A Jersey Guy: BC looking for BB version of Jeff Hafley
The hum (there is never a buzz) around Boston College basketball over the weekend was that Eagles' athletic director Pat Kraft had a finalist list of three choices as the next BC men's basketball coach.
Michigan assistant Howard Eisley and St. Bonaventure coach Mark Schmidt were widely-believed be on that list, with a "mystery'' third candidate.
Schmidt and Eisley both had BC connections, which made sense in many ways, but Eisley was missing a key ingredient Kraft wanted: head coaching experience.
The mystery candidate remained a mystery until Monday morning when world filtered out that BC had settled on a coach who was on almost no one's candidate list at BC--Earl Grant, who has done a decent, but not spectacular job at College of Charleston, playing in the mid-major Colonial Athletic Association.
Sources familiar with the process say it may not have been that much of a mystery. Three years ago when Kraft was the AD at Temple an "opening'' appeared when long time Owl coach Fran Dunphy was forced out..
The replacement was already in place, Dumphy's assistant Aaron McKee, with Kraft having very little say in the "search.''
Kraft still conducted one, which included an interview with a rising young black coach named Earl Grant, who impressed Kraft enough to keep him on his "short'' of candidates that all athletic directors have as part of their inventory.
Fast forward the time line to this winter and Kraft had Grant at the top; of a list which was dominated by minority candidates because of diversity issues at BC.
At 44, Grant's background is almost all southern exposure, including ACC stops at Clemson as an assistant and at Winthrop, Wichita State, before moving into the head job at Charleston in 2014.
After a start which picked up to a pair of 20 plus win seasons in his third and fourth season and an NIT and NCAA berth, Charleston has fallen back into the pack the past few years, finishing with a 9-9 record this pandemic-shortened season.
Not the kind of resume which jumps off the page, but Kraft who made the decision to fire Jim Christian a month ago, had his own set of parameters, including focusing on a minority hire with head coaching experience.
When Grant emerged on Monday, the reaction was muted and mixed, with an "Is that the best that BC could do?'' tone.
But then again, BC is basketball purgatory. Since firing Al Skinner 11 years ago, the Eagles program has seldom seen many shining moments and sunk into the dreaded irrelevancy category.
It is not a highly coveted job by other major college coaches.
What Kraft wanted was a new face, a new voice, someone who can create the excitement that Jeff Hafley has created with the BC football program since he was hired last winter.
Can Grant bring that to the Heights?
""It's a tough job,'' said Skinner, who lives in the Charleston area and knows Grant. ""He's done a decent job down here. I spent some time over there and he felt he hads a pretty good recruiting class coming in. He wasn't sure of what his next move would be.''
Now it is clear. Skinner knows what all BC coaches have learned. There isn't enough talent in the New England area to sustain a major basketball program. You have to recruit out of the area, with a level of players who can meet both ACC athletic measures and BC academic standards.
''"It can be done,'' said Skinner, who did it in the ACC and Big East with BC. ""But you have to be aggressive and bring in kids to BC who want to learn and can succeed. It's not easy.''
Since there is no BC connection with Grant or even a Northeast connection, maybe Grant can both aid himself and mend some fences bringing Skinner back as part of his staff.
""Don't know about that,'' said Skinner with a laugh."" It will be interesting to see what happens.''
The hiring of Grant is not going to move the needle of interest in basketball, but before dooming the Eagles to another decade of failure, it might be wise to see what happens in the next several weeks.