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South Carolina

South Carolina basketball coaching search roundup

On3 imageby: Collyn Taylor03/19/22collyntaylor
On3 image
Photo by Katie Dugan

South Carolina’s coaching search is nearing a week old.

The Gamecocks moved on from Frank Martin going on five days ago and since it’s been a wild few days as South Carolina looks for their next head coach.

Here’s a quick rundown of the week that was.  

Most of the conversation in this coaching search has centered around former Xavier and Arizona Wildcats head coach Sean Miller.

Miller, who was mentioned in the FBI scandal during his time at Arizona, was a mainstay in the NCAA Tournament during stints in Tucson and at Xavier.

GamecockCentral had an update on Miller and his standing in the Gamecocks’ head coaching search here.

Since 2005, Miller has taken his program to the NCAA Tournament 11 and would have been in the field in the canceled 2020 tournament.

In those 11 appearances, his team won a game in eight. His teams made it to the second weekend (Sweet 16) seven times with four Elite Eight appearances. 

His former employer, Xavier, has a head coach opening and Miller seems like a candidate from reports out of Cincinnati.

Another candidate who could be coming off the board shortly is Cleveland State’s Dennis Gates.

ESPN’s Pete Thamel reported Friday night Gates is “emerging as the target” for the open job at Missouri.

Gates, after a long stint at Florida State as an assistant, inherited a bottom-dwelling Cleveland State program and had immediate success.

After a tough first season, Gates is 39-19 in his last two seasons, taking the Vikings to the NCAA Tournament last season.

They finished tied for the Horizon league regular season title this year but missed the NCAA tournament.

Murray State’s Matt McMahon is another candidate thrown on hot boards for the Gamecocks’ opening.

If South Carolina were to pursue McMahon they’d have to wait for a little. The Racers are still in the NCAA Tournament after beating San Fransisco Thursday.

The No. 7 seed plays Saturday at 7:45 p.m. against tournament darling St. Peter’s with the winner going to the Sweet 16.

If that is the Racers—KenPom gives them a 75 percent chance to win—they’ll be in the tournament next weekend.

If Murray State wins and South Carolina did want to make a run at him, it would mean having to push back any sort of timeline on an announcement until after an NCAA Tournament run.

The Gamecocks would obviously like to make a decision sooner rather than later. That would allow their next head coach to build his staff, begin building a roster and recruit.

It’s not unreasonable to expect a formal announcement at some point next week, depending on the direction South Carolina wants to go.

Former Gamecock assistant BJ McKie has also received a strong push from fans and from former players. McKie has been an assistant for Steve Forbes at East Tennessee State and now Wake Forest.

Wake plays VCU in the NIT Saturday at 4 p.m. Furman’s Bob Richey has also been reported as a candidate.

If Gates does ultimately land at Missouri, three SEC jobs have closed along with Florida (Todd Golden) Florida and Georgia (Mike White). Mississippi State, LSU and South Carolina are the ones open at this moment.

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