LONG BEACH STATE NOTEBOOK / JASON REID : Now 49ers Can Jump-Start Search for Women’s Coach

Now that the women’s Final Four is finally over, Athletic Director Dave O’Brien can go about filling the 49ers’ vacant basketball head coaching position.

Almost everyone O’Brien wanted to speak with about the job was in Minneapolis. Included in that group was former USC Coach Marianne Stanley, who has expressed an interest in the job.

Long Beach last week initiated a nationwide advertising campaign for the position, which opened March 13 when O’Brien reassigned Coach Glenn McDonald to another job within the athletic department. O’Brien and Cindy Masner, Long Beach assistant athletic director and senior woman administrator, hoped to have preliminary discussions with some possible candidates last week, but couldn’t reach anyone.

So the plan now is to again conduct informal interviews by this weekend and submit some names to a six-member search committee by early next week. O’Brien would love to have everything wrapped up by April 17--at the latest.

However, it might not be that easy.

O’Brien and Masner seek a high-profile person to replace McDonald. Many alumni and boosters, most of whom are still upset by the program’s rapid decline under McDonald, want a proven female coach.

Stanley fits that description, and sources close to O’Brien said he is intrigued by the possibility. She was successful at USC but has been out of coaching since her rocky split with the Trojans after the 1992-93 season.

Her sex-bias lawsuit against USC, which is under appeal, doesn’t bother the 49ers’ top athletic administrator, a source said. If anything, her notoriety would be an added plus for Long Beach, which is attempting to overtake USC and become second only to UCLA among the Southland’s men’s and women’s Division I basketball programs. And there’s nothing like publicity to help push the process along.

Masner has twice received phone calls from Stanley about the job. And according to sources, O’Brien plans to put together an attractive package, somewhere around $110,000.

But O’Brien won’t bring in Stanley or any other candidate just because that person is the consensus favorite. O’Brien wants the next women’s basketball coach to restore the program to its success under Joan Bonvicini, McDonald’s predecessor.

Long Beach was among the nation’s women’s basketball elite in those days, and easily could regain prominence with the right coach. Bonvicini’s teams played at the Gold Mine gymnasium; the new coach will have the Pyramid.

But O’Brien also needs to feel a connection with the people he hires. He won’t offer the position to someone unless he feels the chemistry between them is correct. Masner will have much input on the decision, but the final word is O’Brien’s.

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Renewed rivalry: The 49ers play Cal State Fullerton in a three-game Big West Conference weekend series beginning at 7 Friday at Fullerton.

Long Beach (18-12-1, 5-1) and the Titans (29-5, 5-1) are tied for first place in the Big West.