It's Official: Doherty to coach SMU hoops.

[Drbio]

Don't know about you guys but I like this move by SMU. The Ponies just improved.


Sources: Doherty accepts SMU basketball job


11:50 PM CDT on Sunday, April 23, 2006
By CALVIN WATKINS / The Dallas Morning News



UNIVERSITY PARK – After several days of negotiating and trying to decide, Matt Doherty is leaving Florida Atlantic for SMU.

On Sunday, Doherty accepted an offer to coach the men's basketball team at SMU, according to university sources.

SMU president Gerald Turner met with Doherty on Sunday afternoon and finalized the deal.

Doherty will meet with the 18-person search committee today and, if approved, probably will be introduced no later than Tuesday, sources said.

Doherty was unavailable for comment.

Doherty will replace Jimmy Tubbs, who was fired this month.

The hire ends days of talks that started last Monday when Doherty officially interviewed with incoming athletic director Steve Orsini.

When Doherty was offered the job at midweek, he told SMU officials he needed to think about it.

Orsini didn't return a phone call seeking comment.

SMU made the job difficult to turn down.

Doherty was offered a yearly salary of $600,000 if incentives are met.

Doherty earned a base salary of $171,000 at Florida Atlantic. Tubbs was to earn $325,000 in the third year of his contract and $400,000 in the fourth year. When SMU fired Tubbs, it reached a deal that paid him in excess of $600,000.

Doherty asked for an increase in the basketball budget and $300,000 in salaries for assistant coaches. He also demanded a commitment to a basketball practice facility and upgrades to Moody Coliseum, sources said.

Doherty leaves Florida Atlantic after one season where he went 15-13 and lost in the quarterfinals of the Atlantic Sun conference tournament.

"I think he did a super job," FAU athletic director Craig Angelos told the South Florida Sun-Sentinel. "He left the program in much better shape than when he took over."

Doherty has a $200,000 buyout in his Florida Atlantic contract.

Doherty made a splash at Florida Atlantic after he spent two seasons away from the game working for ESPN and CSTV.

But Doherty made his name at North Carolina, where he once played. He coached three seasons at North Carolina, going 26-7 in his first campaign. He was named Associated Press National Coach of the Year after that year.

But after two difficult seasons, he was forced to resign with a 53-43 mark.

"Matt was a little overwhelmed with that job at first," said the Mavericks' Jerry Stackhouse, a UNC alum. "He's a great recruiter, and he has a chance to end up as a great coach somewhere. It's a good move for him. Texas is Texas, and it's a state with great players."

Before UNC, Doherty spent one season at Notre Dame, where he went 22-15.

Now, he's coming to the Hilltop with a chance to rebuild a struggling program that hasn't been to the NCAA Tournament since 1993 and last had a winning season in 2002-03.

[FINtastic]

Good move for SMU, they're getting a really good recruiter that is going to be able to take advantage of the talent pool in the DFW area these days. That's about as good of a hire as SMU could have made.

[Big Boy Laroux]

yep, great recruiter. hell, roy williams won with his recruits. but there was always a lot of talk of him not being able to control his players, or his own temper.

[FINtastic]

As a guy who was heavy into North Carolina hoops (especially at the time that happened), I heard a lot of rumors, but I don't know that anything had been substantiated (unfortunately, no one has written a tell-all book yet). I do think he is a fiery guy, but was he really any worse than a lot of coaches out there (a la Knight and Coach K)? Nothing has really proven that was the case. The worst real allegation about his temper I ever heard was something to the effect of him kicking a chair or something at practice. The problem with Doherty was he went into a program with one of the best traditions in college basketball, and he tried to make some changes which didn't sit well with a lot of people (i.e. bringing in his own coaching staffs, firing secretaries who had been there forever, etc.). This kind of got him off to a bad start with some people who had been around the program for a while. I also tend to think a lot of the problems with Doherty were exaggerated due to the fact that Chapel Hill hadn't been through that sort of losing since Dean Smith's early days. He may very well still be coaching in Chapel Hill if it wasn't for Sean May breaking his foot midway through Doherty's last season there. Regardless, Doherty was very young, and I'm not totally sure if he was ready to be in a big-time situation like North Carolina with a relatively blank coaching resume. I still think he was a good coach, who probably has learned a lot from his days at Chapel Hill. I think this is going to be a good hire for SMU. I know I'll be following the ponies' hoops team a little more closely for the next couple of years.

[Mavdog]

it seems odd that smu went with doherty rather than rob evans, especially if the school wanted to mine the texas high school recruits.

doherty didn't do much at florida atlantic, who is in a mediocre (at best) conference. it's not like he earned the job with a breakout season...

it seems smu went with the name/pedigree of unc. doherty has no ties to this area and will not hesitate to bolt when and if he gets a chance imo. a short sighted decision.

my grade is a d.

[FINtastic]

I don't know how you can be too critical of his job at Florida Atlantic. This was a team that won 65 games in the prior 8 seasons that Doherty was there (that's about 8 wins a season for those lazy to do the math). He put up a very respectable 15-13 record while he was there. That's certainly an improvement no matter how you slice it. Doherty is a tireless workers who will land some decent players at SMU.

