As reported earlier today here on the College Blog, Washington was indeed bearing down on Virginia Tech coach Pete Hughes for its vacant head coaching job. The Huskies, in fact, offered the job to Hughes, but he turned it down.

"I was offered and declined the job at UW," Hughes said in an e-mail to BA’s John Manuel this afternoon. "Although we were blown away by the excitement to build an Omaha team in Seattle, we wanted to see the growth of the Hokies fully through. In the end, we love the direction of our program at Virginia Tech and the vision of our AD Jim Weaver."

Hawaii’s Mike Trapasso and San Francisco’s Nino Giarratano now seem like the front-runners. Gonzaga’s Mark Machtolf is expected to sign a five-year extension soon and appears out of the running for the Washington job.