A week after Boston University men’s basketball coach Dennis Wolff was fired, the search for his replacement continues. There have been some developments, however.
One is that Associate Head Coach Orlando Vandross, who’s been with the university for 12 years, was retained by the Athletics Department. The administration wouldn’t comment on what his role on the coaching staff will be, but once a new coach is named, that should become clear. Usually when a new bench boss is brought in, he has the ability to shape his coaching staff how he pleases, so it will be interesting to see what will happen with Vandross – a coach who is very well-respected among the players and his colleagues.
According to an article published in The Boston Globe, the Athletics Department had hired a search firm called Parker Executive Services – which costs around $75,000 to employ – to continue the ongoing search for BU’s next head coach, which is not expected to end until the conclusion of the NCAA Tournament.
According to the article, the executive service has been used at high-profile schools such as the University of Arkansas, Indiana University, the University of Iowa, the University of Kentucky and the University of Minnesota.
While it’s total speculation at this point, some coaching candidates have emerged from the pack of collegiate coaches based on either their connection to the Boston area or their successful tenures as top assistants at bigger programs (much like Binghamton University head coach Kevin Broadus was when he was hired two years ago out of Georgetown University).
Some candidates who have been mentioned in recent articles are Pat Duquette, an assistant coach at Boston College; Tom Herrion, associate head coach at the University of Pittsburgh and brother of University of New Hampshire coach Bill Herrion; Andre LaFleur, an assistant coach at the University of Connecticut; Richard Pitino, an assistant coach at Louisville and the son of coach Rick Pitino and Tim Welsh, the former head coach at Providence College.
America East in the postseason
Two America East teams are competing in postseason play. Binghamton University (23-8, 13-3) won the America East Championship last Saturday, 61-51, against the University of Maryland-Baltimore County and was awarded the No. 15 seed in the East Region of the NCAA Tournament.’ They’ll play the No. 2 Duke University Blue Devils at 9:40 p.m. on Thursday in Greensboro, N.C.
The University of Vermont (23-8, 13-3), which entered the America East Tournament as the No. 2 seed but was upset in the first round by the seventh-seeded University at Albany, defeated the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay on Wednesday night, 76-72, in the College Basketball Invitational.
Jim Hayes Passes Away
Jim Hayes (SED, 1970) passed away on March 11 at the age of 61. He was the third-leading scorer in BU history, accumulating 1,679 points over the course of his three-year career, and was the first Terrier in program history to have his number (54) retired. During his career, Hayes averaged 24.3 points per game, 9.6 rebounds per game and was selected by the New York Nets in the ABA Draft. Hayes was inducted into BU’s Athletics Hall of Fame in 1982.
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