Where does La Salle’s basketball program turn next? The arena clock is ticking | Mike Jensen

The email went out Monday just after 5 p.m., from the office of La Salle University’s president to all alumni in the school’s database, simply titled Campus improvements and LEAP update. LEAP is a new dual-enrollment program giving some high school students an opportunity to earn La Salle credits. The campus improvements included an Athletics facility project update.

Just below that, the email also mentioned “a leadership change within the men’s basketball program.” No mention even of Ashley Howard’s name, just a paragraph about initiating a national search to identify the next leader, who presumably will also coach. It went on to explain that like all La Salle programs, “the team is committed to winning at the highest level and nurturing the success of our exemplary student-athletes in the classroom and beyond.”

All well and good, but the paragraph just above it also pertained to athletics, mentioning that La Salle’s board of trustees had approved “the next phase of the design process for an arena project,” with external fundraising continuing. Then the key part: “In 2013, the University received a restricted planned gift, generously donated by John Glaser, ‘62, specifically to support an arena project. In order to use this estate gift, currently valued at $6.2 million, an arena project would need to begin during during the 2023 calendar year. The University would finance this project exclusively through philanthropic contributions.”

We’ve written about that gift, the savviness of the late Glaser, knowing his own alma mater, putting an expiration date in his will. The next phase of the design process will doubt directly correlate with the pace of fundraising.

And that’s where we get to the next basketball coach.

It’s easy to wonder how La Salle has the money to buy out Howard with four years still left on his contract. Let’s surmise his buyout is, say, $800,000. La Salle can afford that? The school apparently decided it couldn’t afford not to pay it. Losing seasons mean turned-off alumni, and 11-19 was not the kind of season to turn cash spigots back on at this crucial stage.

So where to next on the basketball leadership front? Here’s where La Salle could actually get really lucky. It’s beyond possible, above likely, that a search would produce a proven commodity, with a hometown discount of sorts from multiple directions.

If La Salle calls Bruiser Flint … everyone in Philadelphia with half a clue would say, That makes a lot of sense. I’ve joked about Flint, top John Calipari aide at Kentucky, coming home, and bringing on Fran O’Hanlon, just retired from Lafayette, as offensive coordinator, and two of the greatest coaches who could/have should/have been Big 5 head coaches would be together trying to prove that theory right. (To be clear, I’m making this connection solely in my head.)

If La Salle calls Hartford coach John Gallagher, whose program is being dropped to Division III, you’d have to think Gallagher returns the call, and, if he got the gig, would bring all the endless reserves of Gallagher energy to the task, including to fundraising. Gallagher, once a La Salle assistant, and an Explorers ball boy as a child, rolled the boulder up the hill at Hartford and knows how to run a basketball program.

Or what about a big call, not outside the box, just expanding the box … to Phil Martelli? The associate head coach at Michigan, about to face Villanova in San Antonio. You don’t think Martelli would energize Tom Gola Arena with a 29-hour-a-day quest to beat the school across town he used to coach? That could re-energize the whole Big 5. A version of a Rick Pitino-to-Louisville move after coaching Kentucky. Couldn’t happen until it happens.

What about a call up to Wagner, to former Drexel guard Bashir Mason, who has built a winning program almost off the grid in Staten Island? Someone is going to get lucky getting Mason next.

Could there be surprises? Can’t see Matt Langel leaving Colgate for this heavy lift. He’s earned higher ground. Can’t see a call to Fran Dunphy, as much as older alums would love it. Can’t see winning local coaches such as Jim Rullo at Neumann, Drew Kelly at Harcum, Landry Kosmalski at Swarthmore. All coaches who know how to win and develop players. But that’s taking a chance, and La Salle just can’t afford to take a chance of any kind.

“I would say we’re continuing through the design process,” La Salle athletic director Brian Baptiste said this week about the arena renovation, which Baptiste had compared last year to Villanova’s Pavilion renovation, in terms of the possibilities while maintaining the basic footprint on 20th and Olney. Baptiste was brought in from Northwestern partly because he had experience with such projects.

Even the day of a coaching change, a facility update was important to note. The president’s letter to alumni probably got the order right in terms of importance, while understanding the next steps in both processes are completely intertwined.