Joe Mazzulla is a finalist for head coaching job

For four years, Joe Mazzulla was a floor general for the West Virginia basketball team.

For the past four years, he’s been a bench general.

Mazzulla has risen through the assistant coaching ranks at small schools in the state of West Virginia and now he may be on the heels of his first head coaching position.

Shortly after graduating from WVU, Mazzulla earned his first coaching job at Glenville State and, for the past two seasons, he has been an assistant at Fairmont State.

At both stops, Mazzulla has been coaching alongside his former West Virginia colleagues. His Mountaineer teammate, Rob Summers, was the head coach at Glenville (now he is at Urbana). Currently at Fairmont State, Mazzulla coaches with Jerrod Calhoun. From 2008-12, Calhoun was the Director of Basketball Operations at WVU.

With Mazzulla’s guidance, Fairmont State has been regarded as one of the top basketball programs in NCAA Division II. Mazzulla has been key in developing point guards with the Falcons and recruiting within the state of West Virginia. His name still carries great weight with high school coaches and players because of his contributions to the 2010 Mountaineer team which made the Final Four.

He now may have the chance to lead another successful team.

His name is being floated around for the opening at California (Pa.). While this is away from his recent West Virginia roots, the campus, located in Washington County, Pennsylvania, is still within the region of his playing and coaching days.

The Vulcans are no stranger to success having qualified for the Division II Tournament six times, with an Elite Eight appearance in 2008.

California, known affectionately as Cal U, has had the same head basketball coach for the past 20 seasons. Bill Brown retired earlier in the month after earning 365 wins at the school. 

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In an interview with the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Brown, who has had a series of health problems, said, “I think I have more to give, but I need to find an area that can be beneficial to other people. I can’t lay around and watch Jerry Springer and Maury Povich all day.”

Mazzulla, or whomever gets the nod as the next head coach at California, certainly has some big shoes to fill.

But Mazzulla has the track record and the energy to lead, and build, his own program. That view of coaching stemmed from his playing days under WVU head coach Bob Huggins. Mazzulla, a native of Rhode Island, was recruited to West Virginia by current Michigan head coach John Beilein. Still, Huggins’ impact was unprecedented on, not only his basketball career, but on his life path as well.

"“Going back to my days with Coach Huggins, I started that as a passion. I knew then I really wanted to become a coach,” Mazzulla told Mickey Furfari. “It was the way he coached and that way our fellowship developed. I try to be very professional in using what I learned from Coach Huggins.”"

If California isn’t the next landing spot for Mazzulla, some other college program should be calling very soon.