Wyking Jones - Assistant New Mexico

  With all the madness going on lately the coaching search to fill the open coaching vacancies has been put on the back burner. One spot has been filled by Richard Pitino still leaving two open spots. Well it looks like one name we should get familiar with is Wyking Jones. Wyking is currently on staff at New Mexico were he works under Steve Alford where it seems he's held in high regard.http://thelobolair.com/forum/showthread.php?t=28064 Pitino made it clear that one thing these three new hires would have in common is they would have to be excellent recruiters and it seems he's sticking by that. Jones played at Loyola Marymount in the 1990s, then coached under Paul Westphal at Pepperdine before becoming Nike's traveling-team manager giving him strong connections in recruiting circles. The ABQ journal out of New Mexico is reporting that a interview has been set and an offer could soon follow.

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Will Wade - Assistant VCU

At 28 years old wade is a young energetic assistant who is described as having a relentless work ethic. 

"When Head Coach Shaka Smart hired Will Wade last year, all he could talk about was Wade’s work ethic."

“There’s that saying, ‘don’t work harder, work smarter.’ Well, Will works harder and smarter,” Smart said. “He struck me as the hardest working guy I knew. His attention to detail is second to none, and he’s really good at developing relationships. I knew that Will was someone we had to have on staff here.” 

Wade had a big role in VCU's final four run and is becoming a hot name in coaching circles. Anyone who knows anything about Pitino knows work ethic is at the top of his list when it comes to players and assistants so thats most likely what drew his attention to the promising  young up and comer.

“I’m never truly away from it,” Wade said. “I’m always thinking about it, working on something. I keep a pad next to my bed, and I might wake up at one in the morning and write something down."

* Breaking News * A report has surfaced that Rick had narrowed his search down to Wyking Jones, Will Wade, and Kevin Keatts. Well now tweet from http://twitter.com:80/#!/BrianKlomanFerg is indictating Rick has completed his staff and has decided to go with Wyking Jones and Kevin Keatts and an announcemd comes as early as tommorrow while other sources are are saying possibly tuesday.