Basha didn't stray far from the neighborhood to select its new boys basketball coach, tabbing nearby Mesquite coach John Burns to take over for Brad Pintor, principal Ken James said  late Tuesday afternoon.

Burns, who has journeyed from the midwest to Arizona, back to the midwest and back to Arizona over the past 15 years for high school or college coaching stints, piloted Mesquite the last two seasons to a 27-26 record (14-12 this past season). James said Burns hiring is pending Chandler governing board approval, which he said hopefully will take place on Wednesday.

"There were a number of good candidates," James said. "A committee of five -- our AD, the district AD and three teachers did the interviews. I was not on the committee. They all ranked John high."

Burns enjoyed a previous opportunity  in Arizona from 2002 to 2004 at Highland High, where he took the Hawks to a state-runner-up in 2002, a final four in 2003 and the playoffs in 2004. Burns'  teams won 70 games in those three seasons. James hired Burns when the former was the principal at Highland High.

Since leaving Highland after the 2003-2004 season, Burns coached four seasons at Fort Scott Community College (Kan.), was out of coaching in 2008-2009 and then coached one year at  Hartman High in Columbia, Mo.  Burns had winning season at all his stops. He returned to Arizona and coached at Mesquite for the 2010-2011 and 2011-2012 seasons.

Amundsen has coached the last six seasons at Estrella Foothills High (2007-2012), a 3A school in the southwest Valley. Amundsen's teams won three consecutive state titles (2008, 2009 and 2010). His overall  record at EFH is 138-40. The ???? were 115-10 his first four seasons; 23-30 the last two. 

King has recently served as a varsity assistant at Chaparral and was interim head coach for a couple weeks last season after Aaron Windler resigne. Prior to coming to Chaparral, King was the head coach at Coconino High. Coconino was 57-60 in King's four years there from 2005-2008. Prior to coaching, King was a standout guard for a couple of very good Northern Arizona University basketball teams in between 1999-2001.