10:19 AM Fri, Mar 21, 2008 | Permalink
Kevin McNamara  Email
|
It was a very productive first day of the NCAA Tournament for Providence College fans. Many of the candidates the school could be looking at for its vacant basketball head coach position are now free.
Jim Larranaga, George Mason. Lost. Kevin O'Neill, Arizona. Lost. Jim Christian, Kent State. Lost. Not a bad day.
Larranaga's Mason team was blitzed early by Notre Dame and never made a serious run. O'Neill is Arizona's interim HC but with Lute Olson set to return in 2008-09, it's safe to assume O'Neill will move on to a good job like Providence if he can get it. The Wildcats lost to West Virginia in one of the better games of an uneventful (nay Belmont's near-miss upset of Duke) first day of the tournament.
Kent's Christian was downright embarrassed in a blowout loss to UNLV. The Flashes set a record for offensive ineptness (12 first half points?). Not exactyl a ringing endorsement.
You can add Brown's Craig Robinson to this list. The Bears lost at Ohio on Tuesday and PC athletic director Bob Driscoll can dial over to the East Side anytime now.
Who's still playing? We still hear that Saint Joe's coach Phil Martelli wants to listen to what Providence is all about. His Hawks play Oklahoma tonight. Also, a smart AD will at least talk to Davidson's Bob McKillop, who also plays tonight.
KEVIN McNAMARA
New comments
New photos
Authors
New posts
Projo blogs
Archives
I've been following PC basketball for over 40 years. My sense is that the quality of the coach it somewhat irrelevant. Even Rick Barnes was not acceptable for many PC fans. I don't think the Friars are going to get a better coach than the one they had in Welch. The only coaches who are popular here are the ones who hit those special years, few and far between, when the Friars go deep in the tourney. Those coaches always leave, so we never get to see what would happen if they stayed long term. They leave because they know they will not be able to live up to the unreasonable expectations of PC fans.
Report Abuse