Duquesne Basketball
Names to Watch for Duquesne Basketball Job
It’s been a week since Duquesne University decided to part ways with head coach Jim Ferry.
As expected, it’s been difficult to come up with much if any leads on the vacancy. Names such as Rutgers assistant Brandin Knight, former Rutgers head coach Mike Rice and current Monmouth head coach King Rice have been brought up.
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Are they legitimate candidates? Honestly, it’s all speculation at this point.
While I’m not sure how serious the names Knight and King Rice are, I’ve heard from various people who say Rice is a name to watch.
The 48-year old just completed his sixth season at Monmouth where he’s compiled a record of 106-92 and has won consecutive MAAC Coach of the Year awards. The last two seasons at Monmouth, Rice’s teams have gone 55-15.
The New York native is a former point guard at North Carolina under Hall of Fame coach Dean Smith. He finished his career with 629 assists, which is third most in North Carolina history and eleventh all-time in the ACC.
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Prior to becoming head coach at Monmouth, Rice was an assistant at Oregon (1992-93), Illinois State (1993-98), Providence (1998-2000), Bahamas (2001-2004) and with Kevin Stallings at Vanderbilt from 2006-2011.
Here are two other names to keep your eyes on:
Pat Kelsey: current head coach at Winthrop. The 41-year old Cincinnati native has recorded a record of 102-59 (.634) at Winthrop while winning back-to-back Big South regular season championships. Prior to becoming head coach at Winthrop in 2012, Kelsey was associate head coach at Xavier from 2009-2011 and an assistant at Wake Forest from 2004-2009.
Tony Barbee: current assistant coach at Kentucky. The 45-year old also has experience as a head coach with UTEP (2006-2010) and Auburn (2010-2104). Prior to being head coach, Barbee was an assistant at UMass (1999-2000) and at Memphis (2000-2006). Barbee has a long history of being with Kentucky head coach John Calipari (UMass, Memphis and Kentucky).
