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Friday, March 28, 2003

By Gerry Dulac, Post-Gazette Sports Writer

Now that Pitt's basketball season has ended, Chancellor Mark Nordenberg and vice chancellor Jerry Cochran are prepared to strike before UCLA can entice Ben Howland back to the West Coast. Pitt is prepared to offer Howland, 45, a new contract that will surpass the seven-year, $5.9 million deal he signed with the university at the end of the 2002 season. The idea is to prevent Howland from even considering a job at UCLA, which has him at or near the top of its list of possible replacements for Steve Lavin, who was fired. Howland is considered the leading candidate at UCLA, with Gonzaga's Mark Few and Marquette's Tom Crean as other possibilities. At issuewill be how much UCLA is prepared to pay Howland, who is the fourth-highest-paid coach in the Big East Conference at more than $800,000 annually. Lavin, who was fired March 17, earned $578,000, making him the highest-paid state employee in California. But the Bruins, according to those familiar with the situation, would have to nearly double that amount to draw Howland away from Pitt. Because of incentives in his contract that reward him for advancing in the NCAA tournament, Howland will make more than $900,000 this season.

If Howland left to go to UCLA, Crean could be a possibility to return to Pitt, where he was an assistant for one season under Ralph Willard. "I have a lot of respect for that program," Crean said. "I loved the year I spent with Ralph Willard there. I've always been a city of Pittsburgh and a University of Pittsburgh fan since I've been there." Crean, though, will have one strike against him: There is faction at Pitt that associates him with Willard, who never took the Panthers to an NCAA tournament appearance in five years. But Crean has developed into one of the top coaches in the country because he spent four years with Tom Izzo at Michigan State after leaving Pitt.

Pitt has all but put off its national search for an athletic director, preferring instead to let interim athletic director Marc Boehm "audition" for the job. Boehm, who has held the position since Steve Pederson left to return to Nebraska, has been very active in a short time. He fired women's basketball coach Traci Waites and women's soccer coach Roland Sturk, instituted a new season ticket policy for football games at Heinz Field and was active in wanting to find ways to police fan behavior at sporting events. He has also been behind the university trying to keep Ben Howland from leaving to go to UCLA. Boehm was told by Chancellor Mark Nordenberg that any decision he made will be supported by the university. Last month, Nordenberg formed an eight-person search committee to find a replacement for Pederson. Since then, Pitt is not believed to have interviewed any candidates.

Speaking of Pederson, he flew in from Lincoln, Neb., to attend last night's game. Pederson sat in the Pitt section, behind the Panthers' bench, not far from Boehm and Nordenberg. Former Pitt players Curtis Aiken and Bobby Martin also were in attendance.

Kentucky G Cliff Hawkins went stretching for a loose ball late in the second half of the first semifinal and ended up diving into the first row of media tables near midcourt. When he did, he knocked out the power of the Pitt radio broadcast team. Fortunately, the team of Bill Hillgrove and Dick Groat was not yet on the air. "If I didn't catch him, he would have run right into Dick," said producer Bill DiFabio.