Article on University Coach Searches

[MU Fan in Connecticut]

Speaking of the annual "coaching carousel,"  The New Haven Register had an interesting article on how schools are finding coaches.  It's about local school Quinnipiac University, but it tells the story of fellow Jesuit University Fairfield U. and has plenty of mentions on UConn assistant coaches.  It's a little lengthy.
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http://www.nhregister.com/site/index.cfm?newsid=18111165&BRD=1281&PAG=461&dept_id=517515&rfi=8
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Schools turn to outside sources to find coaches
Brett Orzechowski, Register Staff
03/22/2007
 
   
 A number of colleges are turning to outside firms to conduct nationwide searches to fill coaching vacancies in revenue-generating sports like football and basketball. Photo Illustration by Register staff   
Last April at the Indianapolis Hilton, Gene Doris sat across the table from a man he would eventually entrust his largest revenue-producing sport with this winter. The odd thing, Doris remembered, is that he knew very little about a Boston College assistant coach named Ed Cooley except that he was on a list, and Doris was told to trust the list.


For eight years, Doris, the Fairfield University athletic director, watched Tim O’Toole try to resurrect the Stags. O’Toole arrived with much fanfare — an assistant to Mike Krzyzewski at Duke and longtime ties to Doris — but in March of last year, O’Toole resigned after the school announced it would not renew his contract. He was a hand-picked hire, but now Doris was left without a head men’s basketball coach.

 
He deferred his trust to an outside source instead of relying on his instincts. Doris and Fairfield hired a firm to conduct a national search, a practice common among major Division I schools with vacancies in revenue-generating sports like football and basketball. It’s a process now adopted by mid- and low-major institutions like Quinnipiac, which opted for a national search after it fired Joe DeSantis last week.

Now, one year after he hired Cooley, Doris said the investment was worth the time and money. The first-year coach did enough to satisfy Doris while establishing a base for the seasons to follow.

"You should always go for a national search. Basketball is a flagship sport for our institution, and if you don’t have football, basketball is going to drive the wheel," Doris said. "Too often you get in your little circle and you may miss someone like Ed who is out there. You’re going to see it changing. It’s going to be this way from this point forward and a pretty common practice."

THE FIRM

Quinnipiac sought consultation from Chicago-based DHR International. Fairfield hired the services of ChampSearch, a California firm run by Dana and David Pump, two men responsible for fertile college basketball pipelines, first with players and now with coaches.

Two men who have also been alleged to have questionable business practices, except the NCAA has never found the Pump brothers guilty of any improprieties.

DHR International was established as a business executive search firm with sports as a separate unit. ChampSearch was established with college basketball in mind.

Their intentions are the same.

The Pumps, 40-year-old identical twins, first ran adidas-sponsored basketball camps and the Double Pump youth program in California, then established a number of AAU programs across the country. They also ran a recruiting showcase, the Best of Summer Tournament, which, before the NCAA eliminated preseason contests in 2004, drew 192 teams with a $700 entrance fee.

The brothers’ main money-making stream was generated by their ticket business. A coach sold the brothers his Final Four passes, who in turn, sold the tickets to a California firm that sells travel packages. By 2002, the NCAA intervened and the practice has allegedly stopped, Dana Pump said.

Still, there are no NCAA bylaws banning schools from using consulting firms to find their next coach.

In 2005, Doris attended one of the Pumps’ annual seminars for athletic directors and coaches and was sold on the brothers’ track record over other consultants. In the end, Doris went with what drives any business — networking.

"I know every candidate, his wife’s name, their style of play," Dana Pump said. "If I don’t know someone, I have the best resources in college basketball to find out more on the guy. Schools reach out to us because I reach out to them. They know what I do. Other firms know what we’ve done and they look at us and what we’ve done.

"Perception is a funny thing, but we’re working just like the other firms. We don’t charge like those guys. It makes me sick to see and hear some of these numbers. So really, who’s ripping who off?"

The Pump brothers do have connections. Last year, they conducted 11 searches. This season, they began five before the NCAA tournament started. The next four weeks are the most crucial for an aspiring college basketball coach and for search firms.

Jobs will open, and in the same month, almost all will be filled. Last season, 48 Division I head coaching vacancies were filled within the weeks before and after the NCAA tournament, 14 percent of all positions in the country.

