Headlines: Donahue Emerges as Favorite?
by Brian Favat on Apr 5, 2010 10:55 AM EDT
in Boston College Basketball
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PrintBrian: Despite the fact that Northeastern coach Bill Coen has yet to interview, sources have told the Globe that Cornell's Steve Donahue has risen to the top of the BC head coaching wish list. After Richmond's Chris Mooney withdrew his name from consideration, BC was back down to three head coaching candidates - Steve Donahue, Ed Cooley and Bill Coen.
Donahue is the only of the three candidates that has no former ties to BC. The question mark looming over Donahue's candidacy is whether he will be able to successfully recruit in the ACC, having spent 20 years in the Ivy League.
Blaudschun also suggested that DeFilippo may give Butler coach Brad Stevens a call to gauge his interest in BC's head coaching vacancy. Stevens' is obviously a little preoccupied today as his Bulldogs prepare to face Duke tonight in the National Championship. Blaudschun further suggests that money won't be an issue as Stevens only makes $396,000 with Butler, a figure that could double or triple at BC.
I have to wonder though whether money will be the only factor in whether Stevens returns GDF's call. Regardless of the outcome of tonight's National Championship, I'm certain that Butler's AD will throw more money at Stevens in an attempt to lock him up with a multi-year contract extension. Also, Butler has made an incredible run in this year's NCAA Tournament as a #5 seed in a field of 65. There will certainly be more opportunities for coaches to make the NCAAs with an expanded field of 96. An expanded tournament field will decrease the incentives for head coaches to make the jump from mid-majors to major conference programs, as a coach like Stevens could continue to dominate the Horizon League and have an annual spot in an NCAA Tournament field of 96.
So if you're a Superfan and you aren't satisfied with the trio of remaining candidates, do you root for Butler tonight? Or do you root for Duke? Thoughts?
This will be a big, big week for Boston College athletics. My guess is we'll have a new men's basketball head coach before the week is out. In addition, there's a pretty big hockey game coming up on Thursday. We'll be picking up our coverage of the Eagles hockey team throughout the week leading up to the Frozen Four in Detroit.
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I think we have little to no chance to attract the Butler coach, so i think you pull for the Bulldogs in hopes of knocking off the most hated franchise in all of sports history.
No. This comment is dangerously close to being deleted, BCMike. :p
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Stevens probably wasn’t happening a week ago, either, so hopefully no one will be too upset if and when he’s not our coach. I would be absolutely shocked if there was any interest on his part, but that doesn’t mean GDF shouldn’t reach out. Give it a shot; the worst that will happen is Stevens says no.
Otherwise, this is playing out as I thought. At the end of the day, I still think it will be Donahue, and that won’t be a bad thing. If he brings in some assistants who are capable recruiters, it will be a solid hire.
Soaring to Glory: Come for the BC sports, stay for the asinine rants.
IF we aren't going to interview anyone else
i would go with Cooley. He was a great guy, who can get the fans involved. He’s a great recruiter and has an eye for talent. On paper though it would be a hard sell. I’m actually hoping we interview some more candidates….
Donohue is an easy sell this year, and i’m afraid that he is a product of talented senior class at Cornell. We deal with some super athletic teams in the ACC, who might not have the best record, and we can’t recruit the kind of talent that attended Cornell. Does anyone know of an ivy league coach that moved to a legit program and had success? Just wondering if there was such a story.
Northwestern’s Bill Carmody (Princeton) and Temple’s Fran Dunphy (Penn) come to mind.
Dunphy won the A-10 Tournament with the Owls this year, and Carmody has gotten Northwestern ever so close to finally making their first-ever appearance in the NCAA Tournament.
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I can understand why people like Cooley but I think he and Coen are inferior candidates. Donahue has proven himself in 10 years as a head coach; Cooley still has yet to do anything special. Donahue has had some decent seasons and one great season; Cooley has had one decent season, so you’d basically be hiring him based on his tenure as an assistant. The Ivy League thing is a big drawback for a lot of people but with good recruiters at his side, I see Donahue doing very well, especially bringing in a totally new offense. Donahue might be coaching in a shitty conference, but his team is dominating that conference. Hell, they were ranked this year and outplayed Kansas in Lawrence. Donahue built that team himself. When he got hired in 2000, the Big Red were an absolutely horrible program. It took time but the fact that he was able to build a respectable program in the Ivy League speaks well of him.
If it means anything to you, I’d take Cooley over Coen if those were my only choices.
Soaring to Glory: Come for the BC sports, stay for the asinine rants.
by SoaringtoGlory on Apr 5, 2010 12:33 PM EDT up reply actions
i hope Donahue, if selected
turns out to be a great coach, and i’ll support him 100%. Im hoping he can win with the talent we have, unfortuantely a brand new offense with this team is troublesome. They couldnt even execute the flex after 3 years. Good luck.. Maybe Donohue will give our incoming freshman the playing time they deserve, rather than having a particularly lousy center clog up minutes.
Agree with this. It was too hypocritical to have a Skinner assistant replace Skinner. I know Coen and Cooley have been gone from BC for some time, but I don’t think you can fire a successful coach of 13 years and replace him with one of his old assistants.
It was time to take the program in another direction. Hope it works out.
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Might be time for a new front page Fan Shot
Brian Gregory has pulled out of the running as well. 3 candidates and 3 only it would seem.
Soaring to Glory: Come for the BC sports, stay for the asinine rants.
It’s a regular A-10 coup. I’ve been beating the drum saying money isn’t the only factor. Facilities and where basketball is in the school’s pecking order are also big factors.
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Maybe for a brief period when we started 20-0 and hockey was struggling in the years post-National Championship to 2005. But maybe …
BC Interruption, SBN's Boston College Eagles blog
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