SPOKANE — San Diego basketball coach Bill Grier is not interested in taking the vacant job at Washington State, and Cougar officials are scrambling to hold on to recent recruits.
Grier, a long-time assistant at Gonzaga, told The San Diego Union-Tribune he is not interested in replacing Tony Bennett.
“I feel good about the kids we have returning here next season and I’m happy with where I am,” Grier, who spent 16 years at Gonzaga, told the newspaper in Wednesday’s editions.
Media speculation is focusing on Portland State coach Ken Bone, who has deep Northwest roots and has taken the Vikings to consecutive NCAA basketball tournaments. However, Bone would be a second consecutive major hire from the low-profile Big Sky Conference for WSU Director of Athletics Jim Sterk.
Sterk has caught some heat for hiring football coach Paul Wulff from Eastern Washington, after the Cougars went 2-11 in Wulff’s first season.
Bone did not immediately return a telephone message Wednesday.
Other potential candidates bouncing around the blogosphere include Saint Mary’s coach Randy Bennett and Gonzaga assistant Ray Giacoletti, who was former head coach at Utah, Eastern Washington and North Dakota State. There have even been suggestions to lure legend Bob Knight out of retirement.
Tony Bennett, meanwhile, was introduced as the new Virginia coach on Wednesday.
Bone, 50, has led Portland State to consecutive 23-10 seasons, the most wins in team history. They have made the program’s only two trips to the NCAA tournament the past two years. Bone is 77-49 in four seasons at Portland State. Before that, he was 253-97 in 12 seasons as head coach at Seattle Pacific, and spent three seasons as an assistant at Washington. Sterk worked at Seattle Pacific when Bone was a coach there.
Sterk wants to move quickly in order to keep the nine freshmen in last year’s class and four new players Bennett signed for next season.
The new coach will have the option of retaining current assistants Matt Woodley, Ben Johnson, Ron Sanchez and Mike Heideman, who are not leaving with Bennett, Sterk said.
A key task will be keeping four new recruits who signed letters of intent in November. They are Brock Motum, Xavier Thames, Anthony Brown and David Chadwick.
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