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Blog by local sportscaster:

Man, oh man.

Coaching searches have always been crazy, but the current search for a men's basketball coach at Louisiana just gets crazier by the minute, if you believe what you're hearing and reading.

We've been working hard trying to separate the fact from the fiction. Here's what our sources are telling us.

Former UL and LSU assistant Butch Pierre, currently at Oklahoma State, did in fact, interview over the weekend. My sources tell me that Pierre's interview went well and he definitely remains a candidate. You can't call Butch the frontrunner, since Athletic Director David Walker and Sr. Associate AD Scott Farmer have said they would like to have someone with head coaching experience. While Pierre has ten games of experience as an interim at LSU after the firing of John Brady, he is the least experienced of the candidates in running his own program. Pierre is making awfully good money as the top assistant to Travis Ford and might have to take a pay cut to be the head coach at UL. But Pierre has never backed off from his desire to be the head coach of the Cajuns. And I believe that if he's the choice, he'll come in a heartbeat.

There was a report yesterday that Murray State head coach Billy Kennedy was "out" as a candidate for the job. With Kennedy's Racers set to open NCAA play against Vanderbilt, Kennedy certainly doesn't want the distraction. But Kennedy's interest in the job remains, according to my sources. He knows that, this year not withstanding, the Sun Belt is a much better basketball league than the OVC and it might be tougher to win here than it is at Murray State. If it gets that far, that might be a concern. You can expect Murray State to sweeten Kennedy's deal at the end of the season. But whatever they pay him, the Cajuns can probably beat it. Lots of rumors concerning Kennedy and a couple of high profile jobs, but we're hearing that, in some cases, he isn't interested and in other cases, the school is going in a different direction.

Lots of stories flying about concerning New Orleans Hornets assistant Tim Floyd. Some reports have him connected to job openings, well, everywhere. DePaul, UC-Irvine and Auburn have come up, just to name a few. But Floyd has his sites set on Louisiana. Both Floyd and his wife have parents who are getting older and the chance to remain close to them is important. The cloud that is an NCAA investigation of alleged improprieties at USC continues to hang over Floyd's head, and there is no way the Cajuns can hire him if a "show cause" is coming down the pike. UL officials are trying to find out where the NCAA stands on the issue. If Floyd is cleared, he is the clear front-runner in my opinion. By the way, Floyd has ALREADY interviewed for the job. My sources tell me that UL officials were most impressed by Floyd.

Now that the Southland championship has been decided, expect Stephen F. Austin head coach Danny Kaspar to be interviewed sometime this week. SFA didn't look very good against Sam Houston State on Saturday, but Kaspar's squad, already having lost their starting point guard (concussion) and backup post player (knee) did well just to get to the championship game. Both Kaspar and Sam Houston head coach Bob Marlin are candidates for the UL job. Marlin may have had his sites set on a bigger job in Texas, but it doesn't look like one is going to be available. SMU has already said that Matt Doherty will return next season and Houston's run in the CUSA tournament may have quieted the rumors about the future of Tom Penders. There are stories that Penders might be in some trouble even with the tournament championship, but if you believe the guys on ESPN-U last night, Penders is safe.

I don't think you can absolutely scratch former Western Kentucky and Georgia head coach Dennis Felton, but I'm hearing very little about him. My sources tell me that Felton might have an interest, but if he does, he certainly isn't going after it very hard. A couple of phone calls have been made on behalf of former Murray State and Alabama coach Mark Gottfried, but I don't think it has gone any farther than that.

I'll let you know when I know more.

Are you having fun yet???