Being a wanted man in the realm of college basketball coaching isn't easy.

Eran Ganot, the lone UH men's basketball assistant who remained with the program since Gib Arnold's hire as head coach in March, was hired away to join Saint Mary's as an assistant under Randy Bennett. He is expected to depart next week.

In a move he called “;emotional,”; Ganot decided to head back to the school where he got his coaching start — as an administrative assistant from 2003 to '06 — over taking a modified director of basketball operations job at UH offered to him by Arnold.

The three-year UH assistant under Bob Nash also turned down an opportunity to reunite with Kyle Smith, the former SMC associate head coach who is now the head coach at Columbia.

Ganot, 28, heads into a solid system with which he has much familiarity. The Gaels of the West Coast Conference went 28-6 last year and made it to the NCAA Tournament Sweet 16.

“;Me in particular, you get invested where you're at,”; Ganot said. “;You work hard, and you get to know the people. Both places, there's similarities that way. Great people, great spots. It was hard for me to leave Saint Mary's the first time around. And it's hard for me to leave Hawaii.”;

Ganot garnered a reputation as a tireless worker from the time Riley Wallace brought him in as director of operations in 2006. When Arnold was hired, that rep helped him hit it off with the new coach and stay on board during a challenging transition. He continued to craft a schedule for next season and assist with recruits. Ganot was instrumental in bringing in Jordan Coleman, among others, to next year's recruiting class.

  “;Eran's been very helpful in the transition. He's been great to work with,”; Arnold said. “;He definitely knew he had a place here and he would be valuable. I think it came down to, just financially he got a pretty good offer at Saint Mary's that was hard for him to turn down. And that's understood. The bottom line is we want to help Eran make the best decisions for him.”;

The hard work he put in since Nash's termination was just Ganot being Ganot, and the Swarthmore (Pa.) graduate and New Jersey native wouldn't have it any other way. He was adamant in thanking those he's worked under to this point — Bennett, Smith, Wallace, Nash, and Arnold.

“;I still have a lot of love for UH, whether I'm here or not,”; Ganot said. “;There are guys here I recruited, or on the way. Guys on the administration, on the staff. Gib and I didn't really know each other when he first got on board, but we developed a really good relationship. That's important to me. You could tell we did a lot in a short amount of time, and I'm happy about that. I'm happy about the direction. I want to see Hawaii do well.”;

There was an undeniable bonus to going to SMC: working alongside his good friend, Gaels assistant Mark Campbell, the former UH point guard.

The running joke was that Ganot and Campbell bonded over their shared schools without actually ever being in the same place at once. No longer.

“;Mark and I are really tight. We joked all the time about one day working together,”; Ganot said. “;I'm sure we'll be driving Coach Bennett crazy in no time.”;

“;He knows the deal, he'll get plugged in pretty easily,”; Campbell said. “;Both of us have been in charge of scheduling the last couple years. You'd better believe we're going to try to get back to the islands if we can.”;

The SMC opening was created when Smith became the head coach at Columbia. Smith was a finalist for the UH position that went to Arnold.

“;Eran worked three years at Saint Mary's and we are looking forward to his return to the program where he got his start,”; said Bennett in an SMC release. “;He is very good with people, he's very familiar with our program, and he has a great reputation as a young coach in our profession.”;

Note: Arnold said former UH point guard Johnny White would reprise his role as video coordinator next season.