Hofstra outdoes itself landing bigtime coach

No less an authority on Hofstra basketball than Tom Pecora said last week that recruits are attracted to a conference as much as to an individual school. That is the good news today for Hofstra. It means the Pride can recruit players who are attracted to the Big East.

Of course, Hofstra's whole program isn't making that gigantic leap. But it has a coach who has Big East written all over him. Tim Welsh did not have a great run at Providence and his time there didn't end happily, but he lasted 10 years. That was long enough to answer a lot of questions about him, except one:

How did Hofstra land this guy?

Considering all the local coaching maneuvers lately, including Pecora's move from the Hempstead campus to Fordham last week, Hofstra's was the most impressive and surprising. Fordham did well in landing Pecora, St. John's did well in landing Steve Lavin, Stony Brook did well in not letting anyone take Steve Pikiell. But Hofstra outdid itself in hiring a coach who seemed to be out of its league.

It probably shows how influential a $600,000 salary can be. That can overshadow the hard fact that Hofstra is a distant outpost in the Colonial Athletic Association, which Pecora called "a great conference" but "a Virginia-based league." It can make a person want to leave a cozy job as analyst at ESPNU. It can cause a coach to disregard the near impossibility of winning the conference tournament, which is held in Richmond every year.

Welsh, appearing on Christopher Russo's "Mad Dog Unleashed" Sirius/XM Radio show yesterday, downplayed that. He compared it to the old skepticism about Louisville or West Virginia ever winning the Big East Championship at the Garden. Those two schools have won the past two Big East Tournaments, proving Welsh's point that the best team will win.

He also answered the argument that the Colonial is a "one bid" league, meaning that it rarely gets an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament. Welsh pointed out that the Big Dance probably will expand to 96 teams next year and the CAA might get two or three invitations.

Just hearing him be so upbeat had to hearten Hofstra followers, who have had a rough school year. First the football program was snuffed out of existence, without any warning. Then the basketball team had an uninspiring 19-win season. Welsh could have had other jobs, reportedly including Siena, an NCAA Tournament team. That he chose Hofstra was a significant coup for athletic director Jack Hayes.

Welsh has been around, but he is only 49, not the tired caretaker Butch Van Breda Kolff was in his second tour at Hofstra. He learned plenty at SUNY Potsdam, playing for his father Jerry.

Tim Welsh did well enough at Iona to get hired at Providence. And he did well enough at Providence to last for what seems an eternity in college basketball these days. St. John's president, Rev. Donald Harrington, acknowledged at the Lavin news conference Wednesday that the era of long-term coaches is over. "At the same time," he said, "I also think it's possible that with the right person at the right time, a program can truly excel."

Welsh told the Mad Dog he has no hard feelings about Providence. "What happens, happens. You look at the landscape of college basketball," the new Hofstra coach said. "Everyone goes through their ups and downs. We had a bump at the end there, but we're back on our feet and we're happy to be at Hofstra."

Hofstra is even happier to have him.