Brown

Want to coach a college basketball team?

Want to coach a team that plays in one of the glamour conferences in the country, a job that pays almost a million dollars a year?

Send your resumé to Bob Driscoll at Providence College.

Because the Friars’ job is still open.

Say it ain’t so, Travis Ford.

For just when you thought this coaching search couldn’t get any more drawn out comes the news that Ford has turned this job down and decided to stay at the University of Massachusetts. Just when you thought this couldn’t get any more drawn out comes the news that Ford has become the second person that’s now turned this job down in a very public way.

First was Jim Larranaga, the first choice, the former Friar who was going to come back and be the first ex-player to coach the Friars. No matter that he would have been 59 by the time next season started, close to the end of the coaching trail. It was going to be the kind of hire that would be welcomed by most of the fan base, the kind of hire that would have played well at a press conference.

It was set.

Until he said no at the last minute.

Call it a mini-embarrassment.

It wasn’t a major one, certainly. Anyone could understand why Larranaga was reluctant to leave a school where he is revered, a school where he’s had great success, and where his family likes living.

But beneath the surface was the word that he wasn’t totally convinced he could win big here, that at his age, and what he had to give up at George Mason, it was simply too much of a risk.

Ford saying no is a major embarrassment.

This is an Atlantic 10 coach saying no thanks, after he spent the day here Wednesday with his wife, after he toured the campus and toured The Dunk and did everything you do except take the job. This is an Atlantic 10 coach, a Rick Pitino protégé no less, who ultimately decided he didn’t want this job, even though it pays significantly more than he makes at UMass and is in the Big East.

So the question is why?

What is going on here?

The word is that he, too, wasn’t sure he could win here.

Ford was exactly the kind of coach the Friars need, a young, hungry coach on the way up, a young, hungry coach who lusts for the big time, a young, hungry coach who no doubt would try to use this job as a springboard to a bigger job.

The fact he doesn’t want it should tell us something. Namely, that in the basketball world this job is no longer considered a sure thing, not in a Big East where too many teams are fighting for too few spots in the NCAA Tournament.

Not in a Big East where coaches who don’t do well get fired, see their careers turn to ruins.

The fact that he doesn’t want it should tell us that people in the basketball world view this job differently than many people around here view it.

This is what happens when in the last 20 years the three most successful coaches — Pitino, Rick Barnes, and Pete Gillen — all left for bigger jobs. This is what happens when Gillen made no secret of his belief that this was a more difficult job than most people realized, and that was a year removed from going to the Final Eight.

This is what happens when Tim Welsh gets fired, even when many people inside the world of college basketball thought he’d done a decent job given the realities.

This is what happens when the perception goes out that if you come here you might not get out with your career still alive, right or not.

An Atlantic 10 coach turns the job down, Travis Ford obviously believing that he’s better positioned to get a big-time job from UMass than he is from PC.

That doesn’t mean PC won’t get a quality coach. This is, after all, a Big East job, one that pays a king’s ransom.

Rest assured there are a lot of coaches out there who would walk over hot coals to get here. They might not have a big name.

They might not be the kind of guy that excites the fan base. They might not be the kind of guy that lights up the news conference, and makes everyone start dancing in the street, their heads full of dreams about one day cutting down nets.

Nor in the long run does it matter when PC hires a coach.

Hire the right guy and how long it took to get him will become irrelevant, a trivia question whose answer no one cares about.

But I suspect PC never expected this, suspect that they thought that guys would come running as soon as this job opened up.

That’s certainly been the public posture, the sense that this is all very much in control, that things are moving smoothly along, that it’s just a matter of time before there’s an announcement and there’s a news conference and everyone loves the choice.

It’s become more complicated than that.

That started with Larranaga, who was supposed to be a slam dunk. Now it’s Ford, too.

So who’s next?

Larry Brown, even though he’s 68 and no doubt would be out of here before he figured out where the Newport Bridge is?

The next hot coach on Driscoll’s Rolodex.

Until then?

Want to coach a college basketball team?

Want to coach a team that plays in a glamour conference, a job that pays nearly a million dollars a year?

Polish off that resumé.

Because this search still continues, nearly a month after Welsh was fired.

breynold@projo.com