Missouri State basketball coaching search should be nearing its end. Here's what to know.

If Missouri State had been as good at basketball as it's been at keeping things quiet during coaching searches, it would have returned to the NCAA Tournament in recent years. Unfortunately for many, that's not how that works.

Sunday was the two-week mark in the Bears' search for a new men's basketball coach after it fired Dana Ford after six seasons. It should be safe to assume that we're nearing the end.

There has been plenty of speculation about the job but nothing concrete. The one thing known for sure is the new coach will likely have to build a new roster with most of last year's team in the transfer portal. We knew that was likely anyway.

Here's the latest we've heard involving the names that have been speculated on the most.

More: What we're hearing about the Missouri State men's basketball coaching search

Ben McCollum, Northwest Missouri State

McCollum's name has been out there since before the job came open. It's the only name national reporters have connected to MSU (national reporters have better things to do than speculate on who Missouri State would hire). It was easy to label him as the favorite when everything about McCollum's resume and the national buzz around him. He makes a tremendous amount of sense.

The further we get away from Northwest Missouri State's loss to Minnesota State at the buzzer in the NCAA Division II Central Region championship, the more unlikely it appears the Bears are going in this direction.

Previously: Northwest Missouri State coach Ben McCollum considered 'top target' at Missouri State

From everything we've heard, McCollum wants the job. His name has been connected to other openings, including Oklahoma State and Drake's. You can't help but feel he will replace Darian DeVries at Drake, who accepted a head coaching job at West Virginia and will haunt Missouri State for the next three to five years before moving up.

Maybe this circles back around, maybe not. If he ends up elsewhere, the comparisons between him and whoever Missouri State hires will follow for years to come.

Steve Alford, Nevada

There have been more rumors around this than you'd think. Alford has a huge deal at Nevada and just led his team to the NCAA Tournament. But some believe Alford wants to return to Missouri State and retire in Springfield at some point.

The 59-year-old head coach's name has been in the rumor mill for other jobs, including Oklahoma State. A lot of talk has dried up after Nevada blew a late 17-point lead to Dayton in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.

As for a return to Missouri State? A source close to Alford said he hadn't been contacted. He's in a good situation in Nevada with a new basketball arena being built. There's also that $7.5 million buyout that Missouri State would have to rob a few banks to pay.

Previously: Who will replace Dana Ford as Missouri State basketball coach? Start with these 11 candidates.

Tom Crean, ESPN analyst

It's become an annual tradition for Missouri Valley Conference head coaching vacancies to tie Crean's name to their job. It happened a ton at Evansville. Many are doing the same with Crean and the Bears.

Crean is two seasons removed from a pretty bad stint at Georgia where he went 47-75 in four years and couldn't make the NCAA Tournament with Minnesota Timberwolves No. 1 overall pick Anthony Edwards. He previously coached Indiana to four NCAA Tournaments and finished with a 166-135 record in nine years.

More: Dana Ford makes first public comments since Missouri State basketball firing

Crean was the head coach at Marquette from 1999-08, where he led the program to five NCAA Tournament appearances, including a Final Four in 2003 with Dwyane Wade leading the way. MSU athletics director Kyle Moats spent two years as senior associate athletic director at Marquette, giving him some crossover with Crean.

Crean is currently a college basketball analyst on ESPN. We'll believe this one if it happens. We would think ESPN's top college basketball reporters would stop connecting McCollum to MSU and would say something about one of its own being in the mix if this was the case.

Rodney Perry, Kansas State assistant

Perry wants the job, a source has indicated, but it doesn't appear he'll get it unless Missouri State does a 180. From what we've been told, the former Missouri State basketball player and Link Academy head coach has not been contacted directly and there has only been minimal dialogue between his agent and Moats.

Jerod Haase, former Stanford coach

Haase is the most recent name floated out there to us as a possibility. He was recently fired at Stanford after eight seasons as head coach where the Cardinal didn't reach the NCAA Tournament and had only one 20-win season.

We speculated on Haase in a recent write-up, noting his Midwest ties as a Kansas grad and assistant under Roy Williams. He had a successful four-year stint as a head coach at Alabama-Birmingham from 2012-16, including an NCAA Tournament appearance. It landed him the Stanford job. The Cardinal has made one NCAA Tournament since 2008.

More: Dana Ford promised Missouri State basketball championships. He never delivered.

Incoming Missouri State President Biff Williams, at Utah Tech, was a part of hiring a football coach with many Stanford connections.

Would this be the sexiest hire that Missouri State would like to get to get fans in the stands? No. Is it a coach who's had success in the region and would maybe find more of it if he returned to his roots? That's a possibility.

It sounds like Missouri State will try to 'take a big swing'

The consensus among those speculating about the program's future is that Moats and outgoing Missouri State President Clif Smart will want to "take a big swing," noting the lack of attendance at Great Southern Bank Arena and Smart's one last chance at making a positive impact on the men's basketball program.

Even before becoming MSU's president, Smart was on the search committee when the Bears hired Paul Lusk. He was part of hiring Ford. The two have been a part of misses that contributed to fans departing the building.

There needs to be some spark for this fanbase that attracts the attention of those who haven't renewed their season tickets. That's what makes this hire so important as interest continues to wane.

The most important thing is that Missouri State hires a good coach. It shouldn't matter if the coach's name is Mike Krzyzewski or John Doe. It shouldn't matter if the coach is a retread or the third guy on the bench.

Missouri State needs to find someone who can win and make this thing relevant again.

Maybe the name is in this article. Probably not. We should know soon enough.

Wyatt D. Wheeler is a reporter and columnist with the Springfield News-Leader. You can contact him at 417-371-6987, by email at wwheeler@news-leader.com or X at @WyattWheeler_NL.

This article originally appeared on Springfield News-Leader: Missouri State basketball head coach search 2 weeks update