Last week, when Ben Bolch wrote, “UCLA hopes to have a coach in place within the next week as the field of potential candidates continues to dwindle,” I responded by asking, “Why is the athletic department imposing an arbitrary timeline, instead of waiting until after the Final Four to interview Tony Bennett?”
Since I wrote those words, Dan Guerrero and the Basketball Coaching Search Committee have tried, and failed, to hire both Jamie Dixon and Rick Barnes. Guerrero was so certain that UCLA was about to land their next coach that he started making plans to announce the hiring, first, of Dixon, and, then, of Barnes.