Fran Dunphy has moved on after 17 seasons, leaving Penn without a head coach. With one — and possibly two — of the obvious frontrunners for the job already out of the mix, expect to hear some interesting names bandied about by insiders and those engaged in pure speculation in the next week or two. Here’s a list of some of the names being floated by those close to the program along with some names that have popped up on the boards.

In no particular order…

Billy Taylor
The Lehigh head coach can count on a recommendation from his former boss, Fran McCaffery, under whom Taylor served as an assistant at UNC-Greensboro. Taylor took over a Lehigh program in 2002 that had averaged just 7.2 wins per season over the past decade. He turned around things immediately, going 16-12 in his first season. In four years at Lehigh, Taylor won 69 of 119 games, though his official record took a hit with Lehigh’s recent forfeiture of 13 games in 2004-05 for using an ineligible player. The Joe Knight snafu is a black mark on his resume, but McCaffery’s endorsement should more than make up for that. Last week Taylor turned down an offer to take over the Delaware program, so he may not be looking to move on at this point. But if Bilsky sticks to his pattern of hiring young, up-and-coming coaches, Taylor would seem to fit this mold very well.

Glen Miller
Miller is very highly regarded in coaching circles and was one of the guys Bilsky targeted two years ago during the La Salle saga. Despite down seasons the last two years at Brown, Miller should be a candidate again this time. If Bilsky is looking to bring in a guy from outside the Penn family and put his stamp on this hiring, this would do it. Intra-conference coaching moves are almost unprecedented at this level, and Miller has his hat in the ring elsewhere — including a reported offer from Hartford — but a move to Penn might make the most sense. Interestingly, Miller has the reputation as a strong defensive coach, though team defense was not his teams’ strong point during his best seasons at Brown. There will be questions about his 60-percent attrition rate at Brown, but that’s almost certainly a product of his recruiting strategy there. A number of Penn fans still associate Miller with an unfortunate comment at a postgame press conference back in 2003 and his 22-33 record the last two seasons won’t help matters, but Bilsky would do well to hire the guy widely regarded as the top coach in the Ivy League.

Pat Flannery
Sources indicate Bilsky has shown interest in trying to lure the successful Bucknell coach to the city. However, Flannery just signed a contract extension for the second straight offseason and it’s always difficult to lure a coach away from his alma mater. If a deal with Flannery were to happen, it would almost certainly be due to Penn’s ability to pay more than Bucknell. File this one under “long shot” for now.

Dave Paulsen
Paulsen has had a great run at Williams, amassing a 137-33 record at the school in six years, including a Division III national title in 2003 and championship game appearance the following season. Coming from an academic-minded conference like the NESCAC and scholarship-less Division III, Paulsen would be very familiar with those aspects of the Penn job. If Bilsky elects to go the Division III route, Paulsen would seem to be the guy.

Fran O’Hanlon
If Chaney had stepped down last year, things would look pretty different for O’Hanlon. But with Lafayette just voting this month to go forward with athletic scholarships for basketball after years of lobbying the former Penn assistant, he is going to have a tough time skipping town. While the Villanova alumnus would certainly love to get back in the Big 5, he signed a very long deal with Lafayette and reportedly turned down the La Salle job two years ago. O’Hanlon would bring the most continuity to the program, but he probably is praying Bilsky looks elsewhere so he doesn’t have to make the brutally tough decision of returning to Penn as the head coach or staying at Lafayette and seeing what he can do with scholarships.

Steve Donahue
Donahue is positive and energizing, which is why parents love him when he’s sitting in their living rooms making his case for why their child should come play for him. He has turned around things at Cornell, but it’s been a very slow process, as evidenced by his 58-105 mark in six seasons in Ithaca. This year Donahue’s program seemed to lose some steam, breaking a trend of three straight years of improved overall and Ivy win totals. Still, given his history at Penn and his link to some of the better teams in recent Penn history, he’ll probably receive consideration for the position.

Rob Burke
Familiar to Ivy basketball fans from his four years at Princeton under John Thompson III, Burke followed his former Gonzaga Prep schoolmate to Georgetown. His affiliation with Penn’s archrival might make some Penn folk uneasy, but Burke is far from a “Princeton guy.” Most of his coaching experience has been with programs running conventional offenses: six seasons at UMBC, three at Loyola Marymount, and three at Siena, where his teams routinely finished near the top of Division I in scoring. Burke is known as a talented recruiter, making recruiting guru Mike Sullivan’s list of the top recruiting college basketball assistants while at Princeton back in 2002. If Bilsky can get past Burke’s past employment at Princeton, the Haverford grad would appear to be a strong candidate.

Brett Gunning
Several sources close to the Penn program have mentioned the Villanova assistant’s name in connection with the Penn opening. He served as the third assistant on Jay Wright’s staff at Hofstra and followed Wright to Villanova. However, he only became a full-time assistant when Joe Jones left for the Columbia job three years ago and this past season was his first as the lead assistant. At age 33 and without much top assistant experience, Gunning probably isn’t ready for a Division I head coaching position at this point, let alone one at a program like Penn. But lack of seasoning or not, Penn allegedly has interest.

Dave Wohl
Bilsky’s former backcourt mate currently is serving as an assistant coach for the Celtics. Aside from his days as a player at Penn back in the early 70s, Wohl’s been an NBA guy. With the exception of two-plus seasons with the Nets back in the mid-80s, all of this NBA experience has been as an assistant coach or front office executive. With the unique challenges of running college basketball program and the added complexities of doing so in the Ivy League with its admissions requirements and lack of scholarships, Wohl would be a very, very risky choice to take over the Penn program. Still, given his history with Bilsky, it’s not outside the realm of the possible.

Bob MacKinnon
The former North Carolina and current Marshall assistant might apply for the position after doing so for the Columbia opening three years ago. MacKinnon is highly respected for his recruiting under Matt Doherty in Chapel Hill, where he helped bring in much of the talent that won the 2005 national championship. He was a finalist at Columbia in 2003, but his lack of familiarity with the Ivy League would be a major weakness in his candidacy.

Here are some guys whose names have come up, but who won’t be getting the job:

Fran McCaffery
McCaffery would be the obvious choice to succeed Dunphy, but after a sensational coaching job this year at Siena, the athletic department moved to lock him up long term. Unlike the original deal, his new deal does not include an escape clause for Penn and also contains a significant buyout clause. While McCaffery’s salary isn’t particularly high, Penn isn’t likely to both offer him a big salary and take care of his buyout, making the odds of a return to his alma mater very small.

Gil Jackson
The former Dunphy assistant has some backers among the fan base, but lacks support in the athletic department.

Dave Duke
Even if Duke doesn’t join his boss at Temple, there’s very little chance of him getting promoted at Penn. Not after the mess he left at Lehigh in his last stint as a college head coach.

Mike Jarvis
Bilsky hired Jarvis at George Washington, but after what transpired at St. John’s on his watch, Jarvis is damaged goods and would not pass muster with the boosters.