The first (and only) candidate to interview on campus looks to be named as the new head coach for the Missouri State Bears today during a planned 11 am press conference in the Alumni Lounge at Hammons Student Center.

I honestly dont know a lot about the guy other than what I’ve read over the past couple days during his visit here. The guy sounds like a great hire. Someone with excellent academic standards, recruits well and perhaps most importantly - knows how to win.

My only negative comment about the whole affair is the lack of openness of the process which may lead some people to be critical of the new coach without any foundation. It is always nice, as Chuck Booms mentioned this morning during Morning Line, to get the community involved and hyped. We never really got to bond with the guy before hitching our wagon to him.

In either case, though, I really believe the choice is a good one - and that the program has the chance to grow again.

More information and pictures can be found over at Bear-Nation.

Go Bears.

Coachingnewsonline.com is reporting Steve Forbes (Tennessee), Eddie Sutton (San Francisco) and Bruce Weber (Illinois) as possible coaching candidates.

How real are these names? Who knows until I find some other credible website for confirmation. Still, they are names people might want to put into the conversations.

In my mind, I like Bruce Weber. He is a proven known who reminds me a lot of Terry Allen who Missouri State hired for their football coach last year.

Update 2:31 pm: Bear-nation.com rumors have Ohio State assistant Groce at the head of the list. The only semi confirmation of this possibility comes from an ESPN chat held today with Kyle Whelliston.

Joe (Springfield, MO): Who do you see as potential candidates to replace Barry Hinson at Missouri State? With a new 70 million dollar 11,000 seat arena, and playing in the Valley, the job seems like it would be pretty attractive.

Kyle Whelliston: (1:22 PM ET ) The Valley isn’t that big on pulling in big names from the coasts, and those Bobby Knight rumors were fun for a second. I’d put my money on Unnamed Big Ten Assistant.

It is still important to note that these are just rumors with no real meat or substance to confirm them.

Wanted to make a quick note tonight that Missouri State Bears coach Barry Hinson looks to have gotten the axe.

ESPN is reporting that Hinson was fired. The News-Leader and KY3 cannot confirm the report, but stated that there will be a conference at four in the afternoon tomorrow.

If Hinson is fired I hope Missouri State’s President will take the appropriate steps in hiring a coach who will undoubtably need to rebuild the program. That means a name or someone who will do the job - not some second rate hand me down.

If there is any doubt that there is a need, one only need to listen to the reaction by the various media outlets and their expectations of our program.

For my self, I sincerly wished Hinson would have worked out. He was an excellent fit for the community and all around nice guy. However, in 9 years the expectations dropped from what they were under Charlie Spoonhour and Steve Alford to where they are now.

Well, from what I gather there were (past tense) legs to the past report about Bob Knight coming to Missouri State as its possible next basketball coach.

According to Art Haines, local talk radio show host of Sports Talk (on the JOCK 98.7), those legs are no more and such a deal was simply not going to happen.

I find it interesting that we find out after the fact that there was some validity to the story, only to have it dashed very shortly thereafter.

Being that there was some truth to this, I might have to probe a few sources to see exactly what the hang up was, because Missouri State needs its program revitalized desperately. Hiring Bob Knight as coach would have done that in addition to giving it a shot of credibility when it needed it most.

At least we know the status of the situation and puts a number of things to rest (for now).

Ive been following an interesting rumor thread over at Bear-Nation in which Bob Knight is being rumored as a possible successor to current coach Barry Hinson.

While I would remind people that Barry Hinson is still the coach of the Bears and there is a lot of ball to be played (and miracles can happen), the concept is intriguing.

As many people know Bob Knight retired earlier this year mid-season from Texas Tech University, leaving the team to his son. This allowed coach Knight to ride off into the sunset after his 800 win mark. 

Still, some insiders are indicating that the story may very have legs - citing Knight’s connections with the O’Reily family, love of the St. Louis Cardinals and his desire to rebuild a college program centered around basketball.

So why would Coach Knight unretire to coach at a mid-major university like Missouri State University? That is what I would like to honestly know because the rumor just doesnt make any sense.

I thought I might answer this question which probably is lingering after my persuit of them over the past couple of years.

Let me answer the question by saying this. I am a Bears fan - but my heart was ripped out over the past couple of years due to the incompetence of the coaching staff.

It isnt that I believe that the team doesnt want to go to the NCAA tournament - just that I lost faith.

I knew there were going to be problems this year when for the first time in years the Bears failed to deploy a pure shooting gaurd and to be realistic - there was no true penetration or inside threat.

That, coupled with the team’s apparent lack of motivation spelled problems from the outset and was bore out through the season.

