Props for Powell after Christian Selection

I first spoke with Jamion Christian in May 2010, days after he lost out on the Mount men’s basketball head coaching job to Robert Burke.

I had sent Jamion a Facebook message asking if we could talk on the phone. He said yes even though we hadn't met. All I wanted to ask was whether he was interested in being one of Burke’s assistants, but he told me more.

"I wouldn’t go for the first assistant job, no disrespect to coach Burke, but my goal is to be a head coach at Mount St. Mary’s one day or be a head coach at some level at some place," Jamion told me nearly two years ago.

At the time he was William & Mary’s second assistant. He added back then: “I think we’ve got something truly special going on here that I’d really only leave to be a head coach somewhere.”

(He left William & Mary to be a VCU assistant under Shaka Smart that offseason, so I guess he was only half-lying.)

Fortunately for the Mount, that day came years sooner than expected. And while Jamion deserves congratulations, I’m also happy to credit one of my biggest editorial targets: President Thomas H. Powell.

It’s no secret I didn’t like the Burke hire. I thought Brion Dunlap or Jamion should have been selected. The Mount not only needs a good coach, but someone who understands the campus. The students, administrators, local residents – the combination of them is unlike anywhere else. We do things “differently.” Mostly with pride, but sometimes with thinly-veiled shame.

So it’s important, not only to passionate alums, but for the good of the university, that we make the most of our limited resources. In 2010, Powell miserably failed to do that, and Burke shamed us on and off the court because of it.

This time, though, was different. We were scared by rumors that Burke assistant Matt Henry, who finished the season as interim head coach, was a shoe-in for the job. Not scared because of Henry himself, but because no one else was going to be considered for the school’s biggest coaching job. But the more days that passed, the less frequent the search updates.

Then, one glorious Friday night in March, word leaked that Jamion had gotten the job. This was great not only because the class of 2004 graduate meets the aforementioned requirements to coach at the Mount, but also because of how he was chosen.

Athletics director Lynne Robinson had a say, as did other prominent, athletic-minded people who care about the Mount. Powell proactively sought their opinion, to the point that they were surprised. Lynne was even included in the initial press release and led the press conference this time.

So I salute you, Dr. Powell, for a job well done. As much as I respect your efforts on the west side of campus, I don’t think you have much to add in the east, and that’s not meant as an insult. There are, however, some great people working in the ARCC, and others who have moved on, but know Knott Arena far better than you. (Again, not an insult.) I thank you for being part of the well-informed group that chose Jamion. I look forward to returning to Jim Phelan Court next season to watch the Mountaineers in action.

By the way, I already donated $100 to the annual fund this year, and that was before you hired Jamion. Just wait until 2013. For the money and the basketball.

As Mount Falls, Colonials Enjoy Continued Success

In 2008, Mount St. Mary's men's basketball won the Northeast Conference championship. Best three weeks of my life.

The next year, we lost the championship to Robert Morris on a BS buzzer-beater. The year after that – my final as head manager – the Colonials beat us in the semifinals en route to their second consecutive title.

That offseason, Mount head coach Milan Brown was hired by Holy Cross while Mike Rice left Robert Morris for Rutgers. Robert Morris replaced Rice with his assistant, Andrew Toole. Brown was replaced by outsider Robert Burke, whose qualities included his "devotion to Catholicism." (I wasn't happy, but I kept an open mind.) Brown's first assistant, Brion Dunlap (yes, my friend), was shunned, and joined his boss in Worcester.

Two years later, Toole's troops will play their fourth consecutive title game Wednesday (this with their best player suspended the entire season). Meanwhile, in Emmitsburg, Burke was placed on administrative leave Feb. 15, and there hasn't been an update since. (UPDATE: Burke's resignation was announced shortly after this post went live.) The seventh-seeded Mount lost a first-round road game by 19 in last year's NEC tournament and didn't even qualify this season.

Funny how Robert Morris, the program that opted for an in-house hire, had a smoother transition, and maintained its success.

Of course, Mount president Thomas H. Powell's quotations were all over the press releases announcing Burke's hire in May 2010, but athletic director Lynne Robinson wasn't even quoted. (Even the video for the press conference has been removed.) Then, when Burke was abruptly placed on leave, only Robinson was quoted.

