DMN: SMU Meets With Doherty

[Jim Rome]

I don't know a whole lot about Coach Doherty, other than the fact that Michael Jordan wanted him to get the UNC job to "keep it in the family." I'd be OK with him as coach, depending on what kind of staff (read: recruiters) he assembles.
I really like the Mike Price/George O'Leary comparison earlier. How nice would it be to land one of those!

[nc pony]

I can't believe all of the negative comments about Doherty!! We are complaining about getting the former coach of UNC?? Are you kidding me?? I've been to countless games in Chapel Hill and let me tell you, the basketball program is the heart and soul of that campus and city. He brought in the recruits that Roy won with. His pedigree is unquestioned, and he is definitely looking to win to get back on the map and be a HC at a bigger school. Call me selfish, but I'd be okay if he won at SMU and then left for say, UCLA or LSU.

This is HUGE for SMU and would no doubt lead to increased awareness and interest in SMU B-Ball! When was the last time we hired a coach and it made national news? Kudos to Orsini for even generating an interview!

[friarwolf]

Agreeing to an interview and taking the job are two different things. That said, CUSA would be a step up from where he's coaching now and he would be a decent hire. But I don't want to hear any complaints that Dallas area recruits aren't coming here if we hire him. Because clearly, he won't get in the door.

If he or anyone else we hire wins, the doors will open. If he or anyone else continues what we have had for the past decade, the doors will remain shut. It's that simple. Kids follow the buzz - regardless of what their coaches might have to say.

[friarwolf]

Agreeing to an interview and taking the job are two different things. That said, CUSA would be a step up from where he's coaching now and he would be a decent hire. But I don't want to hear any complaints that Dallas area recruits aren't coming here if we hire him. Because clearly, he won't get in the door.

If he or anyone else we hire wins, the doors will open. If he or anyone else continues what we have had for the past decade, the doors will remain shut. It's that simple. Kids follow the buzz - regardless of what their coaches might have to say.

[friarwolf]

For those interested, frontburner has some interesting links regarding Doughtery


http://frontburner.dmagazine.com/

[93Mustang]

EastStang,

What is the basis for you saying he won't get his foot in the door on Dallas recruits? This guy coached at Kansas for 8 years and during that time, KU successfully recruited many, many players who came from DFW schools. I suspect Doherty knows some HS coaches down here. Additionally, there will be significant media attention both here and nationally should we hire this guy. Finally, having a national championship ring on your finger when you visit a prospect helps - especially when one of your teammates and current friends is MJ. With these facts in mind, I don't see how recruiting will be an impossibility. Like I said in posts above, this guy knows what a gold standard program does, and I believe asking him to build one from the ground up in Dallas is an excellent idea.

[ponydawg]

Per the DMN Blog:

Matt Doherty: Pro and Con

SMU coaching candidate Matt Doherty is a mini-Bob Knight: a coach who has passionate defenders as well as detractors.

There's no doubt Doherty can coach and recruit. He was a key assistant at Kansas for Roy Williams. He put Notre Dame back on the basketball map and recruited the talent that eventually won a national title at North Carolina. There's also no doubt his career took a major downward turn at North Carolina, which is why he's coaching at Florida Atlantic.

A quick Google search reveals there's no shortage of opinions about Doherty, and especially about why things went bad for him at UNC. I guess, like Knight, it all depends on whose opinion you value. Incoming SMU athletic director Steve Orsini no doubt has contacts at Notre Dame and in Florida to help him form his own opinion.

[SMU Football Blog]

BTW, that was posted by SMU grad Keith Whitmire.

[Hoop Fan]

clearly we could do alot worse than Doherty. The problem is the circumstances right now. As for recruiting, he will struggle in Dallas. You can talk about him being an assistant at KU all you want, but so was Neil Doughtery before coming to TCU right? Matt was not the driving force in locking up commitments at KU either, the KU tradition was and Roy was. Doherty has certainly been to Texas and probably even recruited some guys here, but he has no base to suggest he can recruit from the power high schools in Dallas. Thats the only way SMU is going to start to generate the "buzz" that Friar is talking about. Otherwise where do you think this rebirth is realistically going to come from? SMU is not Notre Dame. We do not have national or even regional appeal in sports. We need a guy that can mine our backyard. Its really not that hard of a concept. You take players from wherever you can get them, yes, but you better be a threat in your backyard, especially when its a growing hotbed for hoops. What you are conceding with Doherty is that we wont have a presence in Dallas until Doherty can somehow build up a buzz by recruiting elsewhere first. Or maybe he'll X and O us to new heights. good luck with that.

I would not hire Doherty unless he had a prominent guy with true Dallas connections as his first or second assistant. If Doherty just wanted to bring a staff with him from FAU forget it.

[EastStang]

He won't get his foot in the door for several reasons: (1) He's replacing the best buddy of the DISD coaches who was fired after a short tenure at SMU. (2) He's white and the DISD coaches are already screaming that Tubbs firing was "racially motivated". Maybe he has an AAU pipeline that will allow him to sidestep the DISD high school coaches. And to be real honest, I personally could care less if we landed one DISD recruit because there are plenty of good players to be found throughout the world. I just want to see our program improve. My reason for saying what I said about the DISD is that some on this board are of the opinion that if we don't get DISD players we cannot win. I just want everyone to know up front that they can't bellyache if we hire Doh and we don't get any DISD players.

