If there's another lesson in there, can you spell out how you think that changes our search?
The lesson is that the underlying quality of the person you hire dwarfs to the point of insignificance the "quality" of the search. And that that underlying quality is unknowable in that moment, it reveals itself over time.
Mike Thomas didn't fail because Shaka Smart and Brad Stevens said no, he failed because he chose John Groce over Chris Collins. He didn't fail because Kevin Sumlin and Larry Fedora said no, he failed because he chose Tim Beckman over Pat Narduzzi.
I also think that story stands for the proposition that veteran coaches who have had consistent success in competitive mid-major leagues who aren't "sexy" candidates are usually very underrated, but you can obviously find counterexamples to that.