In an ultimate example of coincidence, two years to the day he was introduced as Ohio’s coach, Jim Christian will be moving on from Athens.
Boston College confirmed midday Thursday that Christian will take over as the Eagles’ next coach.
“First of all, I’m tremendously excited and humbled to take over a program with the history and tradition of Boston College,” Christian said. “If you look at the great coaches and the success that they’ve had over there, it’s a situation where you wake up every day and you just can’t wait to get to work.”
Christian will be replacing the recently fired Steve Donahue, who went 54-76 in his four seasons with the Eagles. That includes an 8-24 overall mark this past season, which also included a 4-14 finish in Atlantic Coast Conference play — good for the second-worst record in the conference.
The Eagles first approached Harvard coach Tommy Amaker to fill the position, but Amaker made clear his intentions to remain with the Crimson on March 29 — 11 days after Donahue was fired.
Boston College also interviewed Syracuse assistant Steve Hopkins and St. Bonaventure coach Mark Schmidt before removing them as candidates Tuesday.
Christian, the Mid-American Conference’s all-time winning percentage leader, will take over a program that has made 18 NCAA Tournament appearances and has advanced to the Elite Eight just three times in its history.
He also finds himself in the ACC, competing against four coaches who have won a national championship and three of the past five NCAA Tournament champions.
Before heading to Athens, Christian coached at Texas Christian University for four seasons, compiling a record of 56-73. In his final season with the Horned Frogs, Christian led the team to an 18-15 record, which broke a seven-season losing streak.
The start of Christian’s head coaching career was at Kent State, where he posted an overall record of 137-59. Under his watch, the Flashes had six consecutive seasons with more than 20 wins and made two appearances in the NCAA Tournament.
As an assistant, Christian made stops at Western Kentucky, St. Francis, Miami, Pittsburgh and Kent State. His college playing career started at Boston University, but transferred to Rhode Island after two seasons.
At Ohio, Christian amassed a 49-22 overall record, sharing one MAC regular season championship with Akron in 2013. The Bobcats made an appearance in the MAC Tournament championship game that season but fell to the Zips 65-46.
The Bobcats made two postseason appearances with Christian, bowing out in the first round of the National Invitation Tournament his first year before making the quarterfinals of the CollegeInsider.com Tournament this season.
“I want to thank Jim Christian for all he did for our program during his tenure,” Ohio Director of Athletics Jim Schaus said in a statement. “I wish he and his family the very best in the future. Moving forward, we will begin a national search immediately.”
Christian said that he contacted everyone on the Ohio roster early in the week to let them know he was in the running for the Boston College job.
“When these things come up, I always tell them I’m gonna be honest with them and up front with them, and I was,” Christian said. “So I met with them again (Thursday) at 3:15 and told them because of their hard work that I was fortunate enough to have this opportunity and I took it.”
According to Christian’s contract, OU is owed a $500,000 buyout because he left before May 1. He earned an annual salary of $425,000.
@c_hoppens
ch203310@ohiou.edu
Timeline of
Christian's Coaching Search
March 18: Former Boston College coach Steve Donahue fired
March 26: Ohio loses to Virginia Military Institute to end its 2014-15 season
April 1: ESPN’s Jeff Goodman reports that Jim Christian had interviewed for Boston College coaching job
April 4: Boston College announces Christian as its next head coach
