More BU babble

Anyone who followed this space or — if you're in southwestern Manitoba — the actual pages of the Brandon Sun this past week knows the transition phase that Brandon University currently finds itself.

The men's basketball coach has accepted a job in British Columbia and the athletic director, according to my sources, was interviewed for the vacant AD position at Acadia University.

Here's just a couple of random points from me on both of those issues:

MEN'S BASKETBALL COACH

THE IDEA: A rumbling that I'm hearing is that perhaps the university — which will be posting the job nationally — might be interested in hiring a one-year interim coach and then open the procedure again next spring/summer when there would, conceivably, be more time to do a thorough search.

• THE ARGUMENT:
First off, the university has had oodles of collective-agreement battles over the past few years related to how it has hired its employees. Rightly or wrongly, the university has been challenged on its hiring processes in the past and, I would argue, the idea of hiring a person on a one-year basis, would creep dangerously close to raising another red flag to someone willing to challenge the move, should it happen. For that reason, I don't see BU doing this.

The thought is that, because it is so late in the off-season (although anyone who is aware of Brandon's hiring knows the university has had to deal with late interviewing before) the chance is there for the school to hire assistant coach Mike Raimbault. Barnaby Craddock, the former coach, is a big fan of Raimbault's and would certainly be pushing hard to have him as his replacement.
THE REALITY:I consider Raimbault a friend and I've found him to be a very smart Xs and Os coach in the short time I've known him. However, I don't see BU simply accepting a one-year set-up with Raimbault as a stop-gap until 2008. I think this job will be opened up and BU will go through its normal procedures for hiring.

Then, I would suspect you're going to see a number of young coaches in the running. I think BU would be more likely to hire an up-and-comer who it could get to stick around and perhaps plant roots in the city. That said, there are a number of young coaches who would love to get the chance to have their first job to be inheriting a very talented team that has a chance to make a run at a national. I won't divulge, at this time, the names that are being bantered about here early on but suffice to say there's already a few who, if I were BU, I'd be more than happy to hire.

THE ATHLETIC DIRECTOR

First off, Rick Nickelchok has every right to pursue other interests ahead of the expiration of his contract next summer. I would suggest the ball is in BU's court and if the university is interested in keeping him, it'd be best served to do whatever possible to make him know he's a wanted commodity in the Wheat City.

Carleton and Acadia are just two schools that have put the Help Wanted signs in their windows advertising for AD jobs. But Nickelchok also has a background with national amateur sports so I don't think by any means he'd be confined to a university setting.

He told the Sun that his interest was to stay in Brandon and a few sources have told me he will not be getting the Acadia job.

The men's basketball position has not yet been posted although I'd expect that to happen some time this week. As for the AD job, my gut tells me you won't have to think about that position at BU for at least 10 or 11 months.