New head coach likely to be named today

I think we can expect an announcement of who the next Mount St. Mary's basketball head coach is today. I don't have any source to support this notion but here are some clues I'm putting together that make me think it's likely:

-The last interview for the position was Monday
-The two-week self-imposed deadline passed (it's closer to three weeks now) and I think the school is beginning to feel the pressure
-The annual SAAC banquet for the student-athletes is tonight
-Jamion Christian's Twitter update at about 8:22 a.m. this morning

The third point is important because a couple years ago before Bryan Whitten was brought on as the women's head coach, another man whose name I can't remember was supposed to be the new coach. Before he recanted his commitment to take over the program, he was introduced at the SAAC preseason kickoff for the student-athletes that takes place early in the fall semester. I can see tonight's banquet as an opportunity for the school to announce the hire in the early afternoon and possibly introduce him at the banquet. If anything significant happens tonight besides me being recognized or winning an award, I'll Tweet about it @TheBGATour.

As for the fourth point about Jamion's Twitter, this is what it reads: "This day has the potential to be very long...". As Raff pointed out at The Fan Blog, you can't read too much into Twitter posts (unless they're mine), but I'm going to use it to carry the momentum of my first three points. Even though I stated before that Jamion was out of the running, it's possible that I was wrong, or at least that the school allowed more than the three supposed prime candidates I listed to believe they were still in the running. If that were the case, I wouldn't be surprised if the candidates were told that they would know by today.

One thing I am hearing is that Notre Dame assistant Martin Ingelsby has had a number of calls put in on his behalf (not uncommon) and that there is a particular person he would like to bring on board as his first assistant at the Mount if hired. That person is Sean Kearney. If the name sounds familiar it's because Kearney was the one-year Holy Cross head coach who Milan Brown just replaced. That would be the ultimate ironic twist. Kearney and Ingelsby were previously assistants together at Notre Dame before Kearney was hired at Holy Cross.

In my gut I believe that the selection is between Brion Dunlap and Martin Ingelsby. Some people are speculating that the length of this process hurts Brion, but I wouldn't be too concerned. I remember when the women's soccer coach, Paul Wood, resigned a few years ago and it took months to find a replacement (Tom Gosselin.) As Gosselin was a nearby coach at the time the position opened (McDaniel) and an alumni and former men's assistant with good connections to the school, it may have seemed that he was in trouble with the length of the process dragging on for so long. But the Mount turned down some candidates that were arguably more successful/qualified (the head coach at Frostburg and an assistant from the University of Denver) in favor of Gosselin. It turned out well as the women's team finally won some games this season and he seems to have built the program up to respectability and maybe even contender soon enough. My point is that at this odd little place called Mount St. Mary's, you can't use too much common sense when evaluating a situation.

Another interesting note; Robert Morris head coach Mike Rice is expected to be named the head coach at Rutgers today. It will be very interesting to compare RMU's timetable for finding a new coach with our own. We're not the only one's noticing the drag-out as Holy Cross fans are sympathizing with us on crossports.com and a Robert Morris fan poked fun at us at ColonialsCorner.com. An excerpt posted by user name "CC" in reference to Rice leaving: "In any event, let’s hope the process is relatively quick unlike the marathon that the Mount is currently conducting." Touché.

UPDATE 3:32 p.m.: Raff at The Fan Blog agrees with me and has a nice list of candidates that will more than likely contain the Mount's choice.

Mount St. Mary's head coaching search

I'm hearing a rumor that the final three candidates are:

-Brion Dunlap, our first assistant who interviews tomorrow

-Martin Ingelsby, ND assistant

-Chris Harney, St. Mary's College (Md.) (DIII) coach. Ironically, this is where coaches Robinson and Engelstad played. Robinson did not play for him but I believe Engelstad did.

I don't know the validity of this rumor, but it would make sense to me. Also, Jamion Christian was recently ousted as a candidate - apparently. I'm rooting for Brion.

I'm not surprised if these are the final three candidates because they would come cheap and all come from schools similar to the Mount in one way or another. Brion is from the Mount, Notre Dame is considered our sister school, and St. Mary's is a small school and it sounds pretty Catholic to me. All are also pretty young, so that makes sense as well. Since Brion is going tomorrow and is likely the final interview, the search committee was probably narrowing the field as much as possible before getting to him because it's a given that he would be a finalist.

Here are the downfalls of the three candidates:

Dunlap: No college head coaching experience.

Harney: No DI head coaching experience.

Ingelsby: Mike Brey may be about to get fired and the hot water he is in might reflect poorly on Ingelsby.

This also means that Pat Flannery might be out of the mix. We probably couldn't pay him enough to get him out of his fundraising position at Bucknell. He probably made a minimum of quadruple what we could have offered him.

UPDATE: This same source tells me that Ingelsby is the favorite. Still just a rumor and I'd have a hard time believing that completely since Brion hasn't had his interview yet.