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Kermit Davis is keeping his job, at least for now. Reports around Oxford link Davis and athletic director Keith Carter to not extending his contract after a sub. 500 season in 2021-2022.
However, he will be looking to fill out his staff as Ronnie Hamilton and Levi Watkins are on their way to new jobs at LSU and NC State. Projecting potential candidates for assistant jobs can be tough but we have a few mind.
Bob Thornton
No, not Billy Bob. Although having Bad Santa or a reprisal of Morris Buttermaker on the sidelines might make the sidelines more entertaining, I believe he will remain in retirement.
Coach Thornton has quite the resume and is actually on the market. This past season he served as an assistant on the Mississippi State women’s staff before that interim staff was let go with their new hire. His coaching stops as an assistant include: Memphis Grizzlies, Sacramento Kings, Minnesota Timberwolves, Chicago Bulls and the Oklahoma City Thunder as a scout. He also played for 5 teams in the NBA for 7 season after playing his college ball at UC-Irvine.
Bringing in a guy with his NBA connections and knowledge would be a massive get for coach Davis. He was already in Mississippi and his longest NBA stop was in Memphis, so maybe he likes the area and wouldn't mind settling in Oxford for a while.
Gerald Glass
Could the 1990 1st round pick out of Ole Miss be interested in returning as an assistant coach? He spent one year on Andy Kennedy’s staff before coaching at the High School level here in Mississippi. Maybe coach Davis could convince the former pro-Rebel to give coaching a shot again and use his NBA knowledge to develop guys like Matthew Murrell.
Ben McCollum
This is the homerun swing Keith Carter should push for in my opinion. McCollum has quite an impressive resume, but getting him to Oxford would require answers to two questions:
- Does he want to leave his alma mater to come to Ole Miss?
- Does he want to leave being a head coach to be an assistant again?
If he were to answer yes to both of those, here is the resume of this guy:
NCAA DII Tournament Champion: 2017, 2019, 2021, 2022
NABC DII Coach of the Year: 2017, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022
Became the first DII coach to win the John McLendon Award which is awarded to the top college coach at any level, in 2019.
The Northwest Missouri State head coach clearly knows how to coach and if I were Keith Carter, I am paying this guy what it takes to bring him on campus and make him the coach in waiting behind Kermit Davis.