Over the last two years, they helped Reggie Theus get a job with New Mexico State, placed the late Maggie Dixon at West Point, helped Andy Kennedy earn the Ole Miss position and were hired by Tennessee to court Bruce Pearl away from Wisconsin-Milwaukee, which then hired the Pump brothers to find a new coach.

The Pumps work on a sliding scale — the bigger the school, the larger the commission. Tennessee paid $25,000 for their services. Doris would not disclose the amount Fairfield paid, but said it would not be wrong for a school to pay for this search because after all, hiring a basketball coach is now like hiring a business executive at any level.

As for Quinnipiac, athletic director Jack McDonald said the Pump brothers were on their list, but in the end, the university decided on DHR International with a division comprised of former Big Ten administrators. Pat Richter, now an executive vice president at DHR International, was the Wisconsin athletic director when McDonald held the same position at the University of Denver. The two men led both programs which play in the Western Collegiate Hockey Association.

McDonald added that price was not an issue when deciding on a firm. Like Fairfield, Quinnipiac, as a private institution, did not divulge the cost.

THE POOL

O’Toole resigned March 3, 2006, after the Stags lost in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference tournament.

Within five weeks, Doris stood on a podium to announce Cooley as Fairfield’s new head men’s basketball coach.

"It’s like running a sprint, and in many ways, it’s like recruiting," Doris said. "You may realize you are going to search for the best candidates, but everyone is waiting to see what opens up. Some jobs are going to happen sooner or later, but a job is going to open. And if we don’t jump on that, and if a coach does not jump on that, it’s gone."

Doris asked the Pump brothers to submit a list of 10 possible candidates. Doris wanted an evaluation of each coach and as a search firm, ChampSearch supplied statistics, buyout information, interest level and background checks.

Even though it is considered a national search, most universities find coaches with regional ties that go beyond just previous experience. If candidates have made recruiting in-roads in the region, the job may be appealing. A number of variables trimmed the list down to the five final candidates for the Fairfield job.

Still, Doris was pleased after the search concluded with Cooley. Of the five finalists, four coached Division I schools this season while the other, an assistant, stayed at his current university.

As for Cooley, he was first contacted by the Pump brothers in Minneapolis before Boston College faced Villanova on March 24 in the Sweet 16 of last year’s NCAA tournament. As Doris noted, hiring a search firm establishes a third-party contact, hoping the transition goes smoother while taking away some of the university’s work.

Cooley considered, contacted his attorney and told Boston College coach Al Skinner. Cooley and Skinner discussed matters, and Doris met Cooley for lunch at the Final Four a week later at the Indianapolis Hilton. He was the only candidate Doris did not know, and over the next hour, Doris said he felt Cooley was suited for the position.

"I liked the fact that people didn’t know me. It cut out any preconceived notions, and you see me for who I am and what I’ve done so far," Cooley said. "It’s a business decision, but really, at the end of the day, it’s still basketball."

The list was pared down to two and Cooley met with Doris again on campus along with a five-person university panel. On April 11, a week after the Final Four and two weeks after Cooley received a phone call in Minneapolis, he was announced as the head coach.

How the Pumps found Cooley was not out of the ordinary.

Five years ago, Cooley headed west as a Boston College assistant to Inglewood, Calif., to take a look at a forward named Craig Smith, who played in one of the Pump brothers’ AAU programs. Smith decided to go to Boston College and Cooley kept in touch with the Pumps.

Smith went on to become the second-leading scorer in Boston College history.

Cooley went on to receive his first head coaching job at Fairfield.

RESULTS

Quinnipiac has become an appealing head coaching job to assistants for two reasons: The school has made a financial commitment to its athletic program, and the Bobcats began play this season in the $52 million TD Banknorth Sports Center, integral recruiting tools, especially in a low-major like the Northeast Conference.

From a university perspective, a high-profile assistant with strong recruiting ties is an appealing candidate. Early speculation has focused on Vermont’s Mike Lonergan and University of Connecticut associate head coach Tom Moore, but the situation must be ideal for any prospect to accept the position.

And the coach must be ideal for the university.

"So much is at stake revenue-wise. For basketball and football to make the right hire is so important to the institutions," Dana Pump said. "Look at Reggie Theus at New Mexico State. The revenue stream for the school has grown because all their donors are coming around with other people with money. It’s business."

