Wake-up call
Floyd's move ends vacation for ISU athletics director
Posted: Wednesday July 22, 1998 10:28 PM
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"Without a shadow of a doubt, he is one of the best coaches in America," Smith (above) said of Floyd AP |
AMES, Iowa (AP) -- One early morning phone call brought Gene Smith's vacation to an abrupt end.
It was Tim Floyd calling to tell the Iowa State athletics director, who was vacationing in California, that he was resigning as basketball coach to go to the Chicago Bulls.
The call came at 5:20 a.m. Wednesday. Hours later, Smith was back in Ames meeting with reporters to tell them how disappointed he was that Floyd was leaving and how confident he was about quickly hiring a successor.
"Without a shadow of a doubt, he is one of the best coaches in America," Smith said of Floyd. "And he's helped us create an environment with our basketball program where I feel confident that our future is extremely bright."
Floyd's flirtation with the Bulls had gone on for the last two years, so Smith already had drawn up what he called a "long list" of candidates to succeed him, a list he said he has since narrowed.
Smith said he had not talked to any of the coaches on his list but would do so very soon. He would not identify any names on the list or reveal how many names he had, other than to say the number was "smaller than 25."
"I'm prepared, I'm ready," Smith said. "Hopefully, we can act very quickly and then go from there.
"Frankly, I'm excited. Just as excited as I was when I hired Tim. I think there's some outstanding talent that's interested in this job.
"We have a reputation for putting in place the things that coaches want and need in order to be successful. We have some great players coming back, great leadership. So I think we have a lot of offer."
The best of those players, sophomore-to-be Marcus Fizer, said he would return even though Floyd was the main reason he signed with Iowa State.
"Transferring is not an option," said Fizer, the Big 12's freshman of the year last season. "I came here to play basketball for Iowa State University and will be here until I graduate."
Mentioned as possible successors are Illinois State's Kevin Stallings, Utah State's Larry Eustachy, Dayton's Oliver Purnell, former Michigan coach Steve Fisher, former St. John's coach Fran Fraschilla and Southern Mississippi coach James Green, a former Iowa State assistant.
Smith said he didn't know if Iowa State's top assistant, Gar Forman, was interested in the job. Forman is on vacation this week, Smith said.
Copyright 2003 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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