A closer look at the known Southeast Missouri State men's basketball coaching candidates

At least five men have been contacted about the Southeast Missouri State men's basketball coaching vacancy, the Southeast Missourian has learned.

Multiple people with varying knowledge of the search have identified recently fired Mississippi State coach Rick Ray, former Missouri assistant Tim Fuller, Arkansas assistant TJ Cleveland, Oklahoma assistant Lew Hill and Virginia Tech assistant Isaac Chew as people athletic director Mark Alnutt is considering for the job.

Alnutt, who traveled to the men's final four in Indianapolis over the weekend to interview candidates, has not commented publicly on the search or named any finalists. It's not known if he interviewed all five identified candidates or if they will be the only people considered for or offered the job. Alnutt is conducting the search with senior associate to the president Brady Barke.

The duo also worked together on the university's search for a football coach in 2013. Alnutt, who also traveled to the women's final four in Tampa, is working with senior woman administrator Cindy Gannon on the search for a new women's basketball coach.

Read the original full story about the candidates here or continue reading to learn more about each of the men.

Rick Ray

Last job: Mississippi State head coach

Salary: $1,000,000

Rick Ray laughs after being introduced as Mississippi State's head basketball coach on April 2, 2012 at the school's Humphrey Coliseum in Starkville, Miss. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis)

Recruiting: Ray was building his best class at Mississippi State for the 2016 season before he was fired. He had secured commitments from three-star recruit Darius Hicks and four-star recruit D'Marcus Hicks. Neither had signed because they are still juniors in high school.

"No head coach is going to be more involved in your recruiting from Day 1 until the end than I will be," Ray told The Clarion-Ledger in October 2014. "I want to make sure that the kid knows the head coach is personally involved and invested in his recruitment. That's my big thing."

Key Mentor: Ray's second-longest coaching tenure came on the staff of Matt Painter at Purdue where he coached alongside former Missouri State and Tennessee and current Cal coach Cuonzo Martin and current Missouri State coach Paul Lusk.

Ray was a Boilermaker assistant from 2006-10. Purdue competed in the NCAA tournament each year and reached the Sweet 16 during his final two seasons as an assistant.

"I was really happy that Matt Painter hired me," Ray told the Starkville Daily News in April 2012. "It was a great situation for me. That first year there at Purdue, I got my brains beat in on the recruiting trail. I wasn't familiar with it. I was familiar with mid-major recruiting. I was fortunate to be around such strong recruiting guys. Cuonzo Martin is now the head coach at Tennessee, and Paul Lusk is now the head coach at Missouri State. Those guys were already kind of entrenched in there and kind of taught me how to do it, and I learned my way."

Playing Days: Ray's college basketball career began at Labette Community College in Parsons, Kansas, and ended at Grand View College in Des Moines, Iowa, where he graduated from in 1994.

"Oh, I wasn't a very good player," Ray told the Starkville Daily News in April 2012. "I was just like a utility guy. I started, was a team captain and things like that, but I was more out there because I could guard man and pass the ball, do the right things, good attitude, but I wasn't any good."

Southeast connection: There's no clear-cut connection to Southeast or athletic director Mark Alnutt. The closest coaching position the Kansas City, Kansas, native has held to Cape Girardeau was when he spent seven seasons at Indiana State as an assistant.

Isaac Chew

Current job: Assistant at Virginia Tech

Salary: $260,000

Isaac Chew is an assistant coach at Virginia Tech. (Photo by Fred Mullane)

Recruiting: Chew has recruiting connections to his hometown of Chicago as well as Kansas City, where he completed his college education.

The former Missouri assistant's connection to the Kansas City AAU program "Pump N' Run," which he worked with according to the St. Louis Post Dispatch, helped the Tigers land Marcus Denmon, Michael Dixon and Steve Moore, who all came from the program.

