[Music] you are locked on coup your daily podcast on the Houston Cougars part of the locked on podcast Network your team every day park ranger locked on cougs here and I I know that everyone was a little shocked when they heard the news on Monday but also not like unpleasantly shocked we kind of knew something like this would eventually happen but the Houston coug men's basketball roster is going to be shifting this off season quanis white uh spending eight years here as an assistant at daring coach a few other programs beforehand uh played for Kelvin back at Oklahoma was on that final four team in ' 02 uh quanis White has accepted a head coaching job at the University of Louisiana formerly Louisiana Lafayette the ran cun uh and frankly the Louisiana native makes a ton of sense he's going to do fantastic there a great spot for him to get his feet with as a head coach I would not be surprised if he moves up quickly into like bigger and bigger things bigger programs Etc I also know though that loyalty and regionality and staying close to home is important to him and so I don't know how far away from Louisiana he's going to want to be uh quanis gets the head coaching job there I don't know contracts all that kind of stuff I think the biggest thing for Houston Couer fans to understand but this was one Kanas has turned down other head coaching jobs past uh he got promoted to uh His official title was the associate to the head coach or associate head coach at Houston uh meaning he is like one be behind Kelvin there right now uh he also forworth has publicly stated over and over and over again he's going to finish the season and finish the job here at Houston before he even goes to Louisiana right and I think a lot of people I I got tweets about it I got comments about it I'm sure you know people are every single person involved are wondering like does this mean there will be a distraction for the Houston Cougars and I can sufficiently say no and I think I know say no for a lot of runs one quanis understands the thing at hand for him as a coach as a coach moving to Louisiana raging cun there will be a long time potential between the next time he is up with a team like this and right now right Kelvin Kellen Hollis I'm not saying that they like think it's going to happen every year they obviously understand the moment and the kind of team they got on their hands but they've also built this program to we like hey this will probably be Houston's Third consecutive year as a one seed in the in L tournament hey back toback Big 12 Champs by multiple games etc etc right quanas is moving to a program that is not quite that to say the least right they fired the coach in December I mean that Louisiana's got a rebuild he's going to go do it very well but they got time he understands that he needs to do this now because who knows when it ever happens again second the other thing for quanis that he understands as well as anyone is part of his resume in recruiting kids in the transfer board recruiting kids in 2025 and 2026 to Louisiana will be what they do this March he understands that winning this March is as important for that job as anything else he could be doing right he wants to go get recruit he can get recruits all over the state of Louisiana but if he shows up with a final four ring Championship hat oh yeah sorry I had go I go to a parade I'm sorry I'm late right that goes a lot farther than anything else he's going to sell to that kid looking Louisiana right and I say that to say that he ain't dumb man he understands why that's so significant he understands why that's going to be a big deal uh for the Raging cun and I have zero concern with quanis looking ahead getting ready to move Etc quanis is here dialed in with the cougs and he has every reason to be for now and frankly even if he were thinking about that next job it would still benefit him more to be dialed into the here and now and worry about that later because this here and now will make that later easier and he gets it as much anyone a lot of people about the replacement for quanis a big part about what quanis did when he showed up to Houston was bring the perspective of a highlevel player he and Hollis price both that played for Kelvin at the peak of the Samson system in Oklahoma and I looked at high and low for some guys I think could do this now uh eie Erie I think kind of fits that mold he was the next the third guard on that okoma team that went to the final four played uh internationally for a long time like I think just finished playing inter 2018 after finishing Oklahoma 02 he's from Tulsa but played for the Nigerian national team I don't I can't find if he's still involved with basketball but could be interesting guy to call up as a coach Jason Dietrich was an impactful guard on the same team he was young on that team uh but he just recently stopped playing in Europe uh still very close to the game if he's looking to get into coaching could see him joining the staff as well there are two names though that really really intrigued me for guys to Place quanis White in that role and a very similar way to play that role as far as having played for Kelvin done some coaching or stayed involved with basketball um and the first is a guy named Eddie Hill Eddie Hill is the associate head coach at UC Riverside so the same role at Riverside that Quan has just occupied at Houston Eddie played for Kelvin at Washington State way back in the day and was part of the Great rebuild of that prog program then uh he was a senior the year they got the in