Pitt Coaching Search: A couple of interviews

Ok, the wheels are finally churning, at least in terms of some more information about the coaching search. 

Obviously the Georgia Tech job opened up Friday and that complicates some things for the Pitt search because some of the same candidates will now have a second suitor from the same league.

I don’t know which job is actually better, though I will say the team coming back to Pitt is far better than the team coming back to Georgia Tech since they lost their four best players. Pitt has 7 of its top 9 scorers returning while Georgia Tech is a total rebuild job.

In fact, that’s one reason Brian Gregory was fired despite having a nice run in the NIT. If this was year one or two, a deep run in the NIT could be built on — but this was a team with a lot of seniors and a graduate transfer and so this was supposed to be the year of a breakthrough and it didn’t happen. Five years was enough.

But, that doesn’t matter right now because Pitt isn’t sitting on its hands, there have been a couple of interviews already and there are more interviews planned over the next few days....

Three guys that sources have told me Pitt is going to interview are Mike Lonergan from George Washington, Bryce Drew from Valparaiso and Andy Enfield from USC.

Those interviews should take place rather quickly, as in over the course of the next couple of days, and don’t bother driving around Oakland, going to the Airport Marriott or Nemacolin because they are all going to take place at undisclosed locations in different states.

We also know Brandin Knight is coach who is in the interview process and we have already covered that he is the choice of the players.

One other coach that I was told has been discussed a lot and may get an interview is Wisconsin-Green Bray coach Linc Darner, who has only year of Division I experience but his team averaged 83.7 points per game.

He is intriguing to Barnes because of his uptempo style and because his teams score a lot of points. He was a Division II head coach for 14 years before going to Green Bay and he made the NCAA Tournament, advanced in it pretty much annually and like I said the scoring and shooting numbers are impressive. He won a Division II National title at St. Joe’s Indiana (that team Pitt played this year) last year.

Like I said, I haven’t been able to confirm he is going to get an interview, but he is certainly being discussed at length. There is some concern about his lack of Division I experience, but his style of play and coaching experience at the Division II level makes him a coach they want to look at a little more closely.

Recruiting will be a question with Darner because that’s a big jump in a short time from Division II to mid-major for a year to the ACC - but Bo Ryan made a similar jump from Division III and that seemed to work out. Plus, I would think his system will recruit itself as guys will be able to let it fly and run ‘n gun. 

Butler coach Chris Holtmann is another coach that Barnes likes but I haven’t been able to confirm an interview or pending interview with him and one source told me the feeling among Pitt’s leadership is that he isn’t leaving Butler this year.

And UAB’s Jerod Haas was high on the list and was going to get an interview but cross him off as you might have heard already - he is headed to Stanford.

There were some rumblings that perhaps Duke assistant Jeff Capel may be getting a look but apparently he is not in the mix (and may actually be a candidate at Georgia Tech).