Another WSU search update

We’re calling it a night. One of the candidates expressed the opinion WSU’s search for a men’s basketball coach would come to a conclusion tonight, but as far as we can discern, that hasn’t been the case. Which, of course, doesn’t mean the job wasn’t offered to someone today. It just means we aren’t privy to the decision. Of course, if it was offered and the coach that received said offer wanted to contact us, we would be more than … OK, that’s just not going to work. Anyhow, we put together a short story with some developments we could verify. Nothing major, but a couple of interesting tidbits from near and far. Read on.

••••••••••

• Here’s the rough draft of the story …

PULLMAN – A week after Tony Bennett left for the University of Virginia, it looks like Washington State University is getting closer to naming a new men’s basketball coach.

After interviewing candidates, including Alabama-Birmingham’s Mike Davis, at the Final Four in Detroit, WSU athletic director Jim Sterk and two other athletic administrators interviewed two more candidates Sunday in Seattle.

The Seattle Times reported on its website the two were Portland State coach Ken Bone, mentioned last week by Sterk as someone he was interested in talking with, and Utah State coach Stew Morrill.

Bone and Sterk have a professional connection that dates back to 1990, when Bone was basketball coach and Sterk associate athletic director at Seattle Pacific. In his three years at PSU, Bone, 50, has compiled a 77-49 record and has guiding the Vikings to the NCAA Tournament that past two years.

Morrill, a Gonzaga University graduate, has been the head coach at Montana, Colorado State and Utah State. At those three stops, the 56-year-old Morrill has combined for a 485-229 record and five NCAA Tournament appearances.

At least one of the interviewed candidates reportedly said he expected a decision to be made Sunday night, but had not been contacted by WSU officials.

The name of another coach in contact with WSU, that of Texas A&M-Corpus Christi’s Perry Clarke, surfaced Sunday in conversations with one of the candidates.

Clarke, who just finished his second year in Corpus Christi, was the head coach at Tulane University when Sterk worked in the athletic department. Clarke was 185-145 in 11 years at Tulane before moving on to the University of Miami and the Big East in 2000, where he was 65-54 in four seasons. He was dismissed at Miami after a 14-16 season in 2003-04. Tulane and Miami combined for four NCAA and five NIT appearances in Clarke’s tenure.

Clarke returned to coaching two seasons ago in Corpus Christi and led the Islanders to an 18-15 record this year. The NCAA recently placed the Corpus Christi athletic department on probation for a series of rules violations, including impermissible phone calls by an assistant basketball coach.

•••

• That’s it for now. I was thinking tonight, as I was waiting for phone calls, if Jim Sterk hadn’t said in his post-Bennett press conference he wanted someone with head coaching experience, that we would all be talking about Indiana assistant Bennie Seltzer. He’s experienced, with 12 years under his belt, and he’s a Cougar. There aren’t all that many former Cougs in coaching positions out there. As a plus, though he’s a Kelvin Sampson protege, he avoided the problems at Indiana by taking a job at Marquette after Sampson left Oklahoma. We’ll be back in the morning. Until then …