Buzz Peterson, the basketball coach at Appalachian State may not have any complaints about where he is now, but offers from other schools aren’t falling on deaf ears. 

Peterson met with Athletics Director Bill Rowe and Southwest Missouri State officials Monday about that school’s coaching vacancy. He returned to Boone from Springfield, Mo., Tuesday. 

Peterson said last week that he has no plans to leave Appalachian, but that he would talk with Southwest Missouri officials after being invited for an interview. Steve Alford left the Bears’ program after four years to become coach at Iowa. 

Peterson also barely missed getting the nod at Georgia when Former Rhode Island Coach Jim Harrick took the job, then reneged and then decided to comeback to Georgia, all in one day.  

One wire-service story reported that Dick Bestwick, the associate athletics director at Georgia, said that he contacted another candidate about the job but added that no one was offered the job while Harrick flip-flopped.    

Peterson told the Winston Salem Journal that he was out all day and didn’t get any messages from anyone from Georgia.

 ‘’I was out playing golf all day (at Marion), and my wife was gone all day, too,’’ Peterson said. ‘’I got back to the office about 8:30 or quarter ‘til 9:00, and I didn’t know what was going on the whole time.”

“It’s crazy,  I’ve heard a lot of (the reports). I thought it was all an April Fool’s joke ... Who knows, (Harrick’s) still in Rhode Island. Maybe he’ll change his mind again. After what I’ve been through (being a candidate at Georgia and being approached about several other jobs), I don’t want to even think about it,” said Peterson.

The three top candidates for the job were Peterson, Harrick and Mike Brey from Delaware.  Brey took his name out of the running before Harrick was officially named coach, making Peterson the second choice.      

Harrick, who guided UCLA to a national championship in 1995 and has spent the past two seasons at Rhode Island, was reportedly offered a four-year contract worth $550,000 annually with a $100,000 annuity to coach the Bulldogs. He replaced Ron Jirsa, who made about $250,000 and was fired after two seasons and a 35-30 record. Harrick, 60, was 404-190 in 19 seasons as a coach at Pepperdine, UCLA and Rhode Island.

Harrick’s indecision was the second time in three years that a coach embarrassed Georgia by accepting a head coaching job and then changing his mind. In December 1995, Glen Mason was hired to coach the football team but reconsidered a week later and returned to Kansas. 

Athletics Director Vince Dooley moved quickly to hire Marshall Coach Jim Donnan, who has led the Bulldogs to consecutive top 15 seasons. Mason left Kansas the following year after a 4-7 finish.

The Springfield News Leader has reported that Peterson is the No. 1 candidate for the Southwest Missouri job.