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Flights, Zooms and dinner with ‘Drake’: Castiglione juggled 2 coaching hunts
NORMAN — Joe Castiglione’s party arrived at The Ranch steakhouse the night of April 5, and one of his colleagues told the host the name on the reservation for the private party.
“Aubrey Graham.”
There was no Aubrey Graham in the group, nor an Aubrey Graham in the OU athletic department. But one of Castiglione’s associates explained. Aubrey Graham is the legal name of a rapper. Fellow by the name of Drake.
Castiglione laughs hard when telling the story. He deserves it. A juggler’s life has few rewards.
Castiglione and Co. were dining with Drake University women’s basketball coach Jennie Baranczyk, hence the Aubrey Graham code name. Joe C. figures his chief of staff, Armani Dawkins, made the secret reservation. Just part of the intrigue of conducting simultaneous basketball coaching searches.
Both OU basketball jobs came open last month. Sherri Coale retired on March 19, after 25 years as the Sooner women’s coach. Lon Kruger retired on March 26, after 10 years as the Sooner men’s coach.
And Castiglione set out on two missions, all while the NCAA staged its tournaments for each sport.
The men’s job was filled April 2, when OU hired Loyola Chicago coach Porter Moser. The women’s job was filled April 10, by Baranczyk.
How did Castiglione do it?
“I asked myself that same question,” Castiglione said the other day, finally taking a breather after two hectic weeks.
A basketball coach is a major decision for an athletic department. All kinds of operations stop when a basketball job comes open. When it’s two, and it’s April, and the NCAA’s relatively new transfer portal spins like a twister, all other priorities halt.
“I had started on the women’s search a little bit earlier but felt like the development of the search was going to dictate itself,” Castiglione said. “We were very cognizant of other programs in the marketplace searching for a new head coach. And some of them were most likely targeting the same people we were.”
The men’s search caught up quickly, in part because some of the teams of the women’s candidates remained alive in the NCAA Tournament. Castiglione said he has talked with assistants still coaching in March Madness, but doesn’t want to converse with head coaches until their seasons are over.
It got hectic. Baranczyk flew in from Des Moines on Monday, April 5. She flew back to Iowa the next day, the same day that Moser and his family arrived at Norman’s Westheimer Airport, on a private plane.
The day after that, Castiglione scooted quickly out of Moser’s introductory press conference at Lloyd Noble Center. An interview with another women’s candidate was scheduled.
“It’s part of my job, and I love doing my job,” Castiglione said of the harried searches.
“You could always break it down and talk about the difficult elements. But it all goes together to have the most successful search possible.”
Here are some inside looks at the dueling searches:
The Lists
Castiglione, like most athletic directors, keeps lists for prospective head coaches. Just in case. You never know.
Joe C. says that both Moser and Baranczyk were on his lists.
Moser, of course, was on everyone’s list, after his 2018 Loyola Ramblers made the Final Four. Castiglione said he was struck by Loyola even before the Final Four.
“Watching his teams play in the first and second round, that team’s rise to prominence in that postseason tournament was legit,” Joe C. said. “They were good. They were really good.
“I continued to watch their program. That’s what caught my attention. It wasn’t just a one-year run for the ages. It was more indicative of the type of program he had built.”
Castiglione talked to some other men’s coaches, but Moser was Joe C.’s only face-to-face meeting.
Meanwhile, Castiglione met live, in Norman, with multiple women’s candidates. Including Baranczyk.
Joe C. said he first became aware of Baranczyk in 2018, when OU and Drake both were sent to an NCAA Tournament site in College Station, Texas.
“I don’t necessarily rank names, and I was vetting them very early in the process, with some other names, of course,” Castiglione said. “Both of these jobs were very attractive. We heard from a number of different coaches.”
Joe C. used a search firm to help with background checks and such. He also talked to a variety of people about the candidates, from all corners, and not just in recent weeks. Even when jobs aren’t open, Joe C. said, he is curious about coaches.
“Trying to get the most thorough and well-rounded view of each person we were considering,” Castiglione said. “And that’s the big challenge, gathering information about coaches.
“I would have that list. You don’t really know when the list will come in handy, but you have it.”
