Kavanagh says he doesn’t think Dooley interviewed with Saint Louis

Citing sources, KMOV-TV in St. Louis reports that FGCU men’s basketball coach Joe Dooley interviewed for the Saint Louis University head basketball coaching vacancy on Tuesday. The Naples Daily News quoted Dooley as saying, “whatever transpires, transpires. But I assume I’ll be back” after getting off what he called a recruiting flight on Tuesday.

FGCU Athletic Director Ken Kavanagh told WINK Sports he hasn’t heard anything about Dooley interviewing with Saint. Louis. “I have a real good relationship with Chris May, the AD at SLU and there’s just no reason for him not to buzz me if he had an interest in talking to Joe” said Kavanagh.  “I’ve got a pretty open line with our coaches and if they need to talk or want to talk to another school and they work within their contract they have every right to.”

Dooley has a 65-38 record in three seasons as the Eagles head coach including a trip to the NCAA Tournament this season. He came to FGCU from Kansas where he was an assistant coach for the Jayhawks. A job at Saint Louis would likely pay a lot more than what FGCU can afford to match but it would also likely be harder to win there. The Billikens were 11-21 this season and finished 13th out of 14 teams in the Atlantic-10 Standings. Saint Louis was young though with only one senior on the team.