A Jersey Guy: Eisley is BC Parachute
Howard Eisley will spend Thursday night sitting on the bench as part of Juwan Howard's coaching staff at Michigan in its key Big Ten game against Iowa.
On Friday, Eisley will continue its duties as Michigan rolls through what could be a Final Four type season.
The former Boston College point guard also will check his messages to see if there is any communication from his alma mater about a job that Eisley wants: Head basketball coach, which has been open since Jim Christian was fired 10 days ago.
Until last summer when Pat Kraft replaced Martin Jarmond as the Boston College athletic director, Eisely was at the top of most BC coaching search lists.
Eisley had traction with the administration as well as the fan base.
The only knock against Eisley, who was a point guard at BC good enough to parlay that into a 12-year NBA playing career, was that he had no head coaching experience. which was a potential deal breaker for Kraft.
But Kraft's set of parameters also put an emphasis on hiring a minority head coach.
Although Eisley has spent only a few years as an assistant at Michigan, his backing throughout the BC community remains so strong that he has emerged as a candidate that will sell easily at The Heights, if Kraft can't make a deal with an experienced coach.
More than a few sources familiar with the process say that Eisely will be the head coach IF...
Kraft's focus is on "current black head coaches with Major college coaching experience..
But it is a shallow pool.
Of the seven Major conferences in college basketball, only 17 have black head coaches. The Big Ten has only one (Howard) and the Pac-12 doesn't have any, while the Big 12 has only two.
Even if you expand your pool to include former coaches such as John Thompson III, (Georgetown) and dip into the Ivy League for someone like Tommy Amaker (Harvard) or the American Athletic Conference, there aren't an abundance of candidates.
Add the financial cost of hiring those coaches--between $2.5 and $3.5 million a year, which is a sharp incline from the $1.3 million BC is paying Christian and you have a series of obstacles which could prove a challenge for Kraft.
BC has hired a search firm to vet the candidates and find out the interest level as well as the cost, a process which should be completed in the next several days.
After that, Kraft will prioritize his list and attempt to close a deal.
With all that factored in, and assuming that BC sticks to making a minority hire, only one trend emerges,: If all other things fail, Eisley, who clearly wants the job and is affordable (his salary at Michigan is $375,00) , will be introduced as the next BC men's basketball coach.
Stay tuned for how it plays out.