Sometimes timing and interest and fit doesn’t work. During an actual search, contractual issues arise, either going or coming. Family reasons often are paramount. The fit factor works both ways.
But Moser and Baranczyk were on the list, eventually checked all the boxes and found the OU job appealing.
Keeping it quiet
Some coaches prefer that their job dalliances stay out of the press, and Castiglione goes to great lengths to ensure that.
Sometimes it works until the very end. He hired Jeff Capel as a total stealth candidate 14 years ago. Word about Kruger’s hiring got out somewhat quickly. Moser, too, was an obvious candidate.
And something of vital importance to Castiglione – he wants the team to know first. That doesn’t always work out. But his desire is for the players to hear the news of the new hire from Castiglione himself.
“Unfortunately, it started leaking, the news about Porter’s hiring, before we had finalized everything,” Castiglione said. “We were able to keep the hiring of Coach Baranczyk quiet before we met with the team. We used Zoom to meet, because it was much more time efficient.”
It’s rare to keep it quiet. Too many people become involved in the process. Virtually every coach, including assistants, have agents these days. Some agents use the media to improve their client’s status and reputation.
And Castiglione also lets another party in on the news – a coaching candidate’s current employer.
“I always call the AD,” Castiglione said. “Let them know we’re interested in talking to their coach.”
It’s awkward. No way could Loyola athletic director Steve Watson or Drake AD Brian Hardin be happy about potentially losing their coach.
But Joe C. said both were thankful for the heads up, “because most people do not. They said, ‘Wow. This doesn’t happen very often anymore.’ I’ve been doing that my entire career. I don’t know why I’d stop doing it now.”
Agents definitely make coaching searches more laborious.
“In some ways, it’s next to impossible to get through to a candidate unless it goes through their agent,” Joe C. said.
“One thing that serves me well is my experience in the business and having the benefit of knowing quite a few people that also know others. So I can get to certain people that others can’t. Not saying that boastful. But I have relationships that have developed that you can tap into when you need it. My experience in the men’s basketball committee? Invaluable.”
Face to face
In this age of Zoom, face-to-face meetings are less important. We do all kinds of things digitally, including recruit athletes and hire employees.
But Castiglione says that just wouldn’t work with him.
“I just couldn’t bring myself to hiring someone in this type of position, without being face to face,” he said. “I know it happened last year. May have happened this year. But I guess I’m too traditional.
“With both of them (Moser and Baranczyk), they have energy. So it did project well over the Zoom. But it’s even more impressive in person.”
The media doesn’t track women’s coaching candidates quite as heavily as men’s coaching candidates, though it does happen. OU got Baranczyk (and others) into Norman, without a leak.
Dinner at The Ranch included Baranczyk, Castiglione, OU athletics chief financial officer Marcus Bowman, senior women’s administrator Lindy Roberts- Ivy and senior associate athletic director Zac Selmon.
That OU group even figured out a way to clear the women’s basketball facilities at Lloyd Noble Center to give Baranczyk a quick tour in private.
Moser got no such tour. OU went to him.
Castiglione and colleagues had interviewed Moser via Zoom before the face-to- face meeting, but there had been two other interviews that same day. Moser was at the top of the list, so Castiglione and Selmon flew to Chicago on April 1 . They met Moser and his wife, Megan, at a hotel conference room about 90 minutes north of their Chicagoland home.
“Sitting down with Porter, it was really a natural evolution of his interest in Oklahoma, because it fi�t, really close, to a blueprint of where he wanted to go if he wanted to leave Loyola,” Castiglione said.
“A little bit with Jennie, too, but in the case of Porter, I could tell he had checked me out as thoroughly as I had checked him out.”
OU could have staged more live interviews. A Plan B was in place.
“Had that (Porter interview) turned out differently, we knew exactly where we were going to go,” Joe C. said. “We were maximizing time. It was moving very quickly.”
The meeting north of Chicago did not move quickly.
“When we were done, he was like, ‘wow, that was thorough,’” Castiglione said. “We don’t ever take anything for granted. After we left, we felt like, we knew. That was the end of the search.”
The next day, Moser accepted the job. He was announced the day after that – OU was trying to be respectful of OSU’s announcement of new university president Kayse Shrum – and the Sooners had a men’s basketball coach.