Kennedy led Ole Miss to the top of the Southeastern Conference West standings this year. Pearl took a 14-17 Tennessee team in 2004-05 and now has consecutive 20-win seasons and NCAA tournament berths. Both schools reported improved ticket sales and revenue gains.

As for Cooley, he was faced with a difficult test. He was able to secure late commitments from four recruits, including Greg Nero, who earned MAAC all-rookie honors. Fairfield also played a non-conference schedule ranked 53rd in the Ratings Percentage Index, including games with Georgetown, Boston College, Providence and UConn. Cooley could do nothing about the schedule designed by O’Toole’s decisions.

The result was a 13-19 finish, but the Stags won 10 of their last 14 games, a marked improvement. This past week, Cooley was in Winston-Salem, N.C., recruiting and networking, the same practices that build programs, and now finds college basketball coaches.

McDonald said Quinnipiac’s list remains long, but he does plan to attend the Final Four in Atlanta, where assistant coaches flock to network and where athletic directors conduct interviews with candidates found on lists compiled by search firms.

Within weeks, the Bobcats will have a new head basketball coach. With a new facility and face for the first time in 11 seasons, it will be viewed as one of the most important hires in years, not only for the athletic program, but the university.


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Brett Orzechowski may be reached at borzechowski@nhregister.com .



©New Haven Register 2007

[Spotcheck Billy]

I know this an old thread but thought this might fit here.

Edit: not sure why Scoop is inserting "toothaches" into this post, is that like the unnatural carnal knowledge thing?

The expensive, effective role of search firms in college coaching hires
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/sports/wp/2015/04/09/the-expensive-effective-role-of-search-firms-in-college-coaching-hires/

A few weeks ago, George Mason Athletic Director Brad Edwards flew to Atlanta, made his way to an office complex in the northern suburbs, and met the men from whom he would choose his new men’s basketball coach.

A third party, Parker Executive Search, had arranged for Edwards’s hand-picked candidates, about a dozen coaches, to visit the complex: hotels and flights booked, their interviews with Edwards scheduled so that each would come and go without one bumping into the next – speed dating meets air traffic control. The best part was, the whole thing was done in secret. The coaches, many of them under contract elsewhere, could pursue a new job without sounding alarms; Edwards could meet each candidate, in a casual and neutral setting, and make his choice away from prying eyes and without concern he was being played publicly for a raise.

When Edwards returned to Washington, he knew Bucknell Coach Dave Paulsen was his man, most of the broad strokes – expectations, requests, terms of a five-year contract – already agreed to in Atlanta. Confidence, though, costs money: in this case $50,000 paid to Parker Executive Search, one of the most influential players in the high-stakes and mysterious world of coaching search firms.

In recent years, administrators have become increasingly reliant on such consultants, which offer some mix of headhunting, background checks and a kind of AD concierge service. Full-scale packages sometimes cost hundreds of thousands; according to a report published last year by USA Today, the firm Korn Ferry billed $267,000 to Texas after the school hired football coach Charlie Strong – three years after Colorado State paid about $320,000 for a company to run its football coaching search.

Those inside the process claim that discretion, a deep look into a candidate’s background and an extra layer of assurance is worth the money, particularly when coaching salaries reach into the millions. “An investment; almost an insurance policy,” said Baylor AD Ian McCaw, who has leaned on the Texas-based firm Eastman & Beaudine when hiring coaches.

Critics, though, suggest a search firm’s most valuable offerings are the very definition of an athletic director’s job – and, considering questions about the revenue stream of the NCAA, which is a tax-exempt nonprofit organization, is thought to be one of the clever ways schools funnel excess cash. “They have to spend it somewhere, and this is the silly stuff that it goes to,” said David Berri, a sports economist and a professor at Southern Utah University. “As the money comes in, they find things to spend it on.”

Edwards, who introduced Paulsen last week, said he had never used a search firm before last month. Wasn’t it his responsibility to do the things Parker was offering? But hires take time and are flush with public-relations pitfalls, and so he identified his candidates and ran the search but sprung for the extra help.

“I didn’t understand at that point,” Edwards said of his previous beliefs, “that a search firm can do more for you than [an AD] just handing the keys over.”

