Georgia hires firm to aid in search for basketball coach

Athens — The University of Georgia has hired Atlanta’s Dan Parker to conduct its search for a new men’s basketball coach.

Athletics director Damon Evans confirmed Tuesday he had retained the services of Parker Executive Search of Atlanta to identify and make initial contacts with potential candidates to replace Dennis Felton, who was fired on Jan. 29. Dan Parker — who holds undergraduate and master’s degrees from UGA — is president of the Parker firm, which he founded in 1982.

UGA will pay the search firm a retaining fee of $75,000, plus various expenses associated with the search, said Evans, responding to a Georgia Open Records request filed by the AJC. A final contract has not been completed and signed.

Evans was asked why UGA chose to hire the search firm.

“They’re very reputable in the business,” he said. “They have a strong reputation for the amount of detail they put into the process, how they develop their searches, the people they’ve place, their background checks. They’re able to assist institutions in making a high number of high-level contacts in a short amount of time. And the manner and discretion with which they handle the process is very important.”

Parker’s firm specializes “in executing searches for colleges and universities” and has conducted more than 300 of them, according to its Web site.

Some of the more recent searches the group oversaw resulted in the hiring of Georgia Tech football coach Paul Johnson, Washington football coach Steve Sarkisian, Kentucky basketball coach Billy Gillispie, Minnesota basketball coach Tubby Smith, Georgia State basketball coach Rod Barnes and Arkansas basketball coach John Pelphrey. They also helped hire athletics directors at Notre Dame, LSU and Washington and are currently conducting Georgia State’s ongoing search for an athletic director.

Parker was traveling Tuesday and could not be reached for comment, according to Porsha Williams, his executive assistant. “Our company policy is we don’t comment on potential or current searches or clients,” Williams said.

Meanwhile, Evans said Georgia’s search was still in the “preliminary” stage.

“And when I say preliminary, I mean we’re just starting out. We are not very far along at all,” he said. “As I said before, it’s something that may not be happening until the entire basketball season is over. It depends on which coaches are the best candidates.”

And Dan Parker will determine who those are.