Pitt Coaching Candidates: Panthers to interview Bryce Drew, Mike Lonergan, Andy Enfield

Pitt's coaching search rolls on and the Panthers already appear out of the mix on Sean Miller and Archie Miller, two big targets that have been popular mentions by the fanbase. Former Pitt coach, Ben Howland, was also said to have been on the Panthers' initial contact list but reportedly said he wasn't interested.

Pitt has turned its sights to a few others and, per the Post-Gazette's Paul Zeise, the Panthers will be interviewing three in short order - Bryce Drew, Mike Lonergan, and Andy Enfield. Others seem to be in the mix as well, but these are the guys Zeise noted today as getting interviews.

Here's a quick look at those guys:

Bryce Drew (Valparaiso head coach) - Simply put, Drew is Valpo. He went to high school in Valparaiso, played college ball there taking them to a Sweet 16, and now is the head coach there. He was an assistant there for several years before taking over for his father, who was the head coach there and retired in 2011. All told, he's spent about 15 years there as a player and coach. Drew has had a modest career as a head coach in terms of postseason success. His Valparaiso teams have done well in the conference - they've won at least 25 games in three of his five years. The flipside is that Drew has led them to only two NCAA Tournament appearances and hasn't gotten beyond the first weekend. You'd expect that with more talent, however, he could go deeper and another positive about Drew is that at only 41, he's a guy that could have a long career. With no ties here, there's no guarantees he'd stick around, but the same argument was made against Jamie Dixon, who stayed here for 13 seasons as head coach.

Mike Lonergan (George Washington head coach) - Lonergan has been around longer and with George Washington for five seasons. He's another guy that's had some regular season success but not much in the postseason at D-I. With the Colonials, he's only been to the NCAA Tournament once and at his previous stop at Vermont, led them to the NCAA Tournament only once in six seasons. Lonergan did have success in D-III winning a national championship, but at D-I, hasn't had much postseason success.

Andy Enfield (USC head coach) - Enfield has some local ties and is from Shippensburg, PA. He led Florida Gulf Coast to the Sweet 16 a few years ago, knocking off No. 2 seed Georgetown along the way. In the past three years, he's been the head coach at USC and led them to 21 wins this season and the NCAA Tournament this year. One interesting thing with Enfield is that he had six years as an NBA assistant with the Milwaukee Bucks and Boston Celtics. He also has some ACC experience as an assistant with Florida State for five seasons. Enfield's done quite a bit of job-hopping so I'm not sure if he'd be a long-term fix that would be interested in settling here. But again, like Dixon, you never know.

I'm not sure where I come out on these three guys. My preference if you asked would probably be Drew or Enfield. I know a lot of fans would lean towards Enfield but Drew's record shouldn't be overlooked. Winning 25 or more games isn't something that happens all that easily and he's also had a winning record in all five of his seasons at Valparaiso.

Given all of that, which direction would you go if it came down to these three guys plus current assistant Brandin Knight, who will get an interview if he hasn't already?

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