If the Harvard opening is anything like recent Ivy vacancies, Crimson athletic director Bob Scalise has quite a few CVs to wade through in his search for Frank Sullivan’s successor. From conversations with sources close to the Harvard program, around the league, and close to potential candidates, an early list has emerged. Bear in mind that the interest probably is one-way with some these names, and inevitably there will be some surprise candidates unknown to anyone outside the Harvard administration.
We’ll break this down into four categories:
Veteran coaches with Ivy League backgrounds
– Paul Cormier. Cormier has Ivy head coaching experience at Dartmouth — albeit nearly two decades ago — where he compiled an 87-95 mark over seven seasons while recruiting future NBA players Walter Palmer and James Blackwell. The high water mark in Hanover came in his fourth (18-8, 10-4 Ivy) and fifth (17-9, 10-4 Ivy) seasons, before the program fell back on hard times. In 1991, Cormier took off for Fairfield, where he went 86-111 over seven seasons, winning a share of the MAAC regular season title and playing in the NIT in 1995-96 and reaching the NCAA Tournament the following season. He worked as a video scout for the New York Knicks in 1998-99 before joining the staff of the Boston Celtics. Cormier currently is an assistant with the Memphis Grizzlies, and was a candidate for the Brown opening last spring.
– Armond Hill. The former Princeton star and Pete Carril assistant was the head coach at Columbia for eight years, compiling a 72-141 mark. Most Ivy fans’ lasting memory of Hill is the disastrous 2-25, 0-14 Ivy campaign that proved to be his undoing in Morningside Heights, but he did lead a program without much in the way of resources or institutional support to two .500 league seasons in 1999-00 and 2000-01. After Columbia, Hill has been an NBA assistant, first with the Atlanta Hawks in 2003-04 and with the Boston Celtics in the three years since.
– Dave Wohl. Part of the legendary Bilsky & Wohl backcourt at Penn in the early 1970s, the former Quaker star has been an NBA mainstay as a player, coach, and executive. He was the head coach with the New Jersey Nets for two-plus seasons and is currently working alongside Hill as a Celtics assistant. Wohl was rumored to be interested in the Penn job when it was vacant last spring, but his lack of college coaching experience had to be a handicap.
Major conference assistants with Ivy experience
– Sydney Johnson. the 1996-97 Ivy League Player of the Year at Princeton has only three years of coaching experience as the third assistant, but it’s for a Georgetown program that now ranks among the nation’s best. The surprising developments at Princeton add an extra wrinkle to this, though Harvard might be more likely than Princeton to take a chance on an inexperienced coach like Johnson. Given the rivalry with Princeton it would be interesting to see if Harvard would turn to former Tiger likely to install a derivative of the schemes he ran in college and at Georgetown.
– Paul Lee. A former captain at Columbia, Lee has been with Bill Carmody at Northwestern since Carmody moved to in Evanston back in 2000. Prior to that, Lee was an assistant at his alma mater for a decade under Wally Halas and Armond Hill. Since he has spent the past 12 seasons coaching in programs running the Princeton offense, it’s safe to assume that, like Johnson, Lee would install some version of that system at Harvard.
– Mike Maker. Maker was a longtime assistant to Dave Faucher at Dartmouth, where he was around for both the good times (the 1990s) and bad (the 21st century) before departing for Samford in 2003. He has been John Beilein’s third assistant at West Virginia the past two seasons. Maker also brings experience in Princeton-minded systems, as Faucher featured a version of it in Hanover, Jimmy Tillette runs one of the closest approximations around at Samford, and Beilein’s West Virginia offense is very similar as well.
Major conference assistants
– Pat Duquette. Duquette has been an assistant on Al Skinner’s staff at Boston College since 2001, rising to the top assistant spot this past season. He is a 1993 graduate of Williams and has experience elsewhere on the New England coaching circuit, helping build St. Michael’s in a Division II power in the late 1990s.
– Gregg Gottlieb. The brother of ESPN analyst Doug Gottlieb, Gregg Gottlieb has been at San Diego State for the past eight seasons — the last five as the assistant coach in charge of coordinating recruiting. During his time there, the Aztecs have qualified for the NCAA Tournament twice and the NIT twice. Prior to that, Gottlieb assisted at Sacramento State — where he brought in a nationally ranked recruiting class — and at Cal Poly. His strength as a recruiter might make him attractive to Harvard.
New England head coaches
– Bill Herrion. Herrion is best known for leading Drexel to the second round of the NCAA Tournament in 1996, compiling a mark of 167-71 with the Dragons before leaving for East Carolina. Things didn’t go nearly as well in Conference USA with the Pirates, where Herrion went 70-98 over seven seasons before winding up at New Hampshire. He led the Wildcats to one of the bigger turnarounds in the nation in 2005-06, but the program took a disappointing step back this season, finishing 10-20. Sources confirm mutual interest between Herrion and Harvard.
– Mike Jarvis. Jarvis’s name is going to be associated with his ill-advised simile when discussing Erick Barkley’s treatment by the NCAA and with the implosion of the St. John’s program on and off the court under his watch. However, prior to that he was one of the bright coaching stars in the world of college hoops, having restored St. John’s to Top 10 status after leading both George Washington and Boston University to multiple NCAA Tournament appearances. The Cambridge native has been an ESPN analyst since leaving St. John’s in 2003, and while he might seem like a longshot for the Harvard gig, multiple sources claim he is seriously involved.
– Jay Lawson. Lawson succeeded Frank Sullivan at Bentley, so it would set up some a very interesting storyline were he to do so again at Harvard. He has an impressive 304-163 mark over 17 seasons at Bentley, including a 32-1 record and Division II Elite Eight appearance this past season. Just to be clear, there is no confirmation from any source that Lawson is involved, but his track record and Harvard’s basketball relationship with Bentley would seem to make him someone worthy of consideration.
– David McLaughlin. McLaughlin was a candidate for the Brown job last year, and while it’s unknown whether he has thrown his hat in the ring for the Harvard opening, Scalise would do well to consider him. After taking over the head coaching job on an interim basis midway through the 2003-04 season, McLaughlin has led Stonehill to a 63-27 record the past three seasons, including a Division II Final Four appearance in 2005-06.
– Dave Paulsen. Paulsen has been a candidate for three of the past four Ivy openings (Columbia, Dartmouth, and Brown), so it’s reasonable to expect the Williams head coach to be in the mix for this position. In seven seasons at his alma mater, Paulsen is a very impressive 153-45, including the 2002-03 Division II national championship and a national runner-up finish the following year. The NESCAC’s high academics are similar to that of the Ivy League, but its prohibition on in-home recruiting has to be a source of concern for a Division I school.