"I just think you have to recruit where you can get a player," Chew said in an interview with Painttouches.com in September 2012. "You tend to go to areas you have familiarity. So for Buzz, that's Texas because he's from there. I coached AAU in Kansas City for eight years, so I have some ties there and I have some ties to Illinois, and I've been to places to recruit. So you go where you can find people and have relationships."

Key Mentor: Following a one-year stint at Missouri, Chew joined John Groce's staff at Illinois in April of 2012. He joined Buzz Williams at Marquette less than two months later and has remained an assistant under Williams since.

In his first season as an assistant the Golden Eagles went 26-9, were the Big East champions and reached the Elite Eight.

Chew then followed Williams to Virginia Tech last season.

"Buzz was very persistent," Chew told the Milwaukee-Wisconsin Journal Sentinel in October 2012 about leaving Illinois for Marquette. "He kept making it harder and harder to say no. I've always wanted to work with Buzz. I feel he gives me the best chance to become a head coach one day. But it's more than that. He expressed things to me that no one has in this profession."

Playing Days: Chew, a native of Chicago, spent the 1994-96 seasons at Iowa Lakes Community College. He completed his eligibility at Avila University in Kansas City, Missouri.

Southeast connection: Chew served as an assistant on Frank Haith's staff at Missouri during the 2011-12 season, where Southeast athletic director Mark Alnutt was senior associate athletics director.

Chew's got connections within the Redhawks' league as well. He was an assistant at Murray State from 2007-11 under Billy Kennedy. The Racers were Ohio Valley Conference champions twice and competed in the NCAA tournament twice.

TJ Cleveland

Current job: Assistant at Arkansas

Salary: $181,728

TJ Cleveland is an assistant coach at Arkansas. (Associated Press photo)

Recruiting: The Arkansas staff, which includes Cleveland, landed Bobby Portis, this year's Southeastern Conference Player of the Year and an Associated Press second-team All-American, and Cleveland's been credited with attracting other top prospects to the Razorbacks.

Hickman (Columbia, Mo.) guard Jimmy Whitt, the top player in the state for the Class of 2015 according to ESPN, already has signed with Arkansas.

Shooting guard Terrance Ferguson, of Dallas, Texas, is ranked the No. 2 2016 shooting guard and the No. 9 overall prospect in the nation, according to ESPN, and is interested in the Razorbacks in large part to his relationship with Cleveland.

"Coach Anderson and Coach Cleveland have done a great job of recruiting him, and he's definitely interested," Ferguson's coach Ray Forsett told Arkansas Online last week. "They've done a great job this year. I actually know Coach A pretty well, so we respect him and the things he's done."

Key Mentor: Cleveland's spent a lot of time around Arkansas coach Mike Anderson, who happens to be his uncle. Anderson, a longtime Razorbacks assistant, was on Nolan Richardson's staff when Cleveland played at Arkansas. Cleveland followed Anderson to UAB as a video coordinator after he graduated and was named an assistant coach in 2005. He remained on Anderson's staff at Missouri the following year where they remained until Anderson took the helm at Arkansas in 2011.

"He played in the system, in terms of the style of play, that appeals to a lot of universities," Arkansas coach Mike Anderson told AL.com in March 2012. "And, not only that you can talk about the type of person he is. I think his reputation speaks for itself. He's one of the hottest young assistants out there when you talk in terms of recruiting and we know recruiting is the lifeblood of any program."

Playing Days: Cleveland played at Arkansas from 1998-2002 and helped Arkansas to its only SEC tournament championship in school history during the 2000 season. The Razorbacks were 76-50 and reached the NCAA tournament three times.

Southeast connection: Cleveland spent five seasons as a Missouri assistant under Anderson. Meanwhile, Southeast AD Mark Alnutt served as Mizzou's Associate Athletics Director for Administration & Senior Associate Athletics Director for Administration.

Lew Hill

Current job: Assistant at Oklahoma

Salary: $225,250

Lew Hill is an assistant coach at Oklahoma. (Submitted photo)

Recruiting: Hill was the main reason that TaShawn Thomas chose to transfer to Oklahoma for his senior season after departing Houston.

