Earlier today, potential candidates for the vacant Pitt basketball coaching job were reported by Paul Zeise of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
The story indicated that Pitt’s search committee has come up with an initial list of these names: Valparaiso’s Bryce Drew, USC’s Andy Enfield, Alabama-Birmingham’s Jerod Haase, Butler’s Chris Holtmann, Monmouth’s King Rice, George Washington’s Mike Lonegran, Wisconsin-Green Bay’s Linc Darner, Arkansas-Little Rock’s Chris Beard, Rhode Island’s Danny Hurley, Seton Hall’s Kevin Willard and former NC State and Arizona State coach Herb Sendek.
Through my sources, I can add another name to this list. I’m told that Florida Gulf Coast coach Joe Dooley is another candidate that Pitt will reach out to.
Dooley, 50, has a record of 64-39 in his two seasons with Florida Gulf Coast, which is his first head coaching job. Prior to FCC, Dooley was an assistant coach at Kansas for 10 years, also was an assistant at Wyoming, New Mexico, East Carolina and South Carolina.
Here’s something else that I’ve been able to learn. Sources tells me that of the list presented by the search committee (which could have other names), Pitt has a serious interest in 5 names. Source tells me that 3 of the 5 names are currently involved in either the NCAA or NIT tournament.
Going by the names listed this morning, that would indicate that Drew and Lonegran could be 2 of those names.
