Sunflower Slate

Ryan Swanson is out as the men’s basketball coach at Hutchinson Community College.

This one was coming from a long ways off. Player dissident. Locker room incidents. No control. I have to say … he ran this thing into the ground pretty quickly. They were picked to win the Jayhawk West the last two years he was there, and they finished second the first year and then tied for fifth this year. More importantly, they got beat in the second round of the playoffs both years.

Now the question is, who’s next? This is the marquee job in the Jayhawk Conference, and also the one with the most pressure to win. I’m sure you’ve heard the Steve Eck rumors — and that’s all they are for now, rumors — and Hutch AD Randy Stange isn’t talking at the moment. So I’m thinking … let’s play a little game called:

WHO WANTS TO BE THE NEXT HUTCH COACH?

The rules are simple, I set up the odds on five candidates and one dark horse — all with ties to the Jayhawk — and you, my friends, can e-mail me at tadame@wichitaeagle.com with your thoughts or just comment at the bottom if you want. Winning comment or e-mail — you win by making the best argument — gets a TBA gift, most likely a pass to see a movie at The Warren, because I’ve got a lot of those. Good luck! (Click on the odds to see their profiles)

Odds: 2 to 1

Pros: A proven winner. Look at what Eck has done with junior college programs at Redlands (Okla.) and at Cowley, where he’s taken the Tigers to the Region VI title game two years in a row. And don’t forget he’s one of the greatest high school basketball coaches — ever — to ever walk into a prep gymnasium, anywhere. Hire him and the Sports Arena will be packed next year. He’s that big a draw. People will come just to watch him and the product that he’ll put out there. He’s bona fide.

Cons: He’s a hard one to read. Is this what he ultimately wants for his career? I asked him once about long-term goals, and he told me he wanted to go to heaven. What? I meant coaching, dude. But truth be told, if you want a coach to come in and win like HCC fans expect (titles, titles, titles) then this is your guy. It’d be Blue Heaven. But don’t forget he’s got three of the most talented players in the Jayhawk (Adonis Gantt, Jawanza Poland and Garius Holloman) back next year if he decides to stay at Cowley. And they’re all in-state guys.

Odds: 5 to 1

Pros: Fletchall is a Hutch native, which I think is a huge plus. It means he’s got roots in the community. He’s a winner, too, and knows the Jayhawk inside and out, as he’s been the head coach at Barton, Neosho and an assistant at Cowley. There would be absolutely nothing wrong with hiring this guy. I think he’d do for them what Rion Rhoades has done for the football team — give them instant credibility and toughness. Seriously, Fletch is a heck of a coach. And he’s a great quote.

Cons: Barton just made Fletchall the athletic director, which seems like a carrot to keep him in the fold. He’s got a nice set up in Great Bend, where I think they look at him as sort of a savior after all the drama that went on there. He might be happy to stay put, but I doubt it.

Odds: 10 to 1

Pros: He’s as hot as they get right now after taking down Eck and the Tigers in the Region VI title game earlier this week. He’s young (33), and has a great basketball pedigree, having played Division I ball at Idaho. His game plan against Cowley in the title game was a work of art — he slowed down the tempo and made Cowley grind it out against his team. Any inner-circle Jayhawk guy can vouch for what kind of a coach he is, and I know he’s made a lot of fans in his three years as head coach. I’ll be interested to see if Hutch waits until after the NJCAA national tourney next week to make this hire, maybe waiting to see how Baumann does. But he could win at Hutch. It wouldn’t be a sexy hire, but he’s just as good a college coach as the two guys mentioned above. I know he’s not looking, but I also think that he’d listen if they came calling.

Cons: In his third year at GCCC, he’s been pretty much an unknown around the league until last week, doing a lot of good things off the grid because living out in WK doesn’t really lend itself to getting a lot of press. Also, he could get swooped up by another school pretty quick. He’s young, and he’s got roots in the Pacific Northwest, where he grew up, and in the south — specifically Florida, where his fiance is from — where he was an assistant coach at Tallahassee Community College. But if you can win a Region VI title out there, you can win one at Hutch. No doubt.

Odds: 20 to 1

Pros: He’s an up-and-comer, but largely unproven. Showed a lot of class in a hard situation three season ago when Butler coach Randy Smithson had to take a leave of absence and Bargen stepped in as the interim guy then parlayed that into the head-coaching job. And he got things turned around for the Grizzlies this season with absolutely no expectations on them. And his father, Gary, was the head men’s coach at HCC from ‘78 to ‘86. But this is a long shot.

Cons: He’s young. Real young. And I don’t know if he’s not so upwardly mobile that he might go right to the DI ranks as an assistant. He’s got the background — played at Marquette — and the connections to make that move. Hiring him would instill no sense of security with HCC fans, who are Linus looking for his blanket when it comes to this move.

Odds: 25 to 1

Pros: He’s a three-time Jayhawk West coach of the year. He’s a great recruiter. He knows the ins and outs of this league. He won 253 games in a decade at Seward. This guy can really coach.

Cons: I don’t know if this is the right move if only because he was on Swanson’s staff for the last two years. I think, if you’re HCC, you want a fresh start. This isn’t exactly a fresh start, is it? But Brown should be a head coach somewhere, I just don’t know if this is the spot for him. But it couldn’t hurt to interview him at least, right?

DARK HORSE CANDIDATE

STEVE McCLAIN — ODDS: 100-1

McClain won a national title with the Blue Dragons in 1994, then went on to have success as an assistant at TCU and a head coach at the University of Wyoming. He’s currently an assistant at the U. of Colorado and was in town for the Region VI tournament. Word to the wise: retreads rarely work. On any level. It’s hard to argue with his type of success, but I just don’t see this happening.

I’m out.

-TA