ROANOKE TIMES 
                      Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times

DATE: Sunday, March 31, 1996                 TAG: 9604010130
SECTION: SPORTS                   PAGE: B2   EDITION: METRO 
COLUMN: FINAL FOUR NOTES
DATELINE: EAST RUTHERFORD, N. J. 
SOURCE: DOUG DOUGHTY STAFF WRITER

PITINO CALLS TUNE AS COACHES PLAY MUSICAL CHAIRS

Now that Billy Donovan has moved from Marshall to Florida, another Rick Pitino protege has moved to the top of the list of hot young coaches.

Former VMI athletic director Eric Hyman, in his first year as the AD at Miami (Ohio), must be sweating out the potential loss of third-year coach Herb Sendek.

Sendek continues to be mentioned in connection with the coaching vacancies at St. John's and North Carolina State, although both schools probably hope they can attract a bigger name.

However, if St. John's and N.C. State are waiting for the Final Four to end before making a pitch for Massachusetts coach John Calipari, they're probably wasting their time.

``I have not been contacted by St.John's,'' Calipari said this past week. ``I have, in my opinion, the best college job in the country for various reasons. And I'm not looking to go anywhere.''

Calipari frequently is mentioned as a Pitino protege because Pitino recommended him for the job at his alma mater, Massachusetts. However, Calipari never has played for or coached under Pitino.

Some of the true ``Little Rickys'' in the NCAA Division I ranks are Sendek, Donovan, Tubby Smith of Georgia and Ralph Willard of Pittsburgh. Each served on the Kentucky staff at some point.

Smith was mentioned as a potential candidate for the N.C. State job until Georgia tore up his contract after one year and gave him a raise. The same with North Carolina native Kelvin Sampson, who recently received an extension after two years at Oklahoma.

Emerging as the favorite for the N.C. State job is Tulane coach Perry Clark, who was an assistant coach at Georgia Tech in the late 1980s. Clark took the Green Wave to the NCAA Tournament three times from 1992-95.

MOON OVER NEW JERSEY: Lee Moon, Marshall's athletic director, was expecting to have a relaxing weekend at the Final Four with his son, Lee Jr., before Donovan was named Florida's coach at a news conference on Thursday.

Moon, a Roanoke native, said he had a stack of phone messages about 4 inches high from coaching candidates. It was the second time this year he has lost a head coach to a Southeastern Conference school, following the December departure of football coach Jim Donnan to Georgia.

Les Robinson, who has coached previously in the Southern Conference at The Citadel and East Tennessee State, is a possibility for the basketball post. Some Thundering Herd supporters have expressed interest in an older coach who would be unlikely to leave after two years, as Donovan did.

WAKE WAITING: Wake Forest fans are starting to get nervous about the status of seventh-year coach Dave Odom, who has not received a contract extension despite back-to-back ACC tournament championships.

Odom, who has one year remaining on his contract, has a package that pays in the neighborhood of $250,000 per year. He is believed to be the ACC's lowest-paid head basketball coach. Robinson was making more than $350,000 when he resigned March 22 at N.C. State.

Wake was able to negotiate a contract extension this winter for football coach Jim Caldwell, who had a three-year record of 5-28. Of course, Caldwell did not have as much leverage as Odom.

One reason for the delay with Odom was his reluctance to talk contract during the season. Odom's salary was frozen for a season, 1994-95, after the Deacons were placed on NCAA probation for secondary violations in the recruiting of Makhtar Ndiaye.

WILLIAMS MOVING?: On the surface, it doesn't make much sense that Mississippi State coach Richard Williams would be interested in the vacancy at North Carolina-Charlotte, but the NCAA already has started to nose around the Bulldogs' program.

Many people are asking how Dontae' Jones, Mississippi State's outstanding junior forward, could have passed 36 hours in summer school to gain eligibility. Jones was held out of one game while the NCAA checked the authenticity of two correspondence courses.

PROP 48s: Syracuse is the only Final Four team without a former ``partial qualifier'' in its starting lineup. Kentucky's Walter McCarty, Massachusetts' Donta Bright and Mississippi State's Darryl Wilson all sat out their freshman seasons for academic reasons.

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