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DALLAS (SMU) - Larry Mangino has been named assistant men's basketball coach at SMU, head coach Matt Doherty announced on Thursday. Mangino comes to the Hilltop with 24 years of college coaching experience, including nine years as a head coach. He spent the last two years as the player development coach for the Denver Nuggets.

"Larry has worked for people that I greatly respect; including Detroit Pistons' Head Coach John Kuester and Denver Nuggets' Head Coach George Karl," says Doherty. "Larry was also part of a remarkable run at the Air Force Academy that included Top-25 Rankings as well as NIT and NCAA Tournaments. We plan on having that type of success at SMU and Larry will be a big part of it!"

Before joining the Nuggets' staff, Mangino spent seven seasons as an assistant men's basketball coach at the Air Force Academy (2000-07). The Falcons made the 2004 and 2006 NCAA Tournaments and advanced to the semifinal round of 2007 National Invitation Tournament.

Before Mangino joined the Academy, he was a head coach for nine seasons; first at Clark University in Massachusetts from 1991-96 and then at Ferrum College in Virginia from 1996-2000. At Clark, Mangino developed the Skills for Life program at to help athletes prepare for their post-graduate careers.

Before becoming a head coach, Mangino worked as an assistant coach at George Washington from 1986-91, at Yale from 1984-86, and at Montclair State in 1983-84. He also helped George Washington to the NIT in 1990-91.

Mangino is a 1983 graduate of Montclair State where he earned his bachelor's degree in physical education. He later earned his master's degree in human development from George Washington in 1996.

He was a three-year basketball letterwinner at Montclair State and helped the team to the 1981 regional championship. Mangino began his coaching career at Montclair as a graduate assistant in 1983-84 after his playing career ended.


Mangino has worked as a clinician at several major basketball camps, including the Boston Celtics rookie and free agent camp. He's also been active in community affairs throughout his career, including the Big Brother program.

Mangino and his wife, Ann, have two daughters, Chelsea and Grace.

Is he an addition to the staff or does he replace someone?

They replaced Lutz and Geary with Hobbie and Mangino.

Let's hope the next HC understands the value of local assets Eric McDade
and Stephen Woods. What great additions they would be.

papawasamustang wrote:Let's hope the next HC understands the value of local assets Eric McDade
and Stephen Woods. What great additions they would be.

papa, I've spoken w/quite a few folks about Stephen Woods, and the verdict is that he can't deliver players. He may be a decent recruiter eventually, not to mention a helluva guy, but he's not an AAU hire that automatically means signatures. No idea if he can bench coach, so he gets the benefit of the doubt.

So what u r saying is Woods brings tbe same things 2 the table that Dohs 2 most recent hires bring.
I'd take my chances with an ex SMU player & McDade.
No better place for Woods to get his feet wet.

papawasamustang wrote:So what u r saying is Woods brings tbe same things 2 the table that Dohs 2 most recent hires bring.
I'd take my chances with an ex SMU player & McDade.
No better place for Woods to get his feet wet.

not defending the guys Doh brought in, obviously, but they have far more bench experience. Heck, one just came from the league where he was coaching Chauncey and Melo. Pretty tough to compare resumes.

Great article on Mangino

http://www.gazette.com/sports/mangino-4 ... -exit.html

Harry0569 wrote:DALLAS (SMU) - Larry Mangino has been named assistant men's basketball coach at SMU.

Hope he is smart enough to rent on a month-to-month basis. He for sure won't be planting any pecan trees. He must really need a job.

Mangino is actually a very very good hire. Basically, SMU is going full Princeton, and Mangino is the specialist from his days at Air Force. We play so many scrubs this year, Doh is going to have a shot at a good record. The returning 8 in '11 is a good squad, before including 5 frosh.

so we win more games this year

PonyDoh wrote:

papawasamustang wrote:So what u r saying is Woods brings tbe same things 2 the table that Dohs 2 most recent hires bring.
I'd take my chances with an ex SMU player & McDade.
No better place for Woods to get his feet wet.

not defending the guys Doh brought in, obviously, but they have far more bench experience. Heck, one just came from the league where he was coaching Chauncey and Melo. Pretty tough to compare resumes.

Great article on Mangino

http://www.gazette.com/sports/mangino-4 ... -exit.html

Thanks and if hes good enough for Karl...he must be good, as i respect Karls basketball knowledge.

No doubt Mangino has a very good resume. I also feel that there are some very good young coaches that over the last 4 years Doh should have strongly considered. Although it took 4 years, looks like Doh has his best staff. A ton of experience. Time to move forward.

papawasamustang wrote:No doubt Mangino has a very good resume. I also feel that there are some very good young coaches that over the last 4 years Doh should have strongly considered. Although it took 4 years, looks like Doh has his best staff. A ton of experience. Time to move forward.

The thing about Doh's tenure, is that he never could put his finger on a system/style of play, that made sense for the program. He's pretty much 'all-in' w/the modified princeton/motion thing they run. The Mangino hire speaks to that. I really like the way the roster is shaping up down the road, so it'll be interesting to see if we see actual execution this year. We have some shooters, better passers, so lets hope w get some real tangible chemistry for once.

They need to let Dia eat this year. He's a kid that can get paid to play, and this program needs profile grads that make money playing ball. Just like it's great that Mangino can tell kids he coached Melo & Chauncey last year.

Did he coach under Jarvis at GW? He has a great background and the Princeton offense works great against Man and is a bit harder against a zone, but derivations off of it, can work for a zone. The key is to have guys who can pull the trigger and hit from 15-23 feet out to make a defense pay for going zone.