Ritchie McKay hires assistants at Liberty

[Da Coach]

Ritchie McKay hires assistants at Liberty- dumps Broussard

After being fired as head coach at New Mexico last week, Ritchie McKay was hired as head coach at Liberty on Monday, and today announced the hiring of 3 assistants at Liberty.
He has hired Brad Soucie, one of his assistant coaches at New Mexico to be his top assistant at Liberty.
The other 2 people McKay hired are:
Jason Eaker, who will be an assistant coach after spending the last 2 years as Director of Basketball Operations at Liberty under the previous coach, and:
Tommy Cromwell, who was hired to take over the position of Director of Basketball Operations after he had been a graduate assistant at Liberty under the previous coach.
That still leaves 1 assistant coach position to fill, but there has been no mention that McKay would hire any of the other assistants he had at New Mexico, Duane Broussard, and Scott Didrickson, and Dir. of Basketball Operations Grant Farmer.

http://www.liberty_flames.com/index.cfm?PID=10869&newsID=1248&TeamID=6

[chitownBUB]

Just a little irony, the picture of McKay in that link shows him walking the sidelines of a game,
presumably at the Pit in New Mexico (since the only player seen has a home-white uni)
but the ad visible on the scorers table is for a gambling casino. I wonder what is the official
policy at Liberty University on allowing gambling casinos to advertise at their arena?

[BradleyBrave]

Well, it's too bad Duane burned the bridge permanently at his alma mater. What goes around comes around!

[Big Mike]

Maybe liberty cannot afford the huge cell phone bills from db?

[patrick_o'brian]

I don't see anything concrete that says Broussard has been dumped. Maybe the thread should be changed. Do we know for a fact that Broussard will not fill that remaining vacancy? Just thought that we were not supposed to speculate. To me this is total speculation.

[Da Coach]

McKay hired one of his assistants but not the others. All I know is that Broussard is not an assistant at Liberty despite there still being a vacancy there. He is not currently employed, and isn't with McKay. So maybe I am being too harsh, but to me that qualifies as dumping him.

By the way, what do you mean?

"Just thought that we were not supposed to speculate. To me this is total speculation."

There isn't any rule prohibiting speculation on this message board. If there was, 90% of the topics would probably have to be removed.
The only rule here about speculation involves unsubstantiated rumors or speculation about the private lives of the Bradley players and staff. See the 7th line under content of posts--

http://www.bradleyfans.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=4554

So feel free to speculate!

[MacabreMob]

Just a little irony, the picture of McKay in that link shows him walking the sidelines of a game,
presumably at the Pit in New Mexico (since the only player seen has a home-white uni)
but the ad visible on the scorers table is for a gambling casino. I wonder what is the official
policy at Liberty University on allowing gambling casinos to advertise at their arena?

Haha... I have been in that joint. They have a nice 27 hole golf course too.

http://www.isletaeagle.com/

[Biff]

Maybe liberty cannot afford the huge cell phone bills from db?

Ironically, here is an article from back on March 9 that mentions the University-owned cell phones that the coaches are issued.
Near the end of the article it says:
"There's a family vacation planned, maybe a few calls, then McKay will turn in his cell phone to UNM at the end of the month.
So will assistants Duane Broussard, Scott Didrickson, Brad Soucie and Grant Farmer. UNM will retain video coordinator Carlos Griego."

So they have turned in those infamous cell phones that lured Danny Granger away from Bradley, and got New Mexico their only NCAA appearance since 1999. Maybe those cellphones should be enshrined into the UNM Hall of Fame.

http://www.abqtrib.com/news/2007/mar/09/mens-basketball-mckay-replacement-could-come-next-/

[cpacmel]

Just a little irony, the picture of McKay in that link shows him walking the sidelines of a game,
presumably at the Pit in New Mexico (since the only player seen has a home-white uni)
but the ad visible on the scorers table is for a gambling casino. I wonder what is the official
policy at Liberty University on allowing gambling casinos to advertise at their arena?

New Mexico did play in a Las Vegas tourney where they wore their white uni's against Wichita State.

http://golobos.cstv.com/sports/m-baskbl/recaps/122306aaa.html

But it wouldn't surprise me if it was taken at the Pitt.

[Da Coach]

Ritchie McKay filled the final assistant position on his staff at Liberty University with fired Colorado State coach Dale Layer. Layer was an assistant under McKay in 1998-2000 when McKay was the head coach at Colorado State before moving to Oregon State, prior to going to New Mexico.

http://www.libertyflames.com/index.cfm?PID=10869&newsID=1270&TeamID=6

http://www.libertyflames.com/index.cfm?PID=10868&TeamID=6

[it's boogie time]

Has McKay ever coached on the East Coast before?

As far as Broussard goes, that recruiting violation on his record certainly won't help him find a job. I agree with BB that it is too bad that he can't come back home.

[Da Coach]

McKay's coaching career included 1 season at Queens College (now it's Queens University) in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Other than that, the farthest east was his 2 year stint as a Bradley assistant in Jim Molinari's first 2 seasons.

As assistant coach:
1988-89: Washington
1989-90: Queens College (N.C.)
1990-91: Seattle Pacific
1991-93: Bradley
1993-95: Washington

As head coach (win-loss records in parentheses):
1996-98: Portland State (24-29)
1998-00: Colorado State (37-23)
2000-02: Oregon State (22-37)
2002-07: New Mexico (82-69)
2007- : Liberty University, Lynchburg, VA

[BradleyBrave]

Has McKay ever coached on the East Coast before?

As far as Broussard goes, that recruiting violation on his record certainly won't help him find a job. I agree with BB that it is too bad that he can't come back home.

I don't want to see him around Bradley University ever again.

[tornado]

And Steve Alford filled another slot on his assistant staff.

"Former Iowa assistant coach (Billy Garrett) expected to join Alford's Staff"

" The hiring of Garrett would leave one spot available on the Lobos staff.

Former Bowling Green coach Dan Dakich is rumored to take that post. Dakich said last week he wasn't a UNM assistant but has talked with Alford "about some things."

If Garrett follows Neal's trend, he could be paid handsomely. Neal will receive $250,000 per season, which dwarfs the $100,000 salary of former Lobos coach Ritchie McKay's top assistant, Brad Soucie."

[tornado]

Ex-Bradley assistant Ritchie McKay is the subject of a College Insider interview and article.

http://www.collegeinsider.com/angela/mckay.html