West Florida cuts 144 down to 10

West Florida has announced the 10 finalists for their vacant men’s basketball job. The original list of 144 (http://www.hoopdirt.com/blog/a925a3d9/west-florida-applicant…) included former NBAer’s Tree Rollins and Tiny Archibald – neither of which made the final cut. It appears to be a very interesting final 10. There are current and former head coaches, a bunch of assistants, and one candidate who is not even in coaching anymore (he’s an assistant athletic director). Also, 64-year old former Pensacola high school coach Bob Stinnett made the list.

I said last week that it was crazy (and a bit unfair) for West Florida to publish the list of applicants. Now that they have pared the list down to 10, publishing the it is not a problem. At this point, any of these guys can be considered serious candidates and should have made their AD (or head coach) aware of the situation. Here’s the list…..

Jim Boone, head coach, Tusculum College

Craig Brown, assistant coach, Univ. of Central Florida

Thomas Brown, associate head coach, Winona State

Tim Cleary, assistant coach, Boise State

Bryan Galuski, head coach, Greensboro College

John Lykins, Jr., assistant athletic director, Stetson University

Happy Osborne Jr., head coach, Georgetown College

Jeff Price, former head coach, Georgia Southern

Bob Stinnett, former head coach, Pensacola

Greg Zimmerman, head coach, Alderson-Broaddus College

The committee will check references on the 10 finalists this week and will schedule 15- to 30-minute phone interviews for early next week. The group then will be cut down to three to five candidates who will have on-campus interviews in mid-July.

We’ve had good debate in the comments section about the list of 144, what are your thoughts on this list? Add them to the comments section below.