If Burke doesn't return, maybe Robinson should ever-so-graciously be allowed to lead the hiring process this time. You know, since it's her job.

Poll Open Thread: Coach under most pressure?

This post is to be used as an open thread for the most recent poll in the upper-right portion of the page. There are three choices, and they should be assessed in a vacuum. In other words, don't hold the fact that basketball is the top sport at the school against Burke, but analyze the other elements that directly affect the pressure on his tenure in specific. Same for Munday and Nagro.

Again, which of the Mount's three new coaches is under the most pressure to perform in their first seasons?

Robert Burke - Men's Basketball. Highest-paid coach in school history, strong resume as an assistant as a member of the staff at offensive juggernaut Siena, Big East power Georgetown, and most recently, respected Patriot League contender American. Burke is replacing the man, Milan Brown, who, by all accounts, was the most liked as well as the most successful at the Mount in the last five years. No sport won multiple NEC (or MAAC) titles in the last half-decade, but Brown was fortunate enough to win one. He is the only sport to notch an NCAA victory in that same window, albeit in a play-in game. As big-shoes-to-fill goes, Burke takes the cake.

Anna Nagro - Softball. She's only 24 years old (turning 25 in September). There's not much more to say there. Coming from D'Youville College in New York, Nagro has not been involved with an NCAA Division I program since her playing days at St. Bonaventure. While she may be a great coach, and we should all hope that she is, she replaces men's golf coach Kevin Farrell as the youngest at the school, is probably the youngest coach of any sport in the conference, and I bet she's one of the 25 youngest head coaches in any Division I sport in the country. Oh, and some of the softball players from last years team (returning and graduated players alike) ran the last coach, Larry Alvis, out in a revolt of sorts. This after they didn't sniff the playoffs (they've only made it once in the last five years.) Meet your team, Anna!

Lindsey Munday - Women's Lacrosse. See yesterday's post for my overblown rant on the main idea here - she comes to us from Northwestern. Not only was she the top assistant at arguably the greatest NCAA program in any sport of the last decade (she wasn't a coach for the entire decade) but she also played there. Twice she was a Tewaarton (think Heisman for lacrosse) semifinalist as a player. After Sonia LaMonica snagged the Towson job, which Munday also vied for, the Mount snagged Munday. Even with the third coach in as many seasons taking over the program, we may be better off with Munday than we ever could have been with LaMonica. I'm also hearing that she is well-compensated with an intricate, multi-year contract to boot. None of that, though, equals the pressure placed on her by President Thomas H. Powell, who laid this quotation down in the press release: "I am confident this dynamic coach will take us to the next level and bring home a national championship." If Munday does that, I'll be the first to buy her dinner and a drink at Ott's. Look at the bright side: At least Powell didn't say how soon he expects that national title. (Again, I like the ambition in the quotation, it's just a real pressure-cooker.)

Without further ado, please, comment to your heart's content.

Cleveland's official arrival confirms James not playing for Mount

I do not have any confirmed specifics for the reasoning, but Jeff James will not be coming to the Mount to join the men's basketball team this year. I suspected as much with the arrival of Evan Cleveland, (which was reported her first on Aug. 22) but could not say so for sure.


With the men's basketball roster updated at MountAthletics.com, sans James, it is official. This means that none of the recruits signed by Milan Brown remained with the program after Brown left for Holy Cross. Donte Morales is headed to UNC-Wilmington, Justin Burrell is headed to prep school, then Holy Cross, and James is headed God knows where.


This is actually kind of cool because now Burke will have to wait one less year to say that he has all of his own players. Excluding redshirt freshman David Golladay, everyone in the class of 2014 on will have been recruited by Burke for as long as he remains with the team.


Cleveland joins Julian Norfleet and Josh Castellanos as the other two members of Burke's inaugural recruiting class.

What could be bumping my top six?

With the men's basketball team's Robert Morris comeback at No. 7, Megan Kinsella's second place finish in NECs at No. 6, and Lizz Christiansen's record-breaking game/season at No. 5, I can't figure out what moment has knocked half of my top six choices down a slot. While I'm positive that Andrew Scalley's game-winning goal at the buzzer to give the men's lacrosse team the MAAC championship is the top moment, I have no idea whether Tom FitzSimon's double decathlon victories and Kent Worthington's no-hitter will end up at No. 2, 3 or 4, respectively. And I certainly have no clue what moment will join them in the top four.

