After firing Patrick Ewing, Georgetown replaces him with Providence's Ed Cooley. Both teams have entirely black rosters, so the operation won't skip a beat. Providence, in turn, replaces Cooley with George Mason's Kim English, an "up and comer" with a 34-29 head coaching record. English also coached an all-black squad.
Notre Dame replaces the retiring Mike Brey with black head coach Micah Shrewsberry. Shrewsberry went 14-17 last year at Penn State, his first year as a head coach. Next season, Penn State will have graduated its top five scorers. He wouldn't have gotten the job offer last year, and he wouldn't have put together as much next year, but this year? Notre Dame lured him away from a power conference job to become the first black men's basketball coach in school history. I recall a bit of concern from a couple of months ago that the Fighting Irish athletic department would not pay the buyout for Utah football's offensive coordinator. Anyway, they got their man here. This move gives Notre Dame black head coaches for football, men's basketball, and women's basketball.
Rick Pitino, who is no friend of the whites, moves on from his all-black Iona team to an all-black St. John's roster. Iona snatches up flavor-of-the-month Tobin Anderson from Fairleigh Dickinson. Anderson spent nine seasons coaching at D2 St. Thomas Aquinas College before his Cinderella run. I notice that team currently only has three white players on its roster. I'm sure he'll do fine at nearby Iona.
On a positive note, Wisconsin plays tonight in the NIT semifinals. They have more whites on their roster than fellow contenders North Texas, Utah Valley, and UAB combined. Little anomalies like this make me realize that every team listed above makes an outcome-independent choice to look the way they do.
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