Finalists chosen, interviews set for coaching vacancy

~ Barnes, Spoonhour and Edgar will come to campus in the next seven days.

Scott Edgar, Jay Spoonhour and Rod Barnes will be on campus over the next seven days to interview for the Southeast Missouri State men's basketball head coaching job.

The university announced the three finalists on its Web site Monday afternoon.

Edgar currently is an assistant coach at the University of Tennessee. Barnes was recently let go after eight seasons as the head coach at Mississippi. Spoonhour was on the Missouri staff for Quin Snyder the past two years, but he was not expected to return for new coach Mike Anderson.

Southeast athletics director Don Kaverman interviewed about 10 candidates over the weekend at the Final Four of the men's basketball tournament in Indianapolis. He said the school received more than 60 applications.

The university will host all three candidates in the next seven days for interviews. They will meet with the search committee, university president Kenneth Dobbins, Kaverman and other members of the Southeast athletic department and coaches. They also will meet with current men's basketball assistant coaches and members of the men's team.

In addition, open forums are scheduled at 3:30 p.m. for the candidates to meet with the public in the Show Me Center meeting rooms.

Edgar's visit is scheduled for Thursday; Spoonhour's will be Friday; and Barnes will be on campus Monday.

Kaverman expects to name the new coach early next week.

All three coaches have Division I head-coaching experience, ranging from Spoonhour's 11-game stint as an interim coach at UNLV to Barnes' eight seasons at Ole Miss. Edgar spent four years as the coach at Murray State in the early 1990s and three years at Duquesne after that.

Barnes compiled a 141-108 record at Ole Miss from 1998 through this season. The Rebels finished 14-15 this season and 4-12 in the Southeastern Conference.

His teams averaged more than 17 wins per year, and he posted three 20-win seasons in his first four years. His teams advanced to the NCAA tournment in 1999, 2001 and 2002. Barnes earned Southeastern Conference and NABC Naismith national coach of the year honors in 2001 for a 27-8 campaign that ended in the NCAA tournament Sweet 16 -- the only time in program history the team has advanced that far.

However, the Rebels had four straight losing seasons since 2002.

Barnes, an Ole Miss grad who was all-SEC as a guard in 1988, previously was an assistant at the university, an assistant coach and assistant to the AD at Livingston University at Alabama, and an assistant to the AD at Ole Miss.

Edgar has been a head coach at two schools. He spent four seasons in the Ohio Valley Conference from 1991 to 1995 and led Murray State to two NCAA tournament appearances and one NIT bid. He finished 79-40 at Murray and then put together a 29-55 record in three seasons at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh.

Edgar's career record is 108-95, including a 56-16 record in the OVC while at Murray, where was the league's coach of the year twice.

Edgar is an assistant to Bruce Pearl at Tennessee, which finished 21-7 this season and won the SEC Eastern Division.

He was the director of basketball for Billy Tubbs at Texas Christian in 1999 after leaving Duquesne, and then spent three years as an assistant at Alabama-Birmingham. He also had been an assistant for six years at Arkansas and was an assistant at Tulsa.

Spoonhour was an assistant the last two years at Missouri after being replaced by Lon Kruger at UNLV.

Spoonhour had stepped in for 11 games as the interim head coach of UNLV and posted a 6-5 record, guiding the Runnin' Rebels into the championship game of the Mountain West Conference and an NIT loss to Boise State.

Spoonhour assisted his father, former Southwest Missouri State and St. Louis University coach Charlie Spoonhour, at UNLV for three seasons before sliding into the interim role. The Rebels also made the NIT in 2002 and 2003.

Spoonhour in 2001 coached Wabash Valley College to the National Junior College Athletic Association national championship with a 36-1 record. He was named the NJCAA coach of the year.

Spoonhour, a Pittsburg State graduate, also was on his father's staff at St. Louis University.