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Coach Pat Duquette of UMass-Lowell is another member of Al Skinner’s coaching tree that has been floated as a potential hire for the head coach of Boston College men’s basketball. As a former BC assistant with decades of experience in the Northeast, he will probably be on Boston College’s list of coaching candidates.
Pat Duquette has been the head coach of the UMass-Lowell Riverhawks since 2013, posting a 92-136 (.404) overall record and a 60-75 (.444) conference record in America East. Duquette took over a UML program that was brand new to Division I and immediately brought them to the middle of the conference. His teams in the past 8 seasons, however, have never finished above 5th in the conference and have never finished above .500 overall or in-conference.
Why he’d be interested:
Why wouldn’t he be? At UML his salary is just $250,000, his program is still new and struggling, his resource pool is limited, and their mid-major conference is a struggling one at best. Everything about BC is an upgrade. Sure he may be put-off by a rebuild, but UML doesn’t do much better each year than BC.
Why it could work:
He has deep New England ties and over a decade of experience coaching at Boston College. If BC’s priority in this coaching search is to set the program up to start being competitive against regional rivals in recruiting battles again, they may look to Duquette.
Why it could flop:
Literally everything else. The only reason this guy is being brought up is his relationship to Al Skinner. He’s taken the UMass Lowell program nowhere in 8 years. Their conference finishes since he arrived there have been 5th, 6th, 5th, 6th, 6th, 5th, and 6th (at least they haven’t gotten worse?). There are bountiful candidates out there with a much better resume for improvement than Duquette’s, BC-ties or not.
How likely is this hire?
Very unlikely, I hope. If BC resorts to hiring Duquette it means they have kept a heavy emphasis on local coaches, but failed to court other local candidates like John Becker, Bill Coen, or Mark Schmidt. From an outsider’s perspective it would seem BC could at least flex its ACC privilege enough to land one of those guys or an up-and-coming assistant from elsewhere. But if they can’t do that, and are stuck with lower-tier candidates like Duquette, this program is in worse shape than we thought.