Seton Hall passed on Fran McCaffery in 2006 - and vice versa in 2010

According to this Newark Star-Ledger story detailing Seton Hall's search for a new men's basketball coach, the school bypassed Fran McCaffery in 2006 in favor of Bobby Gonzalez.

Four years later, Seton Hall met with McCaffery about a replacement for the fired Gonzalez. Interest apparently wasn't overwhelming on the coach's side.

From the Star-Ledger:

The 50-year-old McCaffery was fresh off his third straight trip to the NCAA Tournament and was the presumed frontrunner as soon as the Seton Hall job opened.

Courted briefly during Seton Hall's last search in 2006, McCaffery had lost out to Gonzalez. But with three of his best players leaving Siena, the time appeared to be right for a match.

Hobbs and Quinlan met McCaffery and his wife, Margaret, in Albany, N.Y. for dinner. It was a lengthy one, but no offer was made and no follow-up appointment was scheduled.

According to two people with knowledge of the search process, McCaffery didn't present “the sincerity behind it that (Seton Hall) wanted.” The people requested anonymity so as to not publicly disparage McCaffery. McCaffery had been in Atlanta earlier that day, interviewing for the Iowa job.

Even though Seton Hall came away from the interview enjoying the Siena coach, something was off.

As one person put it: “He was the safe choice.”

Six days later in Iowa City, McCaffery would say the Iowa job was the one he wanted.

Meanwhile, DePaul and Oregon remain without coaches. Not long ago, ESPN's college basketball talking heads Digger Phelps and Dick Vitale said between the openings at Auburn, DePaul, Iowa, Seton Hall and St. John's, DePaul was the best.

Uh, no.

On Monday, this essay by Gary Parrish of CBSsports.com has some interesting points on why DePaul has overreached and why no one is making blockbuster hires. Seton Hall got Iona's Kevin Willard. St. John's signed Steve Lavin, who hadn't been in coaching for several years. Auburn landed UTEP's Tony Barbee.

DePaul and Oregon were still without coaches as of Wednesday night.

An excerpt from Parrish's column:

Every established high-major coach is already rich.

Everybody is making money.

This wasn't the case even six to eight years ago. Back then $1.5 million a year might make someone blink. But even Auburn -- Auburn, for crying out loud -- is paying $1.5 million a year for a basketball coach these days, and it now seems coaches who are comfortable and well-compensated won't uproot their families and start over unless the opportunity presented is presented by one of the nation's truly elite programs. It's not a coincidence that we haven't seen a comfortable and well-compensated BCS-level coach leave for anything but one of the nation's truly elite jobs (i.e., Indiana and Kentucky) since John Beilein left West Virginia for Michigan in 2007. It just doesn't happen anymore.