Billy Donovan is a graduate of Providence and a legend there. Of course, even if Providence could somehow match the money he makes as coach at Florida, he’s not taking their vacant coaching job.

Just as Ohio State coach Thad Matta left his alma mater, Butler for the Xavier job, alumni ties only matter when the gig is better than the one you have. If the jobs are equal, then then money has to be better.

I mention this because the TCU job is now open. It’s not a particularly good job to take. It’s in the Mountain West. It’s behind everyone in the Big 12 and the school doesn’t put a lot into the program.

That doesn’t stop the silly talk.

He needs to go June Jones on Pitt coach Jamie Dixon.

Full-court press him. Money-whip him. Beg him. Make him an offer he finds himself unable to refuse because he has never seen that big of a number in front of that many zeroes. You know and I know you can afford it, Danny.

Of course, you are probably thinking: Why would Dixon leave Pitt, currently a No. 4 seed in the NCAA Tournament, for TCU, even with a truckload of cash for an incentive?

He is an alum, for starters. And he’s a beloved alum at that, responsible for “The Shot Heard Around The Southwest Conference.”

Dixon also wanted this job back when former AD Eric Hyman hired Dougherty. Oops. Yes, even from South Carolina, Hyman has to want a mulligan on what ultimately has to be chalked up as a monumental screw up.

The other thing is there is something a bit fishy about the whole Pitt situation because word always seems to be leaking about how unhappy this coach or that coach is there.

This is not to say Dixon is unhappy or eagerly awaiting a call from his former school. To get him to listen, to get him to consider jumping from a Big East power into an obvious rebuilding situation is going to take a lot of selling. And a lot of money.

I always love that. The presumption that a program that hasn’t really cared in quite some time, and has never spent the money will just change it’s mind and it happens.

Beyond that silliness is a simple reality of contingency planning from Dixon’s side of things. As the columnist points out, Dixon is a “beloved alum.” Dixon has also established himself as a top coach. To go completely cynical, if things were to suddenly go completely wrong and downhill over the next several years and Dixon found himself unemployed. Don’t you think TCU would still be happy to get him? A proven coach with a trackrecord of success and an alum from one of their best teams in the past 30 years?
Even if TCU found themselves with a successful coach in the intervening years, the nature of the business means that one would be moving on anyways. TCU is merely vital fallback/insurance for Dixon.