Giger: Ron Everhart Will Interview At Penn State

Duquesne coach Ron Everhart's name has been tossed around as a possibility to replace Ed DeChellis as Penn State coach since DeChellis announced he was leaving for Navy a week ago. Only Sunday, however, was it reported that he's a serious contender for the job.

As Cory Giger of the Altoona Mirror reports, Everhart has a date with Penn State this week, and his high school coach believes Everhart would be a good fit for Penn State. 

Legendary high school basketball coach Morgan Wootten believes one of his proteges, Ron Everhart, would be a perfect fit as Penn State's new coach.

"I think it would be one of the great marriages ever made, I really mean that," Wootten said Sunday evening. "I can't say enough great things about Ron Everhart."

The Duquesne head coach is on PSU's radar and is scheduled to interview for the job early this week, sources confirmed to the Mirror on Sunday.

The contents of Giger's piece offer a glowing review of Everhart from Wootten, but a closer look shows there's more to the coach than meets the eye. More on his coaching profile after the jump.

Everhart has been on the bench for stints at three schools, McNeese State, Northeastern and Duquesne. At McNeese State, he was 92-104 seven seasons between 1994 and 2001. In his final season there, Everhart led the Cowboys to a conference title and an NIT appearance.

Things got better for Everhart at Northeastern where he took the Huskies from seven wins in 2002 to 21 by 2005. He went back to the NIT that season as Northeastern earned a second place finish in the Colonial Athletic Association, and his record in five seasons there was 82-68. It was at Northeastern, however, that got mixed up with the NCAA, and as Giger points out, that could be trouble for him as he seeks the Penn State job.

One potential obstacle to the PSU job for Everhart is a recruiting violation that occurred under his watch at Northeastern. The NCAA found a university representative had violated rules by purchasing a plane ticket for recruit Benson Egemonye to visit the United States from Nigeria in 2004, and the recruit also was given use of a university calling card.

Northeastern was placed on probation and had scholarships reduced in 2009, after Everhart had already been at Duquesne for three years.

When Everhart took the job at Duquesne in 2006, the Dukes had won just three games the previous season under Danny Nee. By 2009, however, Everhart had them in the NIT with a 21-13 campaign. The past two years, he's taken them to the CBI. In 2011, Duquesne finished 19-13 after flirting with the Atlantic-10 lead much of the season. The Dukes went 16-5 to open the season but faded down the stretch with a 3-8 finish.

Everhart certainly has a wealth of head coaching experience. It remains to be seen, however, whether Penn State is willing to actually hire a coach with NCAA violations on his record. From the beginning of, athletic director Curley has said he wants to find a "Penn State guy." We'll see if Everhart fits that mold.