Cleveland St. expects to pick new coach soon

Cleveland State Athletic director Mike Thomas said the search for a new men’s basketball coach will not be a drawn-out process.

“There’s anxiety inside the program any time you go through this, especially for the players. That’s why we’ll get this done as soon as possible,” Thomas said during a telephone interview on March 16.

The job at CSU came open on March 7 when Gary Waters announced he was retiring after 11 seasons.

Waters, the winningest coach in program history with 194 victories against 171 defeats, left with two years remaining on his contract after the Vikings stumbled to a combined record of 1845 in what turned out to be his final two seasons at the helm.

Thomas said he has engaged the services of Collegiate Sports Associates, a North Carolinabased executive search company founded by former Connecticut and North Carolina State Athletic Director Todd Turner. The

company has former Wake Forest coach Dave Odom on its staff.

“In my experience, efficiency and expediency matter in these searches. Confidentiality matters, too, if you’re talking to a sitting head coach,” Thomas said. “These firms also help with making sure you’re getting a full and diverse field of candidates.”

Thomas did not name any candidates for the job who have stepped forward or who he anticipated will do so.

Various media reports have speculated that the likely candidates would be former Division I head coaches Billy Donlon (Wright State), John Groce (Ohio University, Illinois) and Geno Ford (Kent State). Also emerging as a candidate is former CSU player Jerrod Calhoun, who has Division II Fairmont State of West Virginia in the Elite Eight of the NCAA Division II Tournament.

Calhoun is a Northeast Ohio native and former standout player at Villa Angela-St. Joseph High School.

”This is a good Division I job, so I’m confident we’ll have a strong group of qualified candidates,” Thomas said. “You want someone with outstanding basketball DNA, records of competitive success and highlevel recruiting as well as demonstrated commitments to academics and compliance.”

Whoever gets the CSU job will inherit a group of returning lettermen led by sophomore guard and Horizon League second-team honoree Rob Edwards. The highest-profile CSU recruit who has signed a national letter of intent is Garfield Heights High School shooting guard Shawn Christian.

Thomas said none of the current players has expressed a desire to transfer.