Warren Central basketball fans are still waiting for the white smoke to billow from the Vicksburg Warren School District offices on Mission 66 to mark the hiring of a new hoops coach.

Hopefully, they aren’t holding their breath. It might be a long wait to see the smoke that, at the Vatican, indicates the selection of a new top guy.

The whole point of firing a coach is to secure an upgrade. After two near-misses, the search has degenerated into desperation mode and is now at a crossroads.

But how did we get to this point?

For years, Warren Central’s program struggled as crosstown rival Vicksburg prospered. While the Gators were making runs deep into the playoffs, the Vikings wallowed in a sea of mediocrity.

Jesse Johnson was fired on March 2 as Warren Central’s basketball coach, after his team struggled to a 9-16 record.

This past season, Johnson finally had some talent — like forward Kourey Davis — and started the season strong with eight wins. But the team imploded after Christmas break, sealing his fate.

He took the blame for the Vikings’ struggles despite having a pool of talent shallower than the average Hollywood starlet before last season. John Wooden or Phil Jackson would’ve struggled with the lineups that Johnson had to field over the years.

The search committee, headed by WC principal Rodney Smith, produced a fine list of candidates. They talked to a laundry list of coaches such as Petal’s Tory Harris, Port Gibson’s Kim Windom and Forest (La.) coach Jimmy Nail.

After the interviews wrapped up, the group recommended a top-shelf coach, Lanier coach Thomas Billups, to fill the vacancy.

Billups would have given instant credibility to the program with eight state title rings in his possession.

The contract was completed, but Billups wouldn’t sign it. He was not happy with the coaching supplement offered and didn’t want to return to a classroom to teach a computer class, so he bowed out.

Strike one.

The search shifted to New Hope coach Robert Byrd, who won a Class 5A title in 2008 and who was one of the two other finalists in the initial search process. The process dragged on and on and on. It was a near-repeat of the Billups situation. It dragged on longer than “The Simpsons” run on TV or the search for who shot J.R. Ewing on “Dallas.”

But on June 30, it finally came to an end as Byrd pulled the plug and backed out in another contract dispute.

Whiff! Strike two.

The clock is ticking. With no summer workouts or summer ball, this off-season has shaped up to be a lost one for the program. A new coach will have to come in, get acquainted with his charges and install his offensive sets and defense on the fly.

On June 28, Johnson was approved by the Forrest County AHS school board as the school’s new basketball coach.

What does it say about your coaching search when the coach you fired, Johnson, already has a new job before you’ve found his replacement?

Not much.

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Steve Wilson is sports editor of The Vicksburg Post. You can follow him on Twitter at vpsportseditor. He can be reached at 601-636-4545, ext. 142 or at swilson@vicksburgpost.com.