CSUN fired Reggie Theus last Wednesday and today they hired Mark Gottfried who formerly was the head coach at Alabama for 11 years followed by a 6 year stint at North Carolina State. He was also an assistant under Jim Harrick at UCLA when the Bruins won the National Championship in 1995. He said that Harrick was a mentor to him and he plans to have him on his staff at CSUN.
Gottfried is a high profile D1 coach who knows the LA area and is expected to be a formidable recruiter. He said he is confident that he will be able to turn the program around with a goal of being in the NCAA Tournament.
The President of CSUN, Diane Harrison, moved quickly that's for sure. I guess some of the CSUN fans are not happy with the hire since Gottfried may still be being investigated as part of the whole college basketball investigation by the FBI. They've had enough suspensions from the Theus years. Harrison and Gottfried both went to college at Alabama and even went to the same high school but she said it had nothing to do with the hire.
Federal prosecutors announced new charges in the continuing college basketball corruption case on Tuesday, adding Kansas and North Carolina State to the list of universities implicated in the scandal.
The prosecutors said that several men, including Jim Gatto, a former Adidas executive, funneled money to high school recruits who attended Kansas and North Carolina State, as well as players who went to Louisville and Miami — programs that were already known to be related to the case — in exchange for those recruits’ commitments to those universities. All four universities are sponsored by Adidas. The trial is scheduled to begin Oct. 1.