Biancardi quits coaching

[Raider Country]

Saint Louis aide Biancardi leaves for ESPN
July 2, 2008
Mike DeCourcy

Saint Louis coach Rick Majerus has to fill a vacancy on his staff as assistant Paul Biancardi is leaving to accept a job running ESPN's Scouts Inc. basketball operation.

Biancardi spent one year as an assistant under Majerus, during which the Billikens finished 16-15 overall, 7-9 in the Atlantic 10 Conference.

Prior to joining the Saint Louis staff, Biancardi had been head coach at Wright State and an assistant for 13 years under Jim O'Brien at Ohio State and Boston College. At Wright State, Biancardi recruited the majority of the team that reached the NCAA Tournament in 2007 under Brad Brownell.

Biancardi spent the 2006-07 season working for ESPN as part of its Scouts Inc. operation and also doing color commentary for ESPN 360 internet broadcasts of college games.

The network was pleased enough with his work during that year to pursue him to fill a position as director of high school recruiting. He will identify and evaluate top prospects, appear on a recruiting show planned for ESPNU and also do commentary on college basketball broadcasts.

www.sportingnews.com/yourturn/viewtopic.php?t=430148

[Raider Rowdies]

BLOG: “Perfect Fit” for Paul Biancardi
By Tom Archdeacon
Wednesday, July 2, 2008

Paul Biancardi was reflecting on the past 28 months and the self-defining journey he’s been on.

It was March of 2006 when he left his head coaching position at Wright State — a basketball job he had waited much of his life for, a job and a bunch of kids he loved — bumped out in large part because of the NCAA sins of his former Ohio State boss, Jim O’Brien, and his loyalty to him.

“You get knocked down in life, but the key of who you are is how you get up,” Biancardi said Tuesday night.

Who Biancardi is — besides a good coach, an even better family man and somebody I and a lot of other people in the Dayton area really like — is a guy who over the past two years has been embraced by both one of the best college coaches in the business and now the nation’s top sports network.

This past season he was the top assistant on the staff of Rick Majerus at Saint Louis University. The under-manned Billikens finished 16-15 and nearly knocked the Dayton Flyers out of the Atlantic 10 tournament and all of the rest of the postseason. St. Louis extended UD to overtime in the A-10 opener and lost by one point, 63-62.

“I can’t tell you how good Coach Majerus has been to me and my family,” Biancardi said. “He allowed me to come back to the game I love and show what I can do.”

The folks at ESPN — where Biancardi worked for a year in a lesser capacity right after leaving WSU — saw plenty.

That’s why he’s been hired to be the network’s National Director of Recruiting for High School and College Basketball. In short ,the ESPN folks want him to be one of their gurus when it comes to hoops, especially high school hoops:

“ESPN wants to be an expert in in-depth analysis of high school basketball recruiting — who are the top players, what are their skills, where are they going to college and how will they fit into that school’s program.

“I’ll need to know the best players in the country from freshmen, sophomores and juniors on up. I’ll cover all the top 25 to 30 high school teams in the country — and quite a few more — an analyze them on the internet, radio and television.”

Biancardi will run a department that includes five former college or pro coaches. He’ll do a lot of work on the internet and as a color commentator on high school and college games on ESPNU.

One of his first assignments will be the upcoming National AAU Tournament in Orlando.

He got the job because of all his years as a coach. He started out an assistant at Salem State, Suffolk State and Boston University. He then spent seven years as an O’Brien’s assistant at Boston College and six more at Ohio State. He coached Wright State for three seasons and was the 2004 Horizon League Coach of the Year.

He loves being a coach and leaving the profession to be a member of the media was a tough decision.

“There was a lot of soul searching,” he said. “I love coaching.”

That made it difficult Tuesday night when he told the Saint Louis players he was leaving: “You recruit kids as basketball players and then you get to know them as people and you love them … When I finished talking to them they looked at me and said something that warmed my heart. They said ‘Thanks Coach.’ “

Biancardi had to do what’s best for his wife and two children and he said the ESPN job offered that. It’s thought he signed a three-year contract and will move to Charlotte.

As he puts it: “It’s a great challenge, an exciting opportunity … and a perfect fit.”

www.daytondailynews.com/o/content/shared-gen/blogs/dayton/throughthearch/entries/2008/07/02/blog_a_perfect_fit_for_paul_bi.html

[OG Raiderfan]

Jul 3, 2008 11:47:10 GMT -5 @blitzdorsey said:

Good for him. Sounds like a good gig for him. Plus he was probably tired of going to IHOP and Waffle House for all of the coaches meetings at Saint Louis. ;-)

I spit out a little bit of coffee reading that Blitz. I can totally see Majerus holding all of his meeting there.