Nothing seems to get done quickly at San Bernardino Valley College. So it should be no surprise that the school is no closer to hiring a men’s basketball coach than it was months ago. That’s too bad because it was once the marquee sport at the school.

Gerry Wright did an admirable job the last two years, taking over in an emergency situation two years ago when Derrick Pugh (hired after the departure of Phil Mathews) was dismissed in December, just hours before a game.

Wright directed the team to a Foothill Conference title in 2006-07 and had his team in contention on the last day this season, despite having two big-time players.

But the school did not want to keep him on because the full-time staff position is based in the PE department, meaning he needed a master’s in PE. Forget that he has a master’s in education which would seem more impressive anyway. And forget that he has taught PE at every level.

So the job was listed again and now we wait.

Rumor is that the school has an impressive pool of candidates. But interviews haven’t even started and quality coaches aren’t going to stick around and wait for SBVC to do something. They’re going to look elsewhere before its too late.

And that means no one is out recruiting either. There are reasons athletes are still available late in the summer and none of them are usually good.

The longer this drags out, the worse the season is likely to be. The school is putting whoever it does choose behing the eight-ball from the start.

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