Forget about the appeals process. There may, indeed, be an appeal, but Eustachy’s bosses want him out. They’ve done their homework, they’ve checked with their lawyers.

Miracle, last-second rallies in these situations—even by a former National Coach of the Year—are few and far between.

Eustachy is suspended and soon will be gone. Another man (well, I’d better say person) will be sitting in the head coach’s office soon.

It will be interesting to see where athletic director Bruce Van De Velde—the guy who was given the assignment of pulling the trigger on Eustachy—turns to find a replacement.

Isn’t it, in a weird sort of way, too bad Drake beat Iowa State to the punch and hired Tom Davis?

But it won’t happen. Too late. Too crazy an idea anyway. A lot of people in Ames wouldn’t have thought that to be a cool deal.

The questions that need answering now are: Will Van De Velde do the famous "nationwide search?"

At least the nationwide search to Omaha, where Dana Altman coaches Creighton? Or Wichita, where Mark Turgeon coaches Wichita State?

Or maybe--just maybe—will he take the process a few yards south of Eustachy’s office in Hilton Coliseum?

When I first wrote this column, I wondered if Van De Velde might look across the hall from Eustachy’s office and consider Steve Barnes.

But it looks like all of us can forget that possibility now—both short-term and long-term. Barnes, like Eustachy, has been suspended—but for different reasons.

Barnes, who is in his second term as Iowa State’s associate head coach, was on Eustachy’s staff in 1998-99, and his main claim to fame was recruiting Jamaal Tinsley, who became a first-team all-American.

Then Barnes moved to San Jose State, where he had a less-than-spectacular 39-51 record from 1999-2002.

I figured Barnes would be the guy who was temporarily put in charge of the basketball office until Eustachy’s suspension turns into an official firing.

Hey, somebody’s got to represent the staff at the Cyclone Club outings. Somebody’s got to run the summer camps.

Now it may be the student manager or the ball-boy.

As far as I know, nobody has been snapping pictures of them at places they shouldn’t be. As far as I know, the student manager accompanied the players both to and from the road games.

Those days, folks, are over.

And so, evidently, are Barnes’ chances of getting the job.

But the other in-house guy I brought up—the one who sits south of Eustachy’s office at Hilton Coliseum—wouldn’t be bad, either. I don’t know if he’d be interested in coaching Iowa State’s men or not.

But it wouldn’t hurt to ask him. A common courtesy, so to speak.

I’m talking about Bill Fennelly, the rock-solid Cyclones women’s coach. The past season wasn’t one for the scrapbooks and highlights films, but Fennelly has demonstrated that he can recruit, is pretty good at diagramming plays and can draw a crowd.

Or, if Van De Velde wants to go outside the present Iowa State coaching community to find a new coach—and he probably will—there will always be the Dana Altmans and Mark Turgeons of the world.

Altman has harvested outstanding players from the state of Iowa and built a strong program at Creighton. People in Omaha have been on pins and needles while he has been mentioned for a number of outstanding jobs—Georgia and Illinois being two of them.

I think he could have had the Illinois job, but closed the door once he thought about it and had his foot inside it. He was at Kansas State before he went to Creighton, and I’m not sure about Altman’s commitment to what it would take to succeed at Iowa State, Illinois and Georgia at this stage in his life.

In other words, I’m not sure he’s the answer.

Nice guy, yes. Good coach, yes, at the mid-major level. Good recruiter, yes, while working out of Omaha. But who knows about Ames?

Turgeon played for Larry Brown at Kansas and has done a good job of building a program at Wichita State. His team played well before losing to Iowa State in the first round of the NIT this past season.

Tim Floyd? Well, Timmy-boy is one of my favorite coaches and one of my favorite people. He’s been interviewing for jobs all around the nation.

But Iowa State is not going to hire him, and Floyd is not going to give Iowa State the satisfaction of knowing he might be interested in a second term on the job.

When he left Ames for the Chicago Bulls, it wasn’t a warm, fuzzy exit. He had started too many fires. Floyd had mixed it up big-time with Gene Smith, the former athletic director, and other school officials. Besides, his players didn’t graduate.

Most of the other guys who are looking for jobs aren’t worth calling. That list includes Jan van Breda Kolff, who was fired at St. Bonaventure; Jim Herrick, who was fired at Georgia; Matt Doherty, who was fired at North Carolina, and Steve Lavin, who was fired at UCLA.

All carry baggage. None is worth the money.

The thought just came up. Kurt Kanaskie is available. Maybe Van De Velde can call him.