Butler’s Brad Stevens Becomes Latest Name Mentioned In Oregon’s Coaching Search

According to The Register-Guard, Oregon is pursuing a Final Four coach, and it’s not Tom Izzo.

Apparently the Ducks are interested in Butler’s Brad Stevens to takeover in Eugene.

While everyone is directing their attention to the Northeastern part of the country, following the now-completed-St. John’s and just-beginning-Boston College coaching searches, Oregon has (reportedly) been busy throwing around million-dollar contract offers to replace Ernie Kent. First, it was rumored Tom Izzo would be their target after the Final Four, and then Monday night, the Ducks apparently made an offer to Minnesota’s Tubby Smith. If that’s news to you, don’t worry -- it’s also news to Tubby Smith, apparently, because he has not talked to Oregon.

Sources close to Smith are insisting that the coach will stay at Minnesota. He even said so himself, after the Gophers’ first-round loss in the NCAA tournament, when his name was rumored in the Auburn search: “I’m pleased with where we are in the program. I’m looking forward to coming back to Minnesota.”

For a man who’s “not a candidate for any other job,” Tubby Smith is sure drawing a lot of interest. First Auburn and now reportedly Oregon, a school that apparently is determined to make whoever serves as its next basketball head coach a very rich man.

Minnesota is looking to extend Smith’s contract after the avalanche of rumors.

With the Tom Izzo rumors still fresh—and the interest from Oregon entirely unrequited, so far—it’s very, very early to guess whether Tom Izzo might leave East Lansing, Michigan. For now, he’s focused on Indianapolis and the Final Four.

But since the rumors are out there and the pipe dream’s been floated, SB Nation’s Oregon blog, Addicted to Quack, responds with enthusiasm. Not for Izzo, necessarily, but for the athletic department’s ambition:

But after taking yet another overmatched team deep in the NCAA Tournament—I mean seriously, this Spartans team is in the Final Four?—it’s become clear that at least in the tournament, Izzo is as good as anyone in the country.

As for the University of Oregon, they may not have a basketball pedigree to match Izzo’s legacy, but with Phil Knight’s Nike dollars backing their efforts, they’ve got plenty of other factors to entice coaching candidates like Izzo.