By Brooks Hatch
Gazette-Times reporter | Posted: Wednesday, March 26, 2008 12:00 am
Athletic department begins hunt for new leader for men's basketball program
The search for Oregon State University's next men's basketball coach has taken off.
Athletic director Bob De Carolis and executive senior associate athletic director Todd Stansbury flew to an undisclosed city Tuesday night to begin meetings with prospective candidates today. They'll head to another city on Thursday for further conversations with other candidates and hope to finish up by Saturday.
"We're talking to six to eight people to see if there's mutual interest in going forward," De Carolis said Tuesday morning. "We need to find out about each other before we can get serious about the job."
The new OSU coach could be named late next week, before the Final Four in San Antonio.
De Carolis said the university has not yet had discussions with any candidate, but the Parker Executive Search firm of Atlanta, and other intermediaries, have helped identify or eliminate a handful of prospects.
De Carolis would not divulge the names of any of the coaches with whom he and Stansbury plan to meet.
Media outlets have mentioned Randy Bennett of St. Mary's, Bill Grier of San Diego and Jim Christian of Kent State, who each led his team to this year's NCAA tournament, and Denver Nuggets assistant Mike Dunlap, as potential men of interest.
OSU is seeking a successor to Jay John, who was fired on Jan. 20. He was 72-97 overall and 28-68 in the Pacific 10 Conference from 2002 to 2008. John had just one winning season and one NIT berth in 2005.
Assistant Kevin Mouton was 0-13 as the interim coach; he is not in contention for the job.
Sources close to the search process said the new coach would get a minimum five-year contract with a salary at market level for a Pacific-10 Conference head coach. That means the new coach would make considerably more money than the $525,000 John was scheduled to earn for the 2008-2009 season.
According to figures compiled by various sources, Arizona's Lute Olson, who earns $1.4 million a year, and UCLA's Ben Howland, who makes $1.3 million, are the league's highest-paid coaches. Ben Braun of California, Ernie Kent of Oregon and Lorenzo Romar of Washington all make $1 million a year, while Arizona State's Herb Sendek is paid $900,000 a year and Washington State's Tony Bennett makes $800,000.
John is owed approximately $1.1 million for the remaining two years on his contract, minus anything he earns at his next job. OSU's obligation ends if John leaves his next job for another position.
The Beavers closed the 2008 season with a school-record 21 consecutive losses and 25 defeats, and were the first team to go 0-18 in the Pac-10. They have had losing records in 15 of the 17 seasons since 1990, when OSU captured its most recent Pac-10 men's basketball championship and NCAA berth.
The night John was dismissed, De Carolis said he wanted to hire a successor who had either built or maintained a winning program, who had proven that he could create a positive competitive and academic environment for players, and who had not violated NCAA rules.
According to sources:
• The college coaches De Carolis and Stansbury plan to talk with in coming days all work at Division I mid-major programs that either advanced to post-season play, or had successful regular seasons but missed post-season after losing in their conference tournament. No Division II coaches are being considered.
• There is an "A" list and an "AA" list. Each includes an under-the-radar prospect not mentioned in previous stories about the search.
• The coach's salary will be augmented by incentives for attendance, post-season, academic performance, and the like.
• An undergraduate degree and previous college recruiting experience are required, as they were in 2000 and 2002 men's basketball coaching searches conducted by former athletic director Mitch Barnhart, and in subsequent searches in all sports under De Carolis since he became AD in August of 2002.
That would seem to eliminate Lester Conner, who played for OSU from 1980 to 1982 and now is an assistant coach for the NBA's Indiana Pacers. Conner, who was the 1982 Pac-10 player of the year and is in the OSU Athletic Hall of Fame, is the choice of some boosters. However, he does not have a degree.
De Carolis previously described the OSU position as a hard job, but a good one because of the positives.
OSU's Pac-10 membership gives it clout. Every NCAA men's basketball champion since 1991 has played in a Bowl Championship Series (BCS) conference. This year, 12 of the NCAA tournament's Sweet 16 teams, and seven of the eight NIT quarterfinalists, are BCS schools.
OSU's athletic facilities are solid and improving. The university has a solid basketball history and remains one of the winningest programs in NCAA and Pac-10 history, despite the 1991-2008 downturn.
Corvallis has a moderate climate and housing that is more affordable than most communities where Pac-10 schools are located.
De Carolis said he received further inspiration over the weekend from an unexpected source, swimmer Saori Haruguchi, OSU's first NCAA champion in that sport. He said her title, on the heels of the school's back-to-back NCAA baseball championships, is another example that national success is possible here even though conventional wisdom dictates otherwise.
"She swims in a 231/2-yard pool, in lanes that are seven feet wide instead of nine, in a building (Langton Hall) that's about 80 years old" and still became a national champion, he said.
"That's another one of those, 'things you supposedly can't do at Oregon State' accomplishments."
Coach candidates
Athletic director Bob De Carolis said OSU's next men's basketball coach will probably come from a mid-major program and will have either built a winning program or maintained a winning program long enough to prove he's not riding on his predecessor's coattails. Here are some possibilities who fit that profile:
RANDY BENNETT, St. Mary's of California: Has led the Gaels to two NCAA tournaments and one NIT appearance since taking over a two-win program in 2001-02.
KEN BONE, Portland State: Directed the Vikings to the Big Sky Conference's regular-season and tournament championships and an NCAA berth this year. Former head coach at Seattle Pacific and assistant coach at Washington.
BOB BURTON, Cal State-Fullerton: Led the Titans to the 2008 Big West Conference title and an NCAA berth. Defeated OSU at Gill Coliseum in the 2005 NIT.
JIM CHRISTIAN, Kent State: Has won 20 or more games the past six seasons and guided the team to several NCAA and NIT berths.
KEITH DAMBROT, Akron: The Zips have played in two NITs in his four years there. Was also the head coach at Ashland University.
KENO DAVIS, Drake: Won the Missouri Valley championship and played in the NCAAs in his first year as coach. Is the son of former Stanford coach Tom Davis.
BRIAN GREGORY, Dayton: Sixth-year coach has Flyers in tonight's NIT quarterfinals. Has also led Dayton to the NCAAs.
FRAN McCAFFERY, Siena: Led the Saints to the second round of the NCAA tournament. Has also coached at UNC-Greensboro and Lehigh.
STEW MORRILL, Utah State: Has has winning programs at Montana, Colorado State and Utah State.
BILL GRIER, San Diego: The Torreros won the West Coast Conference tournament championship and advanced to the second round of the NCAAs in his first season. Longtime Gonzaga assistant, native Oregonian.
DAVE ROSE, BYU: Directed the Cougars to two NCAAs and an NIT in three seasons as coach.
SCOTT SUTTON, Oral Roberts: Ninth-year coach has led ORU to three consecutive NCAA berths. Son of Hall of Fame coach Eddie Sutton.