The Boston Globe is reporting an offer has been made by Harvard to Tommy Amaker, and Mark Blaudschun claims Amaker “is expected to accept.” The former Michigan and Seton Hall coach had emerged as a frontrunner for the job in recent weeks, joining former St. John’s coach and Harvard assistant Mike Jarvis as a top candidate. He interviewed on campus on Friday. Amaker was fired by Michigan in March after failing to reach the NCAA Tournament all six seasons in Ann Arbor. A decision is expected from Amaker in the coming days.
Slant: It’s not normal to see a report of an offer in an Ivy coaching search, so this raises some red flags. Coaches have been known to go after openings with the sole intention of keeping their names in the headlines, so there’s some question as to whether Amaker ultimately would accept the Harvard offer. However, the involvement of some high-profile names might explain why this coaching search is being covered differently from recent Ivy hirings.
As a head coach, Amaker’s biggest successes have come as a recruiter. At Harvard he would have the chance to sell a school that is The Brand in college education. The sway its name holds with high school students and paren’t can’t be emphasized enough. For Amaker’s own recruitment to Harvard, it probably also doesn’t hurt that his wife, Stephanie Pinder-Amaker, is in academia and almost assuredly would love the chance to work there.
While his recruiting was strong, Amaker’s coaching came under criticism at Michigan. He would be coming to a real coaches’ conference in the Ivy League, where the level of coaching might be at an all-time high. However, with a good assistant sitting next to him on the bench, those concerns may turn out to be unjustified.
Much has been made of the fact Harvard has only one head coach of color — and no black head coaches — in its athletic department, but a coach with Amaker’s background would have been a top candidate regardless of race, so getting Amaker would be huge on two fronts for Crimson athletic director Bob Scalise. Were he to decline the Harvard job, another coach of color — the Cambridge native Jarvis — reportedly is the runner-up and might be next in line for the offer.
The good news for the Harvard program is that the involvement of these big names is a likely sign the school is going to be making a bigger commitment to men’s basketball going forward. Frank Sullivan didn’t get the help from admissions or the financial support he needed to win the last few years, and men’s basketball long has played second fiddle at Harvard to men’s ice hockey in the winter, but things may be changing with this hire. Add in a new arena on the horizon in the next decade as part of the school’s campus reconfiguration, and Harvard could be looking at making a serious move in Ivy hoops.
