David Williams: No Search Firm for Basketball Coach, "Over 100, 125 Names" Being Examined

Vanderbilt didn't hire a new basketball coach on Monday, but Director of Athletics David Williams laid out the parameters he'll take to find a new leader for the hardwood Commodores.

Williams addressed reporters one day after 17-year veteran Kevin Stallings was hired away by Pittsburgh. In the face of the program's first coaching search of the millennium, he told the press Vandy wouldn't hire a search firm to find the ideal candidate for the school. Instead, former head coach Eddie Fogler will be the only outside influence on the team's choice.

The vice chancellor refused to name names, but he made it clear the team's list of potential successors would be vast.

He have already begun a national search for our next head men's basketball coach. We will use Eddie Fogler as a consultant. We will not hire a search firm.

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We'll do a search. We'll try to do it in effective time. I never like to put speed ahead of quality.

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We're really looking at someone with head coaching experience.

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We've probably had over 100, 125 names on the list. I will give you one, okay? My cousin from Brimingham who has a chicken store called me and offered the name of one of his cooks. He will not be hired.

- Vanderbilt Vice Chancellor and Director of Athletics David Williams

Williams expects to whittle that list down to a few key targets relatively quickly.

Williams on number of formal interviews: No more than 5 or 6.

— VandyMBB (@VandyMBB) March 28, 2016

He'll have competition from other schools as the coaching carousel turns. Williams pointed out Georgia Tech's vacant position as something that may affect the team's pool of applicants. He also suggested he won't be too concerned about how those other teams fill their posts.

Williams also suggested that losing Stallings to another program was nearly inevitable.

It's hard for me to remember a year where there wasn't a school interested in [hiring] Kevin Stallings.

Pittsburgh had originally contacted Vanderbilt "Wednesday or Thursday" to express its interest in hiring Stallings. Williams revealed that the university never stands in the way when other programs ask permission to interview members of its coaching staff.

When asked what the ultimate standard for his new coaching hire was, Williams kept it simple:

To win.