Posted by spot on 7/8/2012, 2:08 pm
pdate: Per Adam Zagoria of Zagsblog.com, Frank Allocco, high school coach at De La Salle (California), is the leading candidate to fill out St. John's coaching staff.
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Since Mike Dunlap was hired as the next head coach of the Charlotte Bobcats, there has been little updates regarding his assistant position on the St. John's staff. A handful of names emerged as potential replacements, but it seemed like Steve Lavin was content to take his time evaluating coaches. While the July recruiting period is quickly drawing closer, whoever hired to fill Dunlap's spot would likely not be required to hit the road recruiting, so Lavin has a bit of breathing room.
According to Adam Zagoria of Zagsblog.com, while the process is not nearly complete, the Johnnies head coach is intrigued with high school coach Frank Allocco. The long-time HS coach has enjoyed overwhelming success and per Lenn Robbins of the NY Post, was considered by Lavin when he was hired by SJU two years ago. There have been numerous meetings between Lavin and Allocco, and while Robbins does confirm Allocco-to-SJU is not a done deal, the emergence of his name is intriguing. Lavin has previously said he would look outside the box for the hire, but the floating of Allocco's name means Lavin is strongly considering a hire with a wealth of Xs and Os knowledge -- something Dunlap possessed.
According to both Robbins and Zagoria, several coaching candidates still remain, including Tom Abatemarco, Paul Biancardi, and Tim O'Toole (among others). As we mentioned, though, this hiring will take some time -- it will not be surprising if the official announcement happens in August.
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