UC Irvine’s Ford Emphasizes the Need for a ‘Name’ Coach

IRVINE —  UC Irvine’s next basketball coach will be a nationally known coach, if Athletic Director Tom Ford is able to hire the ideal coach he profiles.

Ford sees Irvine’s next coach as a key to the program’s future, not only in terms of its winning percentage, but in terms of drawing fans to the 5,000-seat Bren Center, often less than half full for Anteater games.

“This place needs to be filled. We’ve got to do whatever it takes to get the guy who can bring in the fans,” Ford said.

Ford declined to set hard-and-fast criteria, but said he thought Irvine’s next coach would come from the ranks of Division I head coaches or assistants, or professional coaching. Ford added that the coach would be someone with “academic awareness” and the ability to recruit for the UC system.

“I think we need an experienced Division I coach,” Ford said. That could be expensive, as Ford is aware.

The salary of Bill Mulligan, who announced his resignation Wednesday after 11 seasons, was approximately $78,000, and had fallen below the level of many other Division I jobs because Mulligan had been at the school for some time. The going rate for the type of coach Ford describes begins at about $100,000, and is often substantially higher.

“If we want to remain a Division I, competitive program, we’ll have to go with the market,” Ford said. “If we had a name coach, people would come to see the name as much as the team.”

Ford said a search committee will be named, and that he will move quickly in order to minimize recruiting losses, but noted that it is difficult to talk with coaches who are still in the midst of their seasons.

Ford, who hired Pat Foster as Guy Lewis’ successor at Houston in 1986, met with such coaches as UCLA’s Jim Harrick, USC’s George Raveling, Iowa’s Tom Davis, Pittsburgh’s Paul Evans and Purdue’s Gene Keady during that search. Harrick was at Pepperdine then, Raveling at Iowa, Davis at Stanford and Evans at Navy.

Ford, who said before Mulligan’s resignation that he keeps a short list of prospective replacements, is familiar with the national coaching ranks because of his work as a search consultant for Raycom, Inc., for two years ending in 1988.

“You become sensitive to who is where, who’s moving, who’s not,” Ford said.

Ford’s intent to conduct a national search for a replacement will probably do little to stem the flood of applications expected.

Don May, a junior on the Irvine team, poked fun at the process as he stood to speak in tribute of Mulligan at Wednesday’s press conference.

“I’d like to take this opportunity to announce I’m throwing my hat in the ring,” May said.

Mike Bokosky, Mulligan’s assistant for 11 years, once was considered a likely successor but said Wednesday he had not decided whether to apply.

“Of course I’d be sincerely interested, but just because you’ve been somewhere 11 years doesn’t mean you’re ready for the head job,” Bokosky said. “When you lose for two years, I have to be realistic. . . . “

Ernie Carr, an assistant to Mulligan the past two seasons who has been interim coach at Saddleback College, an assistant at UCLA and a highly successful coach at Dominguez High School, said he would be interested in the job.

Riverside College Coach Bob Schermerhorn, a former Irvine assistant under Mulligan, said he would “obviously” be interested, but it “depends on what the school wants.” Schermerhorn said he probably would not apply unless approached.

Mulligan got in a word too.

“I also want to make it very clear I am not going to pick my successor,” Mulligan said. “Make sure you put that down. I don’t want to have 100 guys calling in telling me, ‘I can get the job done.”