Donahue Is Taking Over For Skinner

If you get Eagle Mail, BC athletics sent out a mass e-mail around 4:15 today (4/6) letting SuperFans know there is a new era in BC Men’s Basketball.

The e-mail was also an invitation to welcome our new coach to the Heights tomorrow (4/7) at 5 p.m. on the Campus Green (in front of McElroy.) In order to encourage attendance, if you arrive early, you’ll have the chance to win 2010-2011 Student Men’s Basketball Season Tickets, a JetBlue flight voucher, a Blackberry Curve from AT&T, and BC practice gear.

First impressions are critical, so we’ll see what Donahue has to say on Wednesday… After a 15-16 record this past season, losses to teams like Harvard, and no chance in the big dance, SuperFans need this program to make a 180.

Donahue had success in the Ivy League, leading Cornell to three straight Ivy League titles. In this last season, he led the Big Red to a 29-5 record–the most wins in Ivy history–and to the round of 16 in this NCAA tournament (where they lost to number one seed Kentucky) after they beat Temple and Wisconsin to be the first Ivy team to reach the round of 16 in more than 30 years.

Donahue is replacing Al Skinner, who was fired after 13 years. He is currently in the middle of a $3 million buyout negotiation with BC. While he is the winningest coach in BC’s history, it doesn’t seem like many people are saying Donahue has big shoes to fill, understandably so. That flex offense just wasn’t working.

The most important decision Donahue will need to make now is who to put on his staff. Multiple sources have said that he has already contacted coaches about joining his Eagles’ staff, including one Ivy League head coach. With high expectations for the next basketball season, he’ll want to choose wisely.

If the weather is nice, we should all try to make it out to Campus Green to welcome BC’s newest head coach. If not for the sheer excitement of a new era of BC Men’s Basketball, at least for the chance at winning some cool prizes. Gene did bring him in with the hopes of attracting more people to Conte Forum, so it’ll be interesting to see how many people he attracts to Campus Green. I myself will be in class, unless I make the poor decision to skip my Law class for the second time in a row.

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