As Arizona Wildcats' coaching search drags on, former players push to keep it in the family

As Arizona’s coaching search dragged toward a second week Tuesday, some candidates appeared to be locking down raises elsewhere, administrators drew criticism and former Wildcats continued to lobby for one of their own.

Even former UA guard Nick Johnson, who said it was “unfair” that Sean Miller was fired on April 7, said he would like the school to pick a replacement who has worn a Wildcats uniform.

“There are so many good options!” Johnson told the Star in a text message from Turkey, where he is playing this season. “Coach Stoudamire would be amazing there.”

Coach Stoudamire, of course, is former Wildcat all-American guard Damon Stoudamire, who was an all-American at UA who then entered coaching after a 13 year NBA career. Now the head coach at Pacific, Stoudamire was an assistant coach at UA during the high point of the Miller era, the 2013-14 and 2014-15 seasons, when the Wildcats won Pac-12 regular-season titles and reached the Elite Eight.

As of Tuesday afternoon, the same names appeared to be still bubbling at the top of UA’s search process: Gonzaga assistant coach Tommy Lloyd, Stoudamire and Georgia Tech coach Josh Pastner.

One candidate dropped out late Monday, when Arkansas reportedly reached an agreement to extend coach Eric Musselman’s contract. An extension had been expected for weeks but wasn’t completed until after Musselman reached the Elite Eight and drew interest from Arizona.

Likewise, Pastner was involved in extension talks with Georgia Tech just as Arizona showed continued interest in him early this week. Having gained leverage by leading the Yellow Jackets to the ACC Tournament title last season, Pastner has two more years on a contract scheduled to expire after the 2022-23 season, when he is scheduled to make $2.4 million.

While it is possible UA’s move to replace Miller has been hitting some procedural stumbling blocks along the way, the delay has generated some external criticism Tuesday.

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“If Arizona, which still doesn’t have a coach at 1:51 pm on Tuesday, spent more than five minutes talking to Eric Musselman whoever is running their search is completely incompetent,” tweeted USA Today columnist Dan Wolken.

Fox Sports’ Aaron Torres tweeted that the week delay since Miller’s firing illustrated “about the worst administrative incompetence I can ever remember.”

Former UA players also continued to add to the discussion while the job remained open early this week.

On the Instagram live stream of former Wildcat forward Richard Jefferson, former UA guard Gilbert Arenas said ex-players should be considered first and ruled out the idea that any assistant coaches should be considered.

Noting that Pastner already has a high-level head coaching job, Arenas threw his support behind Stoudamire. When Jefferson asked why, Arenas said:

“He’s been coaching for a while now, he’s established himself. He’s turned the whole program around, you know, where he went (Pacific). So, I mean he has the credentials, you know. An assistant coach doesn’t have credentials.”

Meanwhile, another former UA standout, Mike Bibby, told Fox Sports 1450 that he would like to be considered for the head coaching job or an assistant job at Arizona.

And like his UA peers, Bibby indicated as much as anything he wants the program to be elite.

“I hope something changes to bring it back to how it used to be, when kids wanted to go there and they produced a lot of pro players,” Bibby said. “I think we need to get back to that.”