Mike Jarvis is the Right Hire for FAU

I'm not surprised that he was hired. The only shocker was that it took so long.

Mike Jarvis was the logical choice for a program that needs a big name coach to be taken seriously. Until the men's basketball team can consistently win more than they lose, splashy hires like this (and Matt Doherty in 2005) are necessary.

Hopefully Jarvis, in his senior citizenship and with high-profile jobs in the rear-view mirror will be comparable to Howard Schnellenberger on the football side. Maybe Jarvis is just old enough to be content at FAU, but still young enough to inspire winning play.

Schnellenberger has the formula down pat, and has built the football program into a winner. Jarvis enters with talented players, a renovated arena and a resume that demands respect. FAU has a bleak basketball history that provides the perfect canvas for Jarvis to paint his final coaching masterpiece.

Pay little attention to the negativity that surrounded his departure from St. John's several years back. It seems to have been an unfortunate blip in an otherwise upstanding (not to mention winning) career.

Signs indicate that Jarvis isn't taking this job as a retirement hobby. He has a clear-cut mission that will drive his competitiveness: He wants to become just the second coach to win 100 games at four D-I men's basketball programs.

So, while there is a risk that Jarvis' transgression at St. John's was a true insight into the kind of coach he really is, it is a risk that FAU needs to take in order to bring men's basketball up to the level of it's record-setting football team.

Here is a story about the official hiring.

Mike Jarvis Should be Next FAU Hoops Coach

The Florida Atlantic basketball program may end up snagging another big name in replacing departed coach Rex Walters.

Mike Jarvis, Boca Raton resident and former head coach at St. John's, George Washington and Boston University is said to be interested in the job. It would be natural for the Owls to reciprocate that interest.

FAU has been lucky at getting famous, if not infamous, coaches to lead the Owls' student-athletes.

Remember before Walters, the coach for a year was Matt Doherty, who is now coaching at Southern Methodist in Dallas. Doherty came to FAU a couple of years after being run out of North Carolina.

Howard Schnellenberger, for all the wonder, aura and majesty he brings from his days as a National and Super Bowl champion coach, also came to FAU after some rough times. After resurrecting Miami and bringing Louisville to national prominence, Schnelly took the job at Oklahoma. He only lasted a year before he was run out of town. Rumors swirled that he was drinking too much and recruiting to little, so the Sooners said so long. It wasn't long after that when he came to start FAU's program and ensure friends and fans that the Oklahoma disaster was a bump in an otherwise smooth and glorious career.

That brings me back to Jarvis. A celebrated and winning coach who left St. Johns a few years back amid threats of NCAA sanctions. It was the first time that Jarvis had ever been accused of wrongdoing, however it seemingly ended his coaching career.

Jarvis was inducted into the George Washington Sports Hall of Fame for what he did at that program (143-100). He didn't have a bad run at Boston U either (101-50). At St. Johns he was 110-61 before he was fired.

But he is getting up there in years, and nobody has toched this guy after the St. John's situation. Will FAU pass on a coach with nine NCAA tournament appearances, two trips to the Sweet Sixteen and one to the Elite Eight? Jarvis' overall record is 364-201! He is one of four Division I coaches to have won 100 games at three different colleges! FAU shouldn't stop him from making it four.

When the other candidates include Villanova assistant Pat Chambers, current assistant Mike Balado, and Georgia Southern head coach Jeff Price, I think it would be foolish for FAU not to give Jarvis the job.

Hit the Road Rex

After pulling a similar shenanigan with little-known Mercer less than a month ago, this time FAU men's basketball coach Rex Walters really is gone. Mercer didn't up the ante or anything, the University of San Francisco has swooped in and acquired him. The lure was a $ 300,000 salary, slightly more than he made at FAU.

After writing the following passage on his blog on March 27, Walters is heading out of town:

"I am totally committed to getting this program to the highest level. One man can not do it alone. I will demand that my coaching staff and players out work the competition everyday that we put FAU across our chests. We truly need everyone's support to make this thing happen at FAU. A team and a basketball program is a very fragile one. I promise that everyday when I wake up my mind is on doing everything I can to get us there. I am not looking nor will I look to go somewhere else."

Walters will succeed the legendary Eddie Sutton at USF.

A very odd choice in my opinion. Especially since it has now been proven twice in the last two years that good Sun Belt coaches get SEC jobs. Alabama's and South Carolina's coaches are fresh from the Belt.

In two season's with the Owls, after succeeding the departed Matt Doherty (now at Southern Methodist in Dallas) as coach, Walters went 31-33 in two full seasons. His tenure was highlighted by a hot temper that led to many technical fouls and the nickname T-Rex. He suspended the team's two best players (Carlos Monroe and Paul Graham III) and had heated run-ins with nearly all others. He helped continue a trend of mediocre baskteball that Doherty started in 2005-06 but got students excited about FAU hoops. Walters fostered the men's bball team's move from the Atlantic Sun to the Sun Belt conference and won a first round playoff game in the conference tourney each year, both were against FIU.

Bye Rex.