There are plenty of college basketball coaches out there whose jobs are probably on the line this season — Michigan's Tommy Amaker, Nebraska's Barry Collier, Virginia's Pete Gillen, Iowa's Steve Alford. And that isn't all.

But this column isn't about them. I'm not in the mood to be pessimistic. Not after watching an episode of “Seinfeld,” and with my Kansas Jayhawks ranked No. 1.

It's all about being pumped up for a new season, right?

That means getting psyched up about new coaches, the guys who take over struggling programs and try to work their magic — and avoid being one of the names I mentioned earlier.

I'm talking about guys like UNLV's Lon Kruger, back in the college ranks after a miserable stint with the Atlanta Hawks. (Would've been easier to broker piece in the Middle East and go for the Nobel Prize instead.)

Or Auburn's Jeff Lebo and Texas A&M's Billy Gillispie, two rising stars who can turn football-oriented schools into ones that might give a rip about their basketball teams.

Take St. John's coach Norm Roberts. With a few wins and keeping his players out of the police blotter — and only a few wins are needed after last season's 6-21 debacle — Roberts can make Red Storm fans stop longing for the days of Chris Mullin and start cheering for Darryll Hall instead. At this rate, they'd settle for Erick Barkley's finest hour.

There's more. Thad Matta, who opened his Ohio State career with an easy win Monday over Towson — Pat Kennedy's newest stop on the coaching trail — or Tom Penders, who is at Houston after a three-year hiatus. These guys can make chatrooms and message boards fill up.

Fans love this stuff. The optimism surrounding a new season is always greater when it involves a new coach. And with good reason. There's no sport where a good coach, let alone a great one, makes more of a difference.

Players come and go. But a good coach ensures a competitive team, year after year. Great ones ensure top-10 teams. And that's what St. John's, Ohio State, UNLV all hope for.

Mike Martz is wondering if I'm going to start singing kumbaya.

But it's true. People love the idea of a new start. And with the right coach, that start can bring great things.

My buddy Sam, Stanford graduate, spent last week in the Bay Area on his vacation. You'd think that a school whose basketball team — which lost three starters, including Pac-10 player of the year Josh Childress and most importantly, coach Mike Montgomery — might have a sour outlook.

Yet Sam says the mood was good, if not downright sunny.

How? Stanford people can't be stupid, right? Surely they know that the Cardinal were 30-2 last season and that without Montgomery, who won 70 percent of his games and earned 12 trips to the NCAA Tournament over 18 years, they will struggle, right?

Uh, no.

Marcio Jose Sanchez / AP Stanford coach Trent Johnson, bottom left, instructs his team during practice at Stanford earlier this year.

That's because Stanford likes Trent Johnson, who guided Nevada to the Elite Eight last season and was a longtime Montgomery assistant. Never mind that Johnson won more than 20 games only once in five years at Nevada. Or that it was just his second postseason berth.

Like I said, optimism. (Well, and the return of Chris Hernandez, who's the nation's most underrated point guard. If a good coach can make the difference in a season, surely a smart point guard who can shoot is just as important.)

But the most optimism — and the biggest shoes to fill — has to be at Georgetown. John Thompson III takes over a program that hasn't been relevant since Allen Iverson laced up his Nikes for John's dad.

And before I get any e-mail, yes, I know the Hoyas won 25 games and went to the Sweet 16 during the 2000-01 season. But that's the only time they won 20 games in the last seven years. This school was the program of the '80s. Having that one-year wonder doesn't count.

I doubt Thompson's intimidated by his dad's success. (Probably tough talk, but so what? With 27 seasons, a title, almost 600 wins, and 7-time coach of the year, it's like being the dancing bear who followed the Beatles on Ed Sullivan.) He says he won't hesittate to use 'Pops' as a resource and has already talked about the hard work by his players needed to rebuild the program. That confidence bodes well for fans, too.

They'll want some wins — I'm sure they're starving for an NCAA bid, but let's not get ahead of ourselves — and Thompson should provide some. But just the thought of the greatest coach your school has ever had coming in to resuscitate a moribund program is like watching a whole season of “Seinfeld” in one sitting.

In a week, we'll be able to do pull off that “Seinfeld” trick. Makes so giddy I can't sit still.

It's a doubly sweet thought to think about Hoya fans being just as happy.

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