Days after Don Maestri’s retirement announcement, Troy Athletic Director John Hartwell is prepping to begin the search for a new men’s basketball coach.

“We are in the process. April 1 is my target date so we certainly have a lot of work do do between now and then,” Hartwell said. “We’ve received a lot of interest in less than 48 hours time and are sorting through some of those candidates now.”

Hartwell said he plan on hitting the road this week to watch some of the coaches in action. Previous head coaching experience isn’t of major importance to Hartwell.

“I’m not one to get bogged down on previous head coaching experience. If you do your homework on guys, talk to people that they know, you can find out a lot about them. Certainly, previous head coaching experience is a plus, but some guys just have ‘it’.”

While an advisory committee will be formed but Hartwell said he will be the point-man for choosing the candidate to present to the university for hire.

Hartwell mentioned choosing a coach who can have success recruiting at the high school level, bringing in potential four-year athletes.

“Recruiting is a huge part of college athletics. I would like to see us getting into the routine of bringing a guy in and letting him learn the system for a few years, building him up to be a solid contributor.”

Troy’s 2012-13 roster featured just three players who signed with the Trojans out of high school (Sidki Suwallif, Breon Dixon and Mike Kelly).