SPORTS BRIEF: Former Michigan Basketball Coach Tommy Amaker Offered Harvard Head Coaching Vacancy

Former Michigan and Seton Hall coach Tommy Amaker is poised to become the next coach of the Harvard men’s basketball team, the Boston Globe reported late last night.

Amaker, a former Duke star in the 1980s, has not officially said yes to the reported offer, but “is expected to accept,” according to the Globe.

Players from the team who were contacted last night had no knowledge of any potential hiring.

“None of that’s been confirmed or told to us at all,” freshman forward Doug Miller said. He said that he expects the new coach to be announced “by midweek, in the next couple of days or so.”

Amaker would become just the second Crimson basketball coach in the last 16 years, after former Harvard coach Frank Sullivan was fired on March 5 after posting a 12-16 record overall and a 5-9 mark in the Ivy League.

“That’s news to us, just as well as everyone else,” freshman guard Alek Blankenau said of the report.

If hired, Amaker would bring a 109-83 career record with him to the Crimson, just weeks after being fired by the University of Michigan, where he won the NIT title in 2004 but failed to ever reach the NCAA tourmanet.

The Globe also reported that Amaker’s wife, Dr. Stephanie Pinder-Amaker, is expected to join the Harvard faculty. In a 2001 interview with the Michigan Daily, Amaker issued the following quote: “Any decision made in the Amaker household is a joint decision and I'm not the coach of that team.”

—THE CRIMSON STAFF