Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, April 7, 1990 TAG: 9004070064
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Bill Brill
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
If Copeland has made a mess of things in his one-man search to replace Terry Holland, it is because he didn't recognize that Xavier's Pete Gillen was the best candidate.
Copeland said Friday that at the time of his conversation with Gillen in Pittsburgh on March 26, "Pete wasn't the No. 1 candidate."
Had that been the case, perhaps the guy generally considered the hottest candidate in the nation would be headed to Charlottesville next week after coaching in Japan in an all-star series.
Gillen's wife, Ginnie, wanted her husband to take the UVa job. She knows Charlottesville from Pete's days as an assistant at VMI. She has told friends she doesn't want to return to South Bend, Ind., where her husband served as an assistant at Notre Dame. But there have been persistent reports that the only job Gillen covets is with the Fighting Irish - if and when Digger Phelps steps down.
Perhaps Gillen would have visited UVa had he been Copeland's top choice. Perhaps we will never know. On the day Gillen called UVa to withdraw his name last week in Denver, site of the Final Four and the college coaches' convention, he said, "Copeland is going to talk to a couple of others."
Those others were Stanford's Mike Montgomery, who would have been a good choice and would have taken the job; and Providence's Rick Barnes, who accepted Copeland's offer Tuesday, called his athletic director from Charlottesville on Wednesday to inform him of the decision, and then said he wasn't coming on Thursday.
Copeland said Friday he was "very disappointed, very angry." He said the anger had gone away. But he still didn't have a coach, and it says here that's a good thing if the coach was going to be Barnes.
Barnes is a junior-grade Larry Brown. At 35, he has had five jobs in six years. He was a head coach at George Mason for one season, 1987-88, and promptly left for Providence.
Barnes insisted all season he was not interested in the UVa job. He said it again Monday to two sportswriters in Denver, one of whom, author John Feinstein, is a close friend. The next day, Barnes met Copeland in Washington, D.C.
Thursday, at what was described as an emotional news conference in Providence, R.I., Barnes said he was remaining at the Big East Conference school. He said he withdrew at UVa because he looked at his young son and thought, "There are going to be times when I have to tell him about commitment, loyalty and sacrifice. I felt that to say that with conviction, I just had to stay at Providence College."
He denied he had been offered, or accepted, the Virginia job.
Rick Barnes is a liar.
In an unusual move Friday, Copeland issued a news release from the UVa sports information office that refuted Barnes' statements. The release also said Copeland would discuss the situation with media representatives.
Copeland had been made to look like a buffoon by Barnes. The UVa athletic director had maintained "a hard line about not commenting about the candidates," he said. And now the only coach who had been offered the job, a man who "made a commitment to me," was stating the offer hadn't happened.
If Barnes had been Copeland's first choice, why wasn't he interviewed first? Then, the problems with viable candidates Gillen and Montgomery might not have occurred.
For that, blame Providence athletic director John Marinatto. Copeland said Marinatto wouldn't return phone calls as he, properly, sought permission to talk to Barnes.
Usually, such consideration is granted immediately - or denied, if the school is taking a hard line. Even as Barnes was accepting Copeland's offer, he was saying that his Providence contract wouldn't be a problem.
"I do have a problem with the way the AD [Marinatto] dealt with me," Copeland said.
Understand that, of the three leading candidates, Barnes was the first whose team was eliminated from postseason play, on the opening night of the NCAA Tournament by Ohio State. Stanford's Montgomery, who initially had talked with Copeland in January and was not feigning his interest, lost in the second round of the NIT - at Hawaii. Xavier lasted until the NCAA's Sweet 16, and Gillen, who steadfastly had maintained he wouldn't talk to anybody until the season was over, met with Copeland at the first available opportunity.
Sequentially, because of Marinatto's lack of professionalism, the interview rotation worked out all wrong. Montgomery flew to Charlottesville on Sunday from Denver, but was told he wasn't No. 1. By that time, Gillen already had withdrawn.
Finally, Copeland talked to Barnes after Montgomery returned to California. It should have been the other way around. "I wanted to bring [Barnes] in before," Copeland said.
Having been told by Barnes that he was coming to UVa, Copeland called other candidates, Montgomery and Penn State's Bruce Parkhill, so that they could publicly withdraw their names before the announcement was made. "I felt like I'd done what I should have done," Copeland said.
Copeland and Barnes then flew to Providence together. "They took a long time," Copeland said of the meeting between Barnes and Friars officials, but he still was confident. He and Barnes talked during breaks.
Marinatto, a former Providence basketball manager, brought in the big gun - Big East Commissioner Dave Gavitt, a one-time Friars coach and athletic director and, arguably, as president of USA Basketball, the most powerful man in the college sport.
"Dave was involved," Copeland said.
It was Thursday afternoon, Copeland said, "before I began to think it was a problem." Then, Barnes said he wasn't coming.
Why would Copeland have picked Barnes over Gillen and Montgomery? Perhaps because Barnes is a Southerner, a native of Hickory, N.C. Gillen is a New Yorker; Montgomery almost exclusively a Westerner. Also, Barnes had a reputation as a red-hot recruiter, although his two top prospects for next season have not yet met Proposition 48 standards for freshman eligibility.
Whatever the reason, Barnes was the man, and now Copeland not only has lost him, but Montgomery and, presumably, Gillen.
Copeland said he had made some telephone calls with no success. Perhaps he should try Tokyo. And not collect.\
by CNB