STILLWATER — Bill Self may have been Oklahoma State's Plan A, but after Self's rejection, athletic director Mike Holder isn't truly starting from scratch as he sets out to hire a men's basketball coach.
Holder, along with senior associate AD Dave Martin, went to the Final Four in San Antonio last weekend to look for a viable Plan B. The AD said it was mostly reconnaissance work.
"I didn't talk to very many coaches there,” Holder said. "I talked to mostly people in the business, and it's a big business. I just wanted to find out about the coaches as individuals, what type of people they were.”
Holder declined to say which coaches he was scouting, and he hasn't given any indication who remains on his wish list (it's worth noting that Holder never officially confirmed his interest in Self until after the Kansas coach turned down OSU).
Holder said "not true” to a Friday report on CBSsportsline.com that said OSU or someone speaking on behalf of OSU reached out to Washington State coach Tony Bennett "before Self formally rejected OSU's offer and promised the school could make Bennett among the highest-paid coaches in the nation if he was interested in talking if/once Self opted to remain at Kansas” and that Bennett rejected the overtures.
Holder has spoken, however, about the qualities he's looking for in a coach. No. 1, he said, he wants somebody who will be a good fit and run a clean program.
"We don't want to cheat,” he said. "We want to go by the rules. Integrity is important to us, and graduating players and discipline. We want a disciplined program. We want a coach that can relate to our fan base, which is kind of salt-of-the-earth people. We are out here in the middle of the United States and it's good folks. Most of us aren't real sophisticated, me included, so I want someone that can be embraced by our fan base.”
"I think there are several coaches that fit our profile. I just need to figure out which one we can get. I don't want to get up to the plate and have another strike.”
As for when he makes that decision, Holder said he will not speak to any agents or search firms, and that his first call will be to an athletic director to ask permission to interview the coach – a courtesy – and his second call will be directly to the coach.
To determine the execution of the hiring, Holder is looking back at advice he got from his former golf coach, who used to tell him he putted like he was shooting a shotgun when he should have been putting like he was shooting a rifle.
"The message was … I needed to focus on the target better and not just the general direction,” Holder said. "That's the kind of approach I am going to take on this coaching search. I haven't figured out what the target is yet. I am gathering information. But I would like to use my rifle when I make up my mind.”
