That Duquesne Head Coach Ron Everhart may be a leading candidate to take over at Penn State is amusing. For what little attention is being paid to it,  the overall reaction to the news is essentially, meh. Everhart has done a nice job to make Duquesne competitve from their 3-25 record before he got there. But he has yet to win big games, and no NCAA appearances. Nor did he have NCAA appearances at McNeese St. or Northeastern on his coaching climb.

What makes the potential choice of Everhart odd is that he is coaching on the wrong side of the state. If PSU were pursuing the head coach of LaSalle or Penn, or a current or former assistant from Villanova it would make sense. There’s still more talent in Philly for basketball, and even if it doesn’t apply in basketball so much the Penn State name probably has more cache there.

The idea of Everhart at Penn State is also fun for another reason. When he was hired at Duquesne five years ago, I couldn’t help but notice the press conference and some reactions. He thanked some specific people. People like Bob Huggins, Sonny Vaccaro and local AAU guy (and onetime advisor to Terrelle Pryor) J.O. Stright.

Everhart started having success at Northeastern after hiring some guy from the Miami AAU circuit — Frank Martin. Everhart also got a bunch of players from Notre Dame Prep while they were being coached by some guy named Bill Barton. Er, well, nothing to see there.

To paraphrase Gregg Doyel, “If Everhart was the best Penn St. could do, then Everhart was the best Penn St. could do.”