Success can sometimes be a curse.
In the case of Cornell basketball, the success its coach, Steve Donahue, has built in the recent years leading up to tomorrow night’s Sweet 16 date with No. 1 seed Kentucky in Syracuse — arguably the most momentous moment in the school’s athletic history — might soon have him packing his bags to leave Ithaca and come to the Metropolitan area.
Donahue, who has been at Cornell for 10 years and has led the Big Red to the NCAA Tournament the last three years, is believed to be at or near the top of the short lists to take over the vacant jobs at Seton Hall and Fordham.
“In all due respect, I have no interest in talking about that,” Donahue said yesterday. “I understand why you have to ask the question, but we’ve got eight seniors here and this is the time of their lives and I want to do whatever I can to advance in this tournament.”
Whenever this magical ride does end for Cornell, which is in the Sweet 16 for the first time in school history and is the first Ivy League team to make it this far in 31 years, Cornell athletic director Andy Noel quietly is bracing for the outsiders to come calling for Donahue.
“I would be shocked if there weren’t a lot of offers after this season because there were a lot of offers the past two seasons,” Noel told The Post yesterday.
Noel declined to say if Fordham, Seton Hall or any other school has asked permission to speak to Donahue.
“I don’t think Steve would like me to broach that subject,” Noel said. “He doesn’t want to even think about that until after the season.”
Noel said he doesn’t “bristle” at the talk that Donahue might go elsewhere.
“I’m thrilled for Steve,” Noel said. “He deserves attention he receives, but I certainly don’t want to lose him.
“I’ll do anything and everything in my power to make Cornell as attractive a job as it can possibly be for him with hopes he can stay many years and become the Pete Carril for Cornell,” Noel said, referring to the Princeton coach from 1967 to 1996.
After Cornell’s win over Wisconsin in the second round on Sunday, Donahue became emotional when talking about Noel sticking with him during the early losing years, thanking him because he “stood by our program for the first seven, eight years when we really didn’t do much and had great belief in what we were doing.”
“It doesn’t happen a lot in college basketball in particular, that someone sticks by a coach for this long, and I’m very fortunate that I was able to reward him for all of his patience,” Donahue said.
Donahue’s players have heard the talk of other teams’ interest in their coach and have tried to block it out.
“He deserves it,” Cornell sophomore guard Chris Wroblewski said.
“Obviously, we would all hate to see him leave,” Cornell senior forward Ryan Wittman said. “He’s an unbelievable coach, an unbelievable person. That is something to think about once the season is over. No matter what happens, I’ll be cheering for him.”
What makes Donahue special, according those closest to him, is his ability to reach his players both on and off the court.
“He’s a very motivational coach and encourages the players in the right way,” Wroblewski said.
“He has an ability to connect with the players yet still be the coach and discipline people,” Wittman said. “The whole team has complete trust in him. He can demand the most out of us on court and then be able to relate extremely well to the whole team off the court. It really makes basketball fun playing for him.”
Temple coach Fran Dunphy, for whom Donahue was an assistant for 10 years while they were at Penn, said Donahue was born with uncanny leadership skills.
“When he speaks the kids get a sense of confidence about him that he knows what he’s talking about,” Dunphy said. “Whatever is coming out of his mouth the players believe in.”
Wisconsin coach Bo Ryan, who called Donahue “a gym rat and an Xs and Os rat,” didn’t sound surprised at the national recognition Donahue is getting now.
“He just needed a chance,” Ryan said. “And he’s taking advantage of that chance.”