I must also acknowledge my grave mistake in attempting to compile the countdown. In some ways I was correct, but my list turned out to be very wrong until we reached the top seven. My instincts told me that some of the events I selected would not make the countdown, but I included them anyway on the whim that each sport might have its own moment. The countdown does not - and rightfully so - have a moment for each sport. If I hadn't been preoccupied with this notion I may have been more likely to remember Chad Brown's being named the most outstanding performer at the outdoor NEC meet. Or women's lacrosse's six-goal comeback against George Washington.

That being said, I don't agree with all the picks so far, but as I said before, what good would the countdown be if everyone agreed with it?

---

Although the sample size is very small, quite a few people have selected the matchup in American in the poll (at the top right of the page )as the one to which they are most looking forward. This is impressive because I assume most of these people made that selection knowing that head coach Robert Burke comes to us from American. Although this was a well-publicized fact when he was hired, I'm glad that so many people realized it, and look forward to that game more than Robert Morris or Loyola (Md.).

BREAKING: Dorsett to round out Burke's staff

Ahmad Dorsett is expected to be hired as the final member of Mount basketball head coach Robert Burke's coaching staff in the near future, according to a source.

Although Dorsett has not been officially hired as of early Thursday, it appears that a deal is in place to bring him to Emmitsburg.

Dorsett's most recent stop has been as an assistant coach at Bowie State University in Bowie, Md., where he served for the 2009 - 2010 season.

This move would round out the coaching staff hand-picked by Burke in his first year as an NCAA Division I head coach after serving as an assistant coach at American.

While no members of the staff have been officially announced by the school, the lineup under Burke is expected to be as follows, via the reports of this blog:

Assistant coaches: Matt Henry, Mike Farrelly, Ahmad Dorsett. Graduate assistant: Sam Atupem.

The pending hiring of Dorsett means that no member of Burke's staff will have previous Divsion I coaching experience as Henry previously served as the Director of Basketball Operations for the Georgetown Hoyas while Farrelly worked for the New Jersey-based Hoop Group. Dorsett coached at Longwood University for a time, but during the school's transition period from Division II to Division I.

It should be noted that no member of Milan Brown's staff - Brion Dunlap, Kevin Robinson Jr. and Dan Engelstad - had previous Division I assistant coaching experience before coming to the Mount.

Additionally, Brown (Howard) and Dunlap (Old Dominion) played on the Division I level while Farrelly (St. Joseph's, as a walk-on) and Dorsett (George Mason) did the same. All four also played for a team that made at least one NCAA Tournament appearance.

Another notable aspect of this hiring is the fact that Dorsett is black. Like it or not, the Mount, like most schools, needed at least one black coach on staff. That statement is not to be confused with the proclamation that Dorsett is a token hire, which is clearly not the case. He is more than qualified and will be great addition and potentially the cornerstone of Burke's assistants.

Dorsett made an NCAA appearance as a member of Jim Larranaga's George Mason squad in 1999 and was a team captain in his final three seasons. For one season before joining the BSU Bulldogs he was an assistant at Division II Mount Olive College. He has previous head coaching experience on the high school level and, as mentioned previously, also served as an assistant at Longwood University.

What this also means, quite obviously, is that Greg Paulus will not be brought on staff. Reports were the Paulus initiated contact with Burke, not the other way around, and was given serious consideration for a position on Burke's staff as recently as this week.

To summarize, Henry brings experience from a successful Big East program as well as a familiarity with Burke from his days as an assistant under John Thompson III.

Dorsett won a conference championship at the Division I level, has served as an assistant on various college levels and has head coaching experience, albeit on the high school level.

And Farrelly played for a St. Joseph's University program in the pinnacle of its success with two future NBA starters. Additionally, he appears to have been a prominent member of the Hoop Group staff for three years.

Interestingly enough, the makeup of Burke's program very closely mirrors that of the one Brown employed in his seven years as the Mount head coach. In addition to the fact that all of the returning players were Brown's recruits, Burke and Brown are also fairly close in age and both employed three young assistants for their staff. This may continue the cycle of comfort and trust between the players and their young coaches, and hopefully lead to a smooth transition to the Burke era.