And Castiglione still had a coach to hire.
NORMAN — Joe Castiglione’s party arrived at The Ranch steakhouse the night of April 5, and one of his colleagues told the host the name on the reservation for the private party.
“Aubrey Graham.”
There was no Aubrey Graham in the group, nor an Aubrey Graham in the OU athletic department. But one of Castiglione’s associates explained. Aubrey Graham is the legal name of a rapper. Fellow by the name of Drake.
Castiglione laughs hard when telling the story. He deserves it. A juggler’s life has few rewards.
Castiglione and Co. were dining with Drake University women’s basketball coach Jennie Baranczyk, hence the Aubrey Graham code name. Joe C. figures his chief of staff, Armani Dawkins, made the secret reservation. Just part of the intrigue of conducting simultaneous basketball coaching searches.
Both OU basketball jobs came open last month. Sherri Coale retired on March 19, after 25 years as the Sooner women’s coach. Lon Kruger retired on March 26, after 10 years as the Sooner men’s coach.
And Castiglione set out on two missions, all while the NCAA staged its tournaments for each sport.
The men’s job was filled April 2, when OU hired Loyola Chicago coach Porter Moser. The women’s job was filled April 10, by Baranczyk.
How did Castiglione do it?
“I asked myself that same question,” Castiglione said the other day, finally taking a breather after two hectic weeks.
A basketball coach is a major decision for an athletic department. All kinds of operations stop when a basketball job comes open. When it’s two, and it’s April, and the NCAA’s relatively new transfer portal spins like a twister, all other priorities halt.
“I had started on the women’s search a little bit earlier but felt like the development of the search was going to dictate itself,” Castiglione said. “We were very cognizant of other programs in the marketplace searching for a new head coach. And some of them were most likely targeting the same people we were.”
The men’s search caught up quickly, in part because some of the teams of the women’s candidates remained alive in the NCAA Tournament. Castiglione said he has talked with assistants still coaching in March Madness, but doesn’t want to converse with head coaches until their seasons are over.
It got hectic. Baranczyk flew in from Des Moines on Monday, April 5. She flew back to Iowa the next day, the same day that Moser and his family arrived at Norman’s Westheimer Airport, on a private plane.
The day after that, Castiglione scooted quickly out of Moser’s introductory press conference at Lloyd Noble Center. An interview with another women’s candidate was scheduled.
“It’s part of my job, and I love doing my job,” Castiglione said of the harried searches.
“You could always break it down and talk about the difficult elements. But it all goes together to have the most successful search possible.”
Here are some inside looks at the dueling searches:
The Lists
Castiglione, like most athletic directors, keeps lists for prospective head coaches. Just in case. You never know.
Joe C. says that both Moser and Baranczyk were on his lists.
Moser, of course, was on everyone’s list, after his 2018 Loyola Ramblers made the Final Four. Castiglione said he was struck by Loyola even before the Final Four.
“Watching his teams play in the first and second round, that team’s rise to prominence in that postseason tournament was legit,” Joe C. said. “They were good. They were really good.
“I continued to watch their program. That’s what caught my attention. It wasn’t just a one-year run for the ages. It was more indicative of the type of program he had built.”
Castiglione talked to some other men’s coaches, but Moser was Joe C.’s only face-to-face meeting.
Meanwhile, Castiglione met live, in Norman, with multiple women’s candidates. Including Baranczyk.
Joe C. said he first became aware of Baranczyk in 2018, when OU and Drake both were sent to an NCAA Tournament site in College Station, Texas.
“I don’t necessarily rank names, and I was vetting them very early in the process, with some other names, of course,” Castiglione said. “Both of these jobs were very attractive. We heard from a number of different coaches.”
Joe C. used a search firm to help with background checks and such. He also talked to a variety of people about the candidates, from all corners, and not just in recent weeks. Even when jobs aren’t open, Joe C. said, he is curious about coaches.
“Trying to get the most thorough and well-rounded view of each person we were considering,” Castiglione said. “And that’s the big challenge, gathering information about coaches.
“I would have that list. You don’t really know when the list will come in handy, but you have it.”
Sometimes timing and interest and fit doesn’t work. During an actual search, contractual issues arise, either going or coming. Family reasons often are paramount. The fit factor works both ways.
