In the ultimate example of coincidence, two years to the day since he was introduced as coach of Ohio, Jim Christian will be moving on from Athens.
Boston College confirmed mid-day Thursday that Christian will take over as the Eagles’ next coach.
Christian will be replacing Steve Donahue, who went 54-76 in his four seasons with the Eagles. That includes an 8-24 overall mark this season and a 4-14 finish in conference play, which was good for the second worst record in the Atlantic Coast Conference.
Donahue was then terminated on March 18.
The Eagles first approached Harvard head coach Tommy Amaker to fill the position, but Amaker made clear his intentions to remain with the Crimson on March 29.
Boston College also interview Syracuse assistant Steve Hopkins and St. Bonaventure head 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.
He also finds himself in the ACC, competing against four coaches who have won a national championship and three of the last five NCAA Tournament champions.
Before heading to Athens, Christian coached at Texas Christian 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 had 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 and making the quarterfinals of the CollegeInsider.com Tournament in this season.
According to Christian’s contract, the university is owed a $500,000 buyout since he left before May 1.
ch203310@ohiou.edu
@c_hoppens
