According to the e-mail bylined by Chris Dokish from Pittsburgh Sports Report, Coach Jamie Dixon has made the hirings for the vacancies in the various coaching spots.

The associate head coach position that was vacated by Barry Rohrssen when he left to become the head coach at Manhattan, will reportedly be filled by St. Joseph’s assistant Mike Rice, Jr.; while the director of basketball operations slot, previously held by the promoted Orlando Antigua, will be filled by former Panther player Brandin Knight.

Rice is a Pittsburgh native and son of former Duquesne head coach Mike Rice, Sr., who is now the play-by-play announcer for the Portland Trailblazers. The 37-year old Rice spent the last three seasons at St. Joseph’s under Phil Martelli, who hired Rice after seeing him excel as the director of the Eastern Invitational Basketball Camp in New Jersey. The Eastern Invitational bills itself as the biggest and most influential exposure camp in the United States, with over 900 coaches from every level attending yearly.

Prior to Rice’s stint at the Eastern Invitational, he served as an assistant for 10 years at the college level with stops at his alma mater, Fordham, as well as Marquette, Niagara, and Chicago State.

According to the report, Knight may not actually join the team until the end of the summer.

I don’t know enough about Mike Rice to sound like I know what I’m talking about, and I have other things to do and enjoy today. Superficially, it looks like a damn fine hire. He seems to have a lot of NJ and Philly connections that are vital to Big East recruiting.

I’ll try to have more later.