Auburn Going After Tubby?

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Last week, Auburn athletic director Jay Jacobs warned Tiger fans that his search for a new basketball coach would probably take weeks, not days.

Early, early this morning Dennis Dodd of CBSSports.com announced that AU is “close to hiring” Tubby Smith.

Maybe this is just smoke.  Auburn’s search for a football coach in 2008 was all over the map.  And Gene Chizik’s name came out of nowhere late.

Or, perhaps Jacobs found Smith to be more interested than he might have thought… thus pushing up his timeline.

Either way, if Auburn is wooing Smith, then Auburn is prepared to spend for a winner.  Good for Auburn.

Charles Goldberg of The Birmingham News reports that “people familiar with the search process say the university is willing to significantly increase what it has paid former coaches in order to attract someone with a proven track record to replace Jeff Lebo.”

It’s rumored that Auburn might be willing to spend as much as $2 million per year for the right coach.  (Jeff Lebo — who was the lowest-paid coach in the conference at $750,000 last year — must love hearing that.)

Last week we wrote that Auburn should do just that — find someone with a proven track record, and not just someone who’d put together one hot tournament run.  How they went about that would depend upon their willingness to pay.

If they’re talking Tubby cash, then they’re not going to have to go to a smaller school to grab someone.  Maybe.

Auburn is still Auburn.  Even with a new arena set to open next year, the Tiger gig is not a plum job.  At least not now.  It has been a coach’s graveyard since Sonny Smith’s days.  Fan support is lacking.

Some coaches — even if offered lots of cool cash — might not take the job.  That’s what makes Smith an interesting target/rumor.  Smith has coached at Georgia and Kentucky.  After departing Lexington he landed in Minnesota.  While the Gophers have more tradition than the Tigers, it’s possible that Smith would simply like to work his way back down south, back to a league he’s familiar with.

Smith would be a tremendous upgrade for Auburn.  He is respected by fellow coaches and, most importantly, by the media.  The Tigers would get some nice plugs from the ESPN talking heads if they land him.

The move would signal a new dedication to the basketball program.  And it would trump Alabama’s hire of up-and-comer Anthony Grant last year.  Don’t think AU wouldn’t like to have a bigger “name” coach than Bama.

The mere mention of Smith’s name in connection with the Auburn job is a win for the Tiger program.  And if these rumors turn out to be true… all the better.

At the very least, AU fans have reason to believe this morning that their school is searching for a proven winner and that it’s willing to pay for one.