Doherty story in 'hometown paper'

[mr. pony]

Check out herald-democrat.com. There's a story today (5/16) on Matt Doherty and SMU.

[Corso]

I just put it on the wrong (football) board. Here it is. Great story!

Going to the Matt
Doherty has big things in mind as new SMU head coach.

By Rick Atkinson
Special to the Herald Democrat

UNIVERSITY PARK — New SMU men’s basketball coach Matt Doherty has some ideas that are bound to get folks’ attention: make the Mustangs ‘Dallas’ Team’, crack the top ten and have coveted-recruits routinely include SMU on their wish lists with perennial hoop powers.

Unthinkable? Doherty, 44, says the time is right.

“We are ready to embrace athletics again on this campus in the Dallas community,” he said. “This should be Dallas’ college basketball team. Much like St. John’s is in New York; Georgetown is in DC; DePaul is in Chicago. We should be Dallas’ team.

“When kids say they’re interested in SMU, I want the next line of schools to be … Duke, Villanova, Virginia, Stanford. That’s the mix that we want to be in.”

This may take some getting used to around Pony-ville, where the men’s team hasn’t made an NCAA tournament appearance in 13 years and just finished a season with an RPI of 269, one of the lowest among Division I-A programs in the country.

“I get annoyed when people say, ‘You guys are a good mid-major school.’” Doherty said. “We’re not mid-major. There’s not anything mid-major about SMU — from the city we’re in, the university, the facilities that we’re going to build, to way that we’re going to play.”




DISD challenge

To be a part of the community, a key for SMU will undoubtedly be reestablishing good relations with Dallas ISD coaches miffed at the recent firing of Doherty’s predecessor, Jimmy Tubbs.

“I feel very well received by them for the most part,” Doherty said. “I’ve reached out to them. I understand some of their frustration and I respect it. I’m glad they care.”

SMU has been unable to achieve success in recent years, though situated in a major media market with loads of basketball talent all around. Doherty is not surprised at the Mustangs’ difficulties, however.

“I think SMU has suffered a tremendous emotional blow through the whole death penalty, and coming out of that,” he said. “I think that [deleted] the progress of the athletic department — and rightfully so. That was a major blow to this university.”

Doherty praised outgoing athletic director Jim Copeland and school president R. Gerald Turner for their leadership and vision in articulating to the faculty and supporters how athletics can succeed at SMU.

Copeland’s replacement, Steve Orsini, 49, takes over June 1.

Doherty said Orsini brings energy and competitiveness to the program.

“He is a very aggressive guy who has won,” said Doherty. “He won as a (football) player at Notre Dame as captain of the ‘77 championship team. He has won in an administrative role at Georgia Tech and Central Florida. And he’s gonna win here.”

Add President Turner, who played college basketball at Lubbock Christian, and Doherty said he feels he’s got a lot of support from above.

“I don’t take that lightly, the fact that they played,” he said. “I think that’s important. And they have a shared vision of being a Top 25 program. I’d like to take that a step farther and shoot for a Top 10 program.”

Facilities upgrades

A tangible sign of new excitement at SMU will soon take shape. Construction may begin as soon as this summer on a much-needed basketball practice facility. About $9 million has poured in toward the $12 million price tag. The facility is seen as a key building block to achieving the program’s goals.

“I think it’s important in a couple of areas,” Doherty said. “One, it shows the community … that’s there’s a real commitment to basketball at SMU. Two, functionally, we need it. We only have Moody Coliseum.”

He noted that things get crowded with men’s and women’s basketball, volleyball and other events sharing the same facility.

“We need to have a place that’s our home — that we know is there whenever we need it,” Doherty said. “And I think that also gives our players a sense of pride in our program.”

Major renovations are also planned for Moody.

Winning resume

As a player at North Carolina, Doherty starred at forward for four years as the Tar Heels were racking up 28-plus wins per season. Doherty played alongside Michael Jordan and James Worthy on the 1982 national championship team. The head coach? The legendary Dean Smith.

While an assistant under Roy Williams for seven years at Kansas, the Jayhawks compiled a 202-42 record. In 1999-00, in his first head coaching job, Doherty led Notre Dame to its first 20-win season in 10 years.

The next year Doherty returned to his alma mater, winning AP National Coach of the Year honors. That season the Tar Heels finished 26-7, were ACC regular season co-champs, and advanced to the second round of the NCAA tournament. North Carolina dipped to 8-20 his second season, before rebounding to 19-16 in 2002-03, his final year at Chapel Hill.

