From around the Hofstra media community, here is some reaction to the hiring of Tim Welsh to be the new head coach for the Pride men’s basketball team:

Jon Lauder (former Hofstra football color commentator: “Good hire that has the potential to take Hofstra b-ball to the next level…”

Unidentified (by request): “An important hire for Hofstra Athletics… proves to the supporters of Hofstra sports that the University is still committed to athletics, despite the cutting of Football.”

Matt Greenstein (member of WRHU sports team): “no clue who he is so it should be interesting to see what he does, who he brings in and in all honesty if any of the young guys transfer”

AJ Voelpel (former writer for Hofstra Chroincle): “Final Four, Jenkins tourny MVP!!! … In all honesty, the former Big East should work out. He did recruit n coach Ryan Gomes. Which is kinda cool”

Kelly Glista (former writer for Nassau News Live): “Not really the direction I was expecting Hayes to go in on this one. ‘Expecting’ here also should be read as ‘hoping.’”

Tim Robertson (Editor of Nassau News Live): “My first Tim Welsh thought: What the heck did he say that made Jack Hayes go ‘wow, I need this guy’? I would’ve liked a big time assistant ala how VCU works. Seems to make things go well for them. I also hear Al Skinner is available. Perhaps Tim Cluess. I think this hire makes HU lose itself. They should recruit locally. And they can’t recruit locally if their coach doesn’t have roots and if Pecora takes his ass’ts with him, as rumored.”

Obviously, the reaction has been mixed. Some tempered optimism, some humor, and some “Who the heck is Welsh?”

I fall into the latter. The biggest problem I see with Welsh is sort of a Catch 22. He was hired, by my estimation, as a bigger-name guy to bring some attention to Hofstra. The flaw with this plan?

Not a lot of people know who Welsh is.

Sure, he coached at Providence and Iona, and has been an ESPN analyst. But until you Wikipedia the guy, you’re left thinking “Welsh?”

A recruit is going to feel the same way. By comparison, look at St. John’s. Steve Lavin, a West Coast guy, is brought in. The fear? He has no connections to New York. However, when you hear “Steve Lavin,” you immediately think UCLA, ESPN, awesome hair. (Okay, the last part can be debated).

Still, St. John’s now has a guy in charge with national pub.On recruiting visits Lincoln High, players will see Lavin or hear his name and immediately be intrigued.

Welsh, on the otherhand, despite any success he had in the Big East, doesn’t have that sort of name-drop ability. Now, I know what you’re saying. “This isn’t St. John’s … this is former-America East Hofstra.”

Sorry, I’ll call your bluff and raise you. First off, Hofstra has made it clear that they want to be the premiere program in New York. That’s why they gave Pecora $500K a year, that’s why they’re giving Welsh reportedly $600K a year, that’s why they left the America East for a better mid-major in the CAA, and that’s why they try to schedule the Red Storm whenever possible.

Second, what is the point of bringing in a guy that has limited local ties and limited national exposure? I hate to get all symbolic here, but isn’t this a double-edged sword, with each edge pointing toward the heart of the Hofstra basketball program? Hofstra should have gone one of three directions:

1. Try to $teal a guy from a program that just reached the NCAA Tourney. In other words, get a guy on the top of his game, with some national recognition.
2. Hire from within. Get Van Macon from Tom Pecora. At least he knows the players on the team, and you won’t lose Charles Jenkins, or Greg Washington, or Chazz Williams to transfer.
3. Get a local stud. A D2 coach (ie Cluess), a HS coach; someone from Long Island, that knows Long Island hoops, and that is known by Long Island hoopsters.

While Welsh can moonlight in categories one and three, he doesn’t nail either option. What’s going to end up happening is Hofstra is going to stall, may risk losing a guy or two on the current roster, and fall WAY behind St. John’s again as the Red Storm take over the LI/NYC recruiting area for any collegebound players looking to play locally.

The short of it? While there’s been plenty of praise given to Hayes for getting a Big East alum, the fact of the matter is he reached into his wallet for what essentially is Kathy Griffin - a D-Lister that no high school kid has heard of.

On the surface, it looks like the dream scenario for a mid-major. Add 32 teams to the Tournament, add 32 more Cinderella contenders, make the postseason that much more special.

Dig deeper, though, and you realize the expansion would mean the exact opposite. The big reason:

MAJOR CONFERENCE BIAS

These 32 teams won’t be Hofstra, won’t be Lafayette, won’t be Stony Brook, and won’t be Jacksonville. It will be Virginia Tech, and Rhode Island, and North Carolina, and Miami.

The bursted “Bubble” teams are more often than not, Majors that were beat up in conference, and saw their resume plummet as a result. You don’t see heartbreak on the face of Howard for getting snubbed - you see a decent team like Miami upset that their loss to Duke prevented them from making the Tournament.

The result? Average major teams taking out Cinderella possibilites. This year, you would see Ohio as a 22-seed playing against 11th-seeded Dayton getting their butts kicked. Old Dominion would be taking on North Carolina, preventing them from having a chance to knock off Notre Dame. And Cornell? They could have ended up with a date against Virginia Tech, possibly derailing them from ever getting a shot at Kentucky in the Sweet 16. Point?

You expand the Tournament, you add more teams with more $$ to recruit more talent, not more Horizon Leaguers or CAAers, but average SECers, ACCers and Pac-10ers.

So please, let’s keep it at 64. Because in college, 64>96.

When it comes to college basketball, my expertise is … well … limited.

Credibility destroyed. Shoot. Let me start again.

When it comes to college basketball, I know Hofstra hoops, I know that 65 teams (and counting) make the NCAA Tournament, and I know that my bracket is horrendous.

I don’t know much about Mike Rice, Robert Morris, or the Boston College basketball program.

That being said, I’d like to offer Rice some advice: DON’T GO ANYWHERE!

At least not yet.

This is all speculation; no confirmations, there’s no CAA deepthroat feeding my inside info, and I’m not BFFLs with Jack Hayes. But I’ve heard that Rice fits with Hofstra.

Problem is, I don’t know how much of an upgrade the Pride position is over RMU. Yea, the Pioneers play in the Northeast Conference. Still, Morris has been to the tourney lately, (and looked good doing it), Hofstra has not. Furthermore, the CAA is not a major conference; we’re talking one bid, just like the NEC, that’s it.

If I’m Rice, I wait for the dominos to fall. Wait for St. John’s to make a move. See who they poach a coach from. Just think - they could go Al Skinner, meaning Boston College will be vacant. Rice could get a look; if he doesn’t, wait for BC to do their poaching.

Rice’s stock is high right now, and he needs to cash in. As was seen with Pecora’s move from decent mid-major to worse sort-of-major, the Pride program may not be in the right state right now to be a major stepping stone. Jay Wright may be the exception, not the rule. So why should Rice jump ship from a Tournament team to an invitational (as in CBI) team?

What I’m saying is if Rice waits, he’ll get an upgrade - if he wants it -and it won’t be the secluded LI team in the middle of the CAA.

Quickly, on Pecora … You think he regrets his decision? As Seth Greenberg stays in Virginia Tech, and Paul Hewitt says he isn’t leaving Georgia Tech, the Red Storm’s list for possible coach replacements is getting dangerously close to “Please, Mark Jackson, come coach us!” territory.

Had Pecora waited, told Fordham give me a week (I doubt an 0-fer A-10 team has any big name guys knocking on their door), he could have went to a desperate St. John’s and taken a gig that was a clear step up from Hofstra; not, as I said yesterday, a lateral move.