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The difference? Jerry Stackhouse could still coach in the NBA if he wanted to.

Since reports started coming out last Monday that Vanderbilt was in talks to hire Jerry Stackhouse as its next head basketball coach, some of the reaction has been positive. Much of the negative reaction, though, centers around the idea that “NBA guys” rarely succeed in college.

A lot of the examples, though, are not particularly relevant comparisons to Jerry Stackhouse. I’ll break down why, but a few thoughts on why this idea has some merit. In recent years, hiring an NBA coach — and particularly an NBA coach with specific connections to the hiring school — has become somewhat common, as schools desperate for attention and unhappy with the available hires from the college ranks have increasingly turned to the NBA ranks to find a coach.