NEW YORK _ St. John's long search for a new head basketball coach to replace Chris Mullin appeared to finally be ending on Thursday night, its 10th day. Former Arkansas coach Mike Anderson emerged as the front-runner to fill the vacancy, sources told Newsday.
The sides were still working on terms of a deal, but Anderson appears to be the choice after a long day of interviews.
New York basketball sources said that St. John's conducted interviews with three candidates on Thursday: Anderson, Yale coach James Jones and Westbury product and Los Angeles Clipper scout Paul Hewitt.
Anderson was dismissed from Arkansas in late March and has a 369-200 career record in 17 seasons at UAB, Missouri and Arkansas. He took each program to three NCAA Tournaments. Before becoming head coach at UAB, Anderson was an assistant coach for almost two decades under Nolan Richardson and was on the staff of the 1994 national champion and the 1995 runner-up.
St. John's interest in Hewitt was intriguing. It twice sought him to be coach during his 11 seasons at Georgia Tech and was turned down both times, in 2004 when Norm Roberts landed the job and in 2010 when Steve Lavin got the post. He has a career record of 321-251 at Siena, Georgia Tech and George Mason, where he last coached in 2014-15.
Jones has a 310-273 record in 20 seasons with the Bulldogs, won or shared four Ivy League championships and took Yale to two NCAA Tournaments, in 2016 _ when it stunned fifth-seeded Baylor _ and this year.
St. John's announced that Mullin "stepped down" from the post on April 9 and Arizona State coach Bobby Hurley was immediately sought to be his successor. Those negotiations did not end in a deal and he returned to ASU for a contract extension. St. John's also interviewed Loyola-Chicago coach Porter Moser and offered him the position; however he opted to remain in Illinois.
Additionally, St. John's made formal and informal overtures to Iona coach Tim Cluess, Oklahoma State coach Mike Boynton and UMBC coach Ryan Odom.
St. John's athletic director Mike Cragg had acknowledged that the program faced some pressures as the search went on _ players are currently signing with colleges, Red Storm players are contemplating their futures and next weekend is the only period when coaches can do in-person evaluations of recruits _ but insisted that finding the best candidate would be the priority.
Though it's unclear if conversations with Cluess ever became more than preliminary, he withdrew his name from consideration Thursday morning with a statement texted to Newsday. St. John's never contacted Iona for permission to speak with him, which is customary in searches.
Cluess, who lives in Floral Park, thanked those who supported the idea of installing him to head the Red Storm in the statement and added "I am truly blessed to have so many people say so many nice things ... . I am however taking my name out of consideration for the St. John's job."
"The chance to help bring back (the) rich tradition in the process made it hard to walk away from ... . There comes a point where the reality of the situation becomes more clear and moving forward is what is needed," he added.
