Head coaching search begins

<blockquote><p align=justify>LOUISIANA Là — It didn’t take long for word to spread through the collegiate basketball word.

Before Jessie Evans had been introduced as the University of San Francisco’s new head coach at a 3:30 p.m. (CDT) West Coast press conference, and before UL Lafayette athletic director Nelson Schexnayder had his own press conference at 4 p.m. at the Cajundome, phone lines were buzzing and FAX machines were whirring.

“We’ve got what I consider to be eight to 10 quality candidates already,” Schexnayder said Thursday afternoon. “A lot of head coaches and assistant coaches from collegiate programs have already been recommended to me or have expressed interest.”

Those applicants and interested parties are probably the tip of an iceberg that will expand over what Schexnayder hopes will be a short interview period.

“I don’t want to put myself under the gun and set a timetable,” he said. “We hope it would be done in two or three weeks, but however long it takes. It’s never a good time to have to hire a coach, but there’s always a worse time.”

Schexnayder did name eight-year Cajun assistant Robert Lee as interim head coach, effective immediately, during the transition period. The naming of an interim coach is unprecedented in recent years for any University of Louisiana Ragin' Cajun sport.

Schexnayder said that contract negotiations with Evans continued through Wednesday morning, when the seven-year Cajun mentor was presented with a contract package for four years at what he called a “serious addition” to the salary Evans was paid under a three-year contract that expired this year. Evans flew to San Francisco following that Wednesday meeting and accepted the Dons’ post.

Schexnayder said that the final offer would have made Evans the highest-paid employee in the UL Lafayette athletic department, and was for a four-year period when Evans was seeking only a three-year deal.

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Dan McDonald
dmcdonald@lafayette.gannett.com <!--

“We spoke three times in the last four or five days,” Schexnayder said. “It was very cordial and very friendly. It never got to the point of ‘I need X’ or ‘San Francisco is offering X.’ Jessie had to evaluate what we offered and what USF offered, and compare what was available here with what was available to him somewhere else.”

Schexnayder said that fan support for the program and instances of academically ineligible players were never discussed in depth in his most recent meetings with Evans. Two players in 2002-03 and three in 2003-04 missed the fall semester academically, and two players were suspended last month for violations of team regulations.

“Sometimes that gets overblown,” he said. “There have been lots of coaches who have faced similar concerns. On the whole, what Jessie and his staff did was positive.”

Schexnayder said that eight players graduated during Evans’ seven-year stint and three more were on track to graduate this year, and that in the previous seven years before Evans arrived only one player had earned a degree.

“We wish we would have done better,” he said. “We wish all our guys had four-point averages and graduate. But on the whole they’ve done well, and we intend to do better.”

As he has done in other coaching searches, Schexnayder said he will look for candidates with collegiate experience, head coaching experience, ties to Louisiana, ties to the university and a successful career to date.

“You don’t know if you can find someone to fit all those,” he said, “but being successful is the overriding situation. Many coaches work hard and know basketball and can deal with people, but only some of those are successful.”

Schexnayder figures he’ll hear from a lot of successful people over the next several days, some of them high-powered coaches making pitches for their assistants.

“Those are important,” he said. “When coaches across the country think we have a quality program and want to recommend their top assistants to us, I will listen. Those guys have climbed the ladder. But in the end I’m the one that has to make that decision.

“I am encouraged by the interest that has already been shown. We have stronger interest from quality coaches at this point than we had seven years ago, and we had many quality coaches express an interest then. And our assistants’ staff is much better today than seven years ago.”
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