It appears that Burke took a very reasonable amount of time - 41 days - to compile a staff with great potential. Although there are a number of question marks entering his first season as head coach in Emmitsburg, it does not appear that he has created any additional reasons for significant skepticism than would have already existed with any new coach.

Follow Dorsett on Twitter

---

The final piece of the puzzle that many of us are eagerly awaiting to take shape is the use of the remaining two scholarships. I agree, Richard, that it could be best to eat the two scholarships and use them with an entire year of recruiting as opposed to picking up a borderline player late in the process. I do, however, think that at least one of them will be used and as I get more concrete information on the subject I'll post it.

Additionally, I know very little of the upcoming schedule; a tentative one does not even exist as of a week ago. I'm not saying there are no non-conference games on the docket, just that there is not an actual piece of paper that lists them all yet that has been made available.

---

Lastly, and probably least importantly to you all, is that I verbally agreed to take a job on Tuesday. I'll write a post on it when I get a chance for anyone who is interested. Thanks for all your support and reading.

---

Tweet of the Night during the first half of the NBA Finals from Michael Jordan's son, Marcus: "@SASBMJ NO ONE...And I mean NO ONE should EVER com par kobe Bryant to my dad an say that he is anywhere near close to my dad He's jagging this game"

And hopefully no one compares Marcus's grammar to that of a fourth grader. Twitter or not - he would lose.

---

Interesting fact: My dad turned 50 yesterday - along with Alfred Hitchcock's "Psycho". Who else had a birthday yesterday? 2Pac Shakur (the best rapper of all-time), Phil Mickelson (best left-handed golfer of all-time) and Dana Collins - a fellow class of 2009 graduate, who pole vaulted for the Mount track team. I'm glad to know that my dad is in good company for birthday celebrations even if 2Pac couldn't make dinner!

BREAKING: Burke hires Hoop Group's Farrelly / Bye bye Burrell

According to a source, head coach Robert Burke has selected and hired Mike Farrelly, formerly a Hoop Group employee, as an assistant coach.


Farrelly has been a Director of Hoop Group ELITE for three years after coaching stops at Wilkes University as well as his alma mater, St. Joseph's University, according to the Hoop Group Web site. Farrelly was a three-year member of the Hawks team from 2000 - 2003 that featured Jameer Nelson of the Orlando Magic and Delonte West of the Cleveland Cavaliers. In Farrelly's time the team won two Atlantic 10 championships and made two NCAA tournament appearances.


This leaves the door open for one more assistant to join Burke's staff. According to an additional source, one of the four previous candidates mentioned on this blog was contacted recently about the vacant positions, although the source asked that that person's identity not be revealed. Since that person was not hired today, nor were they informed that they were out of the running for a position, it seems that Burke is on the verge of filling out his staff. As it has been 39 days since Burke was hired, this has been a perfectly reasonable amount of time to select a new staff as I explained earlier this month.


Farrelly, who turns 29 July 13, appeared in 31 games in three seasons with the Hawks.


---


One additional note involving one-time Mount signee Justin Burrell. It appears all but official (although it may be official by now) that the Mount staff has given up on retaining the point guard, who will likely take his talents to prep school and explore options outside of Emmitsburg.


Other recruits have been seen visiting campus although it is unclear whether any additional offers have been extended.

No staff? No problem - be patient

Any alarm due to the lack of announcement of coach Robert Burke's staff is still largely unwarranted due to a couple factors both internal and external.


Internally it is OK because we know that Matt Henry and Sam Atupem are already here to help. Externally, I'd like to share information regarding other schools in our conference that underwent recent coaching changes.


First let us take a look at the situation at Wagner. Dan Hurley was announced as the school's new head coach on April 5. Eight days later he hired is brother, Bobby as an assistant. I'm sure that wasn't much of a search process. Seventeen days later he brought Bashir Mason on staff before rounding out his assistants by adding Luke Murray on May 3 - 28 days later. So Hurley, who already had his brother in his back pocket, took 28 days to fill out his staff.


Robert Morris's Mike Rice recently moved on as well as you may have heard (although you wouldn't know if you clicked this link listing RMU's coaches at the time of this post), opening the spot for Andrew Toole, who was announced for his new role May 11. As an already existing member of the staff, he was able to retain Robby Priedgen, who was not asked to follow Rice. It took 15 days - May 26 - for Toole to announce Matt Hahn as his first outside assistant. And as of right now, 25 days later, his final assistant has yet to be named.


