Three coaches, three days

The Furman men's basketball program has a distinctive void to fill with its head coaching position.
It seeks more from a candidate than just the ability to prepare for opponents, design offensive/defensive sets and make adjustments. Candidates must also show that they can recruit exceptional players under high academic standards.
Furman Athletics Director Gary Clark has put maximum effort into filling the void. As a result, Clark has already conducted two interviews this week with Vanderbilt assistant coach Jeff Jackson (Wednesday) and Golden State Warriors assistant coach Russell Turner (Thursday). Current interim head coach Niko Medved will be interviewed today.
Jackson and Turner met with members of the athletic department as well as Furman president David Shi during their visits. Both candidates also met with the basketball team.
Clark acknowledged that Furman had candidates on campus but would not comment on personal issues or processes.
All three candidates succeeded as assistants at strong academic programs. Jackson and Turner's achievements were documented on a national level at major programs.
Jackson has a reputation for being a solid recruiter at several prestigious schools. A nationally-ranked Commodore recruiting class in 2004 highlights his current six-year stint at Vanderbilt. The recruiting class placed him on Rivals.com's list of the top 25 recruiters in college basketball that year.
His assistantship at Stanford University brought him the most accolades. Jackson was responsible for recruiting student-athletes that average 20 wins per year for the Cardinal including back-to-back NCAA Tournament appearances.
The Cornell graduate also possesses three years of head coaching experience at the University of New Hampshire.
Turner joins Jackson as another candidate with coaching experience at Stanford. Before joining the Warriors in 2004, he contributed to the recruitment of Cardinal teams that sported a 73-20 record in three years.
These teams hoisted a Pacific-10 Championship trophy and enjoyed three NCAA tournament appearances.
As an assistant at Wake Forest from 1994 to 2000, his teams had a 131-61 record, which included two ACC Championships and an NIT Championship.
Medved's accomplishments can be found walking around Furman's campus. The seven year assistant under former head coach Larry Davis played an integral part in recruiting Moussa Diagne, Eric Webb and Jadee Jones. He was also on board for three straight winning seasons at Furman.
This year the Paladins went 15-13 and 8-8 in the Southern Conference. The season ended on a low as Furman went 3-7 in their last 10 games including a first-round SoCon Tournament loss to the Citadel, who won just one game in the conference.
Clark said recently that the coaching search could be over as soon as Monday.