawks, the Charlotte Hornets, the Portland Trail Blazers and the Detroit Pistons in a six-year career. Like D'Antoni, Henson also played in the Italian League, then later the pro leagues in Greece, for three more seasons.

Another coach in the mix maybe Buzz Peterson, the head coach at Appalachian State. Peterson coached ASU from 1996-2000, then returned this season to lead the Mountaineers to the semi-finals of the CIT, falling in Boone, N.C. to Pacific. Moving from the SC to C-USA would definitely be a step up in prestige and competition for Peterson, who also was the head coach of the Tennessee Volunteers and worked with the NBA team in Charlotte.

Former UTEP and Kentucky coach Billy Gillispie may hear his name come up at Marshall, but is currently one of the front-runners for the vacant Houston Cougars job in Conference USA, following the resignation of long-time UH coach Tom Penders. Penders led the Cougars to the C-USA title this season, winning four games in the tournament including knocking off the No. 2-seeded Memphis Tigers and the No. 1-seeded UTEP Miners, earning Houston's first trip to the NCAA Tournament since 1992.

Pete Gillen had success at both Xavier and Virginia, and has done numerous games over the past few seasons in Conference USA for CBS College Sports Network, while Tim Floyd, formerly of USC, recruited Huntington, W.Va. for O.J. Mayo who spent a season with the Trojans before moving onto the NBA and the Memphis Grizzlies.

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