As for Quinnipiac's Tom Moore and his staff acquisitions in 2007, the details are not as easy to find but still help prove my point. Moore was announced as the new head coach on March 29 of that year, and while two of his assistants - Sean Doherty (Moore's long lost twin) and Eric Eaton - apparently had been on staff for weeks, they were not announced until May 10 - 41 days later. The third member of his staff, Scott Burrell, was not announced until JULY, according to his bio. So assuming he was hired at the earliest possible date of July 1, that would mean a 92-day window between Moore's hiring and the rounding out of his staff. With an NEC title game appearance last season and coach of the year honors in the conference, I'd say Moore's plan worked out just fine. (Burrell and Doherty are still on staff while Eaton is not.)


Which brings us back to our situation at the Mount. Burke was announced as head coach on May 6. Although Atupem still hasn't been officially named to any position, he has been around the whole time and aided Burke since his first day on the job. Then there's Henry, who has been around the office for weeks and I believe - although I cannot say for sure - that I saw him in the ARCC after the press conference. If that was the case, then he has been around for the duration of Burke's tenure as well.


Burke did not have the luxury of keeping anyone from the old staff as they all followed Milan Brown to Holy Cross, but he was fortunate to have Atupem - a strong link to the program who has great familiarity with it as well - stick around. Then he wasted little time in bringing in Henry. While it would be nice to have an official announcement on these things, it seems that we may have to wait until the entire staff is in place. That means the announcement could come tomorrow, or if it goes anything like QU's process in 2007, July - we do not really know.


Multiple assistant coaching candidates report as recently as Wednesday that they still have not heard a yes or no in regards to their hiring. It has been 32 days since Burke was announced, but at this stage of the college basketball season cycle that is not as long as it sounds, as evidenced by recent staff searches in the rest of the NEC. We know the whole staff will have our support when its named, even if it may be a little longer before we know who exactly we are supporting.


---


Shoutout to Kevin Kalis, Mount class of 1999, for the beer and round of Long Island Ice Teas at Ott's last night.

Tom Thumbs Down: Part II of II

Read Part I of Tom Thumbs Down from yesterday.

All this talk about the interview process and you’re probably wondering who exactly had a chance at this job. Well these were the six finalists who were brought to campus for interviews:

Robert Burke, Brion Dunlap, Jamion Christian, Martin Inglesby, Pete Strickland and Gary Nottingham, who was the head coach at Glenville State College in West Virginia during the time that Powell served as GSC’s president.

Those who doubted my belief that Powell has more confidence in Burke now than he ever did in Milan Brown, that Burke would be given more to work with, and that Brown was set up to fail has never been more evident than it is now.

Consider that Burke’s salary will be approximately 125 percent of what Brown made in his seventh season at the Mount. That’s right; Brown clawed his way to a six-figure salary needing a conference championship and the school's first-ever NCAA tournament victory just to “earn” a five-year contract extension.

Now all Burke had to do upon his selection was walk in the door and sign the papers and he was granted thousands upon thousands more in salary to go with his initial five-year contract.

(I’d like to see someone who works in the school anonymously comment on that.)

This undoubtedly will mean higher salaries for the three assistants on his staff (in the neighborhood of $50,000 each) when it is named.

And when it is named, an additional paid position akin to a graduate assistant thats existence was never granted for Brown will be occupied by Sam Atupem.

In summary, Powell is giving Burke more money, more positions, and in turn, a bigger vote of confidence. I have no problem with most of this – I wish he could give Burke more than he already is.

My problem is that Brown was never given any of these benefits.

Was it because he’s not Catholic? I don’t know I’m just asking based on Powell’s comments in the press release:

“Coach Burke was selected for his strong leadership and coaching skills, devotion to Catholicism and commitment to the academic success of his student-athletes.”

Brown certainly displayed the strongest of leadership, great coaching skills and made the graduation of his players a priority in his tenure – but while he is a devout Christian, he is not Catholic.

(For the record the Mount’s president is the only position on campus that requires its occupant to be Catholic, as Powell once informed me. I’m sure that wasn’t counting anyone involved with the church such as the Rev. Brian Nolan.)

I do know that since Burke has not officially announced the hiring of anyone for his staff yet, there are only two minorities in the Mount athletic department. They are both assistant coaches for women’s basketball, which means that head coach Brian Whitten chose them and Powell simply signed off on the decisions.

