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SMU committee to discuss Doherty
Florida Atlantic coach's hiring will be up for approval Monday



08:19 PM CDT on Saturday, April 22, 2006
By CALVIN WATKINS / The Dallas Morning News


SMU officials have called for the men's basketball search committee to meet Monday to approve the hiring of Florida Atlantic coach Matt Doherty, university sources said.

SMU officials offered Doherty the vacant men's basketball job that opened with the firing of coach Jimmy Tubbs earlier this month, sources said.

Doherty has yet to accept the offer.

Incoming SMU athletic director Steve Orsini said he has no authority to hire a coach and needs the search committee to give it to him. Orsini would present Doherty to the committee for approval. If approved, Orsini then would present Doherty to SMU president Gerald Turner to seal it.

Doherty was at an AAU tournament in Houston on Saturday, wearing a Florida Atlantic shirt.

"I hate to be evasive, but I am just not going to comment," Doherty told the South Florida Sun-Sentinel. When asked whom he was recruiting for, Doherty said, "I have my FAU shirt on."

SMU has two scholarships to offer for the 2006-07 season.

Florida Atlantic athletic director Craig Angelos confirmed Doherty is in talks with SMU.

"I would like to have him back, but I am not optimistic," Angelos told the Sun-Sentinel. "It could fall apart, but they are past the money and now working on terms that are easier to resolve."

Doherty is in the final stages of accepting a deal with SMU that with incentives could earn him $600,000 a year in salary. Doherty is also seeking a 20 percent increase in the basketball budget, a salary increase for assistant coaches and other changes, sources said.

Doherty's seven-year contract with Florida Atlantic has a $200,000 buyout clause.

Doherty has spoken to several people about the SMU position and is finalizing a staff, according to a source.

Peruna_Ate_My_Rolex wrote: .... Doherty is in the final stages of accepting a deal with SMU that with incentives could earn him $600,000 a year in salary....

Wonder how that will go over in the football office? Incentives had better make up a vast majority of that number. If any coach deserves such a payday, it's Schellas Hyndman, Steve Collins or Jim Stillson.

SMUguy wrote:

Peruna_Ate_My_Rolex wrote: .... Doherty is in the final stages of accepting a deal with SMU that with incentives could earn him $600,000 a year in salary....

Wonder how that will go over in the football office? Incentives had better make up a vast majority of that number. If any coach deserves such a payday, it's Schellas Hyndman, Steve Collins or Jim Stillson.

I agree. Hyndman should be getting a very high salary at this point based on past performance. Doherty was making $170K right? Why give him such an increase - hopefully it will be very incentive based over the length of the contract.

Well, considering that Tubbs was getting 325k a year,I suspect that Doherty would be getting at least that much. I also wonder how much of his buyout fee is part of his contract, especially if it's going to cost 200k to get him out of it.

I agree that $600K is awfully high, but considering that Coach Doherty (I assume) views himself as a candidate for high-profile jobs in the future, we undoubtedly had to enter this tax bracket just to make him consider the job. Even with the meltdown that led to his exit from Chapel Hill, he does have the UNC playing pedigree, as well as stints at Kansas under Roy Williams, and a national coach of the year award on his mantle. Right or wrong, those things raise his price tag.

I totally agree. Plus, it is stated it is heavy with incentives, he may not make anywhere close to that unless we win the national championship. Orsini is not afraid to spend money, but he is a smart business man as well, he is not spending money we do not have, you have got to feel that we have some major pledges in the works here to elevate the basketball program.

Doherty has won a national championship as a player, he coached at the top program in the country and has been inside the circle of the "basketball elite". I think he will match Orsini's hard work and enthusiam and bring us to the next level.

I am really excited that 10 years from now we may look back at 2006 as the turning point of SMU athletics. We get a new AD that wants to win and aggressively changes the whole program and model we operate under. And we finally get serious about basketball again.

Who knows, maybe none of this will come to pass, but I feel good about the direction we are taking. It has been two years since I let my Mustang Club pledge drop, but in Middle May that will change, I will give as much as I can because I think we are on the right track.

I didn't let mine drop, but like you, I'm excited about Steve Orsini and the future of SMU athletics, and I'm increasing mine this year.

in lieu of money, i will play my horn even louder at every game.