Georgia Tech’s search for a replacement for coach Brian Gregory reached a week Friday, still not to the rough timeline of 10 days to two weeks in which Athletic Director Mike Bobinski hoped to locate and hire the Yellow Jackets’ next coach.
Beyond the two reported candidates to this point, Duke assistant coach Jeff Capel and Boston Celtics coach Jay Larranaga, a third has become known — Valparaiso coach Bryce Drew. He has been a success at the mid-major level in five seasons at Valparaiso, winning the Horizon League regular-season championship four times, the conference tournament twice and making the NCAA tournament twice.
Drew would appear to fill qualifications set forth by Bobinski — a strong recruiter and bench coach and someone with the ability to set and execute a vision for high-level success. In five seasons, the Crusaders are 124-49 overall (.717). They were 85-80 (.515) in the previous five seasons under Homer Drew, Bryce’s father.
Bobinski has been in Houston, site of the Final Four, meeting with candidates. He originally was scheduled to go there to meet with NCAA officials as Tech will be the host institution for the 2020 Final Four. As of Friday, no decision or announcement was expected through the weekend.
“It’s one of those things where you would like to do it sooner rather than later, but certainly the people that you’re trying to talk to or are talking to will make the time frame what it is,” Tech alumnus and donor Steve Zelnak said.
Zelnak led the search committee that brought Bobinski to Tech from Xavier. (Bobinski celebrated his third work anniversary Friday.) He expected Bobinski to follow a process and not make a capricious decision.
“He’s a very analytic, systematic guy, and he’s clearly working at it very hard,” Zelnak said.
Bobinski has been running the search within a tight circle. The school hired a search firm, DHR international in Chicago, for a fee of $70,000, but Bobinski said that he would rely on it mostly for logistical matters and not to provide names.
Bobinski and Drew likely could not have met before Friday. Drew was in New York on Thursday night with his team in the NIT final, where it lost to George Washington.
Drew, 41, played at Valparaiso for his father. He perhaps is best known for hitting a buzzer-beating 3-pointer to beat Ole Miss in the first round of the 1998 NCAA tournament, one of the most iconic moments in the tournament’s history of upsets.
Drew has become one of the game’s more sough-after candidates in recent seasons. Last year, Mississippi State was reportedly interested, as was DePaul. The year before, it was Tulsa. Last month, Saint Louis reportedly was interested in him, also. To this point, he has resisted. He told the Times of Northwest Indiana last March that “it would take something special” for him to leave Valparaiso.
Should Bobinski hone in on Drew, he may face competition. As of Friday, Vanderbilt also was looking for a coach after losing Kevin Stallings to Pittsburgh and reportedly had interest in Drew. Further, Vanderbilt may come armed with a bigger checkbook. The school reportedly paid Stallings $2.1 million in the 2015-16 season, which is almost twice what Gregory was paid by Tech.
At the news conference following Gregory’s dismissal March 25, Bobinski acknowledged that there wasn’t an “unlimited pool of resources available, but on the other hand, I would tell you we’re not going to be constrained by that in our search.”
Comparing Vanderbilt and Tech, the Commodores would appear to be in better shape on the court, having made the NCAA tournament this season (barely) this past season while the Jackets made the NIT, their first postseason appearance since 2010, and will lose their top four scorers.
Tech is in a better basketball conference and in a metropolitan area overflowing with basketball talent. However, the presence of heavyweights Duke, North Carolina, Syracuse and Louisville in the ACC could make Vanderbilt more appealing.
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