The whiffs keep coming.
A day after St. John’s requested to speak to UMBC coach Ryan Odom about its coaching vacancy, he told his athletic director and coaching staff on Wednesday he was not interested.
This came after Loyola-Chicago’s Porter Moser passed on replacing Chris Mullin as the Red Storm head coach on Tuesday, as first reported by The Post.
Arizona State’s Bobby Hurley, athletic director Mike Cragg’s first choice, also declined the job last Thursday after signing a five-year extension with the Pac-12 school. Oklahoma State coach Mike Boynton has been discussed internally, and he would have interest if approached, a source said.
It appears Yale coach James Jones is interested. He has spoken to St. John’s about the opening and is expected to interview on Thursday with Cragg for the last high-major coaching opening in the country, sources said. Jones, who made $500,000 last year according to a source, has guided Yale to two NCAA Tournaments in 20 seasons, but does own a 310-273 record there.
The 55-year-old is a Long Island native, who attended Albany, so he does have some local ties, but a source was unsure if he would leave Yale — considering his recent success there, winning at least 22 games three of the past five years — and the massive rebuilding job he would be inheriting at St. John’s. He’s also never coached at the high-major level, even as an assistant.