Brown basketball coaching search narrows
Thursday, May 03, 2012
The search for a new men’s basketball coach at Brown University has reached the stage where a number of candidates have been identified by the school’s search committee. Incoming athletic director Jack Hayes will now go through the process of meeting with the candidates to narrow the list down to a much smaller group of finalists.
GoLocalProv.com has learned there are nine candidates to be interviewed by Hayes that will take place on the week of May 14th. Hayes is expected to attend the Ivy League meetings in New Jersey the week of May 7th.
GoLocalProv.com has also learned the identities of the nine candidates where Brown is focusing its search:
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTT.J. Sorrentine – Sorrentine is the interim head coach who was a four-year assistant under Jesse Agel. A local legend, Sorrentine starred at St. Raphael Academy in Pawtucket where he played for his father Tom before heading to the University of Vermont - where he led the Catamounts to a thrilling win over Syracuse in the 2005 NCAA Tournament. As a player, Sorrentine was like a “coach on the floor” according to his former college coach Tom Brennan. He is universally liked and respected by the players in the program and has worked diligently with them for the past four years. The only question with T.J. is his lack of head coaching experience.
Doug Stewart – A former Brown player, Stewart is the associate head coach at Oregon State under former Brown coach Craig Robinson. Stewart spent two years as an assistant under Robinson at Brown including the 2007-2008 season which saw the Bears win a record 19 games and play in the College Basketball Invitational postseason tournament. While he has no head coaching experience at the Division I level, he did serve as head coach at Casper College in Wyoming at the junior college level.
Mike Martin – Another former Brown player, Martin has served as an assistant coach at the University of Pennsylvania for the past six years under both Glen Miller and Jerome Allen. Like Sorrentine, Martin was a heady player on the floor although he lacked the overall skill of a player like Sorrentine. Martin has no previous head coaching experience.
Bob Walsh – The current head coach at Rhode Island College has been in the mix for some Division I openings the past few years. He was a finalist at Manhattan last year and was also interviewed by former Brown athletic director Dave Roach at Colgate. Walsh’s record (135-43) at RIC speaks for itself. He was also considered to be the x’ s and o’s guy for former Providence coach Tim Welsh at PC. The only question about Walsh would be his ability to recruit the type of athlete that Ivy League schools recruit, which is unlike the players he has recruited at Rhode Island College.
Tony Newsom – The associate head coach at Fairfield, Newsom coached in the Ivy League at Princeton under Sydney Johnson (whom he went with to Fairfield). He also served as assistant coach at Holy Cross under Ralph Willard. Newsom does not have any head coaching experience at the D-1 level.
Greg Herenda – Herenda is the head coach at UMass-Lowell and has attempted to get his name in the mix at Brown in the past. His Division II River Hawks went 19-11 this past season and his teams have had some success in the Northeast-10 Conference in his four seasons at the helm. Other coaching stops for Herenda include East Carolina, Yale and Holy Cross where he served as an assistant. Some view him as a bit of a self-promoter but his results have been solid.
Larry Anderson – The head coach at MIT since 1995, his teams have been a regular participant in the Division III NCAA Tournament the past few years. Ironically, Anderson’s best player the past few seasons has been Brown transfer Noel Hollingsworth, who was recruited to College Hill by Craig Robinson.
Steve Howes – The head coach at Division III Catholic University in Washington, DC, Howes’ team won 19 games this past season, his 8th at the school. A DC native, he came to Catholic University from Good Counsel in 2004.
Jay Young – The associate head coach at Stony Brook, Young has coached under former UConn assistant Steve Pikiell for the past seven years at the school. The program has competed at the top of the America East Conference for the past few seasons. The former head coach at the University of New Haven, Young guided the program to back-to-back Division II NCAA Tournament appearances in 2003 and 2004. He also was an assistant coach at Northeastern University while Brown associate AD Marcus Blossom was a student-athlete.
After Hayes meets with all of the candidates, he is expected to trim the list down to a few finalists where second interviews will likely take place. It is also possible that he may make his decision after this first round of interviews. The school would reportedly like to have the new head coach in place on or around June 1st.
