Northern Colorado’s Tad Boyle officially is a candidate for the position of Colorado men’s basketball coach. UNC athletic director Jay Hinrichs said Thursday has granted Colorado AD Mike Bohn permission to interview Boyle.
“Mike let me know that he was going to have contact with Coach Boyle,” Hinrichs said. “Mike wanted me to know as a professional courtesy that Tad was going to be on their list.”
Boyle, 48, recently earned district coach-of-the-year honors from the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) after guiding the Bears to a 25-8 record this season. That’s a school record for victories and came just three years after Boyle went 4-24 in 2006-07 to begin the rebuilding process.
“Tad Boyle has done a great job with this program,” Hinrichs said. “He has hired great, great coaches. He has developed a wonderful support staff. And he has recruited some great players. Anytime a Big 12 job opens up, I’d be silly to get in the way of a coach at least taking at look at that.
A Greeley native and former high school All-American at Central High, Boyle played for Larry Brown at Kansas. Bohn played football and baseball at KU, and he and Boyle overlapped for a couple of years in Lawrence. Hinrichs also is a Kansas graduate.
“Kansas has a tree of coaches,” Hinrich said. “You learn from the best. You don’t have to make it up as you go along. The modeling keeps going forward.”
After the Nuggets’ practice Thursday, CU legend Chauncey Billups said the progress made by Jeff Bzdelik in three years could be jeopardized if associate coach Steve McClain is passed over for the job. McClain, 48, went 157-115 in nine seasons at Wyoming from 1998-2007.
“My only concern would be that if (Colorado administrators) don’t stay in house with McClain, and those (current CU players) leave, then you’re starting at ground zero again,” Billups said. “It’s kind of tough.”
Reached by phone on Thursday, Bzdelik said he has not made a recommendation to Bohn for the opening. “I don’t think he’ll even take my call,” Bzdelik said. “If people are angry with me, that’s a good thing. If people are happy I’m gone, that’s not a good thing.”