I understand the complaint about him bolting if given the chance. But it's worth it if he leaves SMU in a better spot than when he came (which I can see happening considering the lackluster state it is in right now).

[Mavdog]

I don't disagree that doherty knows the game and can coach. yet you can't disagree that the level of play in his conference was on the low side of college hoops, so his record there is not something to point to a reason to give him a job.

the biggest problem for a school such as smu- and this isn't just an issue there but at many smaller schools like them- is to develop continuity, to establish a tradition of winning so that recruits want to play there. the coaching carosel is one of the worst spirals to be caught in, and that is one of smu's issues right now. plus the dismissal of tubbs (however justified it might be) has not helped their image among texas (and specifically dfw) coaches and schoolboys.

hiring a coach with more connections to texas would help mend those fences. if doherty can bring in some talent and establish the program it will work out for both he and the school, but that is a big if.

do you think that any of the texas schoolboys will choose doherty and smu over ut, or osu, or tx tech, or even gillespie at tamu? to me that is what smu needed to do, get a coach who knows these texas high schoolers and their coaches to develop a team that can compete, so the next step of developing a program can be realized. tamu did it by going with a coach who knows the state, and now they look like they are on the upswing.

it just doesn't seem like that is likely to happen with doherty.

[Drbio]

Figures.

[MavKikiNYC]

hiring a coach with more connections to texas would help mend those fences. if doherty can bring in some talent and establish the program it will work out for both he and the school, but that is a big if.

do you think that any of the texas schoolboys will choose doherty and smu over ut, or osu, or tx tech, or even gillespie at tamu? to me that is what smu needed to do, get a coach who knows these texas high schoolers and their coaches to develop a team that can compete, so the next step of developing a program can be realized. tamu did it by going with a coach who knows the state, and now they look like they are on the upswing.

That's an interesting way to look at it, but I'm not sure that a Texas recruit would be any more likely to consider SMU (no offense, Dooby) with a coach like Evans.

Doherty may have enough name recognition that he'll attract about as much attention and interest as a less known but more 'more familiar' local coach would. If he leaves after one year, it will have been a bad move for SMU; 2 years they probably break even; 3 years, they're coming out ahead.

[FINtastic]

Mavdog, the point with the record is that his team did show improvement. I tend to think Doherty's stay at SMU will be longer than 1 year just because they have much more name recognition than Florida Atlantic does. I'm not saying that Doherty is going to make Dallas his home or anything, but I think he has found a spot that he can build on a little bit. Florida Atlantic was just too small for Doh.

Like Kiki, I think Doherty's name recognition will make up for his lack of in-state familiarity. Not to mention, he's tireless on the recruiting trail with a good eye for talent. He managed to find Raymond Felton before Felton blew up big nationally and get in on that recruitment early. He promised David Noel, a player known more for his football abilities than basketball abilities, a scholarship in the future. Noel turned out to be a valuable contributor during his stay at Chapel Hill making that a pretty good find. I think Doherty will do just fine recruiting for SMU. The only really big negative is the fact that some recruits might be a little hesitant to commit seeing that Doherty might be quick to bolt if a really big name school comes a knocking.

[Mavdog]

like both of you said, time will tell if this is a good hire or not.

let's look at this after his second year. if he has a good class of freshman, and he has at the least made it into the NIT (the ncaa's would be a bit too much to ask for that quick), I'll agree that the hire was a good one.

if otoh the program is just where it is today, then it wasn't a good choice. we'll see what is likely by the recruits he signs in 2007. he shouldn't be judged by the record in his first year bit what happens the second.

[dirno2000]

One more point to consider Mavdog. Since Daugherty was a big name and SMU pursued him, he had more leverage then coach Tubbs. He’s using that leverage to dramatically increase what the university is willing to spend on a basketball staff, and to get a commitment to improve the facilities. No matter how it works out with him, those two things alone will make it easier to attract talented coaches in the future.

As far as keeping talent in Texas and more specifically Dallas, it’s not going to happen until we start winning. We’ll never hire another coach with more local connections then Jimmy Tubbs but they didn’t help much. I’ve seen an increase in prospects that listed SMU as a possible destination (most notably Darrel Arthur). However, when it comes down to it a kid is going to choose a school with better facilities, more fan support and the opportunity to play on TV.

[Dooby]

Tada!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Look who is back!

I was at the press conference and I am geeked. It isn't so much Doherty as it is a commitment by the administration to stop sucking at all thing athletics. Doherty made demands on SMU before he committed and SMU agreed to every one of them.

May of you may know my little side project: http://smufootballblog.blogspot.com/ I have lots of Doherty info there, including related to his "past" at North Carolina.

[Big Boy Laroux]

hey, i actually liked doherty, i was just comenting on all the stuff about him in the past. why did i like him? maybe cause he reminded me of...

[Drbio]

Originally Posted by Dooby

Tada!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Look who is back!

I was at the press conference and I am geeked. It isn't so much Doherty as it is a commitment by the administration to stop sucking at all thing athletics. Doherty made demands on SMU before he committed and SMU agreed to every one of them.

May of you may know my little side project: http://smufootballblog.blogspot.com/ I have lots of Doherty info there, including related to his "past" at North Carolina.

You were the first person I thought of when I heard the news. I really like this move by SMU. First solid hire they have made in years.