By Mel Greenberg
PHILADELPHIA _ The Guru, after continuing to execute a little journalism, had a late-night philly cheesesteak in the neighborhood of the home office with the South Carolina coach-select and one of her longtime assistants Wednesday, who is also heading to Columbia, as Dawn Staley took a brief break from packing up her current Temple office.
Watching all the mementos being assembled for transfer reminded the Guru of those scenes in Washington when the presidency undergoes a change and movement day arrives at the White House.
"Enjoy this," Staley grinned to Lisa Boyer. "These kind of places won't be open at this hour in Columbia, nor will several others on Sundays."
Why is the Guru even bothering to note this?
Because he realized the main reporting of Wednesday's news is all on the Inquirer sports print-side of Philly.com and he was looking for a way to detour all that wonderful record web traffic that has been flowing through here the last several days.
Philly.com gave the Guru a count of about 5,000 hits off of Tuesday's initial reporting of Staley's accelerated negotiations with South Carolina at the time.
Meanwhile, although the Guru's alma mater, Staley's lame-duck employers, are not paying the Guru to be a way station for those interested in becoming the next Temple women's head coach, more names are floating in this direction since the Guru first created a long list of possibilities earlier this week.
Since that posting, some additional names either whispered in our direction directly or through intermediates, some of which have yet to be confirmed, and especially those with Philly ties are Loyola of Maryland coach Joe Logan, a former St. Joseph's assistant to Cindy Griffin; Rhode Island assistant Ervin Monier, who was one of Staley's early Temple assistants responsible for the finding of one Candice Dupree; former Temple star Marilyn Stephens, who is coaching in Florida and is a graduate of Gratz; Connecticut assistant Tonya Cardoza, Baylor assistant Rich Barron, who previously was in this area as the head coach of Princeton; and former Illinois coach Theresa Grentz who is back in the area as assistant to the president at Grentz's alma mater of Immaculata.
The Guru will be on that phase of the Temple story once athletic director Bill Bradshaw returns from football meetings in Phoenix and the search team is assembled. The names heading in this direction is quite a different story than in 2000 when the last vacancy existed before Staley's hire.
If he catches the right train, the Guru will be making a quick trip to Manhattan for the late morning WNBA exhibition game in Madison Square Garden between the host New York Liberty and Washington Mystics.
On Saturday, it's off to the 30th anniversary salute to Villanova coach Harry Perretta on the Wildcats' campus for his three decades of coaching the women.
Penn State coach Coquese Washington will be in the area as part of the Nittany Lions' annual statewide tour of alumni groups that will also include football coach Joe Paterno and men's basketball coach Ed DeChellis.
Incidentally, Philly.com is undergoing a move to a new platform this weekend but our own Jonathan Tannenwald, who is deeply involved in the transition, informs the Guru site will be handled with care if involved this weekend.
-- Mel
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