There has been a whole lot of speculation on who will take over the Boston University basketball team.
Head coach Dennis Wolff has been fired after 15 years.
Wolff won the most games in program history, 247, and had four seasons remaining on a ten-year contract. His buyout is rumored to be over $1 million.
The team finished in third place and will return four starters—including America East first-team players Corey Lowe and John Holland. They also return Freshman of the Year Jake O'Brien.
Considering these factors, Athletic Director Mike Lynch must have some top candidates in mind, because Wolff was coming off a winning season and a third-place finish in the America East despite season-ending injuries to two impact players this year.
The cupboard is also not bare, given the aforementioned players' return. With Lowe, Holland, and O'Brien returning the incoming coach will have an impressive roster that will be able to contend immediately in the America East. This hopefully will attract better candidates than if waited to fire Wolff.
AD Mike Lynch decided to hire Parker Executive Search at a price of $75,000 to search for the new coach. The company is well-respected and has been used in searches for Notre Dame's Athletic Director, Nebraska's head football coach, the Big 12 commissioner, and basketball coaches for the likes of LSU, Arkansas, Kentucky, Iowa, Minnesota, and Oregon State.
Lynch obviously is not looking to fill the position prematurely, but rather will deliberate over many qualified candidates. Now onto the possible candidates.
Within a day of the firing, The Boston Globe reported a list that led with Richard Pitino, Rick Pitino's son. Pitino is an assistant at Louisville for his father. He previously was an assistant for St. Andrew's High School in Rhode Island, the College of Charleston, Northeastern, and Duquesne. Pitino has spent the last two years assisting his father.
When asked about his interest in the BU job Pitino responded, "I would be very interested." Although there is immediate name recognition with the Pitino hiring, he has only been an assistant at the Division-I level for five years. He does have Boston roots, as he went to St. Sebastian's, but he is very young.
The other Louisville assistants who are in the running are Steve Masiello and former Celtic Walter McCarty. McCarty played for Pitino at Kentucky and on the Celtics. He has only been coaching for a couple years, so he is inexperienced. McCarty would immediately bring name recognition and he has expressed interest, but he is considered a long shot.
Steve Masiello on the other hand is the most experienced of the three Louisville assistants. Masiello has been assisting Pitino for four years. Prior to that he was an assistant to Bobby Gonzalez at Manhattan College for four years, two of which Manhattan made it to the tournament.
It has been reported by the Louisville Courier-Journal that Masiello is not interested in the job and is waiting for a bigger opening, MAC/A-10/C-USA type.
It will be interesting how Rick Pitino plays into. If he is pushing for one of his coaches over the others it would probably be his son Richard. Also does Pitino have enough juice left to even get the coach he wants the job at BU. He is not the only coach recommending his assistant.
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