Just about every year, there are one or two veteran teams in the NCAA tournament field that aren’t filled with talent but play superbly as a unit. The players know each other and their coach’s system well enough that every movement is natural, fluid. Their confidence increases because of that familiarity. They start making more shots. They start believing they can play with anybody and, in some cases, they can.

Teams like that are fun to coach, especially at the end of the season and especially if the coach has that sort of comfort level with his veterans as well. Ed DeChellis had a team like that this past season.

In most cases, though, the team with superior talent will prevail. Even if it’s not playing as a unit.

That’s why, as Penn State athletic director Tim Curley continues to comb through prospective replacements for DeChellis, he needs to make hiring someone with recruiting chops a top priority.

That sounds obvious, but the reality is that, at this point in the spring (actually, early summer), given the school’s tradition, basketball reputation and expected salary allocations, the pool of candidates for Penn State is limited. The vast majority of them will fall into one of two categories:

1. an established veteran who has been out of the game or is in the midst of a rocky ride at another major program, or

2. a young assistant looking to make a move or a young head coach looking to step into a bigger job.

Curley, who according to sources is interviewing Duquesne head coach Ron Everhart today, is likely to consider more candidates in the first group. He wants someone with head coaching experience, particularly someone who has proven that he can run a program with minimal distractions off the floor, as DeChellis did for eight years. Eddie Fogler, the former Vanderbilt and South Carolina coach Curley hired as a consultant, has plenty of friends and acquaintances who are either itching to get back in the game or get a fresh start.

Curley should be considering candidates in the second group. Guys like Tracy Webster, who was just added to Cuonzo Martin’s staff at Tennessee but has Big Ten ties (he spent three seasons as an assistant at Purdue and Illinois) and SEC ties (Kentucky) and was an interim coach at DePaul for one season.

Or Dalonte Hill, who just left an assistant job at Kansas State to become the lead assistant on Mark Turgeon’s staff at Maryland. He isn’t exactly young, but apparent Jim Boeheim successor Mike Hopkins might be tiring of waiting for Boeheim to retire.

These men have exactly zero combined years as a full-time head coach between them. But they also have proven ability to land talented players.

Then there’s Boston’s Pat Chambers, who probably falls somewhere between the two categories mentioned above. He’s young (40) and has had recent recruiting success as an assistant at Villanova, but, unlike the candidates mentioned above, has had two successful seasons as a head coach, albeit at a mid-major level.

But it’s doubtful Penn State, at this point, is going to get someone who has had success at a major level. Arizona State’s Herb Sendek, who has been Coach of the Year in both the Pac-10 and ACC, has reportedly said he’s staying in Tempe. East Carolina’s Jeff Lebo released a statement last week saying he’s happy where he is as well.

The other thing to remember is that there are no Cael Sandersons out there for the taking. The coaches of the nation’s best college basketball programs, be they 35 or 55, are not going to come to Penn State. Any established coaches willing to consider the Nittany Lions probably have nearly as many losses on their resumes as wins. That’s part of college basketball, and it’s simply where Penn State is as a program right now.

It’s also more reason for Curley to take a chance on someone who has had recruiting success as a lieutenant but hasn’t yet had the chance to prove himself as the general.

There’s a chance that Lebo, Sendek, Marshall’s Tom Herrion, Utah’s Jim Boylen or Wisconsin-Milwaukee’s Rob Jeter, were they hired, would bring at least one young, dynamic recruiter to State College with them as an assistant. But why take that chance? Why not go with a head coach who will be the best recruiter on staff no matter who he hires to work with him? The next staff won’t be able to sell recruits on the tradition of Penn State. By the time the Nittany Lions’ five incoming recruits are seniors, it’s doubtful they’ll be one of those veteran teams playing better as a whole than the sum of its parts, at least not one that will play in the Sweet 16.

There are rough roads ahead for the next coach. This program could get healthy, as in consistent top-half-of-the-conference healthy, as in three NCAA tournament appearances every five years healthy, but it’s not going to happen overnight, even if Curley shows the new coach a new level of commitment. And it’s only going to get there if the Nittany Lions get players.

If Curley can convince a big name to take this job at this point in the season, it would be impressive. But he could do just as well by landing a coach who isn’t a big name but has earned a reputation of putting big-name players on the floor.

Jeff Rice covers Penn State men’s basketball for the Centre Daily Times. He can be reached at 231-4609 or jrice@centredaily.com.