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No, Private School With No Recent Success, You Can’t Have Jamie Dixon, Billy Donovan Or A Pony

Mar 24, 2010, 9:00 PM UTC

It was one thing when the hot name for the USC basketball job was Pitt’s Jamie Dixon. With USC â†µstaring down the barrel of NCAA sanctions and Dixon at the head of an established Big East power, it was a ludicrous thing. But at least USC is a program that occasionally goes to the NCAA tournament even when they’re not fielding a team of semi-pros. â†µâ†µThis is beyondâ†µludicrous: â†µ

â†µâ†µâ‡¥â†µâ‡¥Could Pittsburgh’s Jamie Dixon be DePaul’s next basketball coach?â†µâ‡¥

â†µâ†µâ†µNO. N-O. NOOOOOOO. Nyet. Nein. No, Chicago Sun-Times. Didâ†µyou learn anything from your dogged,â†µinsane insistence that Bob Stoops was a total serious candidate toâ†µseriously be Notre Dame’s head coach? No, you did not. You, as anâ†µinstitution, will throw any crazy old crap out there if you’ve got aâ†µsource, no matter how obviously insane that source is. â†µ

â†µâ†µIf there was a man in a clown suit jumping up and down on a pogoâ†µstick telling them that Kentucky is going to fire John Calipari and hireâ†µan ice cream cone full of cheese, the Sun-Times would run it.â†µThis is why they ran a story suggesting that Jamie Dixon would leave oneâ†µof the best jobs in the Big East for one of the worst jobs in the Bigâ†µEast.â†µ

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â†µThat's only the tip of the crazy iceberg, though. St John's, whichâ†µhasn't been more than erratically relevant since the 80s and hasn't madeâ†µthe NCAA tournament since 2002, is â†µswingingâ†µfor the fences, too:â†µ

â†µâ†µâ‡¥â†µâ‡¥Florida’sâ†µâ‡¥Billyâ†µâ‡¥Donovan, the coach St. John’s coveted the most, has politely turnedâ†µâ‡¥down an offer to coach the Johnnies, the Daily News has learned. â†µâ‡¥

â†µâ†µâ†µWhat in the holy hell? Apparently, a St. John’s alum with buckets ofâ†µmoney to spare is providing enough cash for the Red Storm to offerâ†µDonovan three million a year. That’s a lot of money. It’s also aâ†µhalf-million dollar pay cut for Donovan. In the long history ofâ†µslick-haired coaches moving from one school to another, a cut in pay has never been on the table. â†µ

â†µâ†µNext up on their hit list is Georgia Tech coach Paul Hewitt, who actuallyâ†µdeignedâ†µto meet with St John’s and makes some amount of sense because, in hisâ†µninth year at Georgia Tech, Hewitt’s ACC record is under .500, and theâ†µschool doesn’t seem too broken up about the prospect of losing him: â†µ

â†µâ†µâ‡¥â†µâ‡¥St. John’s tried to lure Hewitt after he led the Yellow Jackets toâ†µâ‡¥the Final Four in 2004, but the Atlanta Journal Constitutionâ†µâ‡¥reported athletic director Dave Braine countered with a contract thatâ†µâ‡¥included an automatic annual buyout of $7.1 million. Should Hewitt getâ†µâ‡¥fired, he would receive that amount. But if Hewitt resigns and takes theâ†µâ‡¥St. John’s job, he would owe Tech $3.4 million. Of course, Techâ†µâ‡¥could also opt to waive the buyout in an effort to let Hewitt go on hisâ†µâ‡¥way. â†µâ‡¥
â†µâ‡¥â†µâ‡¥“I don’t think we’re talking about the contract,” Georgiaâ†µâ‡¥Tech associate athletic director Wayne Hogan told The Associated Press.â†µâ‡¥“I think that’s premature. I think a lot of water has to pass underâ†µâ‡¥the bridge.” â†µâ‡¥

â†µâ†µâ†µSeven million dollars is a lot to pay a guy who’s not working forâ†µyou, but it sounds like Georgia Tech is willing to fire him for free.â†µSo, congratulations to St John’s, I guess. You can pick up a guy whoseâ†µludicrous rollover contract prompts Georgia fans to declare GT’sâ†µathletic director “theâ†µbest thing to ever happen to the UGA vs GT series” and celebrateâ†µevery time the contract zombies itself another year. Woo?â†µ

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This post originally appeared on the Sporting Blog. For more, see The Sporting Blog Archives.

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