A day after it was revealed that Tim Curley and Larry Brown discussed the Penn State basketball coaching vacancy, David Jones of the Harrisburg Patriot-News reports Brown wasn't worried about compensation in the event of a move to Happy Valley.
Terry Resnick, the Lower Paxton Twp. estate planner and longtime friend of Brown who set up the phone call, said Saturday, "Larry told me himself, 'It's not about the money.' He said all he needed was to know that the school was committed to the basketball program."
Jones also lists some new possible candidates for the job. Boston's Patrick Chambers, Milwaukee's Rob Jeter and former Bucknell coach Pat Flannery have all earned mention since the very beginning, but Jones hints that Tulsa head man Doug Wojcik, Syracuse assistant Mike Hopkins and Arizona State assistant Scott Pera are among possibilities for the job. More about those new names after the jump.
Wojcik has been with Tulsa since 2006. He has yet to lead the Golden Hurricane to the NCAA Tournament, but has won 20 games in four of his six seasons as a head coach. This past year, Tulsa went 19-13 and won nine of its last 12 games on his watch.
Hopkins has been an assistant under Jim Boeheim at Syracuse since 1996. Wikipedia (hey, this isn't a research paper) says he was responsible for the recruitment of Gerry McNamara and has been rumored to be a possible successor for Boeheim in the past.
Pera appears to be a popular man in the BSD community. Before his name even surfaced in connection with the job, a fanposter here mentioned him as a good choice. Our own NGameday11 also profiled him over on his blog, Victory Bell Rings.
After an impressive stint with prep and high schools, Pera joined the Arizona State staff in 2006 as the director of operations. Pera immediately became an important member of the staff and was key in the recruitment of James Harden and Derek Glasser. Since then Arizona State has seen success on the recruiting trail and in return Pera was promoted to recruiting coordinator in 2008. While Arizona State struggled to win last season, Pera’s addition to the Sun Devil’s staff in 2006 was a key part of three straight 20+ win seasons and Top 5 finishes in the Pac10. Pera’s background in teaching and development of young athletes has helped elevate his status to one of the top assistants in the nation.
Hope everyone is having a nice holiday weekend. Stay tuned. We'll keep you posted.