Men's basketball coaching search update
We got our first true update on the coaching search late on Friday night.
Basketball insider Adam Zagoria reported five names that have been interviewed, which were later confirmed by Eagle Action.
Eric Konkol, Eric Olen, Gerry McNamara, Jay Larranaga, Joe Gallo.
While I’ve been told that Larranaga could be considered a ‘slight favorite’ at this point, more interviews are expected as the school aims to be thorough, making sure they get things right.
Larranaga had a 12-year playing career in Europe before he began coaching for Ireland from 2008-2010. He was part of the Celtics staff from 2012-2021 and is currently on the Los Angeles Clippers staff. A guy with as much NBA experience as Larranaga would be enticing for some recruits.
Gallo is of course the new hot name after his success with Merrimack. Gallo is 184-124 in his coaching career, which started as an assistant for Merrimack in 2005. Gallo was an assistant at Dartmouth (2010-2012) and Robert Morris (2012-2016) before becoming the head coach of the Warriors a decade ago. While the resume isn’t very extensive, he could be one of the new young up-and-coming coaches in college basketball.
Konkol is an intriguing candidate with 212 career wins (212-141). Konkol began coaching as a student assistant for Tulsa in 2000 and 2001. He was a GA in Tennessee (2001-2002), an assistant at George Mason (2002-2005), Hopkins High School (2005-2007), George Mason again (2007-2011), then became a head coach at Louisiana Tech from 2015-2022. For the last four years, he’s been running the show at Tulsa.
Olen wen 22-9 this year with New Mexico, but he’s got fewer stops than Gallo does in his career. Olen began coaching in 2004 at UC San Diego and was an assistant there until 2013. Olen became the head coach of the program up until last year before he took the New Mexico job. Results do speak for themselves though, as Olen is 262-128 in his career, having made the NCAA tournament as Big West champs last season.
McNamara is obviously a well-known name from his playing days at Syracuse, but it’s hard to make an argument for him as the right guy for this job. McNamara coached at his alma mater from 2009-2004, taking over as associate head coach from 2023-2024. He’s been at Siena since 2024, going 37-29. While he may be a solid head coach in the future, BC needs far more experience both on the court and in the recruiting department.
When will we have a decision?
As I said earlier, those making the decision know it’s important and don’t want anyone thinking they rushed it. On the other side, no one wants this to drag out either, with recruiting a 24/7, 365 game these days. After any further interviews this weekend, things will be discussed and then a decision will be made.
