It shouldn’t be about the news conference.

But it is so often about the news conference.

For that’s what people want, no question about that.

They want the big name. They want the big splash. They want the name that’s going to go out across the basketball world like a comet across the nighttime sky. They want the guy who is going to come in here and blow everyone’s head off at the news conference like Rick Pitino did in the spring of 1985, the day he told people in the old Royal Roost to forget about all their worries and all their problems when they went to bed and to dream about cutting down the nets instead.

And the PC officialdom?

They want the big name, too.

They want the big splash.

They want the name that shocks the basketball world.

They want the name that gets everyone excited.

Why?

Simple.

They have season tickets to sell.

They have sponsorships to sell.

They have boosters to mollify.

They have alumni to keep happy.

They have a fan base that’s grown discontented, one that yearns for a return of the glory days.

No matter that winning the news conference in April doesn’t mean anything if you don’t win enough games in February. There is pressure to hire someone who can create a buzz. Especially in light of Jim Larranaga turning them down last week. Forget Larranaga’s reasons for a second. The lingering perception is that a coach from a mid-major, an alumnus no less, turned them down, complete with the embarrassment that came with that.

So if you’re Bob Driscoll and the Rev. Brian Shanley, the two point men in this search, the two men who are on record saying that they are committed to making this program better, don’t you need to make a big splash?

Of course you do.

Certainly they need someone who can pump up the interest, make Providence College basketball important in ways it used to around here, back when it ruled the winter, as if it were the state’s pro franchise.

That’s what’s at stake here.

For this is a program at the crossroads.

It’s a program that’s been at the crossroads before, no question about that. In retrospect, the Friars story always has been an improbable one, one that always defied the odds. Great coaching. The building of the Civic Center. The birth of the Big East Conference. All these things prolonged the PC story, in times when similar schools were falling off the basketball map. All the things that kept the story moving along, giving it another act.

Now it needs another one.

There’s no question that PC basketball has been hurt by the incredible success of the Patriots the past decade or so, that it’s the Patriots who now get the attention almost to February, the Patriots that attract the peripheral fan, the Patriots that have hurt interest in college basketball around here in ways no one could have ever predicted 20 years ago.

It’s also no question that the Friars are now in an extremely difficult league, one more difficult than it was a decade ago for the simple reason that there are more teams, a league where you can be a good team and still not make the NCAA Tournament. All in the larger context of a changing sports world, one in which you better win big or you have failed.

That’s the new landscape, and it’s a basketball version of the arms race: You either keep up, or the world goes dribbling by you.

And now the Friars need a public face, someone whose hiring would create a buzz.

Which is where Larry Brown comes in.

I started hearing his name over the weekend, and at first glance it doesn’t seem to make sense, considering both the fact that he’ll be 68 years old in the fall and that he hasn’t been in the college game since winning the national title with Kansas 20 years ago. But he’s out of the game and wants back in. He was quoted recently as saying he wants an NBA job, but would consider a college one.

Well, guess what?

There aren’t that many college jobs left out there. Not ones that can pay a million dollars a year anyway, and play in a glamour conference.

This wouldn’t mean a whole lot, if not for the fact that I heard yesterday that both Driscoll and Father Shanley were overheard saying they are about to shock the basketball world with their hire. Then someone else who is plugged in to the college basketball world said yesterday that Friars were dealing with Larry Brown.

So this is about connecting the dots.

Is it all nonsense?

Could be.

Every coaching search comes with a slew of rumors.

And maybe there is someone else out there who would have the same kind of impact.

Yet the Friars need to make a big splash, especially now that they’re in the fourth week in their quest for a new coach. They need someone whose hiring is going to go out across the basketball world like a comet in the nighttime sky. They need to hire someone who is going to get everyone excited. Hiring Brown would do that.

It might not be the best thing to do, hiring a man who will be 68 and is clearly not in this for the long haul, given both his age and the nomadic nature of his career.

But it would win the news conference, no question about that.

And right now that would be a big win.

breynold@projo.com