University of Tennessee at Chattanooga men’s basketball coach John Shulman interviewed for the University of North Carolina at Wilmington job Sunday, two sources with knowledge of the Seahawks’ coaching search told the Times Free Press.
Shulman met with UNCW athletic director Kelly Mehrtens in South Carolina, one source said, to discuss the vacancy that was created when Mehrtens reassigned former coach Benny Moss to another position in the athletic department with nine games left in the regular season.
Neither Shulman nor UTC athletics director Rick Hart answered their cell phones or returned text messages Sunday evening.
The Mocs went 15-18 this season, 6-12 in the Southern Conference. Shulman has an overall record of 105-90 (54-52 SoCon) in six seasons. Shulman has led the Mocs to three North Division titles, two SoCon tournament titles and two NCAA tournament appearances.
Shulman is the third SoCon coach associated with the Seahawks’ job. It was offered to The Citadel coach Ed Conroy but he accepted an offer from Tulane instead. Mehrtens has also spoken to Wofford coach Mike Young, according to the source.
According to a report in Saturday’s Wilmington StarNews, the job was offered to Kansas assistant coach Joe Dooley on Friday. Dooley told the Lawrence (Kan.) Journal World that he has spoken to Mehrtens about the position, but denied that he’d been offered the job.
One year ago, Shulman met with then-Texas Christian University athletics director Danny Morrison – a friend of 21 years – about their coaching opening. Shulman said then, “I never went on campus. I never got the chance to take (wife) Amy down there. It would have to be pretty special to get my family to leave Chattanooga.”