By the time he boarded the Lakers' afternoon flight to Detroit for Game 3 of the NBA Finals, assistant coach Jim Cleamons already had a voice mail full of messages about the suddenly vacant head coaching job at Ohio State.
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But it only took one day after that for Cleamons' name to emerge in speculation about O'Brien's possible successors. And Cleamons said Wednesday that he would be interested in returning to coach at his alma mater.
"I've got a lot of contacts out there," Cleamons said. "I think a lot of the school, I think a lot of the basketball program. I can tell you that I would be excited by the opportunity."
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Cleamons is close to Ohio State football coach Jim Tressel from their days at Youngstown. In the meantime, Cleamons was a finalist in 1998 for the head coaching job at Loyola University, a Division I school in Chicago.
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Cleamons returns to Columbus, Ohio, about once a year and has numerous friends and family still in the state, many of whom called Wednesday. He said he does not know Ohio State Athletic Director Andy Geiger and has not received a call about the job.
"I'm trying to figure out exactly what the policy and procedure is," Cleamons said. "I would be interested but we'll have to wait and see."