Now that Andy Toole has been tabbed as Mike Rice’s replacement at Robert Morris and Book Richardson has opted to stay put at Arizona, Rice’s staff at Rutgers should come into a little bit clearer focus.
Rice had expected Toole to get the Robert Morris job after he took over at Rutgers, and that news came down on Monday.
“I got a voicemail from Andy at about 1 o’clock saying he got the job,” one prominent Atlantic 10 coach said, referring to Toole.
Rice offered Richardson the job of associate head coach, but Book opted to stay put under Sean Miller.
His goal is to coach in the Final Four and he has now turned down offers from both St. John’s and Rutgers to come back home and coach in the Big East…so he must feel that Arizona is closer to making a deep run in the NCAA tournament than either Big East program.
Former Robert Morris assistant Jimmy Martelli has come to Rutgers with Rice.
Sources say Rice has also had conversations with Pittsburgh assistant Brandin Knight and Elizabeth (N.J.) St. Patrick coach Kevin Boyle.
Rice and Tom Herrion (Marshall) have proven that Pitt assistants can go on to land plum head jobs, so Knight may opt to stay put and hope the same happens to him. Former Pitt assistant Orlando Antigua is also an assistant under John Calipari at Kentucky.
As for Boyle, he has made no secret of his desire to coach at the college level. He told me in January he would be interested in a head coaching job in the state.
“You hear rumors all the time about this job opening, that job opening,” Boyle said then. “And obviously if a job in New Jersey opens, of course I’d be very interested in seeing if I could be a candidate for one of those. If they open.
“But obviously you’ve got to wait till something happens and you wish all the guys that are in those places success. And eventually if something opens at one of those schools, then I would love to be considered at that time.”
When I asked Rice on Thursday about possibly adding a high-profile Jersey high school coach to his staff, he smiled and said, “If he’ll help us become successful at Rutgers University, I’ll look at it.”
If Boyle were to jump to Rutgers, he would be the second high-profile New Jersey high school coach to move to the college level.
Boyle’s friend and longtime rival at St. Benedict’s, Dan Hurley, is now the head coach at Wagner.
FORDHAM SIGNS FOUR
Fordham announced the signing of four players Monday, including former Hofstra commits Branden Frazier and Marvin Dominique.
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(Boyle photo courtesy Star-Ledger)
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TheFinger / May 10, 2010
i’m sure book is looking to ascend into an HC gig rather than running parallels with lesser schools. thanks for staying and maintaining continuity book, now close the deal on vargas and let’s call it a season.
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ArizCats / May 10, 2010
I’m with you on that TheFinger…
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ArizonaWildcat27 / May 10, 2010
Looks like Arizona has backed off of Vargas and is no longer recruiting him. Maybe Miller didn’t like what he saw or heard, OR maybe Miller has a top recruit he is in the mix for next year that he feels will be a better fit.
Either way, looks like Miller doesn’t want to give that last remaining scholarship to Vargas anymore.
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finnmaccoul / May 11, 2010
Where did you hear about Miller not recruiting Vargas??
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ArizonaWildcat27 / May 11, 2010
PointGuardU is reporting it as well as GoAzCats.
That’s fine by me. Seems like Miller has something better in mind otherwise he wouldn’t have backed off of him.
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uacatwrap / May 11, 2010
It’s for the best. the 2011 class is really strong with a lot of good guards considering the Cats and now we have an extra scholarship to give out. Perry is going to surprise people and we already have Johnson in 2011
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