While we're all focused on whom athletic director Chris Hill is going to bring in as the next basketball coach, keep an eye on the one he just nudged out the door.

He's poised to really land on his feet.

Word within the coaching world is that if assistant coach Bill Grier winds up leaving Gonzaga for the head job at either San Diego or Santa Clara - he's reportedly a leading candidate for both - then Ray Giacoletti will join the Zags under old pal and head coach Mark Few.

That would certainly fit the plan Giacoletti described recently, working as an assistant coach for at least a few years to keep a low profile and attempt to enjoy the work of coaching without having to deal with some of the ancillary pressures that head coaches endure.

Of course, that option presumably would go out the window if Few leaves Gonzaga - perhaps for Oregon, perhaps for Kentucky. He's reportedly a candidate for both jobs, and one source said the Wildcats attempted to gauge Few's interest in succeeding Tubby Smith several weeks ago.

But what if Few does wind up taking a more glamorous job?

Grier is contractually entitled to have the first shot at replacing him at Gonzaga, if he elects not to take a head coaching job elsewhere. And if that happens, maybe Giacoletti winds up in the big time with Few - coaching at a top-notch school in a power conference and still getting paid by the Utes to the tune of $700,000 over the next four years.

And that wouldn't be a bad way to land, at all.