Monday, September 10, 2007

FAMU narrows search for men's basketball coach to final five


By Heath A. Smith, Tallahassee Democrat

The search for Florida A&M's next men's basketball coach has been narrowed to a list of five finalists.

University of Michigan assistant coach Jerry Dunn, Mississippi State assistant coach Robert Kirby, Georgia State assistant coach Eugene Harris, Chipola Junior College coach Greg Heiar and former Colorado assistant men's basketball coach Paul Graham are expected to be interviewed for the position in person or by phone this week, according to FAMU Athletic Director Nelson Townsend.

"No one has been contacted yet," Townsend said. "We have some very good candidates."

Townsend said he expects to meet the self-imposed Sept. 15 deadline to name a new coach. FAMU fired Mike Gillespie Sr., the university's coach for the past six years, last month.

"I feel confident that we'll be on time," Townsend said. "We have not set an interview schedule yet."

The seven-member search committee met for three hours Saturday after going through the resumes of more than 50 applicants last week, according to state Sen. Al Lawson, who is on the committee.

Lawson said each committee member chose a list of 10 applicants to be voted on by the committee Saturday.

Each applicant from that pool who received two votes from the committee moved on to the next round of votes until the list was paired down to five finalists.

Lawson said that in addition to picking the five finalists, the committee made a motion that he be a part of the interviewing process along with Townsend and FAMU President James Ammons.


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