tournament which is kind of like the first time they got a tournament in a long time there at Wazoo um and you know I understand the thing like Washington State that's a long way away UC rivid is a long way away U before taking uh I guess it was the South Dakota job the year before the Riverside job but before taking the one-year job at South Dakota uh he was a high up in dfw's Pro skills e ebl program the director of their 17 U team for three or four years uh he dabbled some in coaching in the business World prior to that he was on some college task before that in Portland and stuff like that but um that was kind of the meat of his coaching credential before getting the job at s San Diego State and has been a high Riser very quick Riser as well again guy's not necessarily young but once he got in the college game uh then in 2020 he's kind of shot up ranks very quickly at these smaller institutions and he's still like very I mean you go to social media Eddie Hill he'll he post about Kelvin all the time still very big like remembers his roots in that way um having done stuff in Texas his kids are both also in Texas he's got one that playing basketball St Edwards in Austin one's a journalism student at North Texas and DFW in the Metroplex Eddie himself was a 41% three-point shooter um back in 94 that's kind of impressive you go back to how they played back then um his last year was the year went the final four he uh was like their leading pointman in a bunch of important games teams he's he's an impactful player on those teams so he can do the same kind of relationship kind of stuff that quanis did as far as like hey I understand what it's like to be a great player for Kelvin let me talk your off let's talk about this a little bit right he can kind of direct guards in that way um for this war silver W media is like a a coaching outlet that looks like coaching across the country it's kind of a relatively new group they named him to their list of rising stars in college basketball last year um really really imp impressive resume for a young guy uh and again he knows Kelvin plays for played for Kelvin a long time ago Kelvin doesn't doesn't forget names and faces I'd imagine that's one that gets a phone call Kell likes keep things in house he's talked before about having the mentality of if he's not going to hire guys that played for him why should anyone else that's why he's got a staff built of guys that played for him his son Hollis quanis before now right Etc um my second name I'm intrigued by hear me out here is actually a guy that is not done playing yet but I think it's going to be done really soon and that's Eric Gordon Eric Gordon uh played for the Houston Rockets for a minute uh really enjoyed his time in Houston with them if you ever hear him talk about it things went South and then whole coaching shift happened or whatever but before that he enjoyed his time in Houston he played it Indiana he was a one andone at Indiana uh and he was at least the best recruit that Samson had at Indiana ever um he might have been the best ranked recruit depending on what ranking you're looking at that Samson ever had period was Mr basketball St Indiana Etc but he really connects with Houston after Haven lived here and doing quick amount of digging I did not take long to figure out the L there are all kinds of Articles out about Eric Gordon having a strong relationship with Kelvin and having frankly like set on the record at different points he kind of feels like Indiana did Kelvin wrong right if you don't know Kelvin got asked to leave Indiana in February of his final year there uh some recruiting deal where he was using phones or something make a bunch of phone calls stuff that is not illegal now right and Eric Gordon said on the record like hey I think that was a really strict Stern punishment for something that like you know the phone still wasn't that big a deal right um and frankly he kind of feels like he sided with Kelvin in that breakup I don't think it's any acccident that Eric Gordon went one and done now he would have been a top whatever pick and all that but like certainly wasn't going to come back for a year or two and play for somebody else right um that team with Eric and Kelvin was 17 to1 before Kelvin was asked to go uh very out of nowhere but Eric being so well connected with Kelvin I think could also do the deal where hey understands the highend player perspective they work some of the same kind of pro stuff uh and Eric's first couple years in Houston were kind of towards the end of what Kelvin was doing at the Rockets uh they both know each other how lived in Houston as well uh that overlap of that was going on um and frankly what it's worth if Eric wanted to get into coaching after retiring he's like 36 going on 37 it would be a pretty he might not had the same high up of a role uh as quanis did but I do think there's something to be said about the fact that he could come in and take that uh some position on staff and kind of have that same player relationship as a guy that played with Kelvin others others would U maybe maybe not be able to have the other thing I would say about Eric and this be where I wrap up the segment we're going a little along is that he's a recent enough NBA name that I think he'll carry some level of respect with recruits and stuff like that I think it's worth mentioning that's going to be really really important as well now I want to talk about the other big news of the day in Monday with the big 12 Awards coming out and I think Houston only got h on one of them