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Today's Boston College men's basketball coach "front-runner of the day" award goes to Florida Gulf Coast's Joe Dooley, which comes as a surprise to both Joe Dooley and Florida Gulf Coast Director of Athletics -- and BC alum -- Ken Kavanaugh.
FGCU coach Dooley hasn't talked w/BOston College folks & is surp ESPN mentioned as candidate.He's 'v happy' here. Doesn't even have an agent
— Dana Caldwell (@NDN_DCaldwell) April 1, 2014
ESPN's Goodman reports @FGCUCoachDooley is a "candidate" for BC job. FGCU AD @KavEagle not contacted by BC or "concerned" about it#DunkCity
— Dana Caldwell (@NDN_DCaldwell) April 1, 2014
So here is your daily reminder that everyone is guessing and a select few individuals -- none of which work in media -- knows what's really going on. Put down the torches and pitch forks and let this process play out. Bates will ultimately be judged on the hire; not the hiring process and not the media's rumor-mongering.
The only misstep so far is in letting the process drag on as that gives members of the national media -- many of which have a personal ax to grind with BC, mind you -- more time to pull names out of a hat and keep the rumor mill churning.
Don't believe me that the media is purely guessing? Here is a visualization of the gumshoe's guesswork:
Potential Boston College men's basketball coaching candidates:
| Coach | Program | 3/14 | 3/16 | 3/17 | 3/18 | 3/19 | 3/20 | 3/21 | 3/23 | 3/24 | 3/25 | 3/26 | 3/27 | 3/28 | 3/29 | 3/30 | 3/31 | 4/1 |
| Steve Donahue | Boston College | X | X | X | ||||||||||||||
| Tommy Amaker | Harvard | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | |||||
| Al Skinner | Bryant (Asst.) | X | X | |||||||||||||||
| Ben Howland | Ex-UCLA | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | |||||||||
| Ed Cooley | Providence | X | X | |||||||||||||||
| Mike Lonergan | George Washington | X | X | X | X | |||||||||||||
| Tim O'Shea | Bryant | X | X | X | X | X | X | |||||||||||
| Jim Calhoun | Ex-UCONN | X | ||||||||||||||||
| Chris Mack | Xavier | X | X | |||||||||||||||
| Steve Masiello | Manhattan | X | ||||||||||||||||
| Pat Skerry | Towson | X | X | X | X | X | X | |||||||||||
| Mike Hopkins | Syracuse (Asst.) | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | ||||||||||
| Mark Schmidt | St. Bonaventure | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | ||||||||||
| Tom Moore | Quinnipiac | X | X | X | X | X | ||||||||||||
| Bill Coen | Northeastern | X | X | |||||||||||||||
| Dave Paulsen | Bucknell | X | ||||||||||||||||
| Walter McCarty | Boston Celtics (Asst.) | X | X | X | X | |||||||||||||
| Chris Mooney | Richmond | X | ||||||||||||||||
| Archie Miller | Dayton | X | ||||||||||||||||
| Jay Wright | Villanova | X | ||||||||||||||||
| Mike White | Louisiana Tech | X | ||||||||||||||||
| Jim Christian | Ohio | X | X | |||||||||||||||
| Joe Dooley | Florida Gulf Coast | X |
Let the process play out and then judge Bates and the athletics department on the hire. Don't worry about the names being floated right now. It's very clearly an exercise in guesswork.
You could just as easily come up with tomorrow's "frontrunner of the day." Pick a coach from a mid-major with some tie to either BC or the Northeast and voila!, tomorrow's Boston College men's basketball coaching candidate "front-runner!" I'll go with New Hampshire's Bill Herrion.