Tommy Amaker to stay at Harvard

Tommy Amaker made the decision this afternoon that he would remain the head coach of the Harvard Crimson instead of taking an offer from Miami to fill the void left by Frank Haith.

"I am appreciative of and flattered by the interest shown in me by other fine universities, but I am proud and honored to represent Harvard," Amaker said in a statement released by Harvard on Tuesday. "I look forward to continuing my efforts to teach, lead and serve at this great institution."

On the surface, this looks like a surprising decision.

Amaker is the coach of an Ivy League program that hasn't made the NCAA Tournament since 1946. A few weeks ago, Sydney Johnson left Princeton, an Ivy powerhouse, to take the head coaching gig at Fairfield that was vacated by Ed Cooley. And Amaker turned down an offer from the ACC?


What may be even more surprising is that Amaker probably made the correct decision. Miami may be in the ACC, but it is not necessarily a great job. The athletic department is currently turning over, as the Canes just hired Shawn Eichorst as their new AD today. There is also the issue of the amount of funding that the basketball team would get. The Hurricanes don't have a large basketball budget when compared to other high-major programs, which essentially means that, unless the basketball program can immediately start filling the stands at their homes games or the University decides to dedicate more money to the team, whoever ends up taking the Miami gig will be running a program against a stacked deck.

And Harvard? Well, they aren't quite as bad as you think.

In four years, Amaker has taken this team from 8-22 to 23-7. He's legitimately been on the NCAA Tournament bubble the past two years, and even sent a player -- Jeremy Lin -- to the NBA this season.

Next year will actually be the best team that Amaker has had at Harvard. The Crimson return their entire roster from a year ago. That includes a front line of Kyle Casey and Keith Wright, both of whom are good enough to compete for a starting spot at most any school in the country. Their back court is quite talented as well, including Oliver McNally, Christian Webster, Brandyn Curry, and Laurent Rivard. All six of those players I mentioned averaged between 9.3 ppg and 14.3 ppg last season.

I'd be willing to bet that Harvard will actually be a better team than Miami next season.

I'd also be willing to bet that Amaker takes that Harvard team to the NCAA tournament.

And if he does, he'd likely be able to make a choice on where his next step would be. Then, if Amaker does decide to leave Harvard, it will likely be a better situation than Miami.

This isn't the first time this year that we've seen a head coach waive off a job at a bigger school. Shaka Smart parlayed his trip to the Final Four into a raise and a contract extension with VCU. Chris Mooney did the same with Richmond after making the Sweet 16. Last year, Brad Stevens re-upped with Butler after making the national title game.

So. Frank Martin?