But as we learned from the press conference, as well as from my interview about his sister-in-law (from this story; definitely read it), Powell makes all the hiring decisions:

“Nobody gets offered a job at Mount St. Mary's until they get a letter from the president offering a job. There's only one person who's allowed to offer people jobs and that's me,” Powell said in January 2008.

So then we should give him credit for all the black professors he employs. Let’s count them:

Susan Samples…

(Crickets.)

That’s it. Scroll down to the “D” section of this page and click on each department, then click on faculty, and she is the only black professor you will find. (I don’t know who J. Michael Harpe is in the education department, but I’ve never heard anyone refer to him as a professor, let alone seen him on campus.)

The funny thing about Samples is that she was hired before Powell, which logically means that he could not have hired her.

Gasp!

My concern beyond basketball is the legitimate problem with diversity at Mount St. Mary’s. 

We have two black coaches and one black professor – neither of which was chosen by Powell – and we’re about to give a white, Catholic coach significantly more money and resources than we gave a black, non-Catholic coach?

As a white, Catholic alumni of the Mount, I’m offended. I am embarrassed to be associated with a school that gave me so much opportunity and so many memories, but is run so exclusively.

That which I can do in the meantime is limited; I can wait for Powell’s contract to expire on June 30, 2012 and I can refrain from donating any money to the Mount. When I’m older, less poor and the school is no longer run by Powell I plan on donating.

I’ll donate to the men’s golf program (if it still exists), to the men’s basketball program, which will hopefully still be run by a successful coach Burke, to the communications department and to other aspects of campus that shaped my career.

But to arrogance and selfishness? The only thing I will give to those causes is my vehement disapproval. 

---

Please be sure to vote in the new poll on the top of the page on whether Powell should resign.

---

Multiple attempts were made to contact Powell via telephone (where he was not reached as I later learned he was in New York for business) and via e-mail. He accepted an e-mail request one week ago, May 26, for an interview regarding the contents of this piece but did not subsequently make himself available.

UPDATE:

An excerpt of an e-mail I received from an employee in the Mount's communications department at 2:16 p.m. this afternoon:

"...would you stop by my office so we can talk about a few things?"

I wish I had the time.

At 3:03 p.m., literally seconds before I was about to post this, I received another e-mail from one of Powell's assistants regarding the scheduling of our interview for which he would not soon be available. I politely responded that I no longer needed to speak to Powell since our schedules were not able to align in time.

No-el, No-el

The glimmer of hope that coach Robert Burke might land Levi Noel as his first recruit was extinguished last night.


Noel, a 6-foot-5 forward, whose high school coach says he can play 1 through 4, has committed to Eastern Illinois of the much more highly-regarded Ohio Valley Conference.


Whether he has actually signed, I'm not sure, but that would be a formality at this point.


Look no further than his Facebook profile picture for proof.


If that were not enough, one of his friends writes on his wall at 9:47 p.m. last night to, among other things, congratulate him on choosing Eastern Illinois. Noel responds by, among other things, thanking him.


Other than the nearly lost hope of landing Justin Burrell, I do not know who the Mount is recruiting for next year although there have been recruits making visits.


Two things I would expect to see are Burke using his international ties to land someone late and for Burke to continue hunting down a point guard other than Burrell.


As of right now the Mount has three scholarships to give for the incoming class and only one of them is taken by Milan Brown's recruit Jeff James of Bowie High School.

Tom Thumbs Down: Part I of II

What bothers me most about the hiring of Robert Burke was not the fact that he was hired – it is the manner in which it was done.

To be clear, Brion Dunlap is my guy; I was rooting for him to be head coach and I was disappointed that he didn’t get it.

And as long as Dunlap couldn’t get the job I’m sincerely pleased with the choice President Thomas H. Powell made in hiring Burke.

But I am taking this time to address the issues of inequality at Mount St. Mary’s and the lack of reverence for its history, namely in the basketball program.

Notice I did not say that it was a choice the school, the athletic department, or even athletic director Lynne Robinson made – it was Powell. He told us this himself at Burke’s introductory press conference.

“Little did I think when I was one* that I would get to select the next basketball coach. But I did. And thanks to the group of advisers,” Powell said.

