Seven potential UTC Mocs men’s basketball coach candidates

The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga has begun a search for its third men’s basketball coach in four seasons.

The Mocs fired John Shulman after the 2012-13 season. His replacement was Will Wade, who in two seasons won 40 games and finished second in the Southern Conference both seasons. His success catapulted him back to Virginia Commonwealth, where he was an assistant for four seasons and helped the Rams reach the 2011 Final Four. Wade replaces Shaka Smart, who parlayed his own success into a job at Texas.

Here are some potential candidates for the Mocs, listed alphabetically:

Anthony Grant

* Record: 193-110 in nine seasons. Grant won 76 games with two NCAA tournament trips and a NIT appearance in three seasons at Virginia Commonwealth before taking the job at Alabama in 2009, going 117-85 in six seasons with one NCAA tournament trip in 2011. He was fired after the 2014-15 season.

* Salary: Grant was making $1.9 million annually at Alabama. He will receive $1 million per season until 2019 as a part of his buyout package — a figure that would be reduced if he took another job.

* Coaching capsule: For UTC, this would be considered a good hire. Like Wade, Grant used his success at a lower-tier program to earn a spot at a bigger-name school. Considering the money that the Crimson Tide will be paying Grant over the next four seasons, money wouldn’t be a huge issue for him. He’s shown he can win at smaller schools, and he would provide the stability the program is needing right now.

Tony Ingle, Dalton State

* Record: 307-223 in 17 seasons as a head coach. Ingle has won national championships in NCAA Division II (Kennesaw State, 2004) and NAIA Division I (Dalton State, 2015) levels. His Roadrunners teams are 58-8, capped by this year’s 32-4 mark and the national title — the first season they were eligible for postseason competition.

* Salary: Ingle’s contracted salary when he was hired at Dalton State was $65,000, although he was only to be paid $31,850 annually due to his status as a retired employee of the state of Georgia.

* Coaching capsule: Ingle has shown he can build winning programs. Kennesaw State was going through a period in which it was not successful, and by his third season he had led the Owls to the D-II national tournament, followed by the national championship the following year. Maybe he’s a long shot candidate, but the man knows how to win.

Tom Kelsey, LSU director of operations

* Record: 220-191 in 12 seasons as a head coach at Faulkner University in Alabama and Belhaven College, both NAIA programs. Two of his teams at Belhaven advanced to the NAIA tournament. He has been an assistant at LSU since 2012.

* Salary: N/A

* Coaching capsule: Kelsey grew up in Chattanooga, so he is familiar with the area. He might be willing to take what likely would be a pay cut to become the Mocs’ head coach, and by having spent his entire career in the South, he has been able to make connections in the recruiting world. Does he have a shot? Perhaps, but he would definitely be interested in listening should UTC decide to give him a call.

Eric Konkol, Miami assistant

* Coaching capsule: Konkol has been an assistant with Buzz Peterson at Tulsa and Tennessee. He’s currently in his 11th season as an assistant under Jim Larranaga, including at George Mason before Miami. Konkol was looked at as the offensive coordinator of a Miami offense that has been ranked by Ken Pomeroy as one of the nation’s best in recent years. He will be a head coach someday (he was being looked at recently by Wisconsin-Green Bay) and would have the same sort of youthful exuberance that helped make Wade such a hot commodity.

Wes Long, UTC assistant

* Record: 75-66 in five seasons at NCAA Division II Queens College. Long was 55-30 in the final three seasons at Queens before becoming an assistant to Wade at UTC.

* Coaching capsule: Long would be a hire that would provide continuity to the program — a phrase that athletic director David Blackburn stressed during his Tuesday afternoon news conference. Long knows the team and did a great job helping with his recruitment of the 2015 class, serving as a primary recruiter on 7-foot center Trey Kalina. There would be tweaks to Wade’s system, but the players know him and there wouldn’t be much else that would change within the program, which is important considering that next season’s team is projected as a 15-seed in the 2016 NCAA tournament.

Matt McCall, Florida assistant

* Salary: In a report released in 2012, McCall was said to have an average salary of $140,000 per season at Florida.

* Coaching capsule: McCall helped the Gators to three consecutive NCAA Elite Eight appearances and the 2014 Final Four in his second tenure with the Gators. He was also there from 2004 to 2008, serving as the director of basketball operations and earning two national championship rings in the process. He was huge on the recruiting trail, helping secure some of the top talent both in-state and nationally for the Gators.

John Pelphrey, Florida assistant

* Record: 149-126 in nine seasons as a head coach. He was 80-67 in five years at South Alabama, leading the team to a NCAA tournament appearance in 2006 and a NIT berth the following season. That led to an opportunity to coach at Arkansas, where he was 69-59 in four years, including an NCAA tournament appearance in 2008.

* Salary: Pelphrey makes $180,000 per season, according to a December 2013 report.

* Coaching capsule: Pelphrey is an interesting name. With reports out that Florida head coach Billy Donovan is looking at potentially making a jump to the NBA, Pelphrey might be a candidate to be his replacement. His current salary at Florida is comparable to what Wade’s beginning salary was at UTC, and he’s definitely proven he is a good head coach capable of taking a team to a NCAA tournament.

Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him at twitter.com/genehenleytfp.

Contact Mark Wiedmer at mwiedmer@timesfreepress.com.