Penn assistant Gallagher leaves for Hartford post

John Gallagher graduated from Saint Joseph's in 1999. Almost immediately, Speedy Morris hired him as an assistant coach at La Salle. After working for Billy Hahn (also La Salle), Fran O'Hanlon (Lafayette), Dan Leibovitz (Hartford), Glen Miller and Jerome Allen (Penn), Gallagher, 32, had served an 11-year coaching apprenticeship following his time as a player for Phil Martelli at St. Joe's and Bud Gardler at Cardinal O'Hara High.

He wanted to be a head coach. What he needed was a chance. A week after taking an assistant coach's job at Boston College under Steve Donahue, the chance came Tuesday when Leibovitz suddenly resigned at Hartford to take Gallagher's former assistant job at Penn.

Hartford made one call - to Gallagher. The job was discussed and essentially offered on Wednesday. Gallagher accepted. He will be introduced as Hartford's coach this morning.

When he was at Hartford for 2 years (2006-08), Gallagher was a beloved assistant. He recruited and coached many of Hartford's upperclassmen. Now, he returns 2 years after he left to coach many of those same players again.

"Division I coaching jobs are few and far between," Gallagher said. "To get an opportunity like this at a place I know is a dream come true."

This might seem like a bizarre trade, but, in reality, was just a very strange set of circumstances in the annual coaching carousel. Leibovitz, a Penn grad and classmate of Allen's at Episcopal Academy, wanted the chance to come back home and work with his good friend, Allen. Which opened up the Hartford job for Gallagher.

Donahue and Gallagher had been talking for years about coaching together. They lasted a week.

"I don't want to hear about [Rick] Pitino and [Mike] Krzyzewski," Donahue said with a laugh. "I move guys. It only took me a week. This is a wacky business."

Donahue will miss the chance to work with Gallagher, but told him: "You've got to take it. This is unbelievable."

He also said: "For selfish reasons only, I love him here because he'd be great. He did a great job in a week. The guys loved him. I'm happy for him . . . He could work 5 years here and hope to get that opportunity."

You can just look at the names Gallagher played for and coached under and it is clear he has learned a lot of basketball over the last 20 years. Now, he can use all he has learned on a team where he will have the final say.

When Cornell was looking for a head coach a decade ago, it went to the Fran Dunphy coaching tree and selected Steve Donahue, who was Dunphy's assistant coach at Penn. That worked out so well that the Big Red won the last three Ivy League titles and made this year's Sweet 16. Donahue parlayed that success into the Boston College job.

So Cornell is now looking for a head coach again. A call was made to Temple, where former Penn player Matt Langel is one of Dunphy's assistants. Langel was interested, so he was in Ithaca, N.Y., on Tuesday and Wednesday talking to Cornell officials about the job.

"Where he is in the pecking order, I don't think he knew," Dunphy said of Langel. "He said he went, did a good job and it was terrific. He's fired up about it. They did not offer him the job; they did not talk any details. They have a couple more people they want to talk to."

Cornell is expected to decide within a week. Donahue was an assistant at Penn when Langel was a player there.

"They said he did a great job," Donahue said. "They loved him. So it depends on how the other guys do."

Apparently, there are three other assistants involved in the Cornell job. A decision is expected within a week. *