Update!

Well BC basketball fans can breathe a little easier today knowing that Steve Donahue will not be back as the head coach of the Eagle basketball team.  It appears SI.com's Pete Thamel may have some explaining to do after he wrote Thursday night that Donahue would be back.  Without any announcement on Friday or over the weekend from Boston College athletic director Brad Bates regarding Donahue's status, rumblings started to swirl that maybe Donahue's job was not safe, and today at a 4 PM press conference Bates made it official that Donahue had been fired.

As mentioned in my previous blogs about Donahue, Donahue is a great man, but in his 4 years at BC, he showed that he could not coach at an ACC level.  With Bruce Pearl going to Auburn today, everyone can officially put the Pearl to BC rumors to sleep.  As much as I wished he would be BC's next head coach, I knew the chances of him coming to Chestnut Hill were very slim.  So where does Bates go from here?  For starters the top priority for Bates should be to find a coach who has a track record of recruiting ACC level talent.  Donahue may have been a great x's and o's guy but one thing he was not good at was recruiting.  As mentioned two Rants ago, one guy I would love to see them look at is Manhattan's head coach Steve Masiello.  Masiello is an up and coming young and energetic coach, who has the Jaspers in the NCAA Tournament this year, and who spent his previous years coaching under Rick Pitino and was one of Pitino's top recruiters.

Other names being thrown out as possible candidates are Harvard's Tommy Amaker and Syracuse's top assistant and coach in waiting Mike Hopkins.  As for Amaker, it really wouldn't shock me if Bates has him high on his radar.  Amaker's Crimson has dominated BC in basketball as of late and he has Harvard in the Dance for the third straight year.  All of these are nice stats, but when Amaker was the head coach at both Seton Hall and Michigan, he did very little to show that he could run a successful program at an elite level.  In his 10 years at Michigan and Seton Hall he only made it to the NCAA tournament once.  Also, for all we know, maybe Amaker wouldn't be interested.  Some coaches realize where they have the best chance to succeed, and maybe Amaker is now self aware that he is suited best for the Ivy League.  Another reason why this hire wouldn't totally excite me is Donahue was an Ivy League coach at Cornell prior to coming to BC, so what makes one think that Amaker would fare any better?

As for Mike Hopkins, he does seem intriguing.  He has definitely paid his dues working under Jim Boeheim, and many writers say he is ready.  Hopkins was a candidate for the USC job last year, a sign that Syracuse's coach in waiting was at least willing to interview for other jobs.  We all know through following college football recently that the coach in waiting tag really means nothing if the current head coach doesn't leave within a year or two of announcing the coach in waiting i.e. James Franklin at Maryland and Will Muschamp at Texas.  If Hopkins were  to come to BC and Boeheim all of a sudden retires within the next few years, what would make you think he wouldn't bolt for Syracuse?  If BC is willing to look at Mike Hopkins however, it wouldn't shock me if they also interview long time Duke assistant Steve Wojciechowski as well.  I thought Duke assistants would never leave Durham, but with Johnny Dawkins going to Stanford and Chris Collins to Northwestern in recent years, I have begun to think otherwise.

Other names that wouldn't shock me to be seen considered for the job are Creighton's Greg McDermott (although curious to see how good he is without Doug on his team), Providence head coach and former BC assistant Ed Cooley (I think he is very comfortable coaching in his hometown however) and former UCLA and Pitt head coach Ben Howland.  Of all these candidates Howland is the one I am most interested in because he has shown he can win at an elite level, however I think he will save himself for a job on the west coast.

Regardless of who is the next coach, I am more than relieved to see Brad Bates decided that the basketball program needs to go in a different direction.  I have faith in his evaluation process, as I have been impressed thus far with his first major hire in Steve Addazio, and I hope within the near future that we will actually be able to watch a BC hoops game during this time of year again.