Boston College Fires Al Skinner

The winningest coach in Boston College history is apparently done. In a startling turnaround, Al Skinner went from being interviewed for the St. John's head coaching position on Friday to unemployed by Tuesday.

Appearances at first suggest that this is another freak-out by BC athletic director Gene DiFilippo over one of his coaches interviewing for another job -- DiFilippo fired the football coach Jeff Jagodzinski a little over a year ago for daring to interview for the New York Jets head coaching job. But that does not really seem to be the case. Jagodzinski went on the interview without permission. Skinner had been informed earlier last week that he would be fired. BC kept it quiet to give Skinner a chance to look for other jobs, including interviewing at St. John's.

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Iona: Targeting Fraschilla, Welsch Skinner did well in the St. John's interview, but the thing that cost him the shot was his unwillingness on the subject of assistant coaches. He insisted on bringing his staff from BC, which had no New York or New Jersey connections. St. John's wanted him to hire assistants with ties to the area. Now Skinner and his assistants are all looking for work.

Skinner had three years left on his contract, and has seen the program slip in the last couple of years since joining the ACC. The "diamonds in the rough" found and developed under Skinner -- Craig Smith, Jared Dudley and others -- began to become fewer and fewer. It's something that may have had more to do with former assistant Bill Coen moving to the head coaching job at Northeastern than BC's move from the Big East to the ACC.

BC is apparently interested in Richmond coach Chris Mooney and Cornell coach Steve Donahue. The fallbacks include Coen and Harvard coach (and former head coach at Michigan and Seton Hall) Tommy Amaker.