NCAA coaching gossip heats up

Steve Carp

Tuesday, March 23, 1999 | 10:15 a.m.

If it's Final Four week, it can only mean one thing -- the coaching carousel will be spinning out of control.

It started Monday with the hiring of Steve Alford at Iowa and Joe Cravens at Weber State as well as UNLV Hall of Famer Sidney Green at Florida Atlantic. And look for the pace to pick up as Saturday's semifinals draw closer and schools scramble to fill their vacancies.

St. Louis still needs a coach. So does Baylor and North Carolina-Greensboro. Notre Dame is trying to get someone on board, as are Wisconsin-Milwaukee and Arkansas-Little Rock.

And with the openings, the rumor mill is cranked up full-tilt. Unfortunately, a lot of what is coming out is misinformation.

Take the Notre Dame situation as an example. As soon as John McLeod stepped down, the word was Utah's Rick Majerus was the leading candidate to coach the Irish.

Problem was, Majerus had yet to talk to Notre Dame, much less visit South Bend. However, he finally had an informal conversation Sunday in New York with athletic director Mike Wadsworth while working as an analyst for CBS.

How serious things will get between Notre Dame and Majerus remains to be seen. In the meantime, the school has talked to Princeton's Bill Carmody and Xavier's Skip Prosser was expected to talk to the school once his team is finished in the NIT this week.

Majerus did speak to San Diego State athletic director Rick Bay about the Aztecs' opening. But the two never talked face-to-face, as had been reported by a San Diego-area newspaper last week, which went so far to say Majerus was meeting Bay in Majerus' Long Beach, Calif., home.

That was a good one, since Majerus doesn't own a home in Salt Lake City, much less one in Southern California. He lives in a hotel a half-mile from the Utah campus.

What was true was Majerus was in SoCal last week. But it was to watch Artesia High's Jason Kapono, who was playing in an all-star game. Utah is battling UNLV and Missouri for the 6-foot-8 swingman.

Majerus pulled out of the San Diego State search Monday night and Bay has offered the job to Fran Fraschilla. The former Manhattan and St. John's coach had recently visited SDSU and he and Bay talked on the phone the past few days while Fraschilla was working the West Regional tournament in Phoenix for CBS Radio.

Fraschilla didn't want to comment when asked where things stood. But he supposedly wants from Bay the same assurances Majerus would have had as it pertains to scholarships, recruiting and a commitment to the program.

Fraschilla knows he won't command the same salary as Majerus would've. But remember, he's an unemployed coach who has not been on the sidelines for a year.

San Diego State also had expressed interest in Gonzaga's Dan Monson. But after talking to Bay Sunday, Monson decided not to pursue the Aztecs job.

Fraschilla, whose name has come up at both Georgia and Southwest Missouri State, was given a 24-hour deadline by Bay to decide whether he wants the San Diego State job.

And while San Diego State tries to figure out who will be its new man, its future Mountain West colleague, New Mexico, is wondering whether it will retain its coach.

Longtime Lobos coach Dave Bliss has talked with St. Louis and Baylor. But contrary to reports out of Albuquerque, he has never talked to Vanderbilt about its opening.

Bliss withdrew from the St. Louis search and is expected to decide today whether or not to go to Baylor. He visited Waco Sunday and huddled with UNM athletic director Rudy Davalos Monday. Bliss has yet to sign a six-year extension to remain coach of the Lobos.

As for Monday's hires, Cravens may find the cupboard a little bare at Weber State. Harold Arceneaux and Eddie Gill, the team's top two players, have indicated they will not return for their senior year with the Wildcats.

Assistant Guy Beach, who brought both players to Ogden and had been the other candidate to replace Ron Abegglen, was disappointed losing out to his colleague, and indicated he, too, may not return. Cravens has asked Beach to stay on as his No. 1 aide.

The rumors about Alford replacing Dr. Tom Davis apparently were accurate. The former Indiana star said he was glad to be back in the Big Ten after going 78-38 in his four years at Southwest Missouri State.

In addition to the head coaching jobs, there are assistants from coast to coast looking to move on or to hook up with new programs for a variety of reasons. It should make this week's National Association of Basketball Coaches Convention in Tampa livelier than usual.