Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Alabama to talk to Grant


Are Virginia and Georgia next in line?
03/24/2009

The RTD confirmed that the University of Alabama has received permission to talk to VCU basketball coach Anothy Grant.

VCU athletic director Norwood Teague was contacted by his Alabama counterpart, Mal Moore, late Saturday night. Teague granted access to the 42 year old coach on Monday.

Alabama has been developing its list of candidates since mid-January after Mark Gottfried was forced to resign as the Crimson Tide's head coach.

Gottfried posted a record of 210-132 in 10 plus seasons with Alabama. He guided the Tide to their first number 1 ranking in School history in 2002. In 2004 he took his team to its first ever Elite Eight appearence. The Tide are coming off their second straight losing season in the SEC.

In addition to Alabama, Grant has been mentioned as the leading candidate for the head coaching vacancies at Virginia and Georgia. Georgia has denied any contact. According to the RTD, Georgia Sports Information Director Claude Felton strongly denied the report, saying "in my time here at UGA, I don't know that I have seen more erroneous reporting."

There are also rumors circulating that Grant maybe in consideration for the head coaching position at Kentucky should current head coach Billy Gillispie not be retained.

Grant was named the head coach at Virginia Commonwealth on April 18, 2006, and guided the Rams to NCAA tournament berths in 2007 and 2009 and to the National Invitation Tournament in 2008.

He has compiled a 76-24 record at the school, including an astounding 45-9 in Colonial Athletic Association play. Grant has 3 CAA regular season titles and 2 Conference Tournament titles in his 3 years at VCU.

Anthony Grant is currently under contract through the 2013-14 season at an estimated $700,000 annually, with performance bonuses that could push it past $850,000.

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