Finders, keepers and safety nets

The phone rang at midnight more than a decade ago, and Chuck NI have a toothaches answered to hear a coach’s voice.

A deal was in place for the coach to take over the football program at a well-known school in a power conference. A contract had been agreed to, a news conference scheduled the next day, new clothes bought for the coach’s kids. But hours before a walk down the coaching aisle, a blessed union ahead, the coach was having second thoughts.

NI have a toothaches, for years one of college sports’ most effective headhunters, climbed out of bed and just started talking. The skill had led him this far, away from the now-defunct College Football Association and onto the frontier of being a sports middleman – a half dozen deals completed each year, with NI have a toothaches collecting about $50,000 a clip.

NI have a toothaches talked for most of two hours, reminding the coach – whom even more than a decade later NI have a toothaches wouldn’t identify – of the opportunities that lay ahead: a bigger conference, greater resources. NI have a toothaches didn’t bring up that if the deal fell apart, his company wouldn’t get paid. Around 2 a.m., the call ended; the coach would indeed go through it. “He just needed someone to reassure him, that’s all,” said NI have a toothaches, pointing out that the coach is still at the school NI have a toothaches pushed him toward.

Cold feet are among the kinds of variables, NI have a toothaches said, that administrators are paying for: the surprises, the last-minute breakdowns, the behind-the-scenes drama that seldom becomes public. Most times, the process runs smoothly. An AD simply wants an extra set of eyes on his search: a name or two added to his short list, a 30,000-foot view of how a coach might fit in, maybe even a occasional reality check.

“There are people you are not going to get,” said Edwards, the George Mason AD, “and it is helpful to hear people say: ‘They’re not even going to talk to you; don’t even waste your breath.”

 But executive search firms are full-service outfits, a thorough background check usually part of the deal. Last year South Florida avoided a blunder when Eastman & Beaudine, the firm hired to vet Manhattan Coach Steve Masiello, discovered a discrepancy on Masiello’s resume – prompting the Bulls to rescind a job offer reportedly worth more than $1 million annually. One time NI have a toothaches’s lead investigator, a former FBI agent, dug so deep he found that one coach’s neighbors had complained to the homeowners association about his back fence being too tall.

Services can include other conveniences, too. NI have a toothaches said an AD once asked him to take over the whole process, down to negotiating the new coach’s contract (the ADs interviewed for this story suggested no self-respecting administrator would go that far).

“I step aside when they want me to,” NI have a toothaches said.

The game has changed, though, NI have a toothaches said: more firms, bigger staffs, more bloated retaining fees. Coaching salaries have ballooned, and really, what’s an extra $267,000 for Texas when it’s paying Strong $5 million per year?

One thing that hasn’t changed, NI have a toothaches said, is clients’ demand for secrecy. Public swings and misses are embarrassing for ADs; last month Alabama publicly pursued Wichita State Coach Gregg Marshall, who used the overture as teed-up, almost too-easy leverage for a raise. Crimson Tide AD Bill Battle released a statement acknowledging his failure to reach a deal with his top choice.

The friendly protocol among administrators is to ask for permission to discuss an opening with a coach on contract elsewhere. But protocol in the high-stakes world of college sports is a time-consuming chore, and what if the coach’s boss says no? A search firm needn’t stand on such ceremony; a consultant simply calls the coach and asks if he’d consider moving on, often without revealing the school that put him up to it.

Last year Todd Turner, who runs the search firm Collegiate Sports Associates, called then-Marquette Coach Buzz Williams on behalf of Virginia Tech. Turner asked Williams if he was interested in a change; Williams said yes, and a few days later he was in Blacksburg, meeting with AD Whit Babcock. The coach never even met the man who sent ripples through his career and the college basketball landscape.

By the time that deal was finished, Turner had already turned his attention toward the next one.

‘Money well spent’

On March 30, Tennessee finalized a contract to pay $50,000 plus expenses for Collegiate Sports Associates to oversee its men’s basketball coaching search. A few days earlier former Coach Donnie Tyndall had been fired after one season in Knoxville.

The firm’s “search” appeared to yield Rick Barnes, the former Texas coach, and indeed, one day after the contract was signed, the Volunteers hired Barnes. “Money well spent,” said Tennessee AD Dave Hart, adding he had never previously used a firm.