[Blunt Pony]

clearly we could do alot worse than Doherty. The problem is the circumstances right now. As for recruiting, he will struggle in Dallas. You can talk about him being an assistant at KU all you want, but so was Neil Doughtery before coming to TCU right? Matt was not the driving force in locking up commitments at KU either, the KU tradition was and Roy was. Doherty has certainly been to Texas and probably even recruited some guys here, but he has no base to suggest he can recruit from the power high schools in Dallas. Thats the only way SMU is going to start to generate the "buzz" that Friar is talking about. Otherwise where do you think this rebirth is realistically going to come from? SMU is not Notre Dame. We do not have national or even regional appeal in sports. We need a guy that can mine our backyard. Its really not that hard of a concept. You take players from wherever you can get them, yes, but you better be a threat in your backyard, especially when its a growing hotbed for hoops. What you are conceding with Doherty is that we wont have a presence in Dallas until Doherty can somehow build up a buzz by recruiting elsewhere first. Or maybe he'll X and O us to new heights. good luck with that.

I would not hire Doherty unless he had a prominent guy with true Dallas connections as his first or second assistant. If Doherty just wanted to bring a staff with him from FAU forget it.

We already have zero presence in Dallas. You act like we will be giving up some of that with Doherty. Look, I need to know more to be convinced, but it is not like we have the DISD kids beating down our door now, despite the assurance of the DISD coaching mafia.

[friarwolf]

You know what???????? Hoop is right. Let's just quit. We're screwed.........
Tubbs was the annointed savior and we just killed the golden goose. We didn't realize that he was the next John Wooden. And those south of the Trinity coaches are going to make sure we never get one good basketball player from anywhere in the United States. I guess some of us didn't realize they had that much power. Since we are never going to be any good at basketball because we can't get any players from an area of maybe what - 10 square miles - let's just have Copeland as his last act dismantle men's basketball. Hell, dismantle women's, too because I am sure the sista coaches are going to screw Rhonda, too. Wait a minute, do we have any women player's from south of the Trinity - oh that's right, it doesn't matter - the south of the Trinity coaches have the power to keep us from getting recruits from anywhere..............................Please.......

[friarwolf]

He won't get his foot in the door for several reasons: (1) He's replacing the best buddy of the DISD coaches who was fired after a short tenure at SMU. (2) He's white and the DISD coaches are already screaming that Tubbs firing was "racially motivated". Maybe he has an AAU pipeline that will allow him to sidestep the DISD high school coaches. And to be real honest, I personally could care less if we landed one DISD recruit because there are plenty of good players to be found throughout the world. I just want to see our program improve. My reason for saying what I said about the DISD is that some on this board are of the opinion that if we don't get DISD players we cannot win. I just want everyone to know up front that they can't bellyache if we hire Doh and we don't get any DISD players.

With friends like that, Tubbs doesn't need any enemies..............

[Hoop Fan]

clearly we could do alot worse than Doherty. The problem is the circumstances right now. As for recruiting, he will struggle in Dallas. You can talk about him being an assistant at KU all you want, but so was Neil Doughtery before coming to TCU right? Matt was not the driving force in locking up commitments at KU either, the KU tradition was and Roy was. Doherty has certainly been to Texas and probably even recruited some guys here, but he has no base to suggest he can recruit from the power high schools in Dallas. Thats the only way SMU is going to start to generate the "buzz" that Friar is talking about. Otherwise where do you think this rebirth is realistically going to come from? SMU is not Notre Dame. We do not have national or even regional appeal in sports. We need a guy that can mine our backyard. Its really not that hard of a concept. You take players from wherever you can get them, yes, but you better be a threat in your backyard, especially when its a growing hotbed for hoops. What you are conceding with Doherty is that we wont have a presence in Dallas until Doherty can somehow build up a buzz by recruiting elsewhere first. Or maybe he'll X and O us to new heights. good luck with that.

I would not hire Doherty unless he had a prominent guy with true Dallas connections as his first or second assistant. If Doherty just wanted to bring a staff with him from FAU forget it.

We already have zero presence in Dallas. You act like we will be giving up some of that with Doherty. Look, I need to know more to be convinced, but it is not like we have the DISD kids beating down our door now, despite the assurance of the DISD coaching mafia.

you mean at the moment or before we fired Tubbs? Tubbs gave us much more than 'zero' presence in Dallas. It is absurd to suggest otherwise. Who do you think started the Kimball connection (Sasser and Ross?) He was down to the wire on Odufuwa last fall also another Kimball guy. He got Willingham who was coveted out of Desoto. Tubbs might not have delivered the home run recruit that the unrealistic types were dreaming of, but he had a presence and SMU had a presence in Dallas. Until two weeks ago. Just because you guys do not have the patience to see something through, dont revise history.

[Hoop Fan]

You know what???????? Hoop is right. Let's just quit. We're screwed.........
Tubbs was the annointed savior and we just killed the golden goose. We didn't realize that he was the next John Wooden. And those south of the Trinity coaches are going to make sure we never get one good basketball player from anywhere in the United States. I guess some of us didn't realize they had that much power. Since we are never going to be any good at basketball because we can't get any players from an area of maybe what - 10 square miles - let's just have Copeland as his last act dismantle men's basketball. Hell, dismantle women's, too because I am sure the sista coaches are going to screw Rhonda, too. Wait a minute, do we have any women player's from south of the Trinity - oh that's right, it doesn't matter - the south of the Trinity coaches have the power to keep us from getting recruits from anywhere..............................Please.......

keep thumbing your nose at them then like SMU has always done. That 10 square miles is the the focal point and has more players than a 200 mile radius combined. No Tubbs is not the only guy who can recruit the power programs, but you better find another one who can. I clearly said that Doherty could be ok, but only if he recognizes the situation and hires the appropriate assistant.