McQuarn Interested in Hawaii Coaching Job

Cal State Fullerton basketball Coach George McQuarn said Thursday he is interested in the recently opened head coach’s position at the University of Hawaii.

McQuarn added that he had not applied for the job, which became available Tuesday when Rainbow Coach Larry Little announced he would resign effective at the end of this season. McQuarn also said Hawaii Athletic Director Stan Sheriff had not contacted him.

“That (applying) would not be the appropriate thing to do now, especially with me in the middle of the season with our team,” McQuarn said after Fullerton’s home game against UC Santa Barbara. “If they contacted me, I’d certainly be interested in the job.”

The Honolulu Advertiser reported Tuesday that McQuarn is a candidate for the job.

Although he coached the Titans to the championship of the 1983 Hawaii Tip-Off and last spring served as a coach in the Aloha Classic, a senior all-star game at Hawaii, McQuarn said he is not acquainted with Sheriff.

“We have no official applications, and we haven’t spoken to anyone at this stage,” Sheriff told the Advertiser.

Under Little, in his ninth season at Hawaii, the Rainbows were 12-16 last season, and 4-12 going into Thursday’s game.

The program has had problems with recruiting and attendance in recent years, and speculation that Little would be fired grew so intense last March, Sheriff had a press conference to deny it.

Other candidates, according to the Advertiser, include Chaminade Coach Merv Lopes (183-53 record) and University of Washington assistant Mike Frink.

McQuarn, 43, is in his fifth year at Fullerton with a 68-66 record. He was a former assistant to Jerry Tarkanian at University of Nevada Las Vegas and a head coach at Los Angeles’ Verbum Dei High School.