They are going to have to pony up and pay someone some big money to come there, and give them Saban like control over the program and let them do their thing. I seriously think that Bama is happy being the kings of College Football and want to spend every available resource in preserving that, which make that scenario unlikely. You obviously aren't going to get the guys entrenched in their jobs at these legacy basketball schools. However coaches like Greg Marshall at Wichita State, Mark Few at Gonzaga, and Chris Mack of Louisville would absolutely listen if there were enough zero's in the figure. I just don't know if Alabama will commit to that, which likely means they will remain mediocre for a long while.
I think you're right about them being happy with football and the rest ... well, if we win at golf or softball or hoops then "ArrTeeArrr! and when is football season?" takes over. Same at AU - "Equestrian champs? Cool! OK, when is football spring practice and how is Bo Nix's hangnail?"
Could a Saban-like hoops coach co-exist with Saban and the football-money-fan machine? Can you have two of those coaches and teams at one school? Kentucky doesn't. North Carolina and Duke don't (though huge props to Duke and Cutcliffe). Syracuse doesn't. Gonzaga and Wichita State don't. Carolina, Duke and Kentucky have the financial resources to not totally suck at football. Yet if they go 9-2 or 8-3 it's a big deal (see, Kentucky 2018).
Some of the closest dual-team powers may be in the Big 10 with Michigan State, Wisconsin, Michigan and Ohio State. Maybe toss in Purdue. Clearly their basketball history is big but football has stepped up in the last 25-30 years. Mississippi State hired Ben Howland; until Mullen left, he and Howland might have been the top two in the league. Before that, Spurrier and Meyer along with Donovan at Florida might have been the best.
This doesn't even take into account the AU and UA women's programs, which haven't been good since Joe Ciampi and Rick Moody left. That's been 25ish years, too.
It's baffling, to be honest. Every school says they want to win c'ships (in every sport) and yet there's a culture of "Oh, well" at a lot of them.
Greg Marshall at Wichita State was coming, then backed out (which IMO was a flag). I think Few may be happy at Gonzaga; he's had chances to leave for other programs including UCLA. Finding another NBA coach/asst probably would be tough; once they get into the league and don't have to deal with recruiting-NCAA-bagmen-parents, it's hard to leave.
I honestly don't get it. Bama (and others in the SEC) can't attract Tier 1 coaches, and the "Hey, he should be pretty good!" hires like Avery don't pan out. I'm interested in seeing how Crean does at Georgia. If he can't turn it around there, they might as well quit.
