A Jersey Guy: BC Gives New Meaning to Term Search
Jim Christian is gone.
Interim coach Scott Spinellii probably only has a handful of games remaining before Boston College basketball shuts down for the 2020-21 season.
BC athletic director Pat Kraft is now in his second week of what he termed a "nation wide' search for a new men's basketball coach.
BC increased its profile a bit on Tuesday when it it hired a Texas based search firm to expedite the process.
BC officials claim that the job of Eastman and Beaudine, an executive search firm based in Plano, Texas was hired more to vet a candidate list in as low key a way as possible, rather than find potential new coaches.
Kraft's basic mission has not changed much.
He would prefer a coach with major HEAD coaching experience, he wants someone familiar with academic constraints at BC, and he want younger rather than older.
Not said directly, but clearly a factor is the issue of minority hiring, which is sparse at BC, with racial issues a factor on campus.
If there is clearly a priority it seems that the next men's basketball coach at The Heights will be a minority hire.
The obstacles are also obvious. In terms of desirability, BC is one of the least attractive jobs among the Major conferences for a variety of reasons.
The Eagles have also not been a major factor in basketball for more than a decade, dating back to Al Skinner's middle years at The Heights.
With that in mind, BC will be forced to expand its budget if it wants to entice a better grade of coaches.
Christian, who was fired after 7 mediocre seasons was on the low end of the ACC coaching pay scale with a salary of approximately $1.3 million year.
To make BC an attractive job, BC may have to double or even triple that package.
BC has an initial list of nearly a dozen coaches, including several minority candidates, although the degree of interest in BC remains uncertain.
If you expand the list with no real salary limitations, and you factor in a minority hire, a few new names may jump into contention.
Included could be: UCF coach Johnny Dawkins, who has a Duke pedigree and has coached at Stanford.
Another potential candidate could be Cuonzo Martin, who is now at Missouri, but has stops at Tennessee and at California.
Dayton coach Anthony Grant also could be a possibility.
If the Eagles want to maintain an ACC connection, as well as academic ties, Vanderbilt coach Jerry Stackhouse, a North Carolina alumn, would fit into that category.
While the search firm is new, the initial vetting process also continued with Kraft doing much of his work via zoom calls.
Sources familiar with the process, said that Loyola Chicago coach Porter Moser, who worked with Kraft for a period at Loyola, has been in contact with BC.
But with most of the coaches on the list, sill playing their seasons, it may be awhile before the process has some clarity.