BU Coaching Rumor Roundup: LaFleur gets some big backing

Most of the attention in the media for the coaching search so far has focused on Richard Pitino, but today Andre LaFleur was getting some help.

Writing for the Hartford Courant, Mike Anthony says that BU is interested in UConn assistant Andre LaFleur. But he says he has not been contacted by BU for an interview yet. His quote is very PC:

"I'm not the kind of guy who can work with one foot out the door," LaFleur said. "I'm focused on what we can accomplish here and now. I feel like [UConn] can mount a real challenge in the next few weeks. But you always hope you'll get an opportunity to run a program; you hope your name will come up when there are openings."

However, speaking to Mark Blaudschun of the Boston Globe, LaFleur is a little more transparent:

"I am very interested," said LaFleur, who played at Governor Dummer and Northeastern. "I think I can bring a lot to the table."

Not only that, but he's got his boss a.k.a. Connecticut's multi-million dollar man in his corner.

"I called Mike Lynch and talked to him about Andre," said Calhoun yesterday as he prepared the Huskies for today's first-round NCAA Tournament game against
Chattanooga. "I think there was some interest." [...]

Calhoun and UConn associate head coach George Blaney believe LaFleur is ready to take the next step. "He's a great recruiter and he's very aware," said Blaney. "He's more than ready."

BU Coaching Rumor Roundup: Candidates floating out there

The BU coaching position is one of the hottest openings this year, and will attract plenty of interest from some big names. It's getting a lot of ink far and wide, so I figured I'd periodically sum everything up.

For now, I'll mention some of the names that have been published elsewhere. By the way, none of these people have a damn clue about what's being said inside the BU Athletic Dept., they're just making guesses. There's no real hard news being reported.

• The Boston Globe got the ball rolling right after the firing with its list of candidates. It mentions Louisville assistants Walter McCarty and Steve Masiello, former Providence head coach Tim Welsh, current BU assistant Orlando Vandross, Pittsburgh assistant Tom Herrion, BC assistant Pat Duquette, and Providence assistant Pat Skerry. But it spends most of the article (and the headline: "Younger Pitino on BU list") focusing on Richard Pitino Jr. Richard is an assistant at Louisville under his pops, who of course began his coaching career at BU. The article quotes the younger Pitino, "I would be very interested."

• Pat Forde of ESPN.com pimps McCarty for the job, despite only having 2 years of assistant coaching under his belt. He appears to dismiss Masiello for the BU job, saying he might go for a "higher-profile opening" like DePaul.

• Andy Katz, also at ESPN.com, mentions Forde's pick of McCarty, in addition to Herrion and Duquette. He said the BU job will "command a lot of interest."

• Howard Herman of the Berkshire Eagle of Pittsfield, MA, must have gone to grade school with Duquette or something, because he seems to think he's the best assistant since John the Baptist. He dismisses Pitino Jr. as only having been a college assistant for five years, and says Mike Lynch should "look no farther than down the other end of Commonwealth Ave."

• Katz again flogs Duquette, Herrion, Pitino Jr. and Welsh, but this time throws Florida Atlantic assistant Mike Jarvis II into the mix (as if there weren't already enough nepotism in this coaching search).

• Bill Reynolds of the Providence Journal mentions Pitino Jr. as a candidate in passing. In a carzy coincidence, however, just a day before Wolff's firing he wrote a long story about what an awesome guy Tim Welsh is.

• Lenny Megliola of the Milford Daily News mentions Pitino Jr., saying "it's just a matter of time before he's a head coach."

• Our friends at America Least have a funny list of assistant coaches from around the country seemingly chosen at random. But just in case they happen to be right, I'll list them here: LaFleur at UConn, Georgetown's Robery Burke, Steve DeMeo at Central Florida, Eric Eaton at Quinnipiac and TJ Sorrentine who is an assistant at Brown (btw, yuo have permission to murder me if he ever becomes our coach).

• The Globe chimes back in and says that Tim Welsh said he would definitely be interested in the BU position. We also see former Harvard coach (and current America East head of officials) Frank Sullivan's name for the first time.

• Finally, the bloggers at HoopDirt.com have a whole list of candidates, which includes everyone already mentioned here plus UConn assistant Andre LaFleur, Minnesota Timberwolves assistant Ed Pinckney and Bentley head coach Jay Lawson -- I have not seen any of those guys mentioned in the traditional media.