Coach Fran hasn't set the world on fire at Iowa, but he is a good coach and usually gets his team to the Tournament. His teams usually have more fire than ND. He's not a great recruiter. No question, though: he gets on his guys much more than Brey and every team needs some of that. It's no accident that Brey's best defensive teams have been when he has had an assistant in this mold, like when they had Cross. He'd ream the players out for lax defense coming into a timeout. You have to have a consistent defense to be a FInal Four team. You have to be consistent defensively to get to the Tournament year-after-year, for that matter. It can't depend on having the right assistant or having Ben Hansbrough or Rob Kurz. Those types of guys have to be present on the roster every year.
I love what Mick Cronin has done at Cincy, but I doubt ND would be a step up for him.
Maybe there's a current Big East coach who would be interested? Ed Cooley? But would he be seen as an improvement, if at all?