Earlier today, Joe Cowley of the Chicago Sun-Times offered his thoughts on a potential scenario that would see Bulls head coach Fred Hoiberg leave Chicago to become the next head coach of the Ohio State men’s basketball team.
Cowley prefaced his column by saying it’s highly unlikely. Hoiberg is still under contract with the Bulls for three more years and $15 million. There’s also been no confirmed contact between Hoiberg and Ohio State’s athletic director Gene Smith.
However, moments ago Gary Parrish of CBS Sports tweeted that an unnamed source told CBS “The Mayor” has emerged as a “real candidate” for the head coaching job for the Buckeyes.
Chicago Bulls coach Fred Hoiberg has emerged as a real candidate at Ohio State, a source told @CBSSports.
— Gary Parrish (@GaryParrishCBS) June 8, 2017
Jon Greenberg of The Athletic confirmed that he’s also been hearing talk of Hoiberg as a candidate from people around Ohio State.
Had two different people text me this today, fwiw. It's the word going around Columbus. https://t.co/1o13D4u6t6
— jon greenberg (@jon_greenberg) June 8, 2017
Smith and Hoiberg go way back, to when the former held the athletic director position at Iowa State and the latter was playing for the Cyclones. Earlier this week, Smith fired his men’s head coach Thad Matta.
Cowley referred to the limited connection between Hoiberg and the Ohio State job as “whispers”, so nothing concrete is known at this time.
At their end of season press conference, Gar Forman and John Paxson voiced their support for Hoiberg after another trying season. Despite saying they believe he needs to improve his leadership skills, they confirmed he will return to coach the Bulls again next season.
We’ll keep you up to date with any further developments on this subject, but for now this appears to be a highly unlikely scenario.