Doherty said he has learned that coaching is 50 percent science and 50 percent art.

“I felt comfortable with the science part,” he said. “The art part is leadership; chemistry. That’s the area I felt I wanted to improve the most. When I lost my job at North Carolina, that’s the part I really focused on for that two-year time period (before taking the Florida Atlantic University job.)”

In one season at FAU, 2005-06, Doherty led the Owls to their best conference record in school history, 14-6.

His overall head coaching record is 90-71.

Recruiting

Highly-regarded Dallas South Oak Cliff star Darrell Arthur just signed with Kansas. Early on, SMU reportedly was in the running for his services, but had fallen out of the race by the time Doherty arrived. Still, he said he made contact with SOC head coach James Mays concerning Arthur at a recent coaches clinic in San Antonio.

“I did reach out,” Doherty said. “I wouldn’t be doing my job if I didn’t at least talk to Coach Mays about him, and I did.

“I understood it was late in the (recruiting) game. And (Mays) said that.”

In the future, if Doherty gets the players he wants, fans should expect a wide-open entertaining offensive show.

He likes to recruit players that can “pass, handle and shoot.”

“P-H-S,” Doherty said. “I like skilled players.”

What about now?

So how good can the Mustangs be this year?

“I don’t know,” said Doherty, adding he doesn’t yet have a feel the Ponies’ talent level. “The only thing I can promise you is that we’ll overachieve. Every team I’ve ever coached, every team I’ve been a part of, we’ve overachieved.”

One promising player from last year, Brian Morris, left the squad after Tubbs’ firing. Bamba Fall, Dez Willingham, Derrick Roberts, Donatas Rackauskas and Devon Pearson return with plenty of experience.

“Bamba’s got some work to do, yet, to see where he’ll be at — some academic work,” Doherty said. “But I think we have a good nucleus. I think they’re good guys. I think they want to win.”

MJ sighting?

As for Michael Jordan, Doherty said he hasn’t talked with him in over a year.

“Michael changes cell phone numbers more than the weather changes in Dallas,” he said.

Doherty said he may see him at a golf event in Greensboro, North Carolina in July.

“I’m planning on being there and I would assume Michael will be there.”

Any chance Jordan will show up for a game at Moody?

“I have no idea,” said Doherty. But he said Dallas resident George Lynch, a member of the ’93 Tar Heel national champs and current New Orleans Hornet, has been to Moody.

“I want our players to be surrounded by pros,” Doherty said. “What I mean is ‘pros’ in a truer sense — guys with character and work ethic, who have been successful in the game of basketball.”

Nothing mid-major about that.

[ponyboy]

"I get annoyed when people say, ‘You guys are a good mid-major school.’ Doherty said. 'We’re not mid-major. There’s not anything mid-major about SMU — from the city we’re in, the university, the facilities that we’re going to build, to way that we’re going to play.'"

THAT'S what I'm talking about! I am *sick* of mediocrity.

[LakeHighlandsPony]

I hope this trickles down to Tennis, Swimming etc..

[Pony Up]

Coach D has yet to say anything publicly that's not extremely impressive.

Keep preaching the good word, Rev. Doherty.

[MustangIcon]

I knew that Doherty had impressive turnarounds at both ND and FAU with a combined 13 win improvement in his first season at each school, but I had no idea that his record at FAU in conference was the best they have ever had. That is pretty impressive to me, even if it is in a poor conference.

Sad to see confirmation of Bamba's academic troubles. If the rumors surrounding the grades of so many returning players is true I have to ask, what was the coaching staff doing? While their job is not fulltime tutor/baby sitter it is pretty alarming to think that half the returning roster is in danger of being academically ineligible. Certainly can't remember anything that severe in my time of following SMU bball (which started in the Dement tenure).

Doherty says all the right things and pulls all the right strings. His charisma could play a big role in gaining fan support for a program that has seen its fanbase dwindle to nothing. On court performance will be what matters most in the end though. If two seasons from now we still appear to be in the same downward trend we were in when he took over, all the smooth talking in the world won't help fans come out to games. Thankfully, I think he, along with Orsini, already have us heading in the right direction.

[Terry Webster]

Is the issue with the grades the 'other' information that got Tubbs fired?

[MustangIcon]

Decent theory but I am really not sure. Hopefully we will find out after the NCAA releases its investigation. I just find it very alarming that grades were that bad across the board.