Coaching search still in holding pattern

TUSCALOOSA | The University of Alabama's coaching search is still in a holding pattern.

Alabama has not scheduled a press conference to make any announcement concerning the status of its pursuit of Anthony Grant, and there has been no apparent change in the situation since Grant returned to Richmond, Va., on Wednesday night.

As of 4 p.m. on Thursday, Grant was not in his office at VCU. An office worker had not seen him, but could not definitively say whether or not he had been in the office during the day.

Grant, Virginia Commonwealth's head coach, spent nearly 10 hours in Tuscaloosa on Wednesday being courted by UA officials.

Grant arrived in town and was greeted with a red-carpet tour of the University of Alabama campus that included meetings with head football coach Nick Saban, UA President Robert Witt and other dignitaries.

The question now is whether he will return as Alabama’s new head basketball coach.

Grant, Virginia Commonwealth’s 42-year-old head basketball coach, spent nearly 10 hours checking out the university and its facilities, as well as the city. He left without either accepting or rejecting a formal offer to fill the vacancy left when Mark Gottfried resigned in late January in the middle of his 11th season as head coach of the Crimson Tide.

Grant, joined by his wife, Christina, landed at Tuscaloosa Municipal Airport just after 10 a.m. on a UA-owned jet. He was greeted at the airport by a delegation of University of Alabama officials that included Director of Athletics Mal Moore, Executive Athletic Director Dave Hart, UA head women’s head basketball coach Wendell Hudson and board of trustees members Paul W. Bryant Jr. and Circuit Judge John England, among others.

He departed on the same plane around 7:40 p.m. Grant made a favorable impression, according to sources present during his visit.

Grant’s tour included a look at the inside of Coleman Coliseum, with the arena lit up and arranged as it is for Crimson Tide home basketball games. He also toured the men’s basketball coaching offices on the upper level of the coliseum and met briefly with current members of the Alabama coaching staff, including interim head coach Philip Pearson, who took over when Gottfried resigned.

Former Alabama basketball coach C.M. Newton, also a former athletics director at Kentucky and former president of USA Basketball during the time that the Olympic Dream Team was formed, was spotted at Coleman Coliseum around the time of Grant’s afternoon visit to the facility. Newton has played a part in Alabama’s coaching search in an advisory capacity.

A uniformed security guard was stationed at the side entrance of the coliseum during Grant’s tour of the facility, and the guard moved over to the Mal M. Moore Athletic Facility later in the day when Grant and UA officials went to that building.

In addition to looking over Alabama’s campus and athletic facilities, Grant spent considerable time meeting with Moore and others to discuss specifics of the job offer.

Alabama was expected to offer to either upgrade the current basketball practice facility at Coleman Coliseum or build a new basketball-only practice facility if Grant accepts the job, a source familiar with the situation said, and UA was willing to put that pledge into Grant’s contract. The current practice facility is also used by the UA volleyball team for practices and games, and is shared with the women’s basketball team and cheerleaders.

Grant met with Moore and Hart last Sunday in Richmond, Va., to discuss the job opening, according to a report by the Richmond Times-Dispatch.

Grant’s contract at VCU pays him a salary package of $700,000 per year with bonuses and incentives that made his 2008-09 salary around $850,000, according to the Richmond paper. Alabama’s offer is thought to be considerably more than Grant’s current salary.

The coach’s current contract has a buyout clause of $240,000 payable to VCU if Grant leaves for another job by the end of the month. The buyout is reduced to $200,000 starting April 1.

Grant coached VCU to a 28-7 record in 2006-07, went 24-8 in 2007-08 and posted a 24-10 mark this season. VCU earned an 11th seed in the NCAA Tournament and lost 65-64 to UCLA in the first round. In 2007, Grant made a national name for himself when VCU upset Duke in the NCAA Tournament.

Alabama finished 18-14 in the 2008-09 season and went 7-9 in Southeastern Conference games. The Tide was picked by league coaches to win the SEC’s Western Division in a preseason poll, but lost three of its first five conference games before Gottfried resigned. Alabama won five of its last nine games, falling to Tennessee in the SEC Tournament to end the season.

Sports Editor Cecil Hurt and sports writer Christopher Walsh contributed to this story.

Coaching Record: 76-25 (.752 winning percentage) at Virginia Commonwealth University from 2006-09

Colonial Athletic Association Record: 48-9 (.842 winning percentage)

CAA Tournament Record: 7-1

Best CAA Tournament Finish: Won tournament in 2007 and 2009

NCAA Tournament Appearances: 2

NCAA Record: 1-2

Best NCAA Tournament finish: Lost to Pittsburgh in second round in 2007.

College: Played forward at Dayton from 1983-1987

Previous Coaching Experience

1987-92: Assistant coach, Miami Senior High School

1992-93: Head coach, Miami Central High School

1993-94: Assistant coach, Stetson University

1994-96: Assistant coach, Marshall University

1996-2001: Assistant coach, University of Florida

2002-06 Associate head coach, University of Florida

Awards/Notable

2007 Colonial Athletic Association Coach of the Year

Named Assistant Coach of 2008 USA Basketball U18 Team

Won 2006 NCAA Title with Florida

Won 2005 and 2006 SEC Tournament titles, three SEC Eastern Division titles and 2000 and 2001 SEC regular-season titles at Florida

Team MVP, University of Dayton

Appeared in two NCAA Tournaments and one NIT as a player with Dayton.

Playing Experience

1983-87: University of Dayton

1987: Miami Tropics, USBL

Personal

Education: University of Dayton, 1987

Date of Birth: April 15, 1966