ESPN Men's Basketball

Updated: August 27, 2009, 3:12 PM ET

Will coaching questions trump March Madness?

As conference play heats up and teams position themselves for the NCAA Tournament, three suddenly vacant coaching jobs have created a whole new race to the finish, Andy Katz writes.

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By Andy Katz
ESPN.com

Get ready for parallel storylines for the rest of February and throughout March Madness.

Job openings at Missouri, Cincinnati and now, apparently, Indiana will create a buzz that will permeate the NCAA Tournament.

Elsa/Getty Images Quin Snyder's vacant spot at Missouri is one of three highly coveted coaching positions.

Questions will be asked of prospective candidates, who will then predictably deny any interest. Athletic directors will posture to show they can keep their own head coaches. And of course plenty of coaches will play the game of Job Search that will ultimately land them a hefty raise.

But the overriding theme for these three high-profile gigs (and they may not be the only ones that pop up) is the reluctance of big-name candidates to be part of a formal coaching search.

For example, if Indiana wants Iowa's Steve Alford, then the Hoosiers will have to go get him, according to a source close to Alford. Alford isn't about to do a dance with his alma mater and go through a formal interview process with three or four other candidates. A coach at a rival school can't afford to do that.

The same would be true if Indiana were to go after Marquette's Tom Crean. He can't afford a slow waltz with a school only to risk not being chosen. Nor should he have to dance.

This unwillingness to join the search process will be seen throughout the country at places like Wake Forest, where Skip Prosser could be contacted by Cincinnati. West Virginia's John Beilein, a highly coveted coach, can't simply flirt with breaking his deal in Morgantown. He would have to do it and go, not waffle over whether to stay or bolt.

Mike Davis' reported decision to seek a resignation will help him get in the mix for prospective openings. This way he doesn't have to wait and see if he'll be fired before he pursues another gig. His move could also affect who stays at Indiana (D.J. White and Robert Vaden are the two most likely to bolt).

Cincinnati interim coach Andy Kennedy hasn't been told he's going to get the Bearcat job. And while he hasn't been told he will not get the job, Kennedy's not confident he'll even have a shot -- which allows him to pursue other openings as well.

There could be other vacancies that pop up here soon, but the trend is usually for these things to wait until the end of the season.

The toughest thing for all of these coaches will be to minimize the distractions in their own programs. The players should be immune to all the coaching talk, and any discussion of where their coach would land next shouldn't deter them from their goal of garnering a berth in the NCAA Tournament.

Still, the chase for these jobs, especially one of the most renowned in the sport, could end up being as competitive as the Tournament.

Senior writer Andy Katz covers men's college basketball for ESPN.com.