Report: Collier to be AD at Butler / LJWorld.com

Archive for Tuesday, August 1, 2006

Web site quotes unnamed source as saying that press conference scheduled for today

J-W Staff and Wire Reports

August 1, 2006

Lincoln. Neb. — It appears Barry Collier is headed to Butler University as the school's new athletic director.

The Web site Husker Hoops Central on Monday night reported a source close to the situation indicating, "Collier has agreed to the job, and will be introduced at a press conference tomorrow (today), most likely at 10 a.m."

It is believed NU will move quickly to hire a coach, perhaps Kent State's Jim Christian.

Collier was head coach at Butler from 1989 to 2000 with a record of 196-132. While at Butler, Collier guided the Bulldogs to five of their seven 20-win seasons in school history to that point and made the NCAA Tournament in 1997, 1998, and 2000. Collier went 89-91 in six seasons at NU.

The 52-year-old Collier has headed the struggling Cornhuskers program for six years, and his job status was the subject of speculation last season before Nebraska AD Steve Pederson announced after the Big 12 tournament that Collier would be retained.

If he had been fired at the end of the season, it would have cost Nebraska $976,090 to buy out the last two years of Collier's four-year contract.

The Cornhuskers finished 19-13 last season, but lost six of their last eight regular-season games to finish in sixth place in the Big 12 at 7-9. They knocked off Missouri and Oklahoma to reach the semifinals of the Big 12 Conference tournament in Dallas.

Speculation flourished after the tournament that Collier was about to be fired.

Pederson retained him, however.

The Huskers played in the NIT, losing to Hofstra.

Collier left Butler in 2000, and had winning records in all but two of his 11 years.

As a player at Butler, Collier was the team's co-MVP in 1975-76.

Husker Hoops Central and FoxSports.com are the only two media outlets to report Collier's departure as a definite as of late Monday night.

ESPN's Andy Katz and the Lincoln Journal-Star both wrote that all signs point to Collier leaving, though no official word has been said by anyone, named or unnamed, yet.

The Associated Press reported Monday that no decision had been made.

Collier was one of three finalists for the Butler athletic director job initially, but the list was sliced to two after Ralph Reiff withdrew his name.

The other candidate reportedly still in the hunt is Miami (Ohio) associate athletic director Mike Watson.

He told the Lincoln Journal Star on Sunday that he had not heard anything from Butler.

If Collier leaves, the Big 12 Conference would have six new head basketball coaches, four in the North: Nebraska's potential new coach, Missouri's Mike Anderson, Kansas State's Bob Huggins, Oklahoma State's Sean Sutton, Iowa State's Gregg McDermott and Oklahoma's Jeff Capel.

Collier was in Indianapolis to be inducted in the Butler Hall of Fame over the weekend.