For obvious reasons, Washington State athletic director Pat Chun won’t reveal who he is pursuing to succeed Ernie Kent as the school’s next men’s basketball coach.

But he has a good idea what type of coach he wants.

“The most important thing for me, when you look at the history of our university and some of our current coaches like Coach Leach, the most successful coaches here have a belief system of what their program needs to look like and a conviction that no matter what or when adversity comes or what the world tells you, we are going to do it our way,” Chun said.

“And we’re going to be happy with the results. But we are not going to blink and we’re not going to waiver because this is how we do things. That’s the easiest way of saying we need a coach that knows what they want this thing to look like and has a track record of building towards that. Ultimately, when adversity hits, they’ll say this is who we are and this is how we do things.”

Finding a coach with those qualities is Chun’s top objective, he said.

“We have to figure out does that coach exist and who that coach is,” Chun said.

National analysts have listed several successful mid-major coaches as possible contenders for the WSU job, among them Leon Rice (Boise State), Travis DeCuire (Montana), Russell Turner (UC Irvine), Jim Hayford (Seattle U.), T.J. Otzelberger (South Dakota State), Justin Hutson (Fresno State), Kyle Smith (San Francisco) and Chris Jans (New Mexico State).

Among Power 6 conference coaches, Nebraska’s Tim Miles has been mentioned as a possible replacement for Kent as he is expected to be fired by the Cornhuskers (and former WSU AD Bill Moos) at the conclusion of their run in the NIT, as everybody predicts. Miles coached previously at Colorado State (2007-12) and North Dakota State (2001-07).

While some national analysts contend WSU is one of the toughest Power 6 jobs in the country largely because of geography, Chun maintained there has been no shortage of possible candidates inquiring about the opening.

"Interest is high, as you would imagine,” Chun said. “People see what’s going on at Washington State. President Schulz is well known as one of the best presidents for college athletics. Having a leader like that at the top of the pyramid means something. Then you add possibly the most passionate alumni base in the country.

“We just have to figure out how to take the ceiling off the men’s basketball program. It’s a different Washington State than when Dick and Tony Bennett were here. Hopefully, there is a coach out there that can accentuate all the great things going on here and see a bucket of positives when they look at Washington State.”

As one of two major sports with national appeal (football, of course, is the other), Chun is looking for WSU men’s basketball to seize the opportunity created by Mike Leach and the WSU football team’s success in fashioning a national buzz over the past few seasons.

In short, he wants basketball to strike while the iron is hot.

“The success of our football program is enhancing our brand and men’s basketball is another piece of that,“ Chun said. “The expectation here is to win, win the right way and compete at the highest levels.”

Chun believes the new coach, whoever he is, will have some pieces to work with when he arrives on campus, starting, of course, with rising sophomore C.J. Elleby. However, forward Jeff Pollard, set to graduate in May, has placed his name into the NCAA transfer portal and could play his final season elsewhere.

“This isn’t a traditional rebuild,” Chun said. “We have a really talented young group of young men doing things the right way. We just have to figure out how to get five guys playing as one on the court. A lot of that is based on team building and developing leadership. Those are the things we have to fix in the culture and foundation of our program.”

What is the time frame for selecting the right coach? There isn’t one.

“We will take as long as it needs to take to get the right person at Washington State,” Chun said. “I don’t like to put timelines on what we’re trying to do other than the fact we’re very conscientious the marketplace is always volatile. The people we want to talk to are going to have other schools interested in them.

“But that’s the pool we need to be swimming in. We have to do what we need to do to make sure we end up with the best coach at Washington that fits us in this time period and knows what we need to do in building this program.”