The coaching carousal out here in the west could really get interesting over the next few weeks. As of right now two Pac-10 schools have opening, Washington State and Arizona. But there also rumors that Oregon and USC could be opening up. The administrations at Washington State wants to have their new coach in place with in the week, among the front runners I hear is Portland State’s Ken Bone, along with St Mary's Coach Randy Bennett , U of San Diego coach Bill Grier and one of the Gonzaga assistants. For Arizona the guy who they seem to most interest in is Mark Few of Gonzaga, which would open up another top job out west. Last I heard Oregon still has a coach in Ernie Kent, and all indications are he will be retained, but that has not stopped people from speculating that he will be replaced by Mark Few or former Montana coach Blaine Taylor. The USC job gets a little more interesting. It appears that with John Calipari leaving Memphis for Kentucky, that Memphis has put USC coach Tim Floyd (former coach of Big Sky Conference school Idaho) at the top of there list, and Floyd could be very interested. As the rumors fly, Floyd could be very interested in getting out from under the shadow of USC football and moving closer to the south and Mississippi where he grew up, and has spent most of his life.

Now how this all effects Big Sky schools should be interesting to watch, after all of the shoes have dropped. For example even if Washington State were to hire St Mary’s or San Diego’s coach, I would bet Bone might be a strong candidate for the opening at those schools. The domino effect is bound to trickle down to the Big Sky Conference. The other coach who might get some interest in possible job openings I think is Weber’s Randy Rahe. I do not think any other Big Sky coach will generate a lot of interest, though, but I think there could be a big shake up in the assistant coaching ranks. For the Bobcats it appears that Temesghen Starr may be someone who could get some interest, but I think we should be able to retain the staff through this year, I would not be surprised at all if the Griz lost anyone of their assistants to larger school, and they all have a solid resume and a pretty good track record. Coaches DuChesne and Evans seem ready to move to larger programs if they want, and I could see Hill moving up the ladder in a similar level program.

So the coaching Carousal is turning and it should be interesting to see who lands where when it stops