I dont know what to say at this point, other than maybe I will start paying attention when the program becomes real to me again. Dont ask me to explain what I mean by that because to be frank - its probably offensive and judgemental on my part.

So goes why we are fans, right? If there were no feelings then perhaps it would be just some paper analysis of the situation.

I wanted to post a quick apologee to everyone.

Things have been hectic and depressing lately - so blogging about has felt darned near like a job and its not.

What has been troubling me? Well - many things.

Most of what I can share relates to the presidential race and how the establishment litterally hates Huckabee and has done a pretty good job of smearing him and pumping up Mitt Romney - all while turning a blind eye to lies which Romney is pushing about other campaigns.

Need I mention a lack of analysis of exactly what Mitt’s programs have done (like his nanny state health care program which mimics hillarycare ™ and from what I’ve read - not only allows abortions - but cheapens them to $50.00).

In fact, the blind eye disgusts me.

Right now I feel like like voters who are Christians in the GOP are currently being treated like nothing more than some dumb animal that cant think. Apparently we are voters who just hear one or two words then vote for that person automatically.

Simiarly, if one dares to be who they are and think different than what is being dolled out in Washington and refuses to kiss the rings of certain individuals, then they should consider themselves a marked man. Huckabee and Thompson are both subjects of that truth.

Under such circumstances if Romney wins the nomination he is going to have to WORK to get my vote.

No, I will not vote for any of the socialist who are running on the Democrat ballot. I will be darned, though, if I vote for someone who wants to take away my second ammendment rights and shove government mandated healtcare down my throat. (and they call Giuliani a liberal - hah!)

Then, switching topics, we have the fiasco going on within the legislative body.

Democrats are ready to doll out billions of dollars in pork barrel spending and tax increases - guess what doesing make the 500 billion dollar spending bill? If you guessed funding our troops in Iraq, you guessed correctly.

Theres nothing like finding money for every little pet project or domestic project there is (you know, stuff which is extraconstitutional) - but some how leaving out what our men and women in combat need. I hope that decision makes it to an advertisement next fall.

Then there is sports. I dont know where to begin other than to note just about the worst possible case scenario for my teams is a reality. From Missouri State to the Kansas City Chiefs - its all messed up.

Anyways… Again, I hope to post more later on, but as I said before - things are really discouraging at the moment.

Instead of posting a weekly moan of Kansas City/Crimson Tide losses, lets think of the positives. Yes, thats it.

-Missouri State Bears came back from a 22 point deficit to beat a pesky Winthrop team. Where was this kind of heart last year when they needed it? Esh.

-Went with a PUG group on friday and cleared Karazhan for the first time ever. Yeah, it took us a while. Mind you we had no crowd control though. We did get Netherspite in a single shot, however. And yes, its true what they say about Prince (the dude at the end of Karazhan). We had him down to 4% twice and litterally got hit on the head with an infernal. On the forth try we finally nailed him.

Outside of that it was good just to try to rest a bit over the weekend and leave the old brain in neutral. Now its time to get back to work. bleh.

It seems my beloved sporting teams recently acquired the same disease sported by the Chicago Cubs - they are all losing, and in many cases, to teams they should beat. Ugh.

The one difference would be the Missouri State Basketball Bears who beat UNC Greensboro in a thumping.

As for Alabama and the Kasans City Chiefs - I am not sure we could write a script much more grim - especially for bama. I dont think that either will get a play off birth at this point - which is really sad given the hot start and close games with LSU and what not for Alabama.

Nice investment for 4 million dollars, eh?

Dont get me wrong, Saban is a proven product. I would still choose him as a head coach.

It just seems all my teams are cursed lately. Bleh.

Sorry for the lack of updates this week folks, but I am tied up with a lot of project bids and various bits and pieces to work on. I did want to note a couple of things.

First, three freshman on the Missouri State Bears are suspended indefinitely from the basketball team. The three are involved in a stolen property investigation being run by the Springfield Police department. Oh yeah, the story made ESPN.com. Talk about giving the program a black eye when it needs it least.

On the political front Democrats are still refusing to work with Republicans to develop responsible legislation which would help tackle the problems of our Nation. Instead, its more of the same.

Then there is the move by Democrats in Congress to tie the Iraq war funding to an immediate withdrawl date (December of 2008) with no regard to the facts on the ground. Interestingly enough, 15 Democrats voted against the measure.

Congress also passed a combined Transportation and Housing and Urban Development bill in which Democrats added nearly 1,000 extra earmarks totaling nearly a billion more than what passed on the House floor earlier.

Did I mention yet the new Democrat energy bill which costs America an estimated five million jobs and over a trillion in GDP? Hey, its green though! (well, not really)

And dont forget folks, that is what Democrats call leadership! Way to legislate! How inspiring!