Thomas was the team's third leading scorer this season with 11.6 points and 6.5 rebounds and helped the Sooners to a 26-11 season and the Sweet 16 where they lost to Michigan State, which eventually reached the Final Four.

"When I chose to transfer, Coach Hill was one of the first coaches to call me," Thomas told the Tulsa World in November 2014. "We talked and I felt a connection. And then when I came on my visit, I don't know, it was a weird feeling. It felt comfortable from the beginning, like a family."

Key Mentor: Hill has spent the last 11 years as an assistant to Lon Kruger. He joined Kruger as an assistant at UNLV in 2004 where he spent seven seasons before following the head coach to Oklahoma. He's been an assistant on the Sooners staff for the past four seasons.

The Runnin' Rebels were 161-71 and secured NCAA tournament berths four times from 2004-11. Oklahoma has reached the NCAA tournament the past three seasons and compiled a record of 58-38 since Kruger's staff took over.

Prior to working for Kruger, he worked at Texas A&M from 1998-2004 under coach Melvin Watkins. He also spent time at East Carolina and Southeast.

Playing Days: Hill was a member of the San Jacinto Junior College basketball team in Texas during the 1983-84 season. He was named an all-American and the Ravens won the NJCAA National Championship. He finished his collegiate career at Wichita State. He was an all-conference selection in the Missouri Valley as a senior and he helped the Shockers to a 20-10 record and an NCAA tournament appearance. He played professionally in Germany for one season.

Southeast connections: Hill spent two years as an assistant to Ron Shumate at Southeast from 1992-94. The then-Indians were in their second season at the Division I level when he joined the staff. Southeast, which wasn't eligible for postseason play because the NCAA banned teams that moved from Division I to Division II from their conference tournaments for seven years, finished 16-11 in Hill's first season and 10-17 in this second.

Tim Fuller

Last job: Assistant at Missouri

Salary: $325,000

Tim Fuller was an assistant at the University of Missouri last season. (Associated Press photo)

Recruiting: Fuller has been touted as a top recruiter since he served as the No. 2 recruiter at Louisville under Rick Pitino.

"Louisville has a top 10 recruiting class for next year, and Tim was a big part of that," then-Missouri coach Frank Haith told the St. Louis Post Dispatch in April 2011. "Being able to hire Tim from a school like Louisville speaks volumes to what can take place at Missouri. ... This is a big step in taking our program to that next level."

Fuller served as the recruiting coordinator during his time at Mizzou and is credited with drawing players like Jabari Brown, Jordan Clarkson, Alex Oriakhi and Johnathan Williams III to the Tigers.

Key Mentor: Fuller first met former Missouri coach Frank Haith when he joined Dave Odom's staff at Wake Forest where Fuller was a walk on.

"There were times I wanted to quit," Fuller said in an interview with the St. Louis Post Dispatch in 2013, "but (Haith) would come to me and say, 'Hey, it's going to pay dividends down the stretch. Stick with it.' I didn't quite see it at the time, but I trusted him."

Haith helped Fuller secure his first coaching job at the college level at Elon, Haith's alma mater where he'd spent three years as an assistant prior to his stint at Wake Forest.

Fuller served as the director of basketball operations for Haith's staff at Miami in 2004 before eventually rejoining him as an assistant at Missouri in 2011.

Playing Days: Fuller walked on at Wake Forest in 1996 when the Demon Deacons won the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament and reached the Elite Eight as a No. 2 seed in the NCAA tournament behind the play of senior superstar Tim Duncan.

Fuller's playing time was sparse, but he was named a co-captain during his senior campaign in 2000 when Wake Forest won the NIT championship.

Southeast connections: Fuller joined Frank Haith at Missouri, where Southeast athletic director Mark Alnutt was employed, in 2011 and was an assistant under Haith for three years until the head coach left to take a job at Tulsa. Fuller remained an assistant under Haith's replacement Kim Anderson for one season. The university announced on March 26 that Fuller would not return to the staff for Anderson's second season.