Boston College men’s basketball head coach Earl Grant was fired, marking the end of a disappointing five-season stretch on the Heights, including no ACC Tournament appearances in the past two years.
While the majority of the ACC spent the week jockeying for a conference title and potential seeding in the NCAA Tournament, BC kicked off its second coaching search for a head basketball coach in as many weeks.
The time has arrived to ask: Who will BC choose as the next coach to try and revive this once-proud program? Who will be given the task of breaking the second-longest NCAA Tournament drought in the power conferences?
Let’s look at some of the potential names that are rumored to be next in line.
Joe Gallo
Joe Gallo, the current head coach at Merrimack, is the name that has been tossed around the most as Grant’s potential replacement, and it’s easy to see why. Gallo has proven himself to be a winner, boasting a 123–90 record across seven Division I seasons with the Warriors.
Gallo was hired at Merrimack prior to the 2016–17 season, while the Warriors were still in D-II. In the three years that followed, Gallo led the Warriors to three straight NCAA D-II Tournament berths.
Gallo was then tasked with leading Merrimack’s move up to D-I in the 2019–20 season.
Over the next seven years, the Warriors won four regular-season conference titles across the NEC and Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) and won the 2023 NEC Tournament. They did not qualify for the NCAA Tournament due to the NCAA’s re-classification rule that prohibits first-year D-I programs from qualifying.
There are some drawbacks to Gallo.
His success has not come at a conference with much of a reputation—the NEC is an annual D-I bottom-feeder, and the MAAC, while having provided some Cinderella stories, isn’t much better. He’s also a coach who uses defense as his calling card, something that might give Eagles fans bad flashbacks to Grant’s “gritty, not pretty” mantra.
James Jones
In his 27 years at Yale, James Jones has turned the Bulldogs into the class of the Ivy League. In the last seven seasons, Jones has led the Bulldogs to five regular-season conference titles and four conference-tournament titles.
Since the 2015–16 season, when the Bulldogs made their first tournament appearance under Jones, they have gone 221–93, including a 108–33 record in conference play. Jones has also produced some success in March—in 2016, Yale beat Baylor in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, and it did the same to Auburn in 2024.
Jones fits a lot of what BC should be looking for in its next coach. He’s experienced, has produced and sustained success in March, and has done it all at a school where academics still matter.
If there’s any reason to doubt Jones’ long-term fit for the Eagles, it’s his age. He’s 62, and while he has shown no signs of slowing down, it’s tough to imagine he would stay on the Heights for too long, even if things are successful.
Eric Olen
In the past two seasons, Eric Olen has gone from an up-and-comer to a breakout star in the collegiate-coaching ranks. At this time last year, he was leading UC San Diego to the NCAA Tournament while capping off the Tritons’ best season ever—a 30–5 year that saw them barely lose to No. 5-seeded Michigan in the Round of 64.
A year later, he had New Mexico, a team that lost its entire rotation from a year ago to the portal or graduation, on the bubble and likely one win away from sealing a spot in the Big Dance.
Like Jones and Gallo, Olen has proven himself to be a winner while also taking the most desirable traits from each. Unlike Jones, Olen is relatively young (just 45 years old) and seems to be on the ascension of his coaching career.
Unlike Gallo, Olen has cut his teeth in competitive conferences that are either consistently multi-bid leagues (Mountain West) or home to 12 to 13 seeds in the tourney (Big West). If Olen is willing to come to the Heights, then BC should hire him immediately.
That’s a big if, though. New Mexico is inarguably a better job than BC. Sure, BC has the conference prestige, but basketball is the biggest sport on campus in Albuquerque. Just look up their arena, nicknamed “The Pit.” New Mexico has made the tournament two years in a row, even winning a game as an at-large last year.
So, unless BC is really ponying up to get Olen, it’s hard to see him leaving.
Luke Murray / Kimani Young
Luke Murray and Kimani Young are both current assistants to Dan Hurley at UConn, where they were part of the Huskies’ back-to-back title runs in 2023 and 2024. Both boast significant coaching experience, with Murray having 19 seasons of D-I experience and Young having 20.
Both have been credited with being key parts of the Huskies’ recent dominance, including recruiting, scouting, and in-game management. Murray has specifically been in charge of a UConn offense that has been top five in KenPom’s efficiency rankings multiple times over the past five years.
The obvious objection to both candidates is that neither has any previous head coaching experience at any level. But as has been proven recently by Miami’s Jai Lucas and South Florida’s Bryan Hodgson, high-level assistants can help bring immediate success to their new programs.
Jay Larranaga
Jay Larranaga is an interesting name who has been brought up as a candidate for the head coaching role.
Currently an assistant coach for the Los Angeles Clippers, Larranaga has never been on a collegiate coaching staff and has spent his entire 14-year career in the NBA. He does have a connection to BC Director of Athletics Blake James—he is the son of Jim Larranaga, who coached at Miami while James was there—which seems to be one of the reasons his name continues to pop up.
Despite Larranaga lacking head coaching experience at any level, he has some traits that could bode well for him. He has worked under two of the best basketball minds of the modern era—Tyronn Lue and Brad Stevens—and there has been a recent precedent of NBA assistants coming to college and finding success in Brigham Young’s Kevin Young and Florida State’s Luke Loucks.
Jared Dudley
A name familiar to Eagles fans, thanks to his decorated four-year career on the Heights, Jared Dudley also lacks head coaching experience. Dudley has only been coaching in the NBA since 2021, meaning he is by far the least experienced coach on this list.
While a homecoming for Dudley would be a great story, it’s a hire that would likely not be received too well, given his relative lack of experience and the poor track record of former NBA players returning to their alma maters as head coaches—think Juwan Howard at Michigan or Chris Mullin at St. John’s.
Closing Thoughts
This is by no means an all-inclusive list of potential candidates for BC.
There’s a plethora of other mid-major coaches that will likely be getting a look, including Colgate’s Matt Langel, Tulsa’s Eric Konkol, and Siena’s Gerry McNamara.
BC could also look the other way, attempting to hire a former power-conference coach who might have failed at the highest level, such as Arizona State’s Bobby Hurley.
George Mason’s Tony Skinn is predicted to be a hot commodity, but it’s hard to imagine him settling for BC if he is a candidate for other power-conference roles.
So where should BC go? Out of this group, Olen would be the slam-dunk hire that would trigger the radars of even the steadfast BC doubters. If Olen is a no-go, then Gallo or one of the UConn assistants would be my pick from this list.
It’s impossible to deny that, with all three coming from winning backgrounds, they would help bring that winning culture to BC. All have extensive experience recruiting in New England, something BC has notably struggled to do in recent years, and could bring in high-end talent immediately.
The caveat to this hire is that it won’t matter who is tabbed to lead the Eagles if BC does not commit more resources to the basketball program. It’s no secret that Grant was not exactly on an even playing field with his ACC counterparts when it came to NIL, and it’s going to be hard for anybody to find success if that doesn’t change.
BC isn’t an easy place to win, and the Eagles are only going to fall further and further behind if something doesn’t change soon. The good news is, based on who BC has been entertaining in this coaching search, they seem to finally be serious about putting a winning product on the hardwood in Conte Forum.
But first, BC needs its leader. Whoever it is will be thrown straight into the fire, trying to rebuild a program that hasn’t made the tournament in nearly 20 years. That task will not be made easier by the fact that a large portion of this year’s team will likely be entering the transfer portal, or the fact that there’s not much of a hoops culture on the Heights to sell to recruits.
The team and program that steps on the court in early November is going to be vastly different from the one that walked off it last Saturday—and for the sake of Eagles fans, let’s hope that change is for the better.
