The candidates for the Virginia basketball head coach are pretty well listed here by the Daily Press' Dave Johnson. Go read that, then come back to see my few mild disagreements.

The "A list" as he calls it might better be called "pipe dreams". It would be huge news if any of these guys took the job. I would expand the list to include these names: Kentucky coach Tubby Smith, Texas coach Rick Barnes, Golden State (NBA) coach Mike Montgomery, and Indiana (NBA) coach Rick Carlisle.

Carlisle is a Virginia grad and a well respected coach. But he transferred in for only two years, his ties are not as strong to the school. He is an NBA guy making huge money and just starting to make his mark. Unless Virginia is his dream job, and no one has ever hinted at that, he won't come.

The "B list" should include Boston University head coach Dennis Wolff, Creighton coach Dana Altman, Marquette coach Tom Crean, Depaul coach Dave Leitao, West Virginia coach John Beilein, and Davidson coach Bob McKillop.

Everyone else Johnson listed would be distant longshots at best.

There may be other names on the B list that have not been listed. For instance, Tom Moore is intriguing because Virginia President John Casteen hired UCONN coach Jim Calhoun there. But he's a name that just came up, another longshot.

There have been a couple of rumors from well connected insiders on the Edge board at The Sabre. (I don't want to post full direct quotes since it's a subscriber board, and because of the sensitivity of the job search. I'm probably overly cautious but oh well.) One very well respected poster has heard we landed our "top target":

I still can't believe it and won't until I see it in an official press release.

Another poster added today that we would go all out and are focused on "one candidate only".

I would be very surprised if the one top candidate is not one of the four names I mentioned on the "A list" above, most likely either Barnes or Smith.

My gut feeling is that while I slightly prefer Smith, Barnes is the more realistic choice.