Meet BU's new head coach, Pat Chambers

After being called out by good friends, anonymous commenters and none other than AD Mike Lynch, it's time to update the blog. I'm redefining the phrase Better Late Than Never.

As you may or may not have heard, BU finally hired a coach after a month-long search: Mr. Pat Chambers, formerly assisting on the Villanova sidelines. My first reaction, of course, was: Who? The media kept telling me we were looking into these big names like Richard Pitino and Tim Welsh and Fran McCaffery. It only mentioned lesser-known names like Pat Chambers in add-on sentences at the ends of articles about those other guys. And if you used the BU Hoops Blog as your sole source of information on the search, you still thought Tony Jones was the main candidate for the job (sorry).

I'll admit I let myself be drawn into the celebrity search. I liked the idea that a Richard Pitino could come in, energize our players and our fanbase and turn BU into a perennial winner in no time. It sounds nice, but the reality is that doesn't usually happen. It takes tons of hard work, skills gained through experience, and time to build something like a basketball program. It doesn't just happen because you bring in a big name.

That was something I realized the day Pat Chambers was introduced as the new men's basketball coach. I didn't know much about Coach Chambers except that he spent 5 years at Villanova, rising from Director of Basketball Operations (booking hotels and flights?) all the way to associate head coach (X's and O's plus head recruiter). And truth be told, 5 years doesn't seem like that long to be coaching at the highest level.

But anyone who had any doubts about Coach Chambers taking over the program and making it successful should take the time to watch the introductory press conference (I'm looking at you Jake O'Brien). The guy is young and energetic, enthusiastic and optimistic to a fault, and just seems to be a guy that college players could relate to. He also seems like he could be a hard-ass if he wants to (he's got the military haircut for it anyway).

A young, hungry, up-and-coming assistant coach is who we've been hoping for in this program - somebody like Leibovitz, Lonergan, Pikiell and Broadus, who have all been making their marks on this league. And if all goes well, we'll be looking for another coach in 3 or 4 years (although the same could be said if all does not go well at all).

There's no way to know right now if this is a good hire or not. That will be decided in 2 or 3 years by what is produced on the court. For now, however, put me in the effin-pumped column. I think the future's bright for BU basketball.

BU Coaching Rumor Roundup: A New Frontrunner, and a Lot of New Names

I'll be the first to admit I've been a little negligent over the past week, as the BU coaching search has been heating up nationally. Lots of updates to get to.

Tony Jones
Is there a new front-runner? Mark Blaudschun of the Boston Globe thinks so, and it's Tennessee assistant coach Tony Jones. Jones is by all accounts a great assistant and has a great resume, having spent four years at Tennessee since following Bruce Pearl there after four years at Wisconsin-Milwaukee. He also spent a few years at Toledo and Buffalo. But Jeff Goodman is confused by the focus on Jones: he has zero ties to the New England/New York City region. He's a midwest guy through and through.

I'm interested to see where it goes. Can a guy come in and be successful without any access to BU's historical recruiting grounds

Steve Donahue
Blaudschun spent a whole article talking about Cornell coach Steve Donahue, only to find out the next day that Donahue isn't interested.

Fran McCaffery
Oy. The coaching search firm screwed up on this one. Blaudschun says they "emailed" Siena coach Fran McCaffery about coming to talk in Boston. Yes, the same guy who just won an NCAA game for the second straight year and is being talked about for Big East and ACC jobs. Not only that, but when McCaffery told them they needed permission from the Siena AD to talk to him, "they didn't seem willing to do that," according to McCaffrey!

The idea of McCaffery coming to BU is laughable, and the Times Union's Mark Singelais agrees. He even calls it "silly." Dear Parker Executive Search, please don't turn our program into a laughingstock anymore.

Jay Lawson
Apparently the search firm talked to D-2 Bentley's coach Jay Lawson for "a two-minute conversation." Lawson seems to be a good coach, but this one gets slammed by Jeff Goodman, who questions the need for a search firm to find a guy who lives 2 minutes down the road.

Rob Burke and Pat Chambers
Finally, Blaudschun casually drops the fact that two more guys have been interviewed: Georgetown associate coach Rob Burke and Villanova assistant Pat Chambers. I can't even keep up with all these guys.

It may be easier to keep up with who is NOT getting interviewed:

Pittsburgh assistant Tom Herrion: "No one has contacted me yet."
Louisville assistant Richard Pitino: "I haven't heard a thing."
Ex-Providence coach Tim Welsh: "No one has called me."

Is Parker calling all the people who don't make any sense, and refusing to call the people seem to make the most sense? Or was Mark Blaudschun basically wrong on all of his initial guesses?

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.