Multiple sources: List of Southeast Missouri State men's basketball coaching candidates narrowed

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. 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.

Fuller, Cleveland and Chew have all spent time on the sidelines at Missouri, Alnutt's alma mater and former employer.

Fuller arrived at Missouri in 2011 with then coach Frank Haith and was an assistant at the school until March 26 when it was announced he would not be back for a second season under Kim Anderson.

He went 5-0 as the interim head coach for Mizzou when Haith was suspended at the start of the 2013-14 season.

Fuller met Haith, who left Mizzou for Tulsa last offseason, when he was a walk-on at Wake Forest and Haith was an assistant. He later worked for Haith at Miami as the director of basketball operations.

Chew also was hired at Missouri in 2011, and although he spent just one year with the team, it was one of the most successful seasons in school history. The Tigers went 30-5 and won the Big 12 tournament championship before being upset in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.

Chew joined Buzz Williams' staff at Marquette in May of 2012 and helped lead the Golden Eagles to a share of the Big East Conference regular-season championship. He stayed at Marquette until he followed Williams to Virginia Tech prior to last season.

Virginia Tech athletic director Whit Babcock worked at Missouri at the same time as Alnutt.

Cleveland was on the sidelines for the Tigers from 2006-11 under coach Mike Anderson. The pair met at Arkansas, where Cleveland was a player and Anderson was an assistant coach from 1998-2002. Cleveland became an assistant for Anderson when he was hired as the head coach at UAB in 2002 and followed him to Missouri and then back to Arkansas, where Anderson has been the head coach since 2011.

Mississippi State coach Rick Ray shouts a play during the first half of a game with South Carolina in Starkville, Miss., in 2014. (AP Photo/Jim Lytle)

Ray was fired by Mississippi State on March 21 after going 37-60 overall and 13-41 in the Southeastern Conference in his three seasons. Prior to that he was an assistant at Clemson for two seasons and an assistant at Purdue for four seasons, where he helped guide the Boilermakers to the Big 10 tournament title in 2009 and the Sweet 16 twice.

Hill is the only coach to have previous experience at Southeast. He was an assistant for Ron Shumate from 1992-94, just after the university made the jump to Division I athletics. He moved on to be an assistant at East Carolina and Texas A&M before joining Lon Kruger's staff at UNLV in 2004. Hill moved with Kruger to Oklahoma, where he's been an assistant since 2011.

All are minority candidates for a job in a field where opportunities for minorities have dwindled in recent years.

The Associated Press reported just last week that Georgetown coach John Thompson III, Texas Tech coach Tubby Smith and newly named Texas coach Shaka Smart were part of a group joining together to form the National Association for Coaching Equity and Development.

"Ten years after minority coaches held more than 25 percent of the jobs across the country, the percentage dropped to 22 percent last year. And another 12 minority coaches have been fired this season," the AP report said.

The group has more than 40 members and hopes to influence schools to "give candidates of color more consideration for head coaching jobs. It also wants to better prepare the younger generation of coaches to succeed in those jobs and help athletes gain admission to college and excel when they get there," according to the AP.

No team that reached the Sweet 16 this season had a black head coach.

Alnutt said he planned to fill both the men's and women's coaching vacancies by the end of April in an interview on March 23, but both vacancies are expected to be filled by next Wednesday, according to multiple sources, including the father of a Southeast signee who said he spoke to Alnutt. According to the timeline Alnutt set forth prior to the searches beginning, finalists should be invited to visit campus this week.

That timeline could change if additional candidates are considered or negotiations take longer than anticipated.