*Powell’s reference to when he was one year old indicates his age the last time the Mount had to do an extensive search for a men’s basketball coach. Milan Brown was brought in as a “coach-in-waiting” under previous president, the late George Houston.

Notice how he said “I did” and refers to the rest of the search committee as “advisers”.

And I wouldn’t have as much of a problem with his self-righteous selection process if any one of the following things were true:

-Powell was the athletic director

-Powell had been around Mount St. Mary’s for most of his life such as athletic director Lynne Robinson

-Powell didn’t have a history of making ego-influenced decisions (just listen to the press conference)

-Powell knew anything about high-level basketball, other than how to keep score

Unfortunately, none of these things are true.

Therein lies the root of the problem that is Powell’s ego.

Except for rare, particular circumstances (none of which exist at the Mount) the president of a university should not be the one who actually chooses the coach. Should he oversee the process? Approve the committee’s selection? Even have the ability to veto its choice with good cause? Yes, yes and yes.

But what about the athletic director? What about Robinson?

Maybe you’ve heard of her. She went to the Mount and her last name used to be Phelan. She knows a few things about Emmitsburg. In fact she actually played basketball at the Mount.

So what would your reaction be if I told you that she didn’t even have a say in the process? Well she didn’t; ask anyone in the athletic department who was around for the search.

That metaphorical bone Powell threw her in the press conference was nothing but a smokescreen:

“We have a superb director of intercollegiate athletics,” said Powell, who postured for her supposed role in the process throughout the entire press conference.

She should be commended for the manner in which she bit her tongue and raised the corners of her lips to produce a believable smile that day. After all, this was supposed to be her big moment. Her legacy could have been linked to the new coach at the Mount – and it still will be – but unfortunately for her she had little to do with it.

Maybe she would have still chosen Burke, who as I said many times, looks to be a great choice on all accounts. (Again, the selection itself of Burke troubles me none.)

I can only imagine what it must have been like for her to sit through the interviews and other components of the selection process dictated by her boss – an outsider who has spent a fraction of the time at the Mount that Robinson has.

Surely that was a disappointing experience for the woman who may not have another chance to choose the head coach of the school’s staple athletic program, but it could not have equaled the sting she must have felt when Powell used the interviews with candidates to insult her father, Jim.

Jim Phelan, of course, has 830 career wins and holds NCAA records for the most games and seasons coached at one school. His retired “jersey” – the first of its kind in Knott Arena, now joined by those of two of his former players – overlooks the court that bears his name and the trademark bowtie that he always donned on the sidelines.

How difficult it must have been for her to inconspicuously pick her pride – let alone her jaw – off the floor of the room in which candidates were interviewed when Powell had this to say:

“I want to distance the men’s basketball program from Jim Phelan.”

That’s paraphrasing of course – not an exact quotation. But according to multiple candidates who interviewed for the job (none of which was Dunlap, who I did not speak to for this piece), Powell expressed to them that he was looking for someone who could take the program away from the legendary coach’s aura.

To suggest to even one (or in this case more) of the six interviewees that you were no longer interested in having the program associated with the man who put it on the map – Phelan – is embarrassing. In fact if Powell resigned this summer, you would hear little in the way of objections for a myriad of reasons.

The school would not even be an NCAA Division I institution if it were not for Phelan. So how ironic was this statement from Powell in the press conference?

“One of the nation’s smallest Division I programs, it’s Division I in every sense of the word. It’s Division I because we have great student-athletes, it’s Division I because we have a superb director of intercollegiate athletics and it’s certainly Division I when you look at the caliber of our coaches,” Powell said.

And how brazen was it for his wife to be seated next to Phelan? Mr. and Mrs. Powell surely do not communicate well as she did not get the memo about distancing herself from Phelan. And Powell must’ve forgotten his own motives when he said this to announce Phelan to everyone in the room:

 “Of course we have the coach of coaches inducted into the basketball hall of fame with us right here, coach Phelan. Coach Phelan stand up.”

Yack!

Someone get this man an academy award. Or a polygraph.

Part II (the better half) of Tom Thumbs Down to be posted tomorrow

Multiple attempts were made to contact Powell via telephone (where he was not reached as I later learned he was in New York for business) and via e-mail. He accepted an e-mail request one week ago, May 26, for an interview regarding the contents of this piece but did not subsequently make himself available.

