New today: We know who UVA Athletics is working with in the basketball coach search

We’ve learned a bit more today about the work being done behind the scenes in the search for the next UVA Basketball coach.

AFP obtained on Monday a copy of an invoice submitted to UVA Athletics on Jan. 9 by the Atlanta-based Parker Executive Services in the amount of $45,000.

According to a source, the invoice is for three months of work dating back to October related to the coaching search.

The source also tells us that UVA Athletics has retained Parker Executive Services for a second three-month term that would run through early April at the same amount, $45,000.

This is more just knowledge of how the sausage is made than anything akin to a particularly new development or otherwise revealing about the process.

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ICYMI

• The tweak UVA Basketball coach Ron Sanchez would need if he were to get the job full time

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Athletics Director Carla Williams had told reporters back at the Oct. 18 press conference at which long-time head coach Tony Bennett announced he was stepping down that the intent was to begin a full-scale search for a full-time replacement.

I assumed at the time that Williams was hinting that the athletics department would be hiring a search firm, like a Parker Executive Services, to assist in that effort.

This Parker outfit provides this kind of service for colleges and universities across the country, and not just in the athletics context. The “Current Searches” page on the company’s website lists active contracts with North Carolina State related to that school’s search for a new chancellor, for instance.

The “News” page on the website links Parker to the hires of Rich Rodriguez as the new football coach at West Virginia, Willie Simmons as the new football coach at Florida International, and Blake Harrell as the new football coach at East Carolina.

The way it has been explained to me, the search committee that I have been writing about, the one that has been working to identify and vet possible candidates for the coaching job, would be working with Parker on the whole process – with the committee presenting names to the search firm, which then takes care of details like background searches and contacts with agents for the identified candidates.

What we’ve learned today, then, is the name of the firm that UVA Athletics has retained to do that work, that the firm has a track record in this industry, and we also know what the firm is being paid.

My two cents: I would’ve expected that it would have cost more.