Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, March 29, 1991 TAG: 9103290082
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RAY COX SPORTSWRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The position will be advertised and a committee will be formed to review the applications. The makeup of the committee and the time it will be assembled is uncertain, Taylor said in a statement released by the university.
The announcement came as strong interest among potential candidates continued to grow.
Among those who expressed interest were Radford assistant Ron Bradley, Virginia assistant Tom Perrin, Virginia Tech assistant Jim Baker, Davidson aides Matt Doherty and Don Hogan, Virginia Union head coach Dave Robbins, Winthrop assistant Bobby Stevens, Wichita State assistant Tom McCorry, Virginia Commonwealth assistant Eddie Webb, James Madison assistant Bart Bellairs and former Radford assistant Jim Casciano, now on Charlene Curtis' women's staff at Temple. Curtis was Radford's women's coach until this season.
Bradley, 38, is a former Maryland assistant and head coach at Eastern Nazarene, an NAIA school in Massachusetts. Radford's other assistant, Frank Smith played for and worked at Old Dominion, where he graduated in 1988.
Bradley and Smith were hired before the 1990-91 season.
Purnell has said he considers Bradley a strong candidate to succeed him; Bradley said Thursday that Purnell has offered him an assistant's job at ODU. Bradley said he told Taylor he is interested in filling the Radford vacancy and said Taylor promised they would talk again. Bradley said he doesn't know what to do about Purnell's offer.
"It's kind of a crazy situation," Bradley said. "I'm kind of in limbo. It's good to know I have that option to go out there."
Smith could not be reached for comment.
Doug Day, a sophomore guard from Blacksburg who led the Big South Conference in scoring this season with a 20-plus average, endorsed Bradley, as did Jamie Warren of West Springfield High, Radford's top recruit for next year.
"Good guy; good coach," Warren said.
Warren said he didn't know how Radford's coaching change would effect his plans.
"I don't know what I'm going to do," said Warren, a guard who has been cited by some recruiting analysts as one of the top 100 prospects in the country. "I'll have to see who gets the coaching job."
Said Day on Wednesday: "Coach Bradley might get the job and I think that would help us a lot more than hiring a new coach [from outside]."
Perrin, a Virginia coach whose specialty is considered strategy, said he would be polishing his resume, and Baker said he thought the Radford job would be a "great opportunity. Oliver has done a great job . . . and he's left a nice team."
Radford has back five of its top-six scorers and five of its top-six rebounders. The only loss to graduation is center Ron Shelburne.
Hogan, 32, joined Bob McKillop's staff at Davidson in 1989. He has worked as an assistant to Cliff Ellis at Clemson and was a high school coach in Florida. Hogan played for Ellis at South Alabama.
"I would be very interested in talking to the people at Radford," Hogan said.
Those sentiments were shared by fellow Davidson aide Matt Doherty.
Doherty, 28, said, "Radford is a good situation. You'd have to be a fool not to be interested in something like that."
Wichita State assistant McCorry, 50, is a Brooklyn native and a former assistant at James Madison under John Thurston. He was interim head coach for 11 games at end of the 1987-88 season, going 4-7.
McCorry said he would be very interested in the Radford job after spending parts of three summers there coaching at the Five-Star camp.
Another candidate with an extensive resume is Robbins, head coach at Division II Virginia Union who has been mentioned as a candidate for the job at Virginia Tech. Robbins took Virginia Union to the Division II semifinals this past season.
Asked if he had interest in the Radford job, Robbins said: "I don't know enough about it as far as where they want to go with the program, what people they have returning, what salary they would pay. Would I talk to them? Sure, I'd talk to them."
by CNB