Last night twitter in the Mississippi State fan's world was set ablaze by a tweet from over 800 miles away. It was also subsequently put out just as fast too.
Last night Mark Miller (@WisBBYearbook) of WisSports.net tweeted this out:
Just heard from reliable source that Rob Jeter will be next coach at Mississippi State.
— Mark Miller (@WisBBYearbook) March 27, 2012
That report was quickly squashed by Bulldog beat writers who stated that their sources close to the situation were telling them the opposite.
Source close to Mississippi State coaching search tells me tonight that Rob Jeter-to-Mississippi State is "not happening."
— Brandon Marcello (@bmarcello) March 27, 2012
First of all, hold up you guys. Um, who is this exactly?
So, even though it seems that Jeter is not a likely candidate, who, exactly, is he anyways? Let's take a look real quick just so we'll know.
Rob Jeter is the current men's basketball coach at the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee. He has held that position since 2005 when previous coach Bruce Pearl, yep, that Bruce Pearl, left to take the University of Tennessee job. Jeter has been mildly successful, registering a 121-101 record in his time as the head man in Milwaukee.
Prior to his time as the head coach there, Jeter was an assistant/associate head coach at the University of Wisconsin at Madison under well known coach Bo Ryan. Interesting side note: Jeter also played for Ryan when he played college ball at UW-Platteville. Before his 2001-2005 stint wih Ryan at Wisconsin, Jeter was an assistant at, yep, Milwaukee with Ryan prior to Bo leaving for the Madison job and Bruce Pearl stepping in as the head man.
Prior to all of that jazz, Rob was an assistant at Marquette and his alma matter UW-Pratteville as well.
So, would he be a good candidate? My take is no, he wouldn't. Jeter doesn't have near the track record that Pearl did in his time at that school, and he hasn't really done much overall as a head coach that makes him an attractive hire.
Let this also be a lesson that just because someone tweets it, doesn't always mean it's true. Like later today when I say that Jackie Moon is a candidate for MSU's head coaching position. That's obviously not true either.
We'll continue, as always, to monitor the situation and keep you informed if we hear that Jeter is, in fact, a candidate for the Mississippi State vacancy /crosses fingers that he's not