Now that the ‘do has officially jumped ship, the process of hiring a new head basketball coach has begun. Gary Barta announced his search committee today, which included the likes of B.J. Armstrong and Fred Mims but, oddly enough, not any of us at Hawkize.

While we respect Barta’s decision to leave us off the committee, we feel that our recommendations still need to be taken in to consideration. After much deliberation, we present our candidates:

Kirk Ferentz, Head Football Coach, University of Iowa
Ferentz was an obvious choice since he’s close to home. He’s a proven winner who really fits in with the university community. Despite his lack of basketball coaching experience, we feel that his skills as a coach are transitive and his chance of success is good.

In order to compensate Coach Ferentz for pulling double duty, the salary of the basketball coach could simply be added to his salary as a football coach, which puts him somewhere around $3 million per year. For a stellar coach like Kirk Ferentz, $3mm is a steal.

John Wooden, Retired Head Basketball Coach, UCLA
Although the Wizard of Westwood is now 96 years old, we feel that he still has at least 25 good years left in his tank. Coach Wooden has 10 National Championships under his belt, including 7 consecutive titles from 1967 to 1973. He is widely regarded as the greatest college basketball coach of all time, and the sixth greatest college coach of all time behind Kirk Ferentz, Dan Gable, Tom Brands, Norm Parker, and Larry Wieczorek.

According to Wikipedia, Wooden was set to accept an offer from the University of Minnesota over UCLA but took the job with the Bruins because of an error in the telephone system. Clearly his heart is in the Big Ten, which makes Iowa a logical choice.

Jeff Horner, Point Guard, Euphony Bree
During his days as the starting point guard for Iowa, Jeff Horner was clearly a cut above the rest when it came to intelligence on the court. Nevermind his lack of coaching experience at any level — as the son of legendary Mason City Mohawks coach Bob Horner, Jeff is coaching royalty.

Horner is currently carrying Belgium’s Euphony Bree on his back and doing big things in Europe. Although Horner is a lock for NBA stardom next year, we think that an opportunity to coach the Hawks is one that he wouldn’t pass up.

Jesus Christ, Son of God
This may seem like a long shot, but opportunities to coach the Iowa Hawkeye basketball team only come up every so often. An opportunity like this may bring the return of Christ, but he will face stiff competition for the job. Christ has no knowledge of the game whatsoever, but does possess divine powers that few other coaches have in their arsenal.

We feel that these four candidates are the best of the best.  After 8 years of torture, Hawk fans deserve a coach that they can respect.