Speculation on Burke's staff / Burrell semi-update / Mount marriages

As far as I can tell, Mount basketball head coach Robert Burke is close to officially naming the rest of his staff. What we already  know is that Matt Henry, the former director of basketball operations at Georgetown, is on staff and has already been at work in the office. We also know that Sam Atupem is on staff in some form for the time being. On the camp brochures littered around the ARCC earlier this month, Atupem was listed as the contact person for sign-ups.


That leaves two positions remaining, which may have already been filled. It is possible that Burke already has his men and just has not taken the time to announce them, but allow me to speculate anyway.


There are two important items to consider and both point to June 1 as an important date. June 1, for one, is the date at which all of the staff from the Milan Brown era will no longer be on payroll at the Mount. Despite being formally announced as assistants as Holy Cross, not everyone from Brown's staff - Brion Dunlap, Kevin Robinson Jr. and Dan Engelstad - are off the books in Emmitsburg yet.


The second important tie to June 1, and one that has been mentioned here before, is the fact that it is the date when summer classes begin for undergraduate classes at Mount St. Mary's, and the date that Burke stated in his introductory press conference that he hoped to have named at least some of his staff to begin getting acclimated with the players. With Henry and Atupem already in place, he may have satisfied that goal in his mind and be in no rush to fill the final two positions. But I would still think that Burke is taking a "sooner the better" approach and will name his assistants very soon.


As recently as last week interviews were still being conducted to fill the final two spots. Additionally, some of the candidates, if not all, had been given game film from past Mount St. Mary's games and asked to scout both the Mount and the opponent for that game, then to send the scout back to Burke.


Now comes perhaps the most interesting information regarding the salary of these assistants. I will preface this information by saying that we do not know which two positions the remaining candidates are competing for (i.e. first assistant, second assistant, third assistant) because those positions may no longer exist at the Mount. What I mean is that the assistants may not be tiered - the three assistants under Burke could all be on the same level salary-wise.


There was either a clause in Burke's contract or a bit of finagling in the aftermath that granted him a pool of money - rumored to be a sum of $145,000 - $160,000 - that he will be allowed to split up as he chooses - in this case evenly - among his staff. The benefit I see to this is that he can offer three positions with respectable pay and have a relatively deeper staff as opposed to going strong for a proven first assistant, recruiting an up-and-comer for second and hoping to get lucky with a third (you know, in case a recent Duke point guard applies. Or something like that.)


Last I heard, which was before the holiday weekend, there were at least four candidates still fighting for the final two spots. Greg Paulus, of course, was still in the running. So was Duane Simpkins, an early-1990s player at Maryland and now three years into his head coaching job at St. Alban's High School in Washington D.C. A third nominee is Ahmad Dorsett, who is an assistant at Bowie State. And the final candidate of which I have knowledge is Harold Juluke, an assistant at Tulane.


Obviously I'm rooting for Paulus, but I don't know much about the remaining three candidates other than what I can find on the Internet. The only person who has been personally vouched for to me is Dorsett. I like the thoroughness that the process is undergoing and expect to see an announcement in the near future. If I hear anything I'll be sure to post it here.


---


I'm even less confident in our ability to retain Justin Burrell than I was before. In addition to the hear-say that has been passed along, there is this:


Burrell was granted a partial release from the Mount weeks ago. Essentially this means that he can re-open his recruiting under the standard rules for every other school in the nation, except for the Mount. Because of the partial, and not full, release, Burke and his staff can still contact Burrell as much as they want as if he is still signed with the team, but he's not.


Considering the Mount has full access to the one-time top-priority recruit turned prized-signee turned more-urgent-than-ever-top-priority-recruit and he still hasn't re-committed to the Mount is troubling. If he isn't announced to be back with the Mount soon (as in two weeks ago) I would expect a school in a conference that is a level above the NEC's tier (AKA the bottom tier) to scoop him up with a late scholarship opening. And if he does not get any offers he likes in the near future he could just as easily enroll in prep school and potentially boost his stock even higher next year.


---


Congrats to two Mount alumni on their recent marriages. Former Mount basketball player and current William & Mary assistant Jamion Christian was recently married in Hawaii while former Mount golfer turned head coach of the same team, Kevin Farrell, was married on campus Saturday and is spending his honeymoon in Puerto Rico this week.