The Bobcat Nation

Sounds like Brian Fish's first hire as an assistant coach will be Univ. Oregon asst. director of operations Kenya Crandell

Is he the new top asst?

Here is what I have been able to find out about Kenya Crandell. I just saw a Tweet from West Coast Hoops that said the following:

WestCoastHoops ‏@WCHRdotcom 1h
Univ. Oregon asst. director of operations Kenya Crandell will join Coach Fish staff at the Univ. of Montana State.

As the post says he is currently the Director of Basketball Operations at Oregon. That is someone who works for the Oregon Basketball team but is not a coach (The NCAA limits a team to 1 head coach and 3 assistants). Under this capacity he is in a way a coach but he can not recruit in anyway. Crandell though does have D-1 coaching experience. He was and assistant at Southern Utah, and the "Top Assistant" at Northern Colorado as well as an assistant at Nebraska-Kearney before that where he also played his college ball. He holds the score record and average assist record at Nebraska-Kearney with 1,119 points at 4.9/game.

At first when I saw he was the director of basketball operation I thought, which is typically a stepping stone job to a coaching position, I thought he must be coming in as a 2nd or 3rd level coach, but after reading his resume he does have the back ground to be the first assistant. One would also think with Fish leaving Oregon an assistant position will open up there and he would be a prime candidate to become land the job, so coming to MSU would definitely need to be a big step up. To be honest though I have no firm info as to where he will be coming in on the staff only conjecture.

Obviously this is a guy is someone Fish trust and it was Fish's plan from the start to bring him with him and that is good. I still hope though Fish takes a long hard look at Dirden and/or Haslem.


Assistant Director of Basketball Operations at Oregon (2010-14)
http://www.goducks.com/ViewArticle.dbml ... EASON=2013" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Assitant at Northern Colorado
http://uncbears.com/sports/mbkb/mtt/cra ... nya00.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Assistant at Southern Utah 2008-2010)
http://www.suutbirds.com/ViewArticle.db ... ID=1605592" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Isn't the "Director of Basketball Operations" the guy who takes care of the travel arrangements, bus, motel reservations, meals-that sort of thing? Also maybe getting and breaking down film? It's where a lot of guys break into the coaching profession.

BelgradeBobcat wrote:Isn't the "Director of Basketball Operations" the guy who takes care of the travel arrangements, bus, motel reservations, meals-that sort of thing? Also maybe getting and breaking down film? It's where a lot of guys break into the coaching profession.

Add setting coordinating basketball camps and setting up facebook and twitter accounts. Yes

Sounds like a good hire, Crandell is familiar with Coach Fish and has plenty of experience in the Big Sky. Looking forward to seeing the rest of the staff...my dream scenario would be Dirden and Bobby Howard as the other two assistants, but I'm sure there are plenty of other great coaches out there to look at.

I agree, 01. I think his familiarity with the BSC will be important.

He wasn't going to hire the No. 1 assistant at Kentucky or Florida for the post. This looks to me like a solid hire.