Keady Is Purdue’s Coach -- for the Time Being

Gene Keady still believes he will leave Purdue on his terms. He’s not sure yet when the moment might come.

In his most extensive comments since interviewing with the University of San Francisco, Keady said Friday that he had no timetable for deciding whether to accept any offer that he might receive to coach the Dons.

Keady, who has coached at Purdue for 24 seasons, has one year remaining on the contract he signed in 2001.

“You’ve got to do what you’ve got to do,” he said. “I’m happy, my wife’s happy. We love Purdue.”

Keady, the longest tenured coach in the Big Ten, made it clear he would like to stay with Purdue if he could get a contract extension.

“Sure, I’d like to be back, but you’ve got to take it day-to-day,” he said.

Purdue Athletic Director Morgan Burke was traveling to Seattle -- where the Boilermaker women play today in the NCAA tournament -- and was unavailable for comment. Burke said no announcement was expected until early next week.

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The first five days of the NCAA tournament are the highest-rated since 2000. CBS’ five-day coverage averaged a national rating of 5.6 with a 13 share. That’s up 2% from the 5.5 with a 13 share in 2002, and the best since a 5.8 rating with a 13 share in 2000.

The window on Thursday night from 9:35 p.m. to 12:17 a.m. EST, which featured Saint Joseph’s 84-80 victory over Wake Forest, earned an average national rating of 7.2 with a 13 -- the highest for that window since 1994.

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Perry Clark was fired as Miami coach after a second consecutive losing season that included a 10-game losing streak.

Clark was 65-54 in four seasons with the Hurricanes -- 25-33 the last two seasons. Miami will have to pay $2.5 million for the three years that remained on his contract.

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Billy Lange, 32, became one of the youngest Division I head coaches when he was introduced as coach at Navy. He had been director of basketball operations at Villanova since 2001.

Navy is 23-63 since 2001 and is coming off a 5-23 season that prompted Don DeVoe to retire last month after 12 seasons.

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Jimmy Tubbs was hired as Southern Methodist coach. Before spending the last two seasons as an Oklahoma assistant, he was on SMU’s staff for 12 years.