I have read some pretty fascinating responses in this thread. Apparently head coaching positions in basketball, especially at large schools, are plentiful. Personally, I think Shrubbery is foolish for not jumping on the job right away. This nonsense that nothing is going on right now, or for 200 days is absurd. Signing period starts in a mere few weeks. On top of that, the current team and depth has expressed a desire to leave. That's suddenly both long term and short term problems, but it's no big deal to some people. If I'm him, I look at it from the perspective of his second contract. The faster he shows success, the bigger its going to be; the more, and bigger opportunities he's going to have. The first contract is done, but it took twenty plus years to get. These positions are few and far between. Hey, psu let him have the choice, but I still find it puzzling.
Now, psu's perspective is especially troubling. They don't seem to understand they are offering multiples and possibly an order of magnitude more of life altering money for a very scarce type of job, and a program that needs immediate work to avoid an even bigger setback that could tack on several more years of a rebuild. They had every opportunity to put the stipulation of the start date in even before anyone interviewed. You're not scaring anyone off from a rare potential head coaching position and massive pay increase by doing that. Apparently they seem to think everything is just fine and dandy, and recruiting requirements are really far off.