Published: May 06, 2008 04:46 pm      

St. Francis bringing in candidates

LORETTO — St. Francis has interviewed at least three candidates to replace Bobby Jones, who resigned as men’s basketball coach after last season.

The university has interviewed Mark Bass, who is entering his ninth year as an assistant at St. Joseph’s University; Matthew Driscoll, in his fifth year as an assistant at Baylor; and Don Friday, in his fourth year as head coach at Lycoming College.

Bass led St. Joseph’s to the NIT finals as a senior in 1995-96 with school records for 3-pointers and attempts. In 2001, he was inducted into the St. Joseph’s basketball hall of fame. Bass played professionally for a year in China before becoming a high school assistant at Maine Central Institute, which won consecutive New England Prep School championships during his tenure, one off a 35-0 season in 1997-98.

He joined the staff at St. Joseph’s for the 1999-2000 season. Since then, the Hawks have made the playoffs six straight times, and won five regular-season Atlantic 10 titles.

Driscoll is a 1992 Slippery Rock graduate who was head coach at LaRoche from 1993 to 1997, moving to Wyoming as an assistant for the 1997-98 season. He spent five years as an assistant at Clemson before going to Baylor. After a 20-win season in 1998-99, he helped the Tigers reach the NIT championship, which they lost by a point to California.

Friday began his head coaching stint at Lycoming with a conference championship and a berth in the NCAA playoffs. He is a graduate of Lebanon Valley College, where he opened his coaching career, helping the Dutchmen record their first winning season in 18 years. He later moved to Bucknell, where he spent nine seasons as an assistant. He left that job for Lycoming, where he led the Warriors to a Freedom Conference crown in 2005 and earned a share of the MAC Coach of the Year Award.

Published reports have said that Penn State assistant Kurt Kanaskie also has inquired about the St. Francis vacancy.

Kanaskie is a LaSalle graduate who started coaching as an assistant at the University of South Carolina, where he remained for five seasons before moving to Lock Haven.

There, he earned two PSAC coach of the year awards. After three seasons at Lock Haven, he took over the IUP program, leading the Redhawks to a No. 1 national ranking and their first appearance in the NCAA tournament. During eight seasons at IUP, he was named PSAC coach of the year twice more.

Kanaskie left IUP to take over as head coach at Drake. After seven seasons there, he became an assistant with the Nittany Lions.