Bumped from the Fan Posts.

Despite bitching in many quarters about Rick Barnes' $200,000 raise -- deserved or not, this is how the game is played in big-time college basketball -- we should be glad today, as we are every day, that we are not Aggies. They lost their coach, Mark Turgeon, to Maryland and now Bill Byrne has a task ahead of him to find a replacement.

Thankfully for the Aggie faithful, two of their big-time recruits, Jamal Branch and Jordan Green, have decided to honor their commitments. Well done, young men. That commands respect.

Less thankfully, it seems no one is jumping at the opportunity to take over the program in College Station. Marquette's Buzz Williams and Colorado's Tad Boyle both said no. Word is, Byrne is now moving down his list to Murray State's Billy Kennedy. The most delicious rumor has Byrne putting out feelers to Jeff Van Gundy. (I for one would love to see this.)

I might be alone here, but I take the view that a strong Aggie basketball program is good for the league, especially since Missouri, Oklahoma, and Iowa State are all trying to get their programs back into the national conversation. The Big 12 needs another marquee team, along with Kansas and Texas, that can beat out-of-conference foes and make some noise in March. The Aggies could be that team, though I wonder if there are institutional roadblocks to that happening? (It's a football school in a football state, it's tough to get recruits to want to go to College Station, it's seen as a second-tier, stepping-stone job for coaches and not an ultimate destination, not a lot of games on TV, etc.)

So, who do you think will be coaching in College Station next season? Who should be?