Mike DeCourcy

Coastal Carolina found itself shopping for a new coach after all the attractive new models had been picked over. So it made sense to at least thumb through the bargain bin. After all, there may be treasures to be found there, especially with programs firing coaches at what must be a record rate.

Coastal hired Cliff Ellis, who was previously dismissed from the SEC, and it isn't the only school that took on a recycled coach. Of the 54 new coaches for 2007-08, 15 were, at one point in their careers, forced out or dismissed. That's almost a third of new hires coming from old fires.

"I think just because somebody is not successful at one institution, it doesn't mean they can't be very successful another place," says South Florida athletic director Doug Woolard.

He hired Stan Heath after Arkansas decided, in the words of A.D. Frank Broyles, to "move forward under new leadership." Heath led the Razorbacks to consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances but didn't convince his bosses he had much more in him. Those two bids -- and the recruiting success that produced them -- looked pretty attractive to a USF program that hasn't celebrated Selection Sunday since 1992.

A decade ago, there would have been no afterlife in the college game for guys like Ricardo Patton (Colorado to Northern Illinois), Jim Wooldridge (Kansas State to UC Riverside) and Dan Monson (Minnesota to Long Beach State).

Consider the case of Paul Evans, who reached the Elite Eight at Navy in 1986, won two Big East championships at Pittsburgh and made seven NCAA appearances at the two schools before the Panthers dumped him in 1994. The guy who discovered David Robinson got a few interviews, mostly from programs that wanted to pay in canned goods.

Coaches who lost jobs in the '90s became victims of the heinous decision by NCAA members to restrict one member of each Division I staff to making $12,000 annually. Those whose salaries had been limited eventually won a lawsuit against the NCAA, but the rule effectively depressed assistant coach salaries the rest of the decade.

Now, a talented coach such as Rod Barnes can earn a decent buck as an assistant and be given the opportunity to rescue his career. He got Ole Miss to three NCAA Tournaments and to the Sweet 16 in 2001 but did not recruit effectively enough to keep the Rebels consistently afloat in the brutally competitive SEC West.

Jeff Capel hired Barnes last spring to add the wisdom of experience to the Oklahoma staff -- but Barnes learned a lot by watching his young boss aggressively recruit the next batch of Sooners. Barnes wasn't expecting to leave OU after just one season, but the opportunity to coach Georgia State was too inviting to decline.

"I feel like I've been blessed," Barnes says. "I guess I have a place in college basketball."

Getting fired wasn't fun, but at least it wasn't the end.