The basketball search, and links

It's been three weeks since James Johnson bolted for the head job at Virginia Tech after a sip of coffee in Clemson, and I suspect there are two reasons it's taken Brad Brownell this long to zero in on candidates for the position:

1) Brownell has been a busy man. From Prowl and Growl to the ACC meetings to celebrity golf-outing appearances with Dabo Swinney, his May schedule was jammed.

2) Brownell has been doing his homework. Johnson was a no-brainer once it became evident he was interested in leaving Virginia Tech for Clemson. Plan B has required a lot of research and phone calls.

As we told you last week, Antwon Jackson of UMass and Steve Smith of Georgia Southern are candidates. They were on campus last week interviewing with Brownell.

We've been able to confirm that a third candidate, David "Aki" Collins of Marquette, is expected to be on Clemson's campus today. Here's his bio from the Marquette web site.

While Jackson and Smith are known primarily for their recruiting prowess, Collins seems more of a jack-of-all trades type who's adept at coaching and development in addition to recruiting. He's a Brooklyn native who has ties to the South, and the Atlanta area in particular.

It would be logical to assume that Brownell will choose from these three candidates, but we're not absolutely certain of that. Also not sure if it's safe to assume the new guy will be the No. 2 guy on the staff, as Rick Ray was before he left for Mississippi State.

We'll certainly keep you posted when we know more.

A few Monday links:

-- The head of the Big 12 expansion committee, Oklahoma State president Burns Hargis, says he's cool with a 10-school league.

Hargis has been a steady voice during realignment, often urging caution and patience during what has been a turbulent two years.

He chaired the committee that elected to keep the conference at 10 teams when Nebraska left for the Big 10 and Colorado went to the Pac-12 two years ago.

Then, when Texas A&M and Missouri announced plans to go to the Southeastern Conference last year, Hargis was again on the point as the league decided to get back to 10 teams by adding TCU and West Virginia.

Now, Hargis hopes the league will take some time to see how the current alignment works for the Big 12 and if the current membership is a good fit.

"We're only going to find out how this works with the current members by taking the time to see how it goes in the next year or two," said Hargis.

But then there's this:

"We share a lot of the same culture with West Virginia," said Hargis. "I think they fit into the Big 12 very well."

What they didn't fit into was the geography. West Virginia will have to fly halfway across the country for every road game, and probably all of the championship tournaments, in the Big 12.

That's why Hargis is not closing the door on expansion.

"I think there is some sentiment to get them a neighbor in our league," he said.

-- Here's a Big 12 take from this Austin columnist:

Don't count DeLoss Dodds among those expecting the superconferences to get here anytime soon, even after Friday's announcement that the Big 12 and Southeastern Conference will pair their champions in a new bowl game, assuming those teams are not in the four-team national playoff. He's not on board with 16-team conferences.

"I think that's way, way out there," the Texas athletic director told me last week. "The Big Ten likes where they are; they don't want to change. The Pac-12's got all they can get. I don't see superconferences for a while. I think it'd take a crisis for that to happen."

Of course, it seems college football is in crisis mode every other week. And if the Big 12 and SEC push the megaconference agenda, other dominoes would then fall. The preference here would be for the Big 12 to invite Notre Dame, Louisville, Florida State and Miami.

-- This Birmingham columnist said Mike Slive sank Jim Delany's battleship, among other things.

Who needs a bowl com­mittee engaging in ethically shaky if not outright illegal political activity? Charging the marching bands exorbitant prices for their seats? Trumpeting its charitable contributions while paying an executive director a king's ransom to spend 364 days preparing to stage one event?

The SEC already knows how to run a high-quality, stand-alone, once-a-year football event in a first-class manner. It's been doing just that with the SEC Championship Game since 1992.

No third-party involvement in the SEC-Big 12 matchup would mean more profit for the two leagues.

-- And this Virginia columnist breaks the news that the ACC is -- gasp! -- not a power in college football.

LW