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Report: Marquette’s next head coach won’t be Shaka Smart

Shaka Smart

VCU’s head Coach Shaka Smart cheers on his team against Boston College during the second half of an NCAA college basketball game Saturday, Dec. 28, 2013, in New York. VCU won 69-50. (AP Photo/Rich Schultz)

AP

With Buzz Williams moving on to fill the head coaching vacancy at Marquette, the Big East program has been hard at work looking for a replacement. One name that came up immediately was that of VCU head coach Shaka Smart, who is a native of Wisconsin. Some outlets even went far enough to report that Smart had agreed to become the new head coach at Marquette.

However that wasn’t true and according to a report by Gary Parrish of CBSSports.com, Smart won’t be making the move from Richmond to Milwaukee. In five seasons at VCU Smart has amassed a record of 137 wins and 46 losses, leading the Rams to four NCAA tournament appearances and a Final Four in 2011.

Last spring Smart’s name was one that came up for the vacancy at UCLA (along with that of current Boston Celtics head coach Brad Stevens), with the school ultimately hiring Steve Alford to replace Ben Howland.

So where does Marquette go from here? Parrish provided a few possibilities in his story:

Among the possible candidates at Marquette now are former UCLA coach Ben Howland, Syracuse assistant Mike Hopkins and Green Bay coach Brian Wardle.

Smart and VCU came to agreement on a new contract that runs through 2028 back in October, with his guaranteed compensation for the 2013-14 season reaching $1.45 million and due to increase to $1.5 million in future seasons.

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