Peterson: Is Hoiberg the dream candidate the Bulls described?

Fred Hoiberg is on the clock.

The Chicago Bulls finally have that coaching vacancy everyone — I mean everyone — has been predicting. The Bulls announced that the highly successful, but difficult-to-manage Tom Thibodeau was fired Thursday.

CHAT: On the Hoiberg situation with Randy Peterson at 9 a.m.

And if what's been out there for years is accurate, then Iowa State's highly successful coach — the anti-Thibs — officially will be offered the job perhaps by this weekend.

And if you don't believe Hoiberg is their guy, then you weren't listening to the Bulls' news conference Thursday. During that 30 minutes, general manager Gar Forman outlined what he's looking for in a successor without ever mentioning anyone's name.

However, he threw out come clues:

He wants a good communicator. He wants a leader. He would like a guy with NBA head-coaching experience, but it's not a mandate. He wants someone knowledgeable of the NBA.

Sound like someone we might know?

"We're not going to put ourselves in a box," Forman told reporters in Chicago. "There's probably an informal list in our heads."

It's believed to be a short one. A very short one ... as in, a one-person list.

If Hoiberg accepts, and it's been widely speculated that he will, then athletics director Jamie Pollard will pull out his list of potential successors, waiver through protocol and have a successor long before supervised summer workouts begin June 15.

Whatever Hoiberg announcement is made will come quick — although I've heard it won't come before his kids' final day off school on June 1. I've also heard, though, that it might come Friday.

It's not like all this NBA stuff just popped up, you know. Every summer, reporters ask Hoiberg the same question. He's as tired of us asking him, as we are asking. There's always a Hoiberg NBA Watch at some point between April and August.

This one, however, is way beyond "watch" status. Cyclones fans who don't want to face the outcome had better head to their basement for cover. This one is coming, taking aim on Hilton Coliseum.

"It's something that he's always talked about — that at some point in his career, he'll want to do that," Pollard said of Hoiberg eventually coaching in the NBA. "You don't get to pick and choose those moments."

Hoiberg hasn't spoken to reporters since undergoing heart surgery April 17. He didn't return a text message Thursday. It's not as if he would have confirmed Bulls speculation even if asked. That's not his style, but my suspicion is that there has been behind-the-scenes maneuvering among third cousins of a friend before Thibodeau's firing.

It's not likely that the Bulls would have acted without some kind of a wink and a nod from a well-liked-in-the-organization candidate. If you don't believe it, then you're in denial.

This is a day Pollard has known for a long time was coming, and he proved that on May 12 in Ottumwa.

"He's always said from day one that his lifelong goal has been to coach in the NBA," Pollard said before addressing a lunchtime gathering of 120 Iowa State fans during the annual Cyclone Tailgate Tour. "It's for him to decide when that part of his life he wants to activate."

That time likely is now.

People close to Hoiberg believe he will accept when formally offered. The Bulls want a players' coach who knows a thing or two about offense, and that's Hoiberg. He played in the league 10 seasons, including four with the Bulls. He is a former Minnesota Timberwolves vice president, so he knows that side of the desk, too.

Furthermore, he's close to Forman, an ISU assistant back when Hoiberg was a Cyclone star. And don't throw the Tim Floyd comparison at me — Michael Jordan refused to play for Floyd, fired from the Bulls after winning just 49 games in three-plus seasons. I haven't seen any of that nonsense from Derrick Rose.

So prepare yourselves, Cyclone fans, for a coaching change. Prepare to hear plenty of about potential ISU candidates like assistant T.J. Otzelberger, former Cyclone Jeff Hornacek (now the Suns' coach) and maybe even international scouting guru Fran Fraschilla, among others. You'll see their names on lists that we come up with each time there's a big-time coaching change.

Whoever Pollard hires will inherit a star-filled roster, many of whom helped win the past two Big 12 Conference Tournaments. He'll inherit a program that has been to four NCAA Tournaments in a row. He inherits Georges Niang, Jameel McKay and Monte Morris, just saying.

He gets a team experts say will be top five, top ten at worst, when the next preseason rankings come out.

"We're super-talented, no matter what," ISU player Matt Thomas said during a phone interview with The Register last week. "We can do something special next year."

But probably with a different guy walking the sidelines.

Cyclone sports columnist Randy Peterson has been reporting on ISU during the past five decades. Follow @RandyPete.