Penn State assistant to interview at St. Francis

The biggest name so far, from a local standpoint anyway, has surfaced in St. Francis’ search for a new men’s basketball coach.

Penn State’s top assistant, Kurt Kanaskie, will interview for the Red Flash job next week, the Mirror has learned. St. Francis officials would not confirm Kanaskie is a candidate, and he did not return a phone message left with PSU media relations Thursday afternoon.

Kanaskie, 50, is expected to be on the Loretto campus Wednesday to interview for the job.

Kanaskie just finished his fifth season on the Nittany Lions’ bench under head coach Ed DeChellis. The Mechanicsburg native has extensive head coaching experience, with some outstanding and some poor results.

Kanaskie was head coach at Drake from 1996-2003 and was forced out after compiling a record of 62-136. He inherited a Drake program that was on probation and went 0-36 in Missouri Valley Conference play his first two seasons.

Kanaskie did, however, enjoy great success during an eight-year stint as Division II IUP’s head coach from 1988-96. He led the team to seven consecutive winning seasons, a No. 1 national ranking during the 1995-96 campaign and a spot in the national semifinals later that season.

He twice was named Division II National Coach of the Year by Basketball Times and compiled a 152-75 record at IUP.

Before going to IUP, Kanaskie was 55-32 in three seasons at Lock Haven. He played at LaSalle.

He joins St. Joseph’s assistant Mark Bass and Baylor assistant Matthew Driscoll as the candidates, so far, for the St. Francis job. The school also may interview anywhere from one to three more candidates.