Great GregA Blog

[Minotaur]

Men's hoops: Reggie Kohn and more ...

Robert McCullum told me Thursday he expects to name his new director of basketball operations Monday or Tuesday, and former Bulls guard Reggie Kohn drove over to Tampa and interviewed for the job Monday, saying his conversation with McCullum was a positive one.

Covering a low-level job search like this at a public university is fun because by public records law, you're allowed to request information on all the applicants. In this case, there's 35 hopefuls, running the gamut from a few current college seniors to a few women to a DHL customer service rep to a market manager for Grand Marnier liqueur. I can't make this stuff up.

Two of the most qualified candidates aren't really after the operations opening. George Jackson, an assistant on Louis Orr's staff the past two years and a storied Cincinnati preps coach, has already spoken with McCullum about his interest in the vacant full-time assistant position, replacing Julius Allen. (Remember his name.) And former Clearwater High and Dayton star Josh Postorino, an assistant at Marshall for three years, told me this week that he in fact hasn't applied, and he isn't sure why his resume would be in USF's files. Of course.

If I were weeding through this stack, here's five names aside from Kohn that stand out to me:

-- Allan Adams: Served as a graduate assistant at Virginia last year and boasts Pete Gillen and Dave Leitao as references. Also has state ties, having held the operations job at Stetson and been head coach at two Florida high schools.

-- Ahmy Arca: A rare applicant with Bulls ties, he's a 2003 USF graduate who is on Derrick Worrels' staff at Hillsborough Community College. So he coached Bulls receiver Amarri Jackson, and he's worked at both McCullum and Seth Greenberg's summer camps at USF.

-- Joseph Medina: Head coach of the Strong Island Sound (New York) of the American Basketball Association last season. He's worked with several New York City low-level pro teams, but has very little college experience. A St. John's grad, he gets points for having Lou Carnasecca as a reference.

-- Mark "Oly" Olson: Former HCC head coach, he's been an assistant at University of Tampa since 1999 and has worked in college basketball on and off since 1989. Loses a little for resume having "toutnament" and "quater finalist" on same line.

-- Andy Pogach: Mentioned him last week as an impressive early applicant. Three years in the operations job at Penn under Fran Dunphy, now a graduate assistant in compliance at UNC. Might not be right for this job, but a strong resume.

FIVE MORE RANDOM OBSERVATIONS

1. My favorite well-meaning resume line in the whole pile: "T-ball coach, Fort Wayne, IN, Summer 2005 ... ages 4 to 10. Taught them the basics of the game. Like how to hit, catch, throw, baserunning, fielding, etc." Honest, folks.

2. Not sure who McCullum will go with, but judging by resumes, it'll be someone who is proficient in Microsoft Word -- and Windows 95, 98 and 2000 in some cases! So don't waste time worrying about that whole "command-X, command-V" tutorial, Coach. Leave that little Paper Clip helper guy at home.

3. Reggie Kohn's three-year record at Lake Howell High is 84-16. And Conference USA's all-time assists leader has Greenberg and Billy Donovan among his references.

4. Maybe I haven't applied for a job in a while, but who gives 10 references? Like an employer's going to call up eight people and say, "You know, I really don't have a sense for the guy. Let me call his ninth-best choice for Ardent Supporter."

5. McCullum told me that experience is important, but that familiarity might be the most valuable commodity with a job like this. If McCullum doesn't know somebody he's hiring, chances are he's very close to someone who does know the person well. That would speak well for Kohn's chances, but McCullum's very well-connected, so it could speak well for a lot of candidates we don't know about as well.

posted by Greg Auman @ 5/12/2006 12:08:00 AM

http://www.sptimes.com/blogs/usf/

[Brad]

I did NOT list ten references...  

[Apis Bull]

You caught me.  It was me.   :-[

[Velcro]

Bring in Reggie!  

[bulls96go]

reggie is the choice... many here have said that already near-unanimous