When Melanie Balcomb left Xavier University two weeks ago, athletic director Mike Bobinski said he was concerned that top-flight candidates might not be available in late spring. Then his phone started ringing.

        Bobinski said Tuesday he had contact with about 50 coaches who had interest.

        “Once we got into it, it was: "You know what? It's going to be fine,'” he said. “I honestly feel every one of the people we ultimately talked to could all do the job.”

        Now, Bobinski said, XU must decide who's the best of that bunch. Bobinski expects to bring one or two of the candidates to campus and have a coach named either late this week or early next week.

        Bobinski will not discuss specific candidates, but these are the five coaches with whom he conducted off-campus interviews late last week:

        • Kevin McGuff: The Notre Dame assistant is a Badin High alum and spent three years as a Miami University assistant. In 1999, he was named the third-best assistant in the country by Women's Basketball Journal. He recently withdrew his name from Providence's coaching search.

        “The (XU) job would be very, very special to me,” McGuff said.

        • Sandy Botham: She rebuilt Wisconsin-Milwaukee's program, going 97-71 in six years and reaching the program's first NCAA Tournament (2001). She played at Notre Dame and assisted there from 1991-95.

        • Tricia Cullop: The Evansville head coach, who turned 31 in April, is among the youngest head coaches in the country. She is 28-30 in two years at Evansville, prior to which she was Balcomb's assistant at XU for four years.

        • Jan Jensen: The Iowa assistant helped the Hawkeyes win the 2001 Big Ten title. As a Drake senior in 1991, she led the country in scoring (29.6 ppg).

        • Gary McDaniel: The Cincinnati State coach has built a junior-college power, winning 202 games and reaching the 2001 Elite Eight.

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