But Moser and Baranczyk were on the list, eventually checked all the boxes and found the OU job appealing.
Keeping it quiet
Some coaches prefer that their job dalliances stay out of the press, and Castiglione goes to great lengths to ensure that.
Sometimes it works until the very end. He hired Jeff Capel as a total stealth candidate 14 years ago. Word about Kruger’s hiring got out somewhat quickly. Moser, too, was an obvious candidate.
And something of vital importance to Castiglione – he wants the team to know first. That doesn’t always work out. But his desire is for the players to hear the news of the new hire from Castiglione himself.
“Unfortunately, it started leaking, the news about Porter’s hiring, before we had finalized everything,” Castiglione said. “We were able to keep the hiring of Coach Baranczyk quiet before we met with the team. We used Zoom to meet, because it was much more time efficient.”
It’s rare to keep it quiet. Too many people become involved in the process. Virtually every coach, including assistants, have agents these days. Some agents use the media to improve their client’s status and reputation.
And Castiglione also lets another party in on the news – a coaching candidate’s current employer.
“I always call the AD,” Castiglione said. “Let them know we’re interested in talking to their coach.”
It’s awkward. No way could Loyola athletic director Steve Watson or Drake AD Brian Hardin be happy about potentially losing their coach.
But Joe C. said both were thankful for the heads up, “because most people do not. They said, ‘Wow. This doesn’t happen very often anymore.’ I’ve been doing that my entire career. I don’t know why I’d stop doing it now.”
Agents definitely make coaching searches more laborious.
“In some ways, it’s next to impossible to get through to a candidate unless it goes through their agent,” Joe C. said.
“One thing that serves me well is my experience in the business and having the benefit of knowing quite a few people that also know others. So I can get to certain people that others can’t. Not saying that boastful. But I have relationships that have developed that you can tap into when you need it. My experience in the men’s basketball committee? Invaluable.”
Face to face
In this age of Zoom, face-to-face meetings are less important. We do all kinds of things digitally, including recruit athletes and hire employees.
But Castiglione says that just wouldn’t work with him.
“I just couldn’t bring myself to hiring someone in this type of position, without being face to face,” he said. “I know it happened last year. May have happened this year. But I guess I’m too traditional.
“With both of them (Moser and Baranczyk), they have energy. So it did project well over the Zoom. But it’s even more impressive in person.”
The media doesn’t track women’s coaching candidates quite as heavily as men’s coaching candidates, though it does happen. OU got Baranczyk (and others) into Norman, without a leak.
Dinner at The Ranch included Baranczyk, Castiglione, OU athletics chief financial officer Marcus Bowman, senior women’s administrator Lindy Roberts- Ivy and senior associate athletic director Zac Selmon.
That OU group even figured out a way to clear the women’s basketball facilities at Lloyd Noble Center to give Baranczyk a quick tour in private.
Moser got no such tour. OU went to him.
Castiglione and colleagues had interviewed Moser via Zoom before the face-to- face meeting, but there had been two other interviews that same day. Moser was at the top of the list, so Castiglione and Selmon flew to Chicago on April 1 . They met Moser and his wife, Megan, at a hotel conference room about 90 minutes north of their Chicagoland home.
“Sitting down with Porter, it was really a natural evolution of his interest in Oklahoma, because it fi�t, really close, to a blueprint of where he wanted to go if he wanted to leave Loyola,” Castiglione said.
“A little bit with Jennie, too, but in the case of Porter, I could tell he had checked me out as thoroughly as I had checked him out.”
OU could have staged more live interviews. A Plan B was in place.
“Had that (Porter interview) turned out differently, we knew exactly where we were going to go,” Joe C. said. “We were maximizing time. It was moving very quickly.”
The meeting north of Chicago did not move quickly.
“When we were done, he was like, ‘wow, that was thorough,’” Castiglione said. “We don’t ever take anything for granted. After we left, we felt like, we knew. That was the end of the search.”
The next day, Moser accepted the job. He was announced the day after that – OU was trying to be respectful of OSU’s announcement of new university president Kayse Shrum – and the Sooners had a men’s basketball coach.
And Castiglione still had a coach to hire.
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