Applications for the job, which opened when Becky Geyer resigned on March 1, are now being accepted through Friday. “Probably in the 3-5 range, maybe 6 or 7,” Jaynes said. “We’ll try to identify the top candidates we think would fit, but there’s not a magical number. I wish there were.
“I hope we have a candidate among the group. We’re not going to cut it to 30 or 50 or 10. We’re going to try to identify the best candidates in the pool and then we’ll go from there. Hopefully we get it down to somewhere in the 3-5 range. I don’t think it’ll be less than three.”
As of last week, more than 75 applications have been received from college head coaches, assistants and high school coaches.
JSU assistant and former South Carolina State coach Tonya Mackey has expressed interest in the job.
“I’ve been pleased with the response,” Jaynes said. “We’d like to have somebody be here eager about the job, about the position and understand the parameters of the job and where we are, somebody who can add to our program and to the university.”
Jaynes said there is no timetable for filling the position. He said the Gamecocks did not have a representative at the Women’s Final Four as part of the process.
JSU senior woman administrator Tracy Broom, a former JSU basketball All-American, is the chairwoman of the search committee.
The group also includes a current women’s team player Jaynes declined to identify and the school’s NCAA faculty rep Mary Maureen Newton, a former UAB women’s basketball player.
“I think they have a little better feel than somebody who hasn’t been involved in the sport,” Jaynes said of having former players on the committee. “I’ll lean on them because they both have played collegiately.”