The hire was seen as a coup for the Volunteers and Hart, particularly after Tyndall was let go amid rumors of impending NCAA sanctions. But did Barnes, one of college basketball’s most well-known figures, really need to be brought forth by a search firm? Hart even acknowledged he has known Barnes for years and handled all negotiations. What, then, was worth $50,000?

Turner, himself a former longtime Division I AD, said in a telephone interview that recruiting Barnes to Tennessee was one thing; closing the deal was another. And what if the coach changed his mind at the last minute? Then what? “Dave,” Turner said, “needed a B-list.”

Hart put it more simply. “It’s all about the timing,” said Hart, who added that a verbal agreement was in place with Turner’s firm before Texas fired Barnes on March 28. “I could still be searching.”

Still, it was the timing that fanned suspicions that Tennessee paid thousands for a task it could have handled – and, as it turned out, largely did handle – without help.

Berri, the professor and sports economist, speculated that programs hire headhunters to unload excess cash – a “conspiracy theory,” George Mason’s Edwards said – but also for political reasons. The extra step gives the impression administrators are sparing no expense to get a hire right, since of course no guarantees are made and no refunds given if a coach flops. Urban Meyer to Florida was a search firm brokerage, but then again so was Billy Gillispie to Kentucky.

“They’re going to spend the money, and they want to give people the impression that they want to get these hires right,” Berri said. “They’re saying: ‘We’re doing everything we can to get these hires right, and we’re going to hire this consulting firm that, if you thought about it for a little bit, you really wouldn’t think this was necessary. ”

When Turner completed the agreement between Barnes and Tennessee, he was gone – back to the shadows, the next vacancy to help fill, the circle spinning as one filled job often creates a new opening. Turner’s phone rang recently, and on the other end was someone calling from Bucknell. Its coach, Paulsen, had recently moved on to George Mason, and the voices on both sides knew it was time to go to work.

[GGGG]

I think the use of search firms has been unfairly maligned recently.  A lot of critics say "Well that's an AD's job.  He should have a short list."

While both are true statements, a search firm can generate a bigger pool of candidates - candidates that are actually interested in the job and might be good fits.  As the article mentions, given their networks, they do a better job of vetting candidates than you can do sitting in your office.  And these guys are bitching about a $50,000 cost when you are hiring someone that you are going to pay more than 20 times that figure?

As someone who has used search firms before, they really are a value added.

[Silkk the Shaka]

I think the use of search firms has been unfairly maligned recently.  A lot of critics say "Well that's an AD's job.  He should have a short list."

While both are true statements, a search firm can generate a bigger pool of candidates - candidates that are actually interested in the job and might be good fits.  As the article mentions, given their networks, they do a better job of vetting candidates than you can do sitting in your office.  And these guys are bitching about a $50,000 cost when you are hiring someone that you are going to pay more than 20 times that figure?

As someone who has used search firms before, they really are a value added.

DePaul's $ was certainly well spent in this regard.

[GGGG]

DePaul's $ was certainly well spent in this regard.

And this tends to be a criticism that people throw out there.  Remember, their dumb athletic director was doing the hiring no matter who the search firm brought up.  So they could have had some real good candidates lined up, but the AD is going to hire who the AD wants to hire.

But I have used search firms and ended up hiring the internal candidate.  That doesn't make it a waste of money, because having a "strong" search is always better than a "weak" one.  And it benefits the internal candidate to have gone through a strong one.

[Dawson Rental]

I wonder whose idea it was to hire a search firm at DePaul.  If Lenti-Ponsetto made the call, she wasted the school's resources by not being honest with herself or in order to give the appearance of transparency to a search that didn't actually have it.

If someone else at DePaul made the decision, hopefully, it leads some at the school to do some reevaluating of Lenti-Ponsetto's stewardship.

[Jay Bee]

And this tends to be a criticism that people throw out there.  Remember, their dumb athletic director was doing the hiring no matter who the search firm brought up.  So they could have had some real good candidates lined up, but the AD is going to hire who the AD wants to hire.

But I have used search firms and ended up hiring the internal candidate.  That doesn't make it a waste of money, because having a "strong" search is always better than a "weak" one.  And it benefits the internal candidate to have gone through a strong one.

Indeed. Imagine the whining if the hire had been made without having a search firm involved. "Didn't even consider getting help from a search firm! How awful!!"