With the news Sunday that Monmouth coach Dave Calloway has resigned after 14 years, school officials must now turn their attention to hiring a replacement.
Because the school is located on the Jersey Shore and in a prime recruiting corridor, expect Monmouth President Paul Gaffney to get a slew of resumes.
Two candidates who deserve consideration are St. Patrick coach Kevin Boyle and Monmouth assistant Kevin Murphy.
“I think Kevin Boyle would be a very good fit in most places because he’s a great coach,” St. Patrick principal Joe Picaro said Sunday by phone.
“I don’t know if he wants to do that,” Picaro added. “I do believe that with two kids in college and working at a small Catholic school, sometimes you’ve got to do what’s best for your family. I think if the opportunity was there and the money was good he would make a move.”
Boyle’s Celtics are No. 1 in the nation and remain unbeaten after defeating Linden, 56-43, Saturday night to win the Union County championship.
Boyle has won five New Jersey Tournament of Champions titles during his 20-year tenure at the Elizabeth school and has sent numerous players on to the college and NBA ranks.
Current senior Michael Gilchrist is headed to Kentucky and is in the running for National Player of the Year honors.
Boyle was not immediately available for comment Sunday, but last year he said he would be interested in coaching at the college level in New Jersey.
“You hear rumors all the time about this job opening, that job opening,” he said in January 2010. “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.”
Boyle’s friend and former coaching rival, Dan Hurley, made the jump from St. Benedict’s Prep to Wagner College, where he is in the process of turning that team around after it went 5-26 last season.
Hurley’s blueprint seems to show Boyle could follow suit.
“I think both of them would be great college coaches,” Villanova coach Jay Wright said last year. “And basically they are.
“Those two high school programs are run like college programs. The 12 month-a-year commitment, their commitment to academics and preparing kids for college academically like we prepare kids to graduate, their skill development for guys. Both of them have developed guys to go to the NBA.
“The way they run their program, they do everything that a college coach does. Even their staffs. They supervise staffs of six, seven people and that’s why they’re the top teams in the country because they have outstanding programs and they are really run like college programs.”
St. Patrick remains on track to face St. Anthony, the No. 2 team in the nation, in the North Non-Public B final March 9 at Rutgers.
If the Celtics were to win out and capture another Tournament of Champions title, what better way for Boyle to head to the college ranks?
“Amongst ourselves we’ve talked about the fact hat if he’s undefeated it might be a good thing to be undefeated and it might be a bad thing to lose Kevin Boyle,” Picaro said.
In addition to Boyle, Murphy would also be a strong candidate.
An up and coming star in the business, Murphy spent four years under Bobby Gonzalez at Seton Hall and three years with him at Manhattan.
Gonzalez relied heavily on Murphy for his offensive game-planning, and the Pirates were known as a prolific offensive team.
During his four years at The Hall, Murphy was responsible for all scouting, scouting reports, individual and player improvement and recruiting, which included the recruitment of Eugene Harvey, a unanimous Big East All-Rookie Team selection in 2007.
Murphy helped lead Manhattan to two Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference regular season championships, as well as the 2004 MAAC Tournament title and NCAA berth, and the third round of the 2006 NIT.
Prior to that, the Kentucky grad worked as a special assistant to then-Kentucky coach Tubby Smith.
(